phanerozoicfossilgardener

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

i hope suzanne collins kills mr beast

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

Why are mules so healthy when other hybrid animals aren't?

not all hybrid animals are unhealthy, it's kind of a roll of the dice on how genetics interact with each other.

in fact, hybridization in general is turning out to be more foundational to evolution then we thought! closely related species are just stealing each other's genes all the time, turns out.

hybridization events are MUCH more common then we thought, and result in the swapping back and forth of species-specific genes, which then drives evolution in different directions for both species with the introduction of these new genes! these events are called "gene flow".

modern humans specifically are a really good example of this, actually- humans with ancestral roots in Europe and Western Asia have a TON of traits that were lifted directly from our sister species, Neanderthals, after a whole slew of gene flow events!

some of these genes are believed to be responsible for hair texture, viral immune response, metabolism, and heightened sense of smell.

and on the Eastern side of Asia, the same is true of Denisovans, another modern human sister species!

these genes provided cold and altitude tolerance, among other benefits.

basically what I'm getting at here is that we now know that the tree of life is more like a series of streams flowing back and forth into each other to reinforce evolutionary pathways, all due to closely related species looking at each other and wiggling their eyebrows suggestively.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

left a couple of used teabags in a little dish on the counter to dry out (to minimise bin juice in the compost bin) and also left the window open to cool the house down and in the morning found a free roaming snail on my kitchen counter who had apparently been eating the teabags because they had holes in and a big snail slime mark

i am not really sure if tea is good for snails

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

I always struggled drawing hands before anyone told me what to do. So here is a HANDy dandy drawing reference to see the steps on an actual hand. There are three big muscles in the palm. The thumb lump is most important because without it you’ll never even get the shape right. Circle up the knuckles and draw bendy lines (red) to connect them. Make sure the fingers go from medium-tall-short-shortest just slightly (index=>pinky finger). Notice the big red squareish shape around the palm-that’s the first thing I do. Note: every infer has 2 knuckles don’t forget the thumb does too…just in a weird way.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

unfortunately once you start noticing the tendency of some sci-fi to flatten every character into ‘ambiguously atheist’, the implication that the only future is one where no one has any religious beliefs is going to piss you off for the rest of time

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

Masha The Hero

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

what many don't realise is that he loves his bal

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

Just realised that whenever I see the phrase "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole" I automatically think of a ten metre pole. Like a comically long pole. A ten foot pole isn't all that long. That's slightly less than two of my body lengths. Not touching something with a ten foot pole still lets you get pretty close to it actually.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

I had to go to a new town, and since one of my favorite things to do is explore little shops in tiny towns, after I've completed my town task, I start walking around and going in and out of shops.

I go into a used furniture store, but they're remodeling so all the furniture is stacked on top of each other all the way to the ceiling, so I look a little and talk about prices with the two women there, but ultimately thank them and leave without buying anything.

Then I wander further down the street and find a cute little antique store so I wander in. I'm having a good time browsing, but the store is completely empty. No clerk. Which is actually ideal, because it means no small talk or salesman's expectations.

But, when I've been in there for two minutes, one of the women from the first furniture store comes in. And upon seeing my confused face, says, "Oh, I just work at the other place on Thursdays. I own this one. I have a little beeper that alerts me when someone comes in."

Okay then. But now I feel bad, because I'm just browsing and not planning on buying anything, yet I made this woman leave her other job and hustle down here for nothing. Regardless, I look for a little bit longer and then leave.

I wander some more before going into a craft shop, which is also empty, but only for a moment, before the same woman comes out of the back, but in a different shirt.

And she sees my mingled look of disappointment (how many times am I going to bother this woman?) and confusion (how did she get to this one so fast? When did she have time to change her shirt?), she laughs and says, "You must have just come from my sister's antique store."

Anyways, I am now outlawing identical twins in practice and they are also now forbidden from owning multiple stores on the same block.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

*gets dressed up to spend time in the woods alone*

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

you all know how much I love the doomed siblings trope so of course it was only a matter of time before I made ocs like that

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

Eating uninspected food is going to crush supermarkets when food poisoning and E. coli start wiping out brands.

Lawsuits for selling tainted food?

This will kill people. This will not save money or end waste or stop fraud.

Republicans are sadistic bastards.

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

sometimes a lucky soul is spared 

[phanerozoicfossilgardener]

I hope we all make it