Here's the story: About 13 miles from this spindle of rock, there's a bigger island, called Lord Howe Island.On Lord Howe, there used to be an insect, famous for being big. It's a stick insect, a critter that masquerades as a piece of wood, and the Lord Howe Island version was so large β as big as a human hand β that the Europeans labeled it a "tree lobster" because of its size and hard, lobsterlike exoskeleton. It was 12 centimeters long and the heaviest flightless stick insect in the world. Local fishermen used to put them on fishing hooks and use them as bait.Then one day in 1918, a supply ship, the S.S. Makambo from Britain, ran aground at Lord Howe Island and had to be evacuated. One passenger drowned. The rest were put ashore. It took nine days to repair the Makambo, and during that time, some black rats managed to get from the ship to the island, where they instantly discovered a delicious new rat food: giant stick insects. Two years later, the rats were everywhere and the tree lobsters were gone.Totally gone. After 1920, there wasn't a single sighting. By 1960, the Lord Howe stick insect, Dryococelus australis, was presumed extinct.There was a rumor, though.Some climbers scaling Ball's Pyramid in the 1960s said they'd seen a few stick insect corpses lying on the rocks that looked "recently dead." But the species is nocturnal, and nobody wanted to scale the spire hunting for bugs in the dark.[...]What happens next? The story is simple: A bunch of black rats almost wiped out a bunch of gigantic bugs on a little island far, far away from most of us. A few dedicated scientists, passionate about biological diversity, risked their lives to keep the bugs going. For the bugs to get their homes and their future back doesn't depend on scientists anymore. They've done their job. Now it's up to the folks on Lord Howe Island.
It's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.
QuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?
Quote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:40:02 AMQuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?is this just a bad joke
Quote from: Kupoop on January 18, 2016, 10:42:05 AMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:40:02 AMQuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?is this just a bad jokeIf I was joking I would have put "JK" in the post, which I didn't.
Quote from: Psygnirish on January 18, 2016, 11:21:03 AMIt looks like an oversized earwig on steroids:SpoilerHow that fucker is smiling, I don't know, but cool as long as it stays on that Island.. U N I B R O WNIBROW
It looks like an oversized earwig on steroids:SpoilerHow that fucker is smiling, I don't know, but cool as long as it stays on that Island..
Quote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:55:50 AMQuote from: Kupoop on January 18, 2016, 10:42:05 AMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:40:02 AMQuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?is this just a bad jokeIf I was joking I would have put "JK" in the post, which I didn't.How old do you believe the earth is?
Quote from: Luciana on January 18, 2016, 12:06:44 PMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:55:50 AMQuote from: Kupoop on January 18, 2016, 10:42:05 AMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:40:02 AMQuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?is this just a bad jokeIf I was joking I would have put "JK" in the post, which I didn't.How old do you believe the earth is?Over 9,000 years old!
Quote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 12:27:23 PMQuote from: Luciana on January 18, 2016, 12:06:44 PMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:55:50 AMQuote from: Kupoop on January 18, 2016, 10:42:05 AMQuote from: BerzerkCommando on January 18, 2016, 10:40:02 AMQuoteIt's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago.How is it possible for that island to be older than the Earth? I take it God created the Earth around it?is this just a bad jokeIf I was joking I would have put "JK" in the post, which I didn't.How old do you believe the earth is?Over 9,000 years old!cute
I would literally shit my pants if that thing was in my room.I would scream afterwards too.
Quote from: Decimator Omega on January 19, 2016, 05:25:40 PMI would literally shit my pants if that thing was in my room.I would scream afterwards too.It's not even scary looking.
Giant stick insect, thought to be extinct, discovered on a tiny island
