02 March 2010

Cute killers



I'm not sure we'd all agree with the Mother Nature Network on the cuteness of the pufferfish with the sunken mouth of a toothless person or the seaweed-y look of the blue-ringed octopus. Despite verifiable history of the unparalleled stupidity of people who feed bears, most of us would instinctively steer clear of them as well as moose and the giant anteater and the leopard. What's disconcerting is how many of the lethal beasts look entirely innocuous.

Many of the "cute" ones possess enough venom to kill a human adult within minutes. Creatures like the poison dart frog should definitely come with signage. It is troubling to think how many might have died over the course of human evolution trying to cuddle these terrors and whether mother nature resorts to such trickery just to keep our numbers down.

This article was sent to me by The Great Catherine and many thanks for the discovery of yet another gigantic and useful website. MNN is chuck full of informative and entertaining articles from how to improve indoor air quality to recipes to what environmentalists think of the movie Avatar. Another great resource.

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