Beautiful Animals

Coelacanth. A fish 325 million years old, previously known only from fossils, believed to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs, observed alive and well:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/fossil-fish/ballesta-photography?source=email_inside

Sorry if picture not coming up - here is the coelacanth link again:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/fossil-fish/coelacanth-text

unfortunately none of the pics are my own

The caption to the coelacanth pictures reads "Ancient Swimmers" - you're probably not old enough to qualify

actually i was replying to something roberta said, but we've had a problem here lately, a reply on a new page to a post on a previous page seems to freeze the thread on the previous page, until someone makes a reply all post

for instance, before i posted, i saw you had made a post, but when i opened the thread this page wouldn't show, the thread went only as far as the previous page

it's been happening here for a few days, and the word puzzle folks say its common there, management is aware and trying to figure it out

Ouch! I'm tired...

the daily B & O

A koi carp is carried off in the talons of an osprey. The moment was captured by Israeli photographer Assaf Gavra at a secluded pool outside Pardesiya, Israel, where Mr Gavra lay waiting for several hours.
Picture: Assaf Gavra/solent

wonderful..

A goshawk and a domestic goose clash in the snow outside Moscow. The picture was taken by Vladimir Meshkov, who says: "I saw the goshawk circling and started to watch it through my camera. It landed in a tree before suddenly swooping towards some houses where it spotted a goose. Then they started having a scrap. It was quite rough and lasted a good while. There were some awful sounds - it was really loud and there was a lot of flapping. The goose gave the goshawk a huge peck and it flew away as fast as it could - while the goose got back to doing what it was doing before just as though nothing happened."
Picture: Vladimir Meshkov / CATERS

Wow. Magnificent photo.

Top photo ! So if someone calls you a goose it aint that bad .

High Seas, I knew about Coelacanths. But they're so rare that you almost never see a photo. Thanks for the pic and the link.

dj, I had the same problem. I could not get the page to turn. Frustrating. Exceptional B&O today. I may be developing some kinda immunity to being overcutefied.

Francis, The feline looks a little sad to me. I'd prefer tired. He's a beauty no matter what the problem is.

Howl, kiddo, howl:

You get very funny dialogues when both parties try their best but one (me in this case) has no clue what the other is talking about

Did you get to the final picture on the first coelacanth link? There's a sense of awe, and wonder, at having this giant fish smile from all its hundreds of millions of years of history into a camera held by a human with barely a few thousand years of history behind him, and only a couple of dozen years in scuba equipment enabling him to get down to 300 ft. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/fossil-fish/ballesta-photography?source=email_inside

some great shots, i first became a ware of the Coelacanth through the british band Shriekback, in the mid 80's, this tune is from the soundtrack to the film Manhunter

You'd have an attitude too .......

Good for the goose! Proud of him for not giving into the goshawk bully so easily!

Another living fossil. These have been around for about 500 million years, give a take a month or two here and there.

Nautilus:

Waiting for the blue skies:

You can fool some of the critters some of the time...
This is supposed to be a squirrel-proof bird feeder, but it didn't out-smart one particularly crafty critter, which squeezed its body through the protective wiring. The sight was captured by Sandra Carter in her garden in Gosport, near Portsmouth, Hants. She said the grey squirrel had become a regular visitor in recent months, so she and her husband invested in the £19.95 Gardman squirrel-proof feeders. She said: "We've tried so many things to stop him. Once we tried hanging bird feeders on wires out of his reach but he managed to get to them by tight-rope walking."
Picture: Sandra Carter/solent