#and 'we creatures of tooth and saltwater'

[falseficus]

what would your project be called if it was titled like a shitty YA fantasy romance (format: [a/the] [noun] of [noun] and [noun])

mine is "a god of blood and saltwater"

[mayasaura]

Alecto, The River, and Colum Asht

I’ve been working on a few different Harrow the Ninth meta theories, and I noticed some threads that seemed to pull them together. Maybe you could call this another megatheorum, but I’m not sure it’s comprehensive enough for that.

I think whatever kind of monster Alecto is, the clues we need to guess are in salt water and the death of Colum Asht.

Salt water leads us to the River. @ovrgrwn @sauntering-vaguely-downwards ​ and I were talking about the symbolism of salt water in the series, and Ovrgrwn mentioned both that Alecto is a “saltwater creature” and that the River isn’t salt water. The thing is, I realised later that the River is salt water.

One of the biggest puzzles we were left with pieces of in Harrow the Ninth was "What is Alecto?". She's been called a lot of things, but we know very little abit definitively. There’s a theory that I was discussing with @thunderon and @asimovsideburns that Alecto is something like a Resurrection Beast, in that she and Harrow are both communal souls forged through human sacrifice. There’s a theory that maybe she was someone else before the Resurrection and in trying to pull her soul back John accidentally got a whole bunch of souls instead. Or she could literally be Alecto the First the way Harrow is an entire generation of the Ninth, with every soul that used to inhabit the world of the First packed into her body. I like all these theories—it feels like we’re on the right track, but also like we’re missing something. This by itself doesn’t seem like it would be so viscerally terrifying to Augustine and Mercy, who were present for the creation of Teacher and the revenant constructs in Caanan House. If she’s an overstuffed suitcase of ten billion souls, why is she a saltwater creature? Why does Teacher call her tomb a zoo, and why are her eyes Like That?

[Image: It came down around her in shreds, as light and insubstantial as drifts of spiderweb. The water sprayed through white holes, rushing in with a pounding roar: that brackish, bloodied water that only existed within the River. She was bouyed up by a spray of ice water and filth - but she wasn’t; she seemed to be walking down her long black corridor again-]

In chapter 53 when Harrow tears her way out of the bubble of the false Canaan House, the River is described as “brackish, bloodied water”. Brackish water is the water that’s found at the place where a river meets a sea; too salty to drink, but not as salty as sea water. The River is brackish salt water, and Alecto is a saltwater creature.

Brackish water is mentioned only one other time in either book.

[Image: She appeared behind the grey-thing-that-had-been-Colum. She took its twisted neck in her hands as calmly and easily as though it were an animal, and she tilted it. The neck snapped. Her fingertips dipped inside the skin; the eye-mouths shrilled, and the tongue around Gideon’s neck flopped away, and both those mouths dissolved into brackish fluid. The body dropped to the floor—]

When Colum Asht dies in chapter 34 of Gideon the Ninth, a brackish fluid runs out of his eye sockets. Whatever creature was inside Colum, it came from the River. And then there’s the description - it’s too long and spread out to quote in full here, but the details are that his eyes went liquid black, and he moved “like there were six people inside him, and none of those six people had ever been inside a human being before”. There are lights under Colum’s skin and things pushing and slithering along his muscles as he walks. When he opens his eyes again, they’re toothed mouths with tongues, and Colum’s tongue has become long and prehensile and it wraps around Gideon’s neck like a tentacle.

The stoma at the bottom of the the River, the mouths to Hell that only open for Resurrection Beasts and the Emperor, are described like this:

[Image: It was a huge, hideous, dark expanse, and it had seething, weird edges; it took the lights pattering over them for me to see that the edges of the hole were enormous human teeth. Each one must’ve been six bodies high and two bodies wide, with the dainty scalloped edges of incisors. The teeth shivered and trembled, like the hole was slavering. And that hole had nothing in it; that hole was blacker than space, that hole was an eaten-away tunnel of reality.]

