#Sea Creature Mosaic

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Sea Creatures Mosaic, originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii, is a stunning artwork displayed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples

* * * *

“Creatives have reputations for floating in unreality. It’s true that what they espouse hints of magic and mystery, having little to do with what the larger world calls real. People like [this] are labeled ‘hermit,’ ‘madman,’ 'eccentric.’ Because they don’t live as others live, or accept the routine that makes the world go round, they are blamed, ridiculed, barely accepted as members of society. They are driven […] to greater extremes and further isolation, and rarely helped to do what they are born to do. Some do it anyway, and anyone who doubts the groundedness necessary for such a life should try it. To face each day supported, not by the dictates of a reliable outer framework, but by a chosen obedience to an inner necessity, one has to have one’s feet on the ground.” — Leif Anderson, from “Grounded,” Dancing with My Father (University Press of Mississippi, 2005)

+

POETRY / MAGGIE SMITH :: Stonefish ::

There are fish in the black trenches of the sea that look like rocks. Their poison shouldn’t trouble me. They are so deep, we’ll never touch. But I think of them. If it is paranoid to believe there is a trench in me the doctors haven’t dragged, a cave no one’s plumbed with light, then fine, I’m paranoid. But whatever plaques and tangles, whatever cells wait deadly with their terrible hunger must be disguised. You should know the most venomous fish lives in the shallows. It also looks like a rock.

[ltwilliammowett]

A charming little octopus from a Roman villa at Villaquejida, Spain, 2nd-3rd century AD. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. Photo by Alison Fisk

[lionofchaeronea]

Mosaic of sea creatures (the so-called "Fish Catalog") from the House of the Geometric Mosaics (VIII.2.16) at Pompeii. Artist unknown; ca. 100 BCE. Now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Photo credit: Massimo Finizio.

[hook-line-and-sinker]

Goofy Mosaic Wet Creatures Id like to share with the class

[midwestaesthetics]

Mosaics, fresco portraits and graffiti of Pompeii, art of Ancient Rome (1st Century AD)...

[wundrousarts]

I wonder if animation exists in the world of Nevermoor. Like, is someone out there making Gertie the Dinosaur but with the Scaly Sewer Beast?

[ladyinevergreen]

Bring the beauty of the ocean to your space with this seahorse mosaic design. Ideal for ocean enthusiasts, seaside decor, or memorable gifts, it captures the peace and magic of underwater life. Enhance your space with this stunning marine art!

Like it?

Get this design from my Redbubble shop by clicking here

[bouncinghedgehoglikesart]

Mosaic with sea creatures, House of the Faun, Pompeii

[redgalecus]

Catch of the Day (03.01.24)

[indigopoptart]

EPHEMERALITY

in honor of my birthday being yesterday, take art from my first ever—and dare i say one of my most dearest—concepts!

+ plus some more WINDSTORM doodles below the cut ofc <3

ugh i miss these guys

they remind me of my love of fantasy

[sheltiechicago]

Sea Creatures Mosaic- National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Originally from the House of the Faun, Pompeii

[casually-eat-my-soul]

So like anyway regular mermaid stiles or vauge sea creature stiles. This can be set it default canon or if your feeling spicy mafia au 🤷🏻‍♀️. Where Stiles doesn’t tell anyone and he doesn’t shift for years until Derek finds outs and they bond over that but twist — when stiles takes Derek to the beach he used to go with his mom, it’s far to crowed. Even the outcroppping has become a place for teenagers to sneak aways. It’s far too dangerous for stiles to shift there. And he’s devastated. He lost that connection to his mother, to hiself.

But he needs to shift, it feels far to painful not to. But he can’t because his safe place is invaded. And the others place to swim are either chemical filled pool(no thanks) or somewhere that’s too long a drive.

And Derek 1. knows what it’s like to lose that space and 2. No chances he’s letting stiles shift in a well populated area. For his safety.

So he either just buys a fucking private beach. Like straight up, names it after stiles or Mrs Claudia Stilinski or some vauge reference to sea creatures or legends.

