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Great Pumpkin Patch @ New York Botanical Garden

Took a butt ton of photos while I was at the NYBG earlier this week.

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My first hyena skull! The teeny, termite eating, aardwolf! Smallest animal in the family. Unlike the brown, striped, or spotted hyenas they are insectivores. They eat insects exclusively, predominantly termites, with the use of their long sticky tongues. They’re small, shy, nocturnal animals and not many studies or research has been some on them since they’re so private and elusive. (instagram)

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Red squirrel/ekorre.

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🐭

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Looking for some inspirocean today? Drift away with these purple-striped jellies and sea where they take you. 

Float like a jellyfish, sting like a… jellyfish? The long, trailing limbs of purple-striped jellies (Chrysaora colorata) may appear elegant and decorative—but the beauty of these lacy appendages disguises what are truly stupendous stinging structures.

Dangling below the jellies’ bells are thin, straight tentacles and frilly, pink oral arms (think of them as long fancy lips). Both tentacles and oral arms are covered in stinging cells called cnidocytes— if you look closely you’ll see them as tiny bumps peppering the oral arms.

Purple-striped jellies use these stinging cells to capture prey and to ward off predators—though they don’t deter leatherback turtles or ocean sunfish! They pack a punch for a person, so best not to touch—these captivating, mysterious and lovely roses certainly have their thorns.

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One flamboyant cuttlefish ring to rule them all

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Need some cuttles? We’re on it. Time for a Cephalopod Week cuttle party!

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The cuttlefish has a remarkable talent. Its skin contains millions of pigment cells and it uses hypnotic color patterns to mesmerize its prey before it strikes. (Blue Planet II)

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Nudibranch Photos by Klaus Stiefel

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✨nudibranch moodboard! (original video)🌈

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Nudibranchs (sea slugs)

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The Pikachu nudibranch (Thecacera pacifica) is appropriately named for its yellow body with black stripes and black-tipped rhinophores. Found in both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean (in the Gulf of Mexico) it grows to be about 2cm. Unlike the real Pikachu, this nudibranch has no electric powers, but the resemblance is still this creature’s claim to fame!

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Cyerce Nigricans

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List of Sea Creatures Which Have Tried But Failed To Convince Me To Go Into The Ocean

1. Sea Dragons

Remarkable, unlikely, ethereal. A fairytale creature, but ultimately not trustworthy. a combination of kelpie and the fae, it will ask me a riddle and steal my soul. at least one of these is photoshopped. nice try sea dragon

2. Bubble Snails

these are portals to another realm. i may be unsatisfied with my dimension, but i am not fool enough to follow a colorful stranger to a secondary location. you’ll have to try harder, briny marine abductors 

3. Shells. Just shiny carved shells i found on instagram

makes a compelling argument but i remain unconvinced. never trust anything you find on instagram 

4. Salp Chains

not gonna lie, this one almost made me reconsider. idk what a planktic tunicate is, but i respect their lifestyle choices. if i ever do join a hivemind, this is top of the list

5. Frosted Nudibranch

a combination bt a sailor moon trinket & a pokemon evolution stone; has the power to force me into a magical girl transformation. unfortunately i am responsibility-avoidant and refuse to wear anything less comfortable than sweatpants. also magical transformations give me motion sickness. hard pass, but would use as a nightlight 

6. Lettuce Sea Slug. For similar reasons

6. Royal Starfish

honestly thought this was a claymation sculpture. starfish were actually a compelling reason to go in the ocean until i remembered they can move, and i want nothing to do with that nonsense 

7. Costasiella

this is genuinely the only one i have a hard time saying no to. this is the perfect being. if i was an animated protagonist, this would be my chosen cartoon sidekick, my vaguely animalish sidecharacter who speaks in a silent but expressive language only i can translate. incandescent perfection. pure and unsullied, truly sinless. look at those goddamn eyes. 

In conclusion, 

sea slugs are the only compelling group of creatures who could possibly tempt me into the soulless void of the salty depths. however, as i possess a great deal of caution & terror, i will continue to stick with aquariums. i have been tempted, but have overcome. the ocean may invade my nightmares but it will not claim my soul. i bite my thumb at thee, Poseidon! go stub your toe on coral

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Some cute lil nudibranchs

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1. Red King Crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus 2. Japanese Warbonnet, Chirolophis japonicus 3. Sea Raven, Hemitripterus villosus 4. Starfish, Patiria pectinifera 5. Common Sunstar, Crossaster papposus 6. Banded Sea Urchin, Echinothrix calamaris 7. Nudibranchs, Flabellina verrucosa 8. Swift’s Scallop, Swiftopecten swiftii 9. Maldivian Crinoid, species unidentified 10. Shrimp, Lebbeus longimanus

Underwater Photography by Alexander Semenov

Do not remove credit!