#(like a snail or small invertebrate)

[soupkiddo]

if I could go back in time I would teach my younger self about the life changing art of putting dead things in jars so I could be the coolest little 4th grader freak

[fuckingrecipes]

Wait, which animals raise livestock?

Several species of ants will 'herd' aphids around (a type of plant lice)- even picking them up and putting them back with the group if they wander off. The ants will attack anything that approaches their aphid herds, defending them. The aphids produce a sugary excretion called honeydew, which the ants harvest and eat.

Some ants will even 'milk' the aphids, stroking the aphids with their antennae, to stimulate them to release honeydew. Some aphids have become 'domesticated' by the ants, and depend entirely on their caretaker ants to milk them.

When the host plant is depleted of resources and dies, the ants will pick up their herd of aphids and carry them to a new plant to feed on - a new 'pasture' if you will.

Some ants continue to care for aphids overwinter, when otherwise they'd die. The ants carry aphid eggs into their own nests, and will even go out of their way to destroy the eggs of aphid-predators, like ladybugs.

--

Microhylids – or narrow-mouthed frogs - have an interesting symbiosis with Tarantulas.

While the spiders could very easily kill and eat the much-tinier frogs, and DO normally prey on small frogs, young spiders instead will use their mouthparts to pick up the microhylid frogs, bring them back to their burrow, and release them unharmed.

The frog benefits from hanging out in/around the burrow of the tarantula, because the tarantula can scare away or eat predators that normally prey on tiny frogs, like snakes, geckos, and mantids. The tarantula gets a babysitter.

Microhylid frogs specialize in eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the frogs protect the spider's eggs. The frogs can also lay their eggs in the burrow, and won't be eaten by the spider.

So it's less 'livestock' and more like a housepet - a dog or a cat. You stop coyotes/eagles from hurting your little dog/cat, and in return the dog/cat keeps rats away from your baby.

--

Damselfish grow algae on rocks and corals. They defend these gardens ferociously, and will attack anything that comes too close - even humans. They spend much of their time weeding the gardens, removing unwanted algaes that might overtake their crop.

The species of algae that they cultivate is weak and and sensitive to growing conditions, and can easily be overgrazed by other herbivores. That particular algae tends to grow poorly in areas where damselfish aren't around to protect and farm it.

Damselfish will ALSO actively protect Mysidium integrum (little shrimp-like crustacians) in their reef farms, despite eating other similarly sized invertebrates. The mysids are filter feeders, who feed on zooplankton and free-floating algae, and their waste fertilizes the algae farms. Many types of zooplankton can feed on the algae crop, and the mysids prevent that.

While Mysids can be found around the world, the only place you'll find swarms of Musidium integrum is on the algae farms that Damselfish cultivate.

Damselfish treat the little mysids like some homesteaders treat ducks. Ducks eat snails and other insect pests on our crops, and their poop fertilizes the land. The ducks can be eaten, but aren't often, since they're more useful for their services than their meat.

--

There are SEVERAL species of insect and animal which actively farm. They perform fungiculture and horticulture: deliberately growing and harvesting fungus and plants at a large-scale to feed their population.

Leaf-cutter ants and Termites both chew up plant material and then seed it with a specific type of fungus. The fungus grows, and the termites/ants harvest the mushroom as a food source.

Ambrosia beetles burrow into decaying trees, hollow out little farming rooms, and introduce a specific fungii (the ambrosia fungi), which both adults and larval beetles feed on.

Marsh Periwinkles (a type of snail) cultivates fungus on cordgrass. They wound the plant with their scraping tongue, then defecate into the wound so their preferred fungus will infect it and grow there. They let the fungus grow in the wound a bit, and come back later to eat.

[pleistocene-pride]

Acanthaster planci, better known as the crown of thorns starfish or the COTS is large species of starfish which is native to the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the red sea, Indian ocean, and pacific ocean. Here they inhabit coral reefs and hard coral communities, where they are predators of the corals themselves as well as encrusting sessile invertebrates and carrion. These starfish feed by extruding there stomach out through the mouth over the surface, the stomach then secretes digestive enzymes that liquefy the corals soft tissues allowing the starfish to slurp up the coral. This leaves a white scar of coral skeleton devoid of living tissue. An individual crown of thorns starfish can consume up to 6 square meters (65 sq ft) of living coral reef per year. These starfish sport elongated, sharp spines which cover nearly the entire upper surface of there arms and bodies which give the creature its name and serve as a mechanical defense against predation. These spines and other tissues of the starfish contain a mix of bitter foaming saponin toxins known as asterosaponins. While A. planci has no mechanism for injecting the toxin, if attacked the spines perforate the tissue of a predator releasing said toxins. In In humans, this immediately causes a sharp, stinging pain that can last for several hours, and persistent bleeding, nausea, and tissue swelling that may last a week or more. Surprisingly there are around 11 species known to prey upon COTS including pufferfish, triggerfish, small painted shrimp, polychaete worms, a hermit crab, a sea urchin, a large polyp-like creature of the cnidarian genus Corynactis, and the tritons trumpet snail. Reaching 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35cms) across, the crown of thorns starfish sports a central disk from which radiates up to 21 arms. Although the body of the crown of thorns has a stiff appearance, it is quite soft and is able to bend and twist to fit around the contours of the corals on which it feeds. Under ideal conditions a COTS may live upwards 8 to 17 years.

[melonisopod]

Small brain: "Bugs" refer to only the order Hemiptera insects such as cicadas and aphids.

Average brain: "Bug" includes any insect but not arachnids and arthropods. A mosquito is a bug but a spider is not.

