I didn't sleep well last night. I don't think the cabins maintain temperature very well. I was too cold then I was too hot. Also, I miss my hammock. It doesn't get bunched up, or lumpy, or sweaty, and it dissipates my own body heat so it doesn't keep waking me up.
In any case it was hard to concentrate on the talks this morning. Umam really caught my attention with an analysis of mimicry in mesocline creatures. Twine fish are rather like eels that have been split in half part way, or squid with two very long tentacles instead of ten. Extremely poisonous they are striped in orange, which is quite visible to predators in the murky depths. Umam showed us a dozen or so other species that tried to mimic the look of the twine fish. The fascinating thing was not just their attempts to look like two long tentacles, or to replicate the color, but also to reproduce the overall twine silhouette and the gastric bulge at the base of the bifurcation.
This is quantitatively different from the types of mimicry we see on our own planet. Terrestrial predators can be fooled with a couple of simple eye spots. It seems that the carnivorous fish of Sigma 957 are somewhat more discerning. Ranmandeep wondered, during the Q & A, if it might have something to do with the emerging picture of the common animal nerve model. I don't know what he was talking about.
The naming session was scheduled late in the day when everyone was tired, but it was still the best attended. I ended up with some references I hadn't expected. My little plateau is now officially Walkran Valley. To the north Su-che River. To the south -- well in this case someone thought to twist the knife by naming it Robinard Gully. So I'm overshadowed by my famous grandmother. Fabulous.
Bell Valley is also official, which was pretty much a sop to our beloved captain anyway. A couple of people made a show of pushing for Agricola, but it didn't amount to anything. It's far too soon.
Although everyone's hoping.
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