#*infodumps*

[ningauinerd]

I've been doing a lot of volunteer fieldwork with these guys recently so I thought I might as well do an infodump about them here.

The pygmy bluetongue skink (Tiliqua adelaidensis) is one of the most unique and unusual members of the Tiliqua genus, which includes the true bluetongues as well as the sleepy lizard/shingleback. However, the pygmy bluetongue actually lacks the blue tongue the group is named after, having a pink tongue instead! As its scientific name suggests, it is quite a range restricted species, being found only in open grasslands north of Adelaide, South Australia, as far north as Peterborough. Historically they ranged more extensively across the Adelaide Plains, as far south as Marion, but due to the destruction of suitable habitat they now occur no further south than Kapunda.

While most bluetongues are notable for their large size amongst skinks, with several species regularly exceeding 30 cm in length, the pygmy bluey lives up to its name by measuring a measly average of 9 cm long from snout to vent. This is actually still a fair size compared to the average skink, but it's miniscule by bluetongue standards. Even more notable than their size however are their habits, for they are the only species of lizard that is specialised to live exclusively in old spider burrows! The burrows of both trapdoor and wolf spiders are used, but trapdoor burrows are preferred in most instances.

Pygmy bluetongues spend the majority of their lives within these spider burrows, leaving only to defecate, seek out mates and disperse. The average length of time a lizard spends in a particular burrow is highly dependant on the individual - some are sedentary and spend many years within a single burrow, while others will move around fairly frequently. As well as places to shelter and raise their young (they have parental care, it's very cute), pygmy bluetongues also use the burrows as ambush sites, waiting at the top for suitable prey, usually a mid-sized arthropod, to stray close enough for them to quickly dart out and drag them into the depths.

but here's the ambusher

The chief natural predators of pygmy bluetongues are raptors and brown snakes, and sheltering in the burrow is the main defence against both of these threats. Their burrows are often wide enough for a brown snake to enter, but not wide enough for them to open their mouths in - this means all the brown snake usually gets by pursuing a sheltering pygmy is an angry lizard attacking its face, forcing it to retreat.

The lazy lifestyle of the burrow-stealing pygmy bluetongues is certainly unique, and also explains why they have been such an elusive species since they were first discovered by Western scientists in the 1860s. Rarely seen or collected, their habit of inhabiting spider burrows remained undiscovered for the longest time, and by the 1960s they had become so hard to find that they were believed to be extinct. That was until, in 1992, a pygmy bluetongue was found inside the stomach of a roadkill brown snake by amateur herpetologist Graham Armstrong, confirming their status as a Lazarus of the lizard world.

The historic rediscovery of the pygmy bluetongue (Image credit: Graham Armstrong)

Our previous assumptions of extinction were fortunately premature, but the pygmy bluetongue skink is in serious trouble nonetheless. While they are able to live in a variety of different grassland types, both native and exotic, the extensive modification of their entire distribution through cereal cropping and urbanisation has led to their populations becoming very small and fragmented, giving them a ranking of Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Almost all of these populations are on private land (often grazed by sheep), which makes protecting and/or studying them particularly difficult and complex.

However, when it comes to future threats to the species, climate change is easily the most worrying. As Australia becomes ever hotter and drier, their small remaining distribution is likely to become largely unsuitable, threatening the existence of the entire species. To combat this, researchers are currently investigating the viability of translocating populations further south to areas with cooler climates, providing a safeguard if they do indeed disappear from their remaining natural distribution.

But how do you study a lizard that lives exclusively in small spider holes? Well, if you want to catch them, there's only one tool for the job - the humble fishing rod. Not any special fishing rod either, just a regular rod with a poor mealworm shoddily tied to the end. David Attenborough kindly demonstrates the technique in Life in Cold Blood, although in his case the lizard was steadfast in remaining in the burrow!

the sacred tool of the mighty lizard fishermen

returned to their abode

Two additional Fun Pygmy Facts: Fun Pygmy Fact #1 - The closest living relative of the pygmy bluetongue is the sleepy lizard!

cousins!