Big brain: "Bugs" are any insect, arachnid, or land-dwelling arthropod. Spiders, pillbugs and centipedes are bugs.

Bigger brain: "Bugs" include any arthropod including sea-dwelling crustaceans like crabs and lobsters.

Galaxy brain: "Bugs" include any invertebrates like snails and worms.

Third-eye open brain: Hummingbirds are a kind of bug.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: chitons

For last week's Wet Beast Wednesday I talked about a weird invertebrate whose name starts with "c" so this week I'm gonna branch out from that and talk about a weird invertebrate whose name starts with a "c". Chitons are marine mollusks of the class Polyplacophora that bear a resemblance to limpets, but have a segmented shell that allows for more flexibility. They are named after a form of clothing worm by the ancient Greeks.

(image id: a chiton. It is an oval animal with a flat shell composed if 8 overlapping green and white plates. Surrounding the shell is brown, soft tissue)

Chitons are similar in appearance and ecology to limpets, though they are not closely related. The shell of a chiton is made of 8 plates called valves. Valves are the name of any mollusk shell that is divided into multiple pieces. Most mollusk shells are made of one continuous piece and the only ones that have valves are the chitons, bivalves, and a few weird snails. The valves of a chiton overlap slightly, allowing for flexibility while still giving protection. Chitons can curl up into balls and flex backwards to move over concave surfaces that limpets wouldn't be able to. The valves are imbedded in and held together by a thick, muscular ring called the girdle that encircles the body. In most species, only the sides of the valves are covered by the girdle, leaving the rest exposed to the water. A few species cover more or all of the valves with the girdle. When a chiton dies and the girdle decays, the valves will separate. Individual valves sometimes wash up on beaches and are called butterfly shells due to their v-shaped appearance. The shell is used for defense. Chitons can curl up in a ball when not attached to a rock. If one is attached to a rock, it can suction on, presenting predators with no good way to attack its soft underbelly. Some species have spikes, bristles, or other ornaments on their valves and girdles that can provide additional protection.

(image: a chiton curled up into a ball. Its plates are pale pink and its girdle is white and brown)

Underneath the shell, the chiton's body is soft. It consists largely of a muscular foot that is used for movement. To either side of the foot is the mantle cavity, which consists of channels filled with gills that water is pulled through. There is no distinct head, but a mouth is present on the front end. Inside the mouth is the radula, a tongue-like appendage that is covered in teeth. The teeth are special because they are coated in magnetite, a very hard magnetic mineral that has iron as one of its main ingredients. While the metal is used to reinforce the teeth and keep them from wearing out (in fact, the chiton Chaetopleura apiculata has the hardest teeth of any known animal), it may also be used for magnetoreception. This is when an animal can sense magnetic fields. It is possible that the magnetic teeth of chitons can sense the Earth's magnetic field and help with navigation and migration. Most chitons are herbivores or omnivores that feed on algae, bryozonans, diatoms, and other tiny rock-dwellers by scraping at rocks with their radulae. Some are carnivores that target barnacles and can even eat small crustaceans and fish. They often hunt by holding the front ends of their girdles up in the water. Should an animal mistake it for shelter, the chiton will clamp down on them. Food is forced through the esophagus by a current of mucus moved by cilia.

(image: the underside of a chiton. it is oval and orange all over. Two groves filled with brown gill filaments go down each side of the body, encircling a central foot. The mouth is visible as a small hole on one end)

When it comes to senses, chitons have a few options. Like their gastropod cousins, chitons have a chemosensory organ called the subradular organ used for smell and their feet and girdles are full of sensory nerves. They also have special organs called aesthetes. These consist of light-sensing cells that are just below the surface of the shell. The aesthetes are not true eyes, only being able to distinguish light from dark, though they can tell the difference between a shadow and the effects of clouds moving over the sun. Some species use collections of aesthetes to form simple eyes called shell eyes. Unlike the aesthetes, the shell eyes can form images, though Chitons do not have nerve structures needed to form a high resolution image. Shell eyes are distinct from those of any other animal in their structure. Most animals have eye lenses made of protein-based structures, but chiton lenses are crystalline, made of aragonite, the same material that makes up the shell of most mollusks. Each shell eye is compound. The shell eyes are almost certainly used for predator detection. Fossil chitons have been found dating back to the Cambrian period. but shell eyes have only been found in fossils from less than 10 million years old. This likely makes chitons the most recent animal group to have evolved true eyes. Chiton eyes have also been found to work both in water and air, which is tricky due to the way light travels differently through both mediums.

(image: a close-up of a chiton's shell showing the eyes. The shell is yellow and lumpy with the eyes visible as darker, almost black lumps)

The majority of chitons live in intertidal or sub-tidal areas, making them a shallow water group. A few species have been found living in much deeper water, up to 2,000 meters down. Chitons have been known to have homing behavior as they will consistently return to a safe spot after feeding. How they do this is unknown. Sensing the magnetic field of the Planet may play a role, though it is also possible that they lay down chemical trails to find their way home. Chitons are broadcast spawners, with both males and females releasing gametes into the water. Larvae can swim for a while before moving to the substrate.

(image: microscope images of a chiton larva at 4 different developmental stages. It begins as a round blob ringed with hair-like cilia. As the animal develops the cilia recede and the animal elongates, with a distinct foot becoming visible. source)

I will close by bringing up an animal I only learned about recently but has rapidly become one of my favorite weird beasts. This is Cryptochiton stelleri. Its common name is the gumboot chiton, but some people call it the wandering meatloaf, which is objectively the best name ever. It is the largest chiton, growing up to 36 cm (14 in) and 2 kg (4.4 lbs). Its girdle completely covers its shell, which does make it look more like a meatloaf. They can live up to 40 years and are the first known animals to have the mineral santabarbarite in their bodies. They live throughout the north pacific and have been used as a food source by many different cultures. There may be a lot of bad stuff in the world, but if things get too bad, just remember that we live on the same planet as an animal called the wandering meatloaf that can live for 40 years and has a tongue covered in magnetic teeth.

