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(12 objects, created 1/26/2012)

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At twilight, rough-winged swallows swarm the sky above the Quadrangle of the birds. These birds, unique to the Yucatán peninsula, trap insects during flight and drink water from the standing pools and cenotes. "Thou, bird, will live in the trees and soar through the air, reach unto the region of the clouds, touch the transparency of the sky, and know no fear of falling..." -Popol Vuh, The Maya Creation Story. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

At twilight, rou...

A lizard basks in the Sun on a rock in the Nunnery Quadrangle. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

A lizard basks i...

A lizard basks in the Sun on a rock in the Nunnery Quadrangle. (Image Creddit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

A lizard basks i...

A Spiny-Tailed Iguana rests on a rock near the Palace of the Governor at Uxmal. These large iguanas are ubiquitous in the Yucatán and have a tan, olive, brown, or grayish body with darker cross-bands on the body and tail. They can grow up to 4 feet including the tail. This animal was one of the more represented animals in the Mayan codices, and its flesh was a ritual food in the pre-columbian era. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

A Spiny-Tailed I...

Over 220 different species of butterfly have been documented as inhabiting the Yucatan Peninsula. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

Over 220 differe...

A black and yellow striped spider awaits its prey. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

A black and yell...

For the precolumbian Maya, butterflies were sacred, held to be the souls of dead warriors. Butterfly motifs are found upon the chests of warriors at the Temple of the Warriors in Chichén Itza. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

For the precolum...

Although the majority of scorpions are harmless to humans, scorpion bites kill between one and two thousand people every year in Mexico. This scorpion tried to run for cover in a nearby shady area, and raised its tail when disturbed, which is a sign of attack. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

Although the maj...

A brilliant little bird, locally called a Ko'ki'ta, takes a break from smashing a beetle against a rock. Note the splendid masonry of the House of the Turtles behind her. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

A brilliant litt...

The spiny-tailed iguana is found throughout Mexico, parts of Central America and the islands off of Panama. Adults can reach up to 18 inches long with 18-inch tales and weigh, on average, 1kg. The iguana is edible, and is a popular food in rural parts of Mexico and central America. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

The spiny-tailed...

The spiny-taled iguana is primarily herbivorous but will also eat small animals such as insects, birds, rodents, bats, and reptiles. If it survives its first precarious years of life, the iguana can live to be about sixty, and inhabits mainly rocky, open, arid places. For this reason, ruins are ideal and hospitable environments for iguanas, as tourists know, for they can be seen lounging on rocks at any time of day (the iguanas, not the tourists). They are more terrestrial than arboreal, and can run bipedally. If badgered, they will bite or attack an aggressor with spines on their backs and tales. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

The spiny-taled ...

A Pixie (Melanis pixe) rests on these succulent flowers, while the honeybees are hard at work sucking out the nectar. The primarily South American genus Melanis includes some of the most vibrantly colored butterflies of the New World Tropics. The Pixie's range is from Chiapas south to Panama along the West Coast, and from the Southern tip of Texas to the Yucatan. Lepidopterists (people who study butterflies and moths) believe that its spotting pattern may imitate that of certain undesirable species of tropical moth, a defense from possible attack. The Chilam Balam of Chumayel, a post-conquest manuscript written in Maya with Roman characters, speaks of the bees of the Yucatan in a chapter entitled "The Ritual of the Four World-Quarters": "The red wild bees are in the east. A large red blossom is their cup. The red Plumeria is their flower. The white wild bees are in the north. The white pachca is their flower. A large white blossom is their cup. The black wild bees are in the west. The black laurel flower is their flower. A large black blossom is their cup. The yellow wild bees are in the south. A large yellow blossom is their cup. . . is their flower." True enough! These bees, drinking from the white flower, are in the north. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

A Pixie (Melanis...

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