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Bat Facts
The 30 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave in Texas eat 250 TONS of insects every summer night. They sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tailwinds that carry them over long distances, and can fly at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.
More Bats
For this is no ordinary colony of bats. There are, within the confines of the Bracken Cave not merely a few hundred thousand, or even a paltry one million animals, but the largest congregation of warm-blooded mammals anywhere on Earth, as between 20,000,000 and 40,000,000 bats leave the roost each evening to go and feed.
Originally posted by retirednature
Bugs in the Atmosphere: Significant Microorganism Populations Found in Middle and Upper Troposphere
www.sciencedaily.com...
Jan. 28, 2013 — In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers used genomic techniques to document the presence of significant numbers of living microorganisms -- principally bacteria -- in the middle and upper troposphere, that section of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles above Earth's surface.
This is just awesome!
We have demonstrated that our technique works, and that we can get some interesting information," Nenes said. "A big fraction of the atmospheric particles that traditionally would have been expected to be dust or sea salt may actually be bacteria. At this point we are just seeing what's up there, so this is just the beginning of what we hope to do."
They are still researching the metabolic rates and implications, but I have to wonder what effects 'CO2' and other greenhouse gasses have on these microorganisms, as well their possible involvement with maintaining atmospheric levels of gasses, if any.
Originally posted by kosmicjack
This reminds me of a topic I first came across when I wandered into this place called ATS...something about some giant, almost invisible, long, bug-like thingys that shoot real fast from place to place in the atmosphere.
LoL! I know that sounds crazy, and it probably is... but does anyone know what I'm referring to?
If there are little critters like these, couldn't there be big ones too?
edit on 1/29/2013 by kosmicjack because: (no reason given)