(image: a wandering meatloaf. It is an ovoid animal with red-orange tissue covering the body. Its shell is not visible, but the ridges where each plate overlaps can be seen through the girdle)

[bestanimal]

Round 2 - Mollusca - Polyplacophora

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our first class of molluscs is Polyplacophora, commonly known as “Chitons”, and less commonly known as “Sea Cradles”, “Coat-of-mail Shells”, or “Suck-rocks”.

Chitons have a shell composed of eight separate plates, or valves, which overlap slightly. This allows the chiton to have protection without sacrificing flexibility, as the plates allow for some articulation and even for the animal to curl up into a ball when dislodged from rocks. The plates are circled by a skirt called a girdle, and in some species the tissue of the girdle covers the plates (image 4). Underneath the shell, the majority of the body is a muscular, snail-like foot. Gills hang down into the mantle cavity on either side of the foot. The mouth is also located on the underside of the animal and it contains a mouth with a tongue-like, tooth-covered structure called a radula. The radula is used to scrape food from rocks. Chitons have unique organs called aesthetes, which consist of light-sensitive cells just below the surface of the shell. Some species have modified aesthetes which form ocelli. These ocelli are actually quite advanced, with a cluster of individual photoreceptor cells lying beneath a small aragonite lens. Each lens can form clear images. An individual chiton may have thousands of ocelli on their back. Chitons live worldwide, exclusively in marine waters, clinging to hard surfaces. Most species live high in the intertidal zone, exposed to air and light for long periods. A few species live in deep water, up to as 6,000 m (20,000 ft) down. They are generally herbivorous grazers, though some are omnivorous and some carnivorous. They eat algae, bryozoans, diatoms, barnacles, and sometimes bacteria by scraping the rocky substrate with their radula. A few species of chitons are predatory, catching small invertebrates, such as shrimp and possibly even small fish, by holding an enlarged, hood-like front end of their girdle up off the surface, and then clamping down on unsuspecting, shelter-seeking prey (image 3).

Chitons have separate sexes, and usually reproduce externally, with males releasing sperm into the water to find the female’s released eggs. In some species, fertilization takes place in the mantle cavity, with the female then brooding the eggs within the mantle cavity. The species Callistochiton viviparus gives birth to live young. Chiton eggs have a tough spiny coat, and usually hatch to release a free-swimming trochophore larva. In some species the trochophore remains within the egg, deriving nutrition from yolk, then hatching as a miniature adult. Unlike fully grown adults, larvae have a pair of simple eyes, and these may remain for some time in the immature adult.

Chitons have a relatively good fossil record, dating back to the Cambrian. The genus Preacanthochiton is often classified as the earliest known polyplacophoran, though this is controversial and some authors have instead argued that the earliest confirmed polyplacophorans date back to the Early Ordovician. Kimberella and Wiwaxia of the Precambrian and Cambrian may be related to ancestral polyplacophorans.

Propaganda under the cut:

There is a good fossil record of chitons, but ocelli are only present in those dating to 10 million years ago or younger. This could mean chiton ocelli are the most recent eyes to evolve.

Some species of chiton exhibit homing behavior, journeying to feed and then returning to the exact spot they previously inhabited. It is yet unknown how they do this. They may have topographic memory of the region, or they may be picking up on chemical clues from their slime trail. Their teeth are made of magnetite, and they may be able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field through them, as experimental work has suggested that chitons can detect and respond to magnetism.

Chitons are eaten in many oceanic cultures, including in Trinidad, Tobago, The Bahamas, St. Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire, Anguilla, Barbados, Bermuda, the Philippines (where they are called kibet if raw and chiton if fried), along the Pacific coast of South America, the Galápagos, South Korean islands, by First Nations people off the Pacific coast of North America, and by Aboriginal Australians.

When a chiton dies, its girdle will rot or be scavenged away, and the eight plates will come apart. These plates sometimes wash ashore and are known as “butterfly shells.”

Some chitons bear scales or needle-like spicules on their girdles which can be used for camouflage or defense:

(source)

[unidentifiablelifeform]

How to Get Into Bugs

"A world of dreams and adventures with bugs awaits! Let's go!"

What are bugs? In this document when I say “bugs”, I refer to small invertebrate animals like insects, spiders, snails, and worms. These creatures are underappreciated, and their importance to the health and function of life on Earth cannot be overstated. Bugs aerate the soil, pollinate plants, spread seeds, clean up dead plants and animals, provide food for countless species, prey upon countless others, and cycle nutrients across the planet, among other services.

Bugs are amazing creatures. They come in a vast variety of shapes and colors, from the shining wings of a blue morpho butterfly to the pebble-like body of a toad bug. Their habits and behaviors are just as complex as those of larger animals. Stick insects sway as they walk to mimic a branch blown in the wind, mud dauber wasps gather mud to build earthen nests, and moths read the stars to navigate in the dark. Because they are small, bugs can be supremely adapted to their environment. Many insects will form relationships with specific plants, only pollinating or laying their eggs on these species.

There are many mysteries left to uncover about bugs. Insects alone make up 75% of known animal species, with more being discovered every day. These species are not only being found in remote forests and grasslands, but in woods, parks, and other habitats closer to home. You may be the first to discover a rare creature found only in your area! It is not only new species that present us with mysteries. There is ongoing research into even common species, to answer questions like how flies land upside down, how beetles fold their wings, or how bees make decisions on where to build their nests.

