First look inside the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station - KSDK.com

First look inside the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station - KSDK.com


First look inside the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station - KSDK.com

Posted: 13 Dec 2019 05:35 AM PST

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Aquarium doesn't open until Christmas Day, but we got a sneak peek!

As you walk into the aquarium, the entrance halls are filled with high tech screens and light displays.

Then you go into the grand lobby with its curved ceiling that displays a changing show featuring sea life, that is set to music.

Then there's the Train Experience that takes guests into the Aquarium through a virtual ride where you start in the year 1894.

We also got a look at the Confluence that features environments filled with fish found at the bottom of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. 

And a look at the Global Rivers section featuring the River Monster habitat and the piranha habitat.

The aquarium opens on Christmas, but you can buy tickets now.  

RELATED: St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station opens on Christmas Day

MORE LOCAL NEWS

Thousands of 'penis fish' wash up on Northern California beach - The Union Journal

Posted: 15 Dec 2019 10:31 AM PST

A phallic-looking phenomenon occurred more than a Northern California beach a week after a powerful storm discovered tens of thousands of fat innkeeper worms — colloquially called manhood fish — leaving them stranded on the sand.

Photographer David Ford was walking across Drake's Beach in Marin County on Dec. 6 with his camera when he detected a huge flock of seagulls that seemed to be munching on some thing on the coast.

The overall look of exactly what the birds were eating could be sufficient to get a chuckle from the very mature beachgoer.

The seagulls were feasting on fat 10-inch-long innkeeper rats which were spread throughout the shore for miles. Some were obviously dead, but some were glowing red — a hint they had been alive. A stench which Ford clarified as"dead sea monster smell" hung in the air as the birds swarmed.

"Each of the seagulls were eating them till they simply could not stand it ," Ford explained. "I walked 40 moments, and that I did not reach the end of those."

Fascinated by the scene, Ford delivered his photographs to Bay Nature, which conducts a column called"Ask a Naturalist" to figure out why the sea monsters ended up on the shore.

In reaction, biologist Ivan Parr clarified the worms, officially known as Urechis caupoare a species of marine spoonworm that reside between southern Oregon and Baja California. The worms, which aren't often seen because they live burrowed in the sand, have been seen between Bodega Bay and Monterey.

Innkeeper worms' unique form lets them develop U-shaped burrows from the muddy sand of low-zone mudflats. The invertebrates consume by producing a slime web that traps tiny pieces of food drifting in the water, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

But, powerful storms and heavy surf may dislodge the creatures in their burrows, which makes them visible to individuals on the coast.

"Thus, whether you truly feel privileged by its existence, U. caupo is a almost uniquely California encounter, possibly with the best claim for State Worm," Parr composed.

Ford, who's dabbled in photography for the last ten years, frequently goes to the shore to get shots of the elephant seals which take more than the sand this season.

"There is always wonders of this sea, but that is one I had not seen previously," he explained. "The sea is in fact a wondrous location."

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