Fun Pygmy Fact #2 - Wooden artificial burrows purpose-made for pygmy blueys have proven effective, and the lizards inhabiting them even tend to be in better body condition than those in natural burrows!

[rykersreign]

Me and my reasons on why Sonic from Sonic Prime is not too out of character for him!!

I feel like I should start by saying absolutely no hate to people who don't like Prime Sonic. I 100% understand why someone might not like him as a character and I do lightly touch on that!

Also I would appreciate it if when you state your opinion on the matter you do it in a civil way so we can all have a normal conversation on it. I will delete comments that seem too attack based or are just hating on this subject.

Aside from that feel free to tell me how you feel about the matter!!

I feel like Sonic's character in prime is not necessarily the worst or out of character for him. I actually really like this version of sonic due to his character flaws! I find it to be a fun and different way of writing him in his earlier stages of character development.

First we should approach the negatives before we approach the positives; Sonic is very immature compared to his previous iterations. He is impulsive, not the best at truly working in a team, and can be annoying at times.

These characteristics get in the way of his ability to problem solve and act in a way other iterations do but these aren't too far off from other versions of Sonic.

This can 100% make him an unappealing and sometimes frustrating character. I know I've watched some scenes in the show and hated his responses to some situations.

Although Sonic does have some positives! He's still loyal to his friends, tries his best to listen past his impulsive nature, and is overall still as loving as ever.

There are plenty of Sonic timelines where he is the one that messed up. Was it this bad? Not always but it's not rare for him.

Idw sonic for example allowed Metal Sonic to live his life the way he wanted which immediately backfired, same with the Mr Tinker situation.

Sonic has a consistent characteristic in which he trusts too much and wants others to have the chance to change. Any mistake he makes is due to him trying to help others.

While Sonic from Prime's situation is much different he still was trying to help others. Prime wasn't just a simple mistake Prime was a big mistake but that's not weird for his character.

Sonic from prime still puts effort into helping so many people but at times that could be a flaw. This want to help others often backfires as he doesn't fully trust his friends to be safe and handle the situation which can make him seem overbearing; This is consistent with him tho. He has always been the self sacrificing type Sonic frontiers is a good example of that.

Throughout all of Sonic frontiers he is hurting himself to help others.

Most sonic iterations want to help others so desperately they don't think about the consequences whether that causes hurt to themselves or others.

Although many iterations of Sonic trusts their friends abilities and skills they can all still be scared for what can happen.

Sonic from Prime makes mistakes that are undeniable, I mean he destroyed the entire universe but he's still got those positive traits that can sometimes even out the negative.

I feel like judging his character at this current point of the show is very harsh given how much as a character he is potentially set up to change.

At this point in the show it really depends on if the writers want him to approach those issues or not.

[castlevera]

"I would like to toast all of you. Really. I know that I'm the butt of your jokes and that's just my cross to bear as the patriarch of our little family...

[ Death imagery warning; TDPA: The Devil in Me spoiler warning. ]

Mark and Jamie, the two of you do the work of a team of ten.

and Kate, despite our bickering, you are the heart of this show. You keep people interested.

And finally to our newest recruit, Erin. We would be lost without you. Who else could we trust to remember every little detail?

Thank you all...for your hard work.

Cheers."

[astralechoes]

since @stxrrbright was curious about sorcerer cat Noctis here is some lore about him...

Noctis & Ignis are talented sorcerers in this verse, Noctis soon discovered he was able to understand the thoughts of animals; especially cats. He ended up finding a spell that allows him to transform into a cat, once in this form he is able to talk much more easily to animals.

Ignis initially thought that he was stray cat when he first came back after using the spell, until he transformed back into human form. He finds him quite endearing as a cat though he has put a collar on him when he goes off on little intrepid kitty adventures, it's quite easy to pass him off as a familiar in that form.