If you appreciate them, the world will become more vibrant. Wherever you are, you can almost certainly find bugs. By noticing these creatures living around you, you will become more aware of nature not as an untouched ideal found only in mountain rainforests or ocean trenches, but as the life that permeates even the most “average” places.

How Can I Get into Bugs?

Go for a walk! As you are walking, take the time to look closely at your surroundings. Notice the different species of insects you see flying around. Look at the leaves and branches of plants. Turn over rocks and bricks. Do you see any bugs? Focus on one of the animals you see. What is it doing? Searching for food? Resting? Building a nest? Have you ever seen this bug before? What is it called? What is its life cycle like? These questions provide starting points that you can use to learn about the creatures that live alongside you.

Get acquainted through books, websites, and videos! Field guides and websites like iNaturalist serve as great first steps to familiarizing yourself with the species found in your area. Select a favorite species or family of bugs, then go out to search for them in the wild. Online resources can also be used to overcome phobias. If you find yourself creeped out by an animal, you can look up videos online to get used to its appearance and movements.

Gather some useful gear! If you are looking to catch bugs for photography or collection, you'll want to have a jar of some kind to contain them. Mason jars work well for large specimens and 2 oz. travel sized jars work well for smaller animals. Flying insects like moths and dragonflies can be captured with a butterfly net, while sweep nets can be brushed against vegetation to collect crawling animals. Dip nets are made for use in water and can be used to capture shrimp and snails along with aquatic insects. In addition to bug-specific equipment you may want gear like a bookbag, sunscreen, hiking boots, canteen, and long pants if you are going out into wilder areas.

Know where to look! Different species of animals need different resources to survive, so they will be found in different places. Look beneath logs or dead leaves to find isopods, millipedes, and earthworms. Ponds and other water bodies are often home to water skaters, crayfish, and water beetles. Flowering plants are a good place to find bees, butterflies, and wasps. Caterpillars, aphids, and planthoppers can often be found on leaves and branches. Some species of insects can only be found on particular plants. Whenever you find a new plant species, take a closer look to see what is living on it. Also be aware of what time you go out searching. If you go to the same location during the day and night, different creatures will be active.

Keep a record of your adventures! Whether it be a digital photo album, a collection of preserved insects, or a written diary, records will provide you with an easy way to revisit memories of your exploits. You might also have more fun exploring the world of bugs if you have a personal project to develop.

Raise bugs in captivity! Caterpillars and beetles can be raised over a season and released when they undergo metamorphosis. Snails and isopods are easy to keep so long as they are fed vegetable scraps and have humid places to hide in their enclosure. Many insects, spiders, snails, and other invertebrates are easy to care for in vivariums. Just be sure not to overcollect! While many bugs have healthy populations, others need as many wild breeding individuals as possible. Entirely avoid collecting endangered species or taking animals from protected areas.

Help Your Local Environment!

Insects, arachnids, and other invertebrates serve as essential building blocks to the global ecosystem and help to keep our world functioning. There are many ways you can help bugs:

If you enjoy gardening or landscaping, grow some plants native to your area. Native plants provide local species with food and shelter, and because they are adapted to your habitat, often require less care than exotic plants.

Avoid spraying pesticides and herbicides unless truly necessary. Not only can these substances kill off non-target species, they can also increase the populations of pesticide-resistant species, runoff from their site of application, and seep into local soil and water supplies.

Select a woodland, meadow, or section of waterway and keep it clean of litter. Pollution may be a global issue, but the world is made up of places, and you can make tangible change in your local area. See if you can get some friends together to help out. Cleanup efforts are most enjoyable with a few extra hands!

You can protect your local woods, creeks, or other wilderness spaces by working with your community’s hobbyists and environmental organizations, learning about your local ecosystem, and sharing your thoughts with others.

Many of the environmental, societal, and health issues we face are interconnected. Thus, improving one situation will make it easier to address others. Whatever problem you are most equipped to face, do your best. Even the smallest action you can take changes the future and makes it that much better.

Online Resources

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/ - Explore worldwide observations of living things.

https://xerces.org - The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Arthropods - Wikipedia information on arthropods, their habits, and biology.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/15740 - Information on bugs from the United States and Canada.

https://www.pbs.org/show/deep-look/ - Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.

Chromatophone Nature Youtube Channel – No-Commentary wildlife footage, like a virtual nature walk.

Thank you for reading! For a PDF version of this post, visit my blog an check the pinned post.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What native Gallifreyan species are there?

Gallifrey has a diverse range of fauna, both native and introduced. Despite claims of minimal ecological impact, the installation of the Eye of Harmony and millions of years of Time Lord civilisation have significantly altered Gallifrey's original biosphere.

🦋 Invertebrates

Beatitude Flies: Begin as maggots and pupate into golden-winged nocturnal insects. They use nectar to create helium in their bellies and are attracted to light and decay.

Butterflies: Various species flutter across Gallifrey.

Bees: Essential for pollination.

Gullet Grubs: Likely to live in digestive tracts of larger mammals, or similar environments.

Blossom Thieves: Possibly insects that steal nectar or pollen.

Scrubblers: Likely small, cleaning insects.

Neversuch Beetles, Sandbeetles, Waspbeetles: Various beetles.

Dustworms: Likely live in dry, dusty environments.

Scissors Bugs: Possibly predatory insects with sharp mandibles.

Flutterwings: Gigantic insects (3 meters by 25 meters) that never land. Five races include Wild Endeavor, Mandrigal, Silver-Band, Blue Crystal, and Perdition.