Or two he just builds stiles a man made lake on hale land. He set a piece of land to the die and just goes ham. Building underwater caves, with statues and mosaic’s and fancy rocks and jewels. Good rocky terrain, but also lots of space and depth. Gets stiles favourite fish and seaweed or kelp imported so stiles can have it fresh. Bonus, this way it’s close to home and Derek can keep an eye on his mate and it’s private property.

[uncleclaudius]

Mosaic with sea creatures from the House of the Faun, Pompeii.

[ltwilliammowett]

A beautiful mosaic depicting a grand ship with its sail raised and blowing in the wind, amidst a plethora of sea creatures - fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods, Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 4th century AD

[julesarago]

Some more art of my Rook, Vasari Laidir!

Made this for my Spotify playlist that I really haven’t even made yet cause I only got an inkling of my character rn, but hey, why not, what a time to be alive.

This wasn’t originally supposed to have a super detailed background, but after I started sketching sea creatures, I immediately decided it HAD to look like those ancient Roman mosaics and I’m fairly happy with the result, even if I had so color all of these tiles individually.

Hey here’s to all of us communally suffering until this game comes out ;__;

[tribbetherium]

The Late Rodentocene: 20 million years post-establishment

Cannon Events: The Cannonball Forests of Nodera

As life gradually becomes established in the Late Rodentocene, the local wildlife, still recognizeable as descendants of hamsters, gradually begin to move out of the convergent roles of other typical rodents which had defined the Early and Middle Rodentocene, and into progressively larger niches as the countless millennia pass by. New species unlike anything ever seen before on this planet begin to emerge, increasingly approaching megafaunal status, and in turn, their activities, behavior and interactions with other organisms play a role in shaping the world around them: as other living things, introduced alongside their hamster ancestors to produce and maintain a viable ecosystem from the ground up, respond to their presence and evolution with adaptations of their own.

On the northern continent of Nodera, one of the most widespread biomes on the temperate regions are the cannonball forests. These are primarily composed of cannonball trees: a group of stonefruit descendants that irregularly dot the otherwise empty plains in tight groves, like an archipelago of islands made out of thick forest rising up from an endless sea of grass. These trees are unique in that they produce fruit with huge, heavy seeds, covered in thick shells to protect them from damage against gnawing rodents: species that make up basically all animals in this point in time. The downside, however, is that these rodent-resistant seeds are much too heavy to travel far, and thus end up taking root only a few meters away from the parent tree: over time, creating dense groves of trees sprouting in close proximity. In the meantime, the vast gaps between groves of trees have been colonized by various grasses, descended from the original forage grasses seeded onto the planet in its foundation, their underground rhizomes and fast growth carpeting the wide open space between the clusters of trees.

The end result, therefore, is a unique biome that is defined by being a mosaic of two biomes in one: open temperate grassland, and dense deciduous forest, scattered into each other with poorly-defined boundaries, with clearings in the forest being overgrown by grasses while occasional trees sporadically spring up from the grasslands in small, isolated groves. As such, it is the perfect ecosystem to display the levels of diversity the hamsters have attained in 20 million years, as this is a land where different creatures, some adapted for wide plains and others built for thick woodland, all intermingle in an unconventional dual landscape.

One of the most notable examples of this would be the hamtelopes and the jerryboas: two competing clades of herbivores in the Rodentocene that ultimately would specialize in two different environments to relieve competitive pressure. They, however, would both find a place here, with the large leaping jerryboas like the tawny hamaroo (Saltocricetotherium aureum) specializing on the open plains where their bounding hops were a more energy-efficient means of covering great distances on flat ground, while hamtelopes like the checkered woodelope (Sylvocervimys resplendens) dominating in forests where they adapt as low-browsers feeding on short plants like clovers and tree saplings on the forest floor, their more surefooted gaits and increased maneuverability better suited for weaving their way through the mazes of tree trunks, roots and other obstacles found on the basement of the forest.

Not all hamtelopes are such restricted to the woods, however, as some smaller ones, like the brown heatherhare (Cricetolagus pampas) do live out in the open, with their smaller size and specialization on softer foliage keeping them from competing with the hamaroos. Others, conversely, grow quite tall, like the plains browsester (Antilomys altus) feeding on high-level vegetation out of reach of their hamaroo competitors. Indeed, herbivores of many sizes thrive in the grassland portions of the cannonball forests, with the largest ones being grassland beavalos (Archaeobuffalomys primigenus), giant cavybaras weighing up to half a ton in some larger males, which prefer tough roots, stems and leaves far too fibrous and impalatable for the hamaroos and heatherhares to chew.