[Image: Streamerlike lingual tentacles emerged—the unassuming pink you got on normal, non-Hell-bound tongues—easily a thousand of them, jostling, questing, blindly thrusting up out of that mouth. Pyrrha flinched.]

Colum’s eyes have become miniature stoma. It’s interesting that while the thing possessing Colum advances on and kills Silas first, the stoma don’t open until Gideon attacks it. It uses Colum’s sword to kill Silas, but draws Gideon in with its tongue, like the tongues from the stoma at the bottom of the River draw her father the Emperor and Augustine in. But that’s another meta post.

Perhaps the stoma are creatures, sentient hellmouths lurking at the bottom of the River, and it’s stoma that are possessing Colum the Eighth. Maybe it’s the river itself possessing Colum, and the lights under his skin are souls. Maybe it’s something from beyond the stoma, something that came out of Hell. It’s an important question, but not one I have an answer to right now. I am confident in the connection between the stoma and the Eighth House. In chapter 36 of HtN Augustine accuses Mercy of not taking the stoma seriously “which is why your whole damned House sucks at it like a grotesque teat-”. Mercy’s House is the Eighth House, so whatever the metaphysical effect of siphoning is, it presumably involves the stoma. What interests me most about Colum’s transformation for now is that his eyes went full liquid black, and that he was possessed by a creature that left salt water behind it.

Still with me? Now we tie it all together with Alecto’s eyes, the eyes currently in the face of God, the Emperor of the Nine Houses. Like the possessed Colum, their sclera are black. Unlike Colum, their eyes have irises and pupils. The irises are “dark and leadenly iridescent - a deep rainbow oil slick, ringed with white.” Even before I had any idea about Alecto, I wondered what sort of soul the God who was once a man had consumed to have eyes like that. The way Ianthe’s eye colors swirled and merged when Naberius was fighting her, I wondered if his dark iridescent irises were the colors of ten billion souls swirling together, but that wouldn’t explain the black sclera. Now I think the Resurrection Beasts, the stoma, and these theories about Alecto are offering an explanation.

Perhaps Alecto is an enormous collection of human souls, like in our theories, but she is not only human souls. Whatever was possessing Colum Asht is also a part of Alecto. The black sclera she gets from the River, and the iridescent irises she gets from thousands or millions or billions of human souls. Depending on how you interpret what possessed Colum, that could mean a few different things. Maybe she's a human stoma, a human soul merged with the mouth of hell. Maybe she's a tributary or avatar of the River, and the power of all of history's death runs through her. Maybe she's partially comprised of a creature from the incomprehensible chaos of Hell.

The stoma option seems like the most likely to me, to explain the fear and disgust that Mercy and Augustine feel toward Alecto. An avatar of the River is terrifying, but also awesome. That's not the right vibe for 'put that thing down before it hurts one of us'. It was implied in the conversation about Hell and the stoma at the end of chapter 36 that nothing had ever been observed coming through the other way, and it's plainly stated by the Emperor that nothing which goes in has ever come back. If Mercy and Augustine were aware that part of Alecto was from Hell, I would expect it to be hinted at in that scene, and it wasn't really. I did notice that Augustine is more scared of Alecto than Mercy. When Mercy thought Alecto had come to kill her, she spoke to her. When Augustine thought he had seen Alecto, he turned and ran. Maybe Mercy is just braver in general, but Mercy is also less afraid of the stoma than Augustine.

As a closing note, evoking the stoma or what might lie beyond it would explain the only line in Annabel Lee as a metaphor for Alecto that puzzles me.

And neither the angels in heaven above,

  Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

  Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

[pig-wings]

benthon

Everyone wanted something. Want was the key to any story, any crime, any bout of road rage or drunken brawl or domestic dispute. Everyone wanted something, and want threw the blinkers on like nothing else.