Snails

Water-Sligs: Likely aquatic or semi-aquatic molluscs.

Web-Spinning Insects: Including spiders about an inch long.

Other dangerous invertebrates: There are also nasty creatures that live beneath big stones.

🐟 Marine Life

Singing Yaddlefish: Notable for their song, and they can be eaten.

Kittensharks: Hatch from eggs and presumably grow into Catsharks.

Axolotl Salamanders: Amphibious creatures with regenerative abilities.

🐍 Elapids

Taipan: A venomous snake, 10 metres long.

Venal Snakes: Possibly nest-stealers or highly venomous.

Bat-Snakes: Presumably flying snakes.

Dinosauria: 20-meter-long reptiles resembling brontosaurs with thick chitinous scales and serrated teeth.

🦅 Avians

Owls: Symbol of Rassilon.

Flurry Birds: Likely small, fast-moving birds.

Trunkikes: Game birds whose eggs are often eaten.

Air Diamonds: Fly in the upper atmosphere, possibly crystalline or bioluminescent.

Song Birds: Various species.

Gargantosaurs: Dinosaur-like creatures, twice the size of a hab-bloc, with two legs, vestigial wings (with purple and white feathers), and four eyes.

🦣 Mammals

Plungbolls: Thumbnail-sized furry creatures living in mountains, attach en masse to warm objects.

Taffelshrews: Edible rodent-like mammals.

Fledershrews: Bat-like, mushroom eaters, nearly extinct.

Cobblemice: Mice that sprout wings.

Rovie Mice: Field-dwelling, long-lived if kept safe, sometimes pets. They have short memories.

Moss-Rats: Possibly rodents that live in marshes with moss-like camouflage.

Vex: Burrowing animals.

Gallifreyan Womprats: 1-metre-long rats with fifteen legs.

Pig-Rats: Inhabit the Drylands, presumably combining porcine and rodent traits.

Rabbits

Flubbles: Small six-legged koalas.

Unnamed rounder rabbit-like creatures

Ounce-Apes: Might be tiny monkeys that are particularly agile.

Sealak: Perhaps a kind of seal, often eaten.

Bear-Ass: A donkey-like animal with bear-like qualities.

Horse-Cats: Probably a horse/cat hybrid-like species.

Sagittary: Horse-like creatures.

Elephants

Pig-Bears: Can be trained as pets.

Wolf-like Creatures: With long snouts and black-and-white striped fur, almost as big as adult humanoids.

Broakir: Live in foothills, often hunted for food.

Baanjxx: Arboreal browsers that like to eat hallucinogenic cerub nuts. As a child, the Doctor was kicked by one in the head, apparently.

Cows

Walrus

Gallifreyan Marlot: Purple and unique in all of time and space. Probably a bit cat-like.

House Cats: Revered as symbols of intelligence. Traditionally, Presidents kept them as pets.

🐱 Killer Cats (C.A.T.S)

Killer C.A.T.S: These sapient creatures possess instinctive precognitive powers and cat-like physiology. Known for their lethal gladiatorial contests, they despise Time Lord traditions and live in the Gin-Seng Sector of Southern Gallifrey. Their culture includes mercenaries and oracles; they are telepathic.

🏞️ Ecosystem Preservation

Though Gallifrey's outer ecology has suffered, the Time Lords have used technology to preserve many species. Extinct species have been collected, ensuring none become completely extinct. The more fearsome creatures are contained in the Death Zone, while xeno-zoos hold alien species from other worlds.

🏫 So ...

So there's your whistlestop tour of the species on Gallifrey. One day, I'll try to put these onto a species distribution map. Oh, by Rassilon's Beard, I just gave myself more work.

Related:

💬|🪐🌍How is Gallifreyan geography different to Earth?: The landscape of Gallifrey.

📺|🌳🍎The Fruits of Gallifrey

💬|🐾🐱What could be some biological traits of Gin-Seng cats?: Looking at who the Gin-Seng cats are, their biology, and their place on Gallifrey and in society.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[animalshowdown]

Phylum Round 1

Mollusca: Snails, slugs, cephalopods, bivalves, chitons, limpets, and others. This group contains the largest invertebrates, the giant and colossal squids. They are the largest marine phylum, but many members are terrestrial. Although they are incredibly diverse in body shape, all Molluscs generally have a hard "radula" used for eating, a mantle that may secrete a hard shell, and a body mostly composed of dense muscle. These animals can be predators, herbivores, filter feeders, symbiotic, and even parasitic. This phylum exhibits remarkable diversity overall.

Bryozoa: Moss Animals. Small, frequently colonial, and often colorful, Bryozoans are found in both freshwater and marine habitats. Their crown of tentacles are used for filter feeding, similar to Entoprocta. Colonies consist of zooids living within small cup-like supports that fuse together, forming encrusting or branching structures. Individuals may take on different shapes for different roles within the colony, such as the "avicularia", which are bird-beak-shaped zooids used for defense.