It's not uncommon to find him with a bunch of stray cats, or napping in the sun somewhere; he also is amicable to pets sometimes but don't touch his belly 😂

[horrificinformation]

𓆩♡𓆪 . . . masterlist . . .

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . reviews . . . eden lake

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . infodumps . . .

paraphilias

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . original content . . .

nothing as of yet....

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . fanfictional content . . .

smile dog headcanons

[cxsmicvega]

ok but thing is as a Fellow Unofficial Scientist (I'm workin on the unofficial part I swear) thats EXACTLY what it is

I cannot tell you the amount of times I start talking about space and someone goes "omg but space is so scary bc what if you fall in a black hole"

YOU BUFFOON, YOU ABSOLUTE IMBECILE, THAT SIMPLY WILL NOT FUCKING HAPPEN. UNLESS YOU ARE VERY STUPID AND DECIDE "OH BOY LETS CROSS THE EVENT HORIZON" IT WILL NOT SLURP YOU UP. THAT IS NOT HOW BLACK HOLES WORK.

It is a paranoia I encounter so fucking often it becomes genuinely annoying bc it requires grade school research to disprove. I would compare it more to the fear of sharks than autism vaccine bullshit though, as the idea of vaccines causing autism causes actual systemic harm and the fear of black holes just makes our explorations of space more difficult bc "weh weh but I'm scared of space :(((("

Shut Up we are learning about our existence and your fears are not relevant to the continuation of progress.

Anyways my point is: astronomers and astrophysicists are in fact Very Fucking Tired

is it just me or is NASA weirdly aggressive in their article about black holes?

can a black hole destroy the earth?

no, you idiot.

black holes aren’t planet gluttons, you bitch.

and the earth isn’t some weak-ass planet that would just fall in to a black hole like a sucker.

and that dumbass sun that we’ve got isn’t big enough to make a black hole like other stars.

you fool.

[shesmore-shoebill]

"I had choice paralysis :(" is a KILLER line.

He's such a comedic powerhouse, I'm glad more people are getting exposed to him :'D

[ningauinerd]

The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura), less degradingly known as the yallara by the Wangkangurru people, is one of Australia's many many obscure recently extinct mammals. It was last seen alive by western observers in 1931, although based on First Nations knowledge (and a skull found under an eagle's nest) it appears to certainly have survived at least into the 1960s.

(Image credit: Oldfield Thomas’ Catalogue of the Monotremes and Marsupials in the British Museum)

The yallara was smaller and less colourful than the living greater bilby (M. lagotis), hence its description of as the "lesser" of the two species, but what it lacked in stature it made up for in ferocity. Unlike its larger cousin, the yallara was reportedly very aggressive and feisty, with Hedley Finlayson (one of the few scientists to observe the species in life, and the last) writing that they: "...completely belied their delicate appearance by proving themselves fierce and intractable, and repulsed the most tactful attempts to handle them by repeated savage snapping bites and harsh hissing sounds, and one member of the party, who was persistent in his intentions, received a gash in the hand three quarters of an inch long from the canines of a male."

Although few observations of the species were made in life and much of their ecology remains a mystery, they may also have been more carnivorous than the living greater bilby. Investigations of stomach contents found large quantities of skin and fur from rodents, with only limited seeds and no insect fragments having been ingested. However, this information only comes from a small sample of individuals, so whether or not the yallara was the most predatory of all modern bandicoots will likely remain uncertain. They also differed in behaviour from greater bilbies by always blocking the entrance to their burrow after entering.

The species was only observed by Europeans in the harsh deserts of north-eastern South Australia and the south-east of the Northern Territory, but testimony from Aboriginal peoples indicates it also extended further west into the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts of Western Australia. Being reported as common when last observed by Finlayson in the 1930s, its decline and extinction appears to have occurred entirely unobserved by western eyes, but it is likely that they were a victim of the usual troubles - invasive species and changing fire regimes.

