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Girls will be like “oh I’m just running quick some errands” and then spend all day in the wetlands appreciating the unique flora and fauna

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There are four types of fish scales!

Cycloid scales are thin, overlap, and flexible. They're found on primitive teleosts (like minnows and carp).

Ctenoid scales have small, backwards pointed scales (known as cterns) make the fish more hydrodynamic and faster. They're found on Advanced Ctenoids (like perch and sunfish).

Ganoid scales are thick, diamond-shaped, and mostly non-overlapping. They're found on Chondrostei (like sturgeons and paddlefish).

Placoid scales are spikey and tooth-like with nerves. These are found on Chondrichthyes (like sharks and rays).

Ichthyology Notes 3/?

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two female hornbills formed an unusual pair - one a great hornbill, one a rhinoceros hornbill. both escaped from captivity into the wild of singapore and surprised observers by forming a pair bond. unfortunately, there was a lack of other members of their species in the area. these two birds acted as a typical bonded pair would, and were sighted together on multiple occasions performing preening and nesting rituals.

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Otters will forever be the most dramatic creatures on the planet🦦

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oh to be a pangolin squirming around in the sludge 🥺🥺🥺 this would fix me

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“oh, I live in a desert and-”

“wow that must be so terrible” “deserts are so ugly” “I would never want to live in a wasteland like that” “it’s just empty nothingness”

wishing 10,000 exploding hammers upon you

behold New Mexico

[ID 1: tall, snowcapped rocky mountains rising above a plain filled with desert scrub

ID 2: brightly colored banded cliff walls of several mesas climbing their way into mountains

ID 3: a desert prairie

ID 4: colorful hoodoos against a twilight sky

ID 5: white sand dunes as far as the eye can see

ID 6: a collection of hoodoos against a stormy sky at sunset

ID 7: a juniper tree standing with a cliff wall in the background

ID 8: several juniper trees on a rocky landscape]

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when i die i hope i come back as a beautiful microscopic granule of sand

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Oof, took some time to label these and touch up some rough spots. But here it is, the Mazon Creek #paleostream piece. This was, again, a piece that barely scratches the surface.

Mazon is a Carboniferous Lagerstätte and preserves hundreds of species, one could fill whole books with scenes like these. Biggest challenge was that we have two distinct faunas, the marine Essex biota and the terrestrial Braidwood biota. Some marine animals might be able to venture into freshwater but usually the two don't mix much so I had to find a way to transplant a piece of fauna into the other. We settled on a natural raft, the likes we still see today.

After storms or floods, mats of vegetation can drift out to sea and carry with them whole communities of organisms. On the other hand driftwood is often used by marine animals as shelter so from both sides we have reasons for animals to be here. As you can see in this size chart by Discord member JW, there is much more one could have added.

But I leave that part to YOU if you are inclined to pick up where I left off ;)

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Porcelain Fungus Mucidula mucida

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Barn Owls (Tyto alba), family Tytonidae, order Strigiformes, UK

photograph by Janet Sharp | Flickr

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NEW !!! SNAKE DISCOVERED

ITS CALLED THE LIMESTONE EYELASH PIT VIPER. THAT iS SO CUTE. ITS SO PRETTY

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Starting a collection

If you have more I'd love to see them this is my favorite meme format ever

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my fave thing ever is seeing baby parrots. they always look wet, skrungly, and like they have 0 idea what’s happening

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Weller's Salamander (Plethodon welleri), family Plethodontidae, found in high mountain areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the eastern U.S. ( in TN, NC, VA)

ENDANGERED.

photographs: Rosemary Ronca & Todd W. Pierson

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so many creatures putting SO much effort into putting ‘special’ fluids that TOTALLY aren’t water through every organ possible to clean them so they can use them again 2 seconds later. like why not simply sit on a damp substrate and pull water through your body by evaporating the extra out pores in your leaves lmaoooo

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The skull of a female Machairodus aphanistus from Madrid, Spain.