[dougdimmadodo]

African Finfoot (Podica senegalensis)

Family: Finfoot Family (Heliornithidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Found in flooded forests, mangrove swamps and vegetation-rich waterways throughout much of central, eastern and southern Africa, the African Finfoot is an unusual and extremely illusive species of aquatic bird notable for being one of only 3 living species of finfoots (a family of birds distantly related to cranes which are named for the fleshy fin-like lobes that extend from each of their toes.) Like other finfoots, the “finned” toes of the African Finfoot aid it in paddling as it swims along the surface but do not impair its ability to cling to branches or walk on land as fully webbed feet would. African Finfoots hunt in the water and feed mainly on aquatic or water-associated invertebrates such as mayflies, dragonflies and water snails, but may also catch small vertebrates such as frogs or venture onto land in search of terrestrial prey such as spiders. Due to their timid nature and preference for dense, inaccessible habitat little is known about this species’ life cycle but it has been observed that their breeding is associated with periods of heavy rainfall and that they build large, messy nests in branches overhanging water, with females returning to the nest to provide their chicks with prey until they are mature enough to join their mother on the water.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/62-Podica-senegalensis

[spaghetticat3899]

Slugcat nonsense

Firstly, some headcanoning regarding anatomy stuff (ignore the fact you can’t see the kidney at all, I merged the lines together by the time I noticed). I mostly took inspiration from cats, slugs, cephalopods, and snails. I didn’t try to diverge too much from the canon designs (minus the xeno fellow, that was intentionally funky), but wanted to have a little bit of spice anyway. Small, predatory invertebrates, low-rung on the food chain, but using their intelligence to outwit predators. They may live either solitarily or within colonies, often being composed of family units. Whilst primarily silent, slugcats can vocalize using their hyoid, creating a wail-like purr, often dubbed as a “wawa”. They’re nimble climbers and able to squeeze within tight spaces, using any environment to their advantage. Their feet have microscopic ridges in order to better grip onto walls, poles, and steep terrain. Their maws contain a jagged tooth-like beak and radula, perfect for ripping into any food they can get their paws upon. Their tails contain a large amount of fat in order to stow away nutrients, being able to go several cycles without food.

Extra doodles on hand:

Credits for several of the drawover shitposts

Gild belongs to my friend, @renteduwu

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this National Geographic story:

When colorful autumn leaves accumulate in your garden this season, it may be worth just leaving them there. 

Leaf litter, commonly considered an eyesore, is a surprising microcosm of biodiversity. It serves as a cover for the most species-rich habitat: soil, which hosts more than half of all life on earth. Beneath piles of leaves, twigs, and bark, a variety of creatures flourish, from small reptiles such as salamanders and frogs to invertebrates like snails, earthworms, and spiders. 

When invertebrates consume leaf matter, they break it up into smaller pieces. Then, tandem forces of bacteria and fungi decompose these pieces and convert them into valuable nutrients such as nitrogen, calcium, and sulfur that helps feed trees and other plants.  

Those natural processes help replenish the soil and contribute to the life cycle as dead plant matter transforms into sustenance for living plants. Although leaf litter can look deceivingly stagnant, a microscopic world of activity teems beneath the foliage. 

Environmental benefits 

As a microhabitat, leaf litter is diverse. Structurally, it’s made of plant rubble such as leaves, flowers, bark, seeds, and twigs. Chemically, it contains substances such as cellulose and lignin. A 2023 study suggests leaf litter strengthens ecosystem biodiversity by making soil more fertile and reducing the risk of pathogens left behind by animals. 

Leaf litter goes through three stages of decomposition to produce soil. The observable top layer is the litter layer. The second layer, composed of rotting leaves, is the fermenting layer. The last, completely rotted layer is built up of a thick and dark organic matter called humus, a type of soil that provides the ideal environment in which plants grow and thrive. 

Think of that soil as an entire ecosystem, says Sue Barton, a plant and soil scientist at the University of Delaware. 

“The soil system contains the mineral component, which is the sand, silt, and clay. It also has spaces that are filled with air or water, and then it has organic matter,” she says. “Then a living component, like earthworms and fungi and bacteria. It’s good to refer to soil as a complex system, rather than a single entity.”

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Why We Need to Care About Insects

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/why-we-need-to-care-about-insects/

Some months back a study was released that demonstrates just how damaging climate change is to insects, particularly those in tropical areas. Warming temperatures cause insects to die from overheating and dehydration, kills off their food sources, and lowers their fertility rates to dangerous levels. Moreover, changes in climate affect insect phenology, the timing of when they hatch, migrate, breed, and so forth.

And because insects are so small, they’re often disproportionately affected by many of these problems. As ectotherms, they rely on the air around them to regulate their body temperatures; their small mass means they lose heat faster than larger animals, and can be overloaded with heat much more quickly. Tropical insects are especially at risk from major fluctuations in temperature because they are adapted to a relatively narrow temperature range.

Gray spruce looper moth (Caripeta divisata)

But the problem goes far beyond the tropics, and we are in the middle of an insect apocalypse. This problem often flies under the radar of those who are not already aware of invertebrate conservation. While a few insects, such as monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and domestic honey bees (Apis mellifera), find themselves in the press on a regular basis, most species don’t have large fan clubs. Some of my favorite insects include the white-tipped ctenucha moth (Ctenucha rubroscapus), the velvet snail-eating beetle (Scaphinotus velutinus), and the black-tailed bumblebee (Bombus melanopygus), none of which are insects you’re likely to find making the headlines.

To be fair, there are a lot of insect species out there, so it would be hard to feature every single one individually. But we already face the problem that many people simply just don’t see why we need to worry about fewer bugs around. Last year I wrote an article about how search engines tend to produce exterminator sites at the top of results for various insects, and while some of that is no doubt due to advertising-oriented algorithms, they do reflect a widespread demand for extermination services that isn’t matched by more positive attention to these little animals.

Much has been said among entomologists, ecologists, and other professionals about why we need to be concerned about the drastic drop in the numbers of many insect species, and I’ve written about it as well. I could reiterate what would happen if we lost our pollinators (and also how to save them!) or the crucial role insect detritivores play in reducing diseases and keeping the food web cycling along. And I am still a champion for mosquitoes and other unpopular insects.

