Scientists have found an ancient submarine forest of bald cypress trees entombed in Mobile Bay off the coast of Alabama.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the forest flourished on the banks of a prehistoric river near the Gulf of Mexico nearly 60,000 years ago. When the trees died, their massive trunks became entombed in peat and sediment. Eventually, sea levels rose, the coastline receded, and the remains of these ancient trees were buried by the sea. The forest was preserved, undisturbed for millennia, until recent intensifying storms along the coast began to expose it.

Earlier this week, NOAA shared a video of the incredible site (below), showing it teeming with schools of fish.

Broadly speaking, animals tend to be sexually dimorphic. You have males, with small gametes, and females, with large gametes, both of which are required for sexual reproduction. Every now and again, though, nature throws a curveball — producing an organism that’s a combination of both sexes, divided straight down the middle.

This condition is known as gynandromorphism, and scientists have just found the first known gynandromorphic individual of its species in a nocturnal bee native to Central and South America, Megalopta amoenae.

On its left side, the bee is physiologically male. It has a small, dainty mandible, a long antenna, and a thin, delicate hind leg with fewer bristles. The right side has female characteristics — a shorter antenna, a pronounced, toothed mandible, and a thick, hairy hind leg.

One week ago…

“Gasoline in the United States has fallen to about $2 a gallon and continues to slide. However, that price is nowhere near the least expensive in the world. Venezuela has the least expensive gas in the world at two cents per gallon.”

U.N. Trade And Development Agency Sees The Decline Of The Dollar And The Rise Of a “Global Reserve Bank”.