my frog spawn time lapse video is on display in the natural history museum of neuchatel in switzerland. it’s part of the temporary exhibition “parce queue”, which is about the animal tails.

anton and i came through neuchatel in mid-july (as part of our bike journey to spain), and seized the opportunity.
the exhibition has a special focus on evolution and features many quotes of charles darwin’s “on the origin of species”.
it’s very interesting, and worth checking out if you get a chance (open until february 2009).

enjoy! :)

you can also download the video: time lapse: innsbruck nightfall (avi, xvid codec)

soundtrack: tim minchin – not perfect
 

things you can see in the video:

• innsbruck and a few villages in the south (namely sistrans, lans, rans and aldrans)²
• innsbruck’s shopping district (the brightest area in the center of the image)
• the northern mountain range (nordkette) and seegrube and hafelekar mountain stations (the lights in the left half)
• a car that seems to be straying where there aren’t actually any roads (in the lower left side, starting at 00:20)

related posts:

1. happy new year!
2. photos of the vienna teng concert in innsbruck, austria
3. free hugs in innsbruck – take 2

the ornament stars you can see in the video are home-crocheted, as are the golden balls.

if you’d rather download a file to your computer, there you go:

christmas tree decoration

related posts:

1. time-lapse: nightfall over innsbruck, austria
2. bungee!

related posts:

1. time-lapse: nightfall over innsbruck, austria

more information on the making of this time-lapse video:

i found the frogspawn on april 1, and it couldn’t have been there for longer than 12 hours, because i did garden work around the pond just day before. recording started in the evening of april 4 (3 days later), but day one was discarded because (1) there was nothing going on except gas bubbles building up, and (2) there were some glitches in the photos.
in order to have the eggs stay at a precise point in the camera view, i suspended them from two thin crossing strands made of transparent plastic.

the total development time of the eggs until the little tadpoles emerged was 15 days. in my first time-lapse attempt, it took roughly 7 days.
this delay is most likely the result of a cold weather period in 2008. i estimate daytime temperatures to have been around 15 degrees celsius lower this year (approx. 20 degrees in 2005, just above freezing on some days in 2008).

since i used the 2005 video as a reference, i now have ridiculously high-quality data in my hands: a resolution of up to 1280 x 960 and 40 fps are possible (if you’re interested, drop me a line!).

as far as identification goes, i think it’s a european common frog (grasfrosch, rana temporaria).
update: prof. r. hofer (university of innsbruck) confirmed that the species name is correct.
 

there are individual photos (including a photo of one of the parent frogs), and an animated gif in the gallery:

[view photos: time-lapse: frogspawn development]

related posts:

1. frog spawn video in the natural history museum of neuchatel, switzerland
2. time-lapse: nightfall over innsbruck, austria
3. glass frog

it looks quite promising so far: i’m getting high-resolution (both pixel- and time-wise) macro footage of 5 eggs.

this photo shows their current state:

day 6 is coming to an end, and they should soon hatch from their gelatinous eggs.

one more sneak peek: here are three crops of the same egg, taken at different development stages:

cheiridopsis sp. (family aizoaceae) is one of these species: it has dry woody fruits that protect the seeds during dry periods.
when it starts to rain – sometimes it takes years from one rainfall to another – time is of the essence: as soon as a drop of rain lands on the capsules, they absorb the water and hydrostatic pressure opens them.
within minutes, seeds are released onto humid ground and find a good base to germinate.

while in south africa last september, i tried it myself: a drop of water sufficed, and the seed capsule was completely open just 10 minutes later.

i’ve also created an animated time-lapse gif that shows the process:

(click for bigger version)

some species of aizoaceae even have little catapult-like structures that shoot out the seeds when another raindrop hits.

[view photos: cheiridopsis seed capsule]

related posts:

1. snippet from university: differencial interference contrast microscopy animation