Green stink bug (Chinavia hilaris)

But these things always bear repeating. It may be that nine out of every ten organisms on this planet is an insect. Insects play an incredible number of ecological roles, from ecosystem engineers to pollinators to food sources and much more. Without them, ecosystems around the planet would collapse entirely.

I could certainly take the self-interested route and emphasize that fully one-third of our food relies on insects and other pollinators. I might also point out that insect detritivores help nourish the soil needed for everything from food crops to timber. While terrestrial insects and other arthropods only make up about a fifth of the amount of global biomass as their marine counterparts, they still represent a natural sink that holds about 200 million tons of carbon at any given time.

But our anthropocentric worldview rarely considers the intrinsic value of insects simply for existing. We’re constantly weighing and measuring their worth based on our biases and values. We divide them into “good” or “bad” insects: good insects are those that do things we like, like pollination or looking pretty, while bad insects are the ones that chew on our homes and plants or which bite or sting us when threatened or seeking food. For a lot of people, any insect beyond maybe a butterfly is a reason to say “Ewww, gross!” I’ve even seen this widespread among self-professed nature lovers, whether they have a true entemophobia or not, though there may be an evolutionary reason for this seemingly disproportionate reaction.

So consider this yet another attempt to change opinions about insects. I can’t cure entemophobia, but I can at least get people thinking more critically about personal and societal attitudes toward insects. I hope to get people to realize that widespread use of pesticides and other garden/agricultural chemicals–which has increased fifty-fold in twenty-five years–is driving the loss of so many insects. I’ve mentioned before that habitat loss is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction, and that goes for insects, too. And, of course, the study mentioned at the start of this article is just one highlighting the increasing impact climate change has on insects worldwide.

Metric Paper Wasp (Polistes metricus)

Let me wrap this up on a bright note: word is getting out. There is a lot more awareness than there was twenty years ago, and there’s more nuance than we had in the early “save the (domesticated European honey) bees” campaigns. More people are ditching pesticides and other garden chemicals unless absolutely needed, and regenerative agricultural practices that use fewer chemicals overall are gaining ground. And while numerous organizations are increasing awareness of insect conservation, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation–the oldest organization dedicated solely to invertebrates–is still going strong.

And you can help spread the word, too. Share this article with others, and some of the resources and organizations linked throughout. Consider your own relationship to the native insects in the world around you, and whether you might make their lives a little easier. And remember that sometimes it is the smallest of things that have the greatest importance in such a massive system as an entire living planet.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[o-craven-canto]

This note in the rulebook of the origin of life-themed boardgame Bios: Genesis makes an interesting point about oceans being more a sink than a source of living lineages, but I'm not so convinced.

For one, there are several instances of life settling land independently (off the top of my head: vascular plants, probably multiple lines of fungi and slime molds, land flatworms, earthworms, multiple lines of slugs & snails, multiple lines of crabs, pillbugs, at least three lines of arachnids, millipedes, insects, and tetrapod vertebrates; with several more partially-terrestrial lineages such as horseshoe crabs and mudskippers).

Second, terrestrialization didn't happen all at once in the Cambrian but in multiple waves from Ordovician to Devonian, with arthropods moving on land in the Cambrian and fungi and bacteria probably there from much longer before. Earthworms only became terrestrial in the late Paleozoic at earliest, and many lines of slugs as late as the Cenozoic. Of course later waves have less chances of displacing the older.

If reversions to the sea are more common that colonizations of land, I think it's more likely than moving from sea to land requires many specific pre-adaptations that most aquatic lifeforms lack (look how many of the lineages above are arthropods), whereas terrestrial organisms already have all they need to live in water.

It is true that many terrestrial lineages, including our own as well as plants, earthworms, and several lines of slugs, reached land through freshwater rather than directly from the sea (unlike most arthropods).

(Looking this up, I also found an answer to another intriguing question made by the writer of Bios: why did insects never become secondarily marine, despite (a) accounting for the great majority of non-parasitic species on land, (b) having colonized freshwater countless times, and (c) vertebrates successfully returning to the sea dozens of times? Well, for one it seems that hundreds of species did, although it's not clear to me whether they live in seawater rather than at its margins. The paper proposes that the great advantages of insects compared to other small invertebrates are their specializations for flight and long-distance communications, which are much less useful in the open sea compared to land and freshwater bodies, making insects much less competitive than other marine arthropods.)

[wenbochenphoto]

Nepenthes jacquelineae is endemic to West Sumatra, primarily epiphytic, occasionally terrestrial. The habitat is cool and foggy montane cloud forests and moss forests. The colourful upper pitchers catch flying insects, while the lower pitchers hide in moss and catch small invertebrates like snails. It has been heavily collected for its high market value, and we only found a handful of plants during our hikes.