[kookaburra1701]

Definitely infodumps, though I do have footnotes and a lot of purple prose too. But I feel like Malacath's mightiest warrior because I took out a page and a half description of boiling slaughterfish heads to make glue to craft a horn laminate bow in Aristeia because omg no1curr

Here's a potentially fun one:

[castlevera]

Rainmaker - Misty Monsoon - Gif Set 1 - Opening Cutscene

Gif set 1 - Pre-fight / Opening Cutscene | Gif set 2 - Fight / Cheats | Gif set 3 - Post-fight / Ending Cutscene [Mercy]

[ Please credit if used, thank you ]

[reysasoup]

Teamwork makes the Kinger work!

A short tadc comic :)

"EW~" yourself, Jax.

[tismcosmology]

ive been reading a book on human and primate evolution called the first idea (by greenspan and shanker), specifically about the evolution from a non-sentient animal to an animal thats capable of like, going to the moon, and i figured id brain dump some of my thoughts about it here because. theres a lot

im pretty sure this book is about as old as I am which is WILD bc i was baffled by how much shit in here i just did not know about. idk how much of that is because i never researched super deep into some of these topics, and how much is just bc this wasnt scientifically accepted fully when it was published, but still.

The heart of the book really is the authors model of the development/evolution of intelligence, as thats the bit that is constantly pulled up and referenced as you work your way through human development, psychology, (paleo)anthropology, sociology, etc etc. They hypothesize that while humans are born with the genetic and biological capability for things like language and logical thought, its not inherent, and are instead developed slowly over the first years of a childs life through sustained emotional regulation with their caregiver. I could never explain it as well as they do, but the jist is that the first step to developing intelligence is symbol formation (being able to seperate the concept of "mom" from the person "mom"), and the dual coding of experiences (a baby experiences a sound as both loud and frightening, or soft and soothing. both objective and subjective).

Theres 3 parts, the authors walk you through a shiiit load of stuff.

Early human development, focusing on the role of emotions and caregiving in healthy neurological development. They focus a lot on ages 0-2, but do discuss neurological health and stages of development from birth til death. The main point put across here is an argument against determinism in regards to human evolution. ie that the process of a child developing language and logical thinking is not coded in their genes, but rather a dynamic learning process between a child and its caregivers using emotional signaling (conveying emotional states using non-verbal communication), as well as generally outlining their model, the different stages of development, and how it works. Theres also a few chapters on their model applied to autism spectrum disorder development

Primate evolution (mostly). There was a large focus on the bonobo ape Kanzi (who, if you know anything about ape language studies, uses a lexigram board to communicate quite well) as one of the authors had worked with Kanzi at some point and was able to learn from him. Theres a Lot of really cool personal accounts from the author that were incredible to read. Of course also touching on chimp hunting practices and other primate behaviours, and then connecting it all back to the same model of a dynamic learning process between child and caregiver, and showing that all primates have a developed intelligence that can be placed at a level roughly corresponding with various ages of human children. insane. ofc they then go through and argue their case against the many other hypothesis for human evolution. very engaging read

(2.5.) theres also a lot of information in this part about ASD, coming from one of the authors who worked extensively with high support autistic kids, particularly in teaching them how to form and use symbolic ideas, and how to use those as a basis for learning language. They use their model and explain ASD as a breakdown of the ability for a child to engage in this dynamic emotional process that is required for functional development.

Group cohesion and the social structure. to be fair, im only about 3 chapters into this part, but the segments I have read have done an incredible job at both describing the current understanding of why and how social groups form and work (or dont work), and then applying everything previously stated to much more 'current' political groups. This part seems to be leaning away from anthropology and more towards sociology and political science oddly enough, but im very excited to finish it

[c4fin4t3d-f1sh]

People should Infodump about random shit in my inbox

I'm working on writing, so posts will be slow lol

[plaguedocboi]

I have an interview at the Maine Oceanarium today and the guy emailed me JUST NOW and was like Hey can you put together a short presentation on an animal of your choice. My interview is in like 3 hours

[ningauinerd]

Time to infodump about the animals I'm supposedly a nerd about.