The forested zones, in turn, are home to its own specialized wildlife. Spotted pachavys (Chevrotomimus punctus) basal gouties related to the common ancestors of cavybaras and hamtelopes, feed on the forest floor for fungi, fallen fruit, lichens and mosses. In the canopy, squizzels such as the tree spottles (Arbocricetus sciurus) forage for small seeds, bark, tree sap and insects, while their larger cousins such as the white-cheeked munkmonk (Sciuruprosimius albops) feed primarily on fruit and the large, heavy seeds, which they learn to break open with a little ingenuity by dropping them from above to the ground, or striking them against the hard tree trunks. And flying above them are the first true flying hamsters of the Rodentocene, descending from the gliding kiterats and the jazzhands: the ratbats, of which some, like the patchwood ratbat (Pterocheiromys vulgaris), would be insectivores, others, like the lesser black-backed cannonbat (Frucinyctomys melanus), specializing more on a diet of seeds and fruit, and even some, like the red-striped bathawk (Raptonyctus rubrus), becoming predators of small, grounded prey, like furbils and duskmice. These flyers, rather ungainly and vulnerable on the ground, roost in the trees instead: holing up in crevices in tree trunks, or hanging from branches as they roost.

With an abundance of herbivores, frugivores and insectivores, the various lineages of predators from the Early and Middle Rodentocene have found a place here as well. Most notable is the forest panthster (Protopantherocricetus sylvus), the largest terrestrial carnivore at the time: yet perhaps still rather underwhelming as it is but comparable in size to Earthly lynxes albeit with a mustelid-like build with a longer body and shorter limbs. This makes it less adept at sustained chases out in the open grassland, but conversely well-suited for ambush in the dense forests, preying primarily on larger hamtelopes but also beavalos, browsesters and hamaroos on occasion when they venture close enough to the forests' edges. Longer-legged, sprinting relatives like the long-tailed dashcat (Velociailurumys pardus) instead find greater success on the plains, being the primary predators of grassland-specialized prey like hamaroos, heatherhares and beavalo.

And while the open plains and dense forest alike become home to a new array of larger creatures, small basal ones still akin to their Early and Middle Rodentocene relatives still thrive in abundance. Basal jerryboas like the striped grassland jerryboa (Bipodocricetus linaeus) are common in the grasslands as small generalist omnivores, as do the spiky heckhogs like the red-spined quillbum (Echinopilosus rubrus): well-armed against the various miniature predators of the undergrowth, including tiny basal hammibals like the speckled gamster, (Cricetovenator minimus) which preys upon other miniscule game like furbils, duskmice, gouties and squizzels. Other small hunters are present here too, albeit of invertebrates rather than other hamsters: the tiger-striped bushrat (Tigriminimys longiceps) relishes insects, isopods, springtails and other small bugs on the surface, while the prairie scoutstoat (Mustelomys vigilis), a basal squeasel and of kin to the panthsters, instead prefers to forage for its food by digging for worms, grubs and larvae while excavating burrows for shelter, occasionally rearing up in attention to watch for danger.

The cannonball forests would persist all across the Rodentocene and well into the Therocene, serving as an unusual hotspot of both plains-adapted and forest-adapted life to coexist. However, over time, it would ultimately give way to other types of trees, such as pebblefruit which had smaller seeds and thus could spread more evenly, gradually replacing the cannonball trees, and eventually homogenizing the forest and grassland biomes as of the Late Therocene. Still, this mixed grassland-forest amalgam would persist in smaller pockets until the Glaciocene: when the widespread glaciation that reached almost the equator would eventually devastate the vast majority of deciduous forest, allowing cold-resistant conifers to dominate in the tundra and taiga of the ice ages. Beyond the Rodentocene, its species would continue to diversify, with the hamaroos giving rise to the boingos, the browsesters being ancestral to the girats, the cavybaras becoming the mison and the large squeasels being the forebearers of the carnohams, all clades that will continue to prosper in the coming of the next epoch: the Therocene.

-----------