[lingpaopao]

˚ ༘ 🐋🐬 𝘈𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘝𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘺 🪼🦈 ·˚ ༄ؘ

// Fish // Sea Bass ~ 海鲈鱼 (hǎi lú yú) Salmon ~ 鲑鱼 (guī yú) Note: it is more common to use '三文鱼' (sānwén yú) as 鲑鱼 is more formal. Flounder ~ 比目鱼 (bǐ mù yú) Trout ~ 鳟鱼 (zūn yú) Mackerel ~ 鲭鱼 (qīng yú) Cod ~ 鳕鱼 (xuě yú) Sole ~ 龙利鱼 (lóng lì yú) Halibut ~ 大比目鱼 (dà bǐ mù yú) Tilapia ~ 罗非鱼 (luó fēi yú) Tuna ~ 金枪鱼 (jīn qiāng yú) Note: literally translated as 'golden gun fish'. Sardines ~ 沙丁鱼 (shā dīng yú) Carp ~ 鲤鱼 (lǐ yú) Catfish ~ 鲶鱼 (nián yú) Eel ~ 鳗鱼 (mán yú) Note: can also be pronounced màn. Swordfish ~ 剑鱼 (jiàn yú) Sturgeon ~ 鲟鱼 (xún yú) Herring ~ 鲱鱼 (fēi yú) Stingray ~ 魟鱼 (hóng yú) Note: can also be pronounced hōng Shark ~ 鲨鱼 (shā yú) Goldfish ~ 金鱼 (jīn yú) Pufferfish ~ 河豚 (hé tún) Anchovy ~ 凤尾鱼 (fèng wěi yú) Clownfish ~ 小丑鱼 (xiǎo chǒu yú) Piranha ~ 食人鱼 (shí rén yú) Lionfish ~ 狮子鱼 (shī zǐ yú) // Mammals // Whale ~ 鲸鱼 (jīng yú) Seal ~ 海豹 (hǎi bào) Sea lion ~ 海狮 (hǎi shī) Otter ~ 水獭 (shuǐ tǎ) Dolphin ~ 海豚 (hǎi tún) Orca ~ 虎��� (hǔ jīng) Manatee ~ 海牛 (hǎi niú) Narwhal ~ 独角鲸 (dú jiǎo jīng) Walrus ~ 海象 (hǎi xiàng) // Crustaceans // Crayfish ~ 小龙虾 (xiǎo lóng xiā) Lobster ~ 龙虾 (lóng xiā) Crab ~ 螃蟹 (páng xiè) // Mollusks // Squid ~ 鱿鱼 (yóu yú) Octopus ~ 八爪鱼 (bā zhuǎ yú) Abalone ~ 鲍鱼 (bào yú) Shellfish ~ 贝类 (bèi lèi) Cuttlefish ~ 墨鱼 (mò yú) Scallop ~ 扇贝 (shàn bèi) Mussel ~ 蚌 (bàng) Oyster ~ 牡蛎 (mǔ lì) Sea snail ~ 海蜗牛 (hǎi wō niú) // Other Invertebrates // Starfish ~ 海星 (hǎi xīng) Jellyfish ~ 水母 (shuǐ mǔ) Sea urchin ~ 海胆 (hǎi dǎn) Sea cucumber ~ 海参 (hǎi shēn) Note: 参 is typically pronounced cān. // Bonus // Sea turtle ~ 海龟 (hǎi guī) Pacific ~ 太平洋 (tài píng yáng) Atlantic ~ 大西洋 (dà xī yáng) Fillet ~ 鱼片 (yú piàn) Wild ~ 野生的 (yě shēng de) Farmed ~ 养殖的 (yǎng zhí de)

Note: you'll notice that many names are basically just a word + the fish radical (ex. 鲈鲑鳟鲭鳕鲤鲶鳗鲟鲱魟鲨). For many of these, the word is pronounced the same: ex. 念 sounds exactly like 鲶. Note: if you're reading about buying fish in Chinese, you may notice that there isn't a perfect overlap between what Westerners buy/eat and Chinese people. For example, lots of Chinese people eat belt fish (带鱼) but Westerners typically don't. Knowing this, it may be useful to learn belt fish despite it not typically showing up in lists of fish in English. // Example Text // https://k.sina.cn/article_6579897244_18831439c00100fouz.html

10种最美丽的水族馆动物, 鱼类占了八种, 一般人最多见过两种 -> 10 types of the most beautiful aquarium animals, 8 of the types are fish, the average person will at most see 2 of the animal types.

第一名，小丑鱼。热带咸水鱼，虽然名叫小丑，但小丑鱼却不丑。网友投票排第一呢！-> First place, clownfish. Tropical saltwater fish, although named clownfish, they are not ugly ('clown' in Chinese literally translates to 'little uglies' so the sentence reads like: although named little ugly fish, they are not ugly). Netizens voted them first place!

第四名，海豚。海豚其实是小中型的鲸类，属于哺乳动物。-> Fourth place, dolphins. Dolphins are actually a type of medium-small whale, considered breast-feeding animals.

第九名，鲸。巨型动物家族，包括世界上最大的动物蓝鲸。不属于鱼类，属于哺乳动物。-> Ninth place, whales. A broad animal family, whales include the world's biggest animal, the blue whale. Not considered fish, they are breast-feeding animals.

https://www.czcyw.com/wiki/10290.html

海洋馆里有什么海洋生物，常见的20种海洋动物汇总 -> which aquatic animals are in aquariums, a summary of 20 types of common aquatic animals.

1. 虎鲸 -> Orcas

在杀人鲸表演备受争议的当下，不少海洋公园已经开始逐步取消对虎鲸表演的训练。-> In light of the controversy of killer whale performances, many aquariums have already started to step-by-step cancel orca performance training.

3. 海豹 -> Seals

大部分海洋世界中的动物可能是通过购买获得的，但有些海豹是因为被父母遗弃，被救助后一直无法恢复生存能力而留在海洋世界的。-> Most Seaworld animals might have been obtained through purchase, but some seals, because they were abandoned by their parents, after rescue still cannot regain survival skills so they remain in Seaworld.

5. 海星 -> Starfish

...需要注意的是，千万不要违反规定将海星拿出水面或是大力揉捏它们。这会对海星造成致命的伤害。-> You must pay attention to never transgressing the rules by picking up starfish out of the water or forcefully rubbing and pinching them. Doing this will cause life-threatening damage to the starfish.