Tag: Natural History
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The oldest bristlecone pines do not look successful. They are twisted. Partly dead. Often short. Exposed wood is sandblasted smooth by wind and ice.
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Lake Michigan does not create winter. Canada assists. The jet stream assists. Large-scale pressure systems do most of the atmospheric scheduling.
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The American badger looks irritated because we recognize irritation better than anatomy. Its face has black-and-white markings that suggest intensity.
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The Great Basin sounds like one object. A basin. Large. Simple. Perhaps somewhere near Nevada. This is false in nearly every useful way.
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A Joshua tree looks like someone tried to build a tree from verbal instructions. Tall trunk. Branches.
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The American Woodcock is a shorebird that lives in the woods. It has a long bill, a round body, short legs, eyes placed high and far back on the skull, and a walk that looks like somebody has attached a small motor to…
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Central Nebraska contains an enormous sand-dune field. Not ancient dunes buried under rock. Not little dunes along a river.
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The corpse flower spends years preparing to smell terrible. This is commitment. A mature plant stores energy underground in a corm that can weigh well over a hundred pounds.
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The moose looks unfinished. The legs are too long. The torso is enormous. The head extends into an oversized nose.
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John Wesley Powell looked at the Green and Colorado river system in 1869 and decided to travel through its canyons in wooden boats.