All pictures in this post are N. yvonneae, the southern ningaui (Image credit: Owen Lishmund)

The ningauis (in the genus Ningaui, if you can believe it) are a group of tiny dasyurid marsupials native to the arid and semi-arid regions of Australia. Smaller than their close dunnart relatives (very close, as I will explain later), and with broader hindfeet, ningauis were first documented by western science relatively recently by Australian mammal standards. Although some specimens had been collected previously, being haphazardly assigned to planigales (another genus of miniscule dasyurids), it wasn't until 1975 that the genus Ningaui was erected and its first two species were described - N. ridei, the Wongai ningaui, and N. timealeyi, the Pilbara ningaui. A third species, the southern ningaui (N. yvonneae), was named in 1983.

Oh, and in case you were wondering where the name "ningaui" comes from, it refers to tiny beings from Aboriginal mythology that come out at night, are covered in hair, have notably short feet and eat their food raw. Most of these traits are also shared by these little marsupials, hence why palaeontologist Mike Archer (the original author of the genus) found it to be a fitting name for them!

(Image credit: glandarius)

Ningauis are small - really small, some of the smallest land mammals in fact. With the tiniest individuals being only 5 cm long, not including the tail, they are about the same length as Australia's smallest native mammal, the long-tailed planigale. However, ningauis are significantly chunkier and therefore usually weigh a couple more grams, meaning planigales win in regards to all-around tininess. The very largest ningauis still only reach about 8 cm in length and 14 grams in weight.

What they lack in size they make up for in ferocity however, as they follow the typical dasyurid trend of becoming increasingly savage the smaller they get. Tasmanian devils, despite their reputation, are actually quite relaxed when handled - on the other end of the spectrum, ningauis, which are around a thousand times smaller than a devil, will try to murder you, your family and everyone you hold dear if they find themselves captured. But, despite their best efforts to chew the fingers off of every field mammalogist in inland Australia, they aren't very strong.

remorseless beasts (Image credit: Tina Gillespie & Miss.chelle.13)

These ferocious predators feed on a variety of different prey items, the majority of which are small invertebrates - in the case of the Wongai ningaui, they prefer prey that is less than a centimetre long. However, they will also go after larger prey, having epic duels with grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes and even small skinks which they subdue with a crushing bite to the back of the head. Unlike their dunnart relatives, the shorter, broader feet of ningauis allows them to climb into shrubs and grass clumps.

All ningaui species are extremely similar to one another, so much so that the Wongai ningaui and southern ningaui are almost externally indistinguishable and the Pilbara ningaui can only be told apart by looking at its foot pads, teat number and skull. However, they can usually be distinguished by distribution. The Pilbara ningaui is the most range restricted, being endemic to the central and western Pilbara region of western Australia. The southern ningaui occurs in three disjunct populations across the southern semi-arid zone, whilst the Wongai ningaui is distributed widely across much of the interior. All species show a strong preference for environments dominated by spinifex grass (Triodia), which they use as shelter.

A ningaui takes shelter amongst the spinifex (Image credit: Euan Moore)

In regards to how they are related to other dasyurids, ningauis fall in the tribe Sminthopsini together with the kultarr (Antechinomys laniger, another species I really need to cover sometime) and many species of dunnart (Sminthopsis). However, recent phylogenetic studies have consistently recovered both Antechinomys and Ningaui as being within the Sminthopsis lineage, meaning that both ningauis and the kultarr are, in essence, just weird dunnarts. With Sminthopsis as we currently understand it being highly paraphyletic, a revision of the genus is needed.