Check out this cool scorpion that Greg found in ONeill Regional Park. It was laying on the trail and appeared to have been mashed in the middle. Perhaps it was run over by a bike? I took it home (much to Chris' dismay) and found a convenient niche for him (the scorpion, not Chris) in the freezer. I promptly forgot about it until a couple weeks ago when I thawed him out and pinned him. He's drying quite nicely. I need to take a brush to him and brush off some of the dirt but otherwise he's looking good.
Ok, I'm sure you're not as excited as I am about this scorpion. Most people don't like them. I myself, am not a huge fan: I had a rather startling experience with one in Costa Rica that decided to inhabit my towel while I was in the shower. But, despite their fearsome appearance and rather unsavory reputation, they are quite interesting creatures. We had a girl at the science center that would talk to them and lovingly feed them wriggling crickets. But I digress.Here is your interesting scorpion fact of the day (from wikipedia):
- A scorpion is an arthropod with eight legs. It is a member of the Arachnida family and belongs to the order "Scorpiones." Also in the Arachnida family, other spiders, mites and ticks are also found.There are approximately 2000 species of scorpions. They are found widely distributed south of 49° N, except New Zealand and Antarctica.
- It is said that scorpions can survive high levels of radiation, such as that which results from the detonation of nuclear weapons. Indeed, scorpions have been observed surviving the radiation from nuclear weapons tests at French test sites in the Sahara.[9]
- Scorpions are also known to glow when exposed to certain types of ultraviolet light such as that which is produced by a blacklight.