But every want came with a price, a counter to offset the inherent imbalance of greed or need—however you wanted to view it. Soldiers and their families had wanted homes, and those homes had wanted the sea like a shivering man wants a blanket. Now they were hollowed-out shells, saturated with saltwater. The only creatures that lived in them were fish looking for the safety of the shallows. “The contractor never faced his day in court but boy, I made sure he got what he deserved!” the Judge exulted. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, water to dust and dust to coral.

Blüdhaven had wanted good schools and patched roads, like any town in America did, and the casinos had slinked in like jackals, wanting the money, the harbor, offering to pay handsome taxes that would pay for a slice of Anytown, USA. It was a bestial, biblical sort of greed. In the darkest recesses of his mind, Dick could see the Judge’s point. He wanted to snuff out gluttony like some angel clad in a suave white suit. But it was just another want, wasn’t it? Greed repackaged for the crusade.

The water was rising now, the tide licking at his ears. Shackled to his chair, Dick squirmed.

“The sea embraced me,” the Judge hissed, pacing his boat like a caged animal. “It had other plans for me.” He was ranting, his voice hitching with emotion, rage and agony, and Dick, despite his better instincts, could not help but find him awfully convincing in that moment. “I was transformed.”

A school of silver fish caressed Dick’s ankles, nibbling at the toes of his boots and darting away when he kicked. His face was tilted up to the stained ceiling of the drowned house. “Prove it,” he shouted up at the mildew. Cold saltwater stung his lips, burning down his throat, and every word was swamped by his coughing. The Judge stared down at him, face as pale as the moon, eyelids sewn shut. He brought the paddle of his rowboat down and pressed it gently into Dick’s forehead, pushing the chair back an inch. Dick couldn’t help the way his stomach lurched when the chair tilted back a degree, threatening to tip him back into the brine. His body was very cold, and his chest burned from the water he had swallowed. Even Bruce’s training couldn’t beat the animal instinct of survival.

“I am going to give you a gift,” the Judge droned, “and we are going to see if the sea will transform you as well.”

He knew he should be breathing in, priming his blood with oxygen. Dick sucked in deep, held it, spluttered. “Get back here—” The words were petulant and useless. He was very cold. Think, Dick willed himself.

The Judge was already paddling away, standing like Charon on the riverboat. Dick thought he heard him whistling, though the sound was muffled by the water covering his ears. Something big swam past his feet, and the water rose up and up, the tide supernaturally quick as it reared up and embraced him. He breathed in again and held it as the sea burned every cut on his lips, diffused the neon light of the harbor that saturated the air.

I want to make it home tonight, Dick thought as the water covered his face. Want was the key to any story. Any rescue. He refused to think of the cost now. The Judge had called him blind; so be it, if it meant he could hope. Thirty-two murders, and they were all his fault. It was an exquisitely painful thought as his lungs began to burn.

You are home, said the fish. You’re home with us. The water forgives it all, Robin. Sea-nymphs hourly ring your knell: ding-dong. Hark! now I hear them,—ding-dong, bell.

[whirlybirdwhat]

our souls in the ocean forever will be - chapter 1

the sequel to till the sea gives up the dead now a series titled sing songs of the sea ! !

READ ON AO3

Summary:

Zoro’s earrings chime in his ear as he looks over the side of the boat, to deep, dark blue waters and small, foamy waves and…

And… to where…

A human- like face, smiling, sharp fanged and brilliant, stares back.

“SHIT!”

-

Luffy drowned, once, but his call still rings throughout the seas.

(Things change when the Ocean takes what is hers, but dreams remain the same - bold, unyielding, and reaching for the crown.)

—-

Chapter 1 - join me on the sea today - zoro

Zoro has been lost for about five days now, or so he thinks. It’s hard to tell when the sun is high and the winds keep changing with the tide. Time melds together out on the waves, and everyone knows the sea is a cruel mistress.

Many love her.

Few can say she loves them back.

(And even then, they are often lost to the sway of the tides.)

Once he realizes he no longer knows the time or the place, he gives up keeping count of the times the sun has passed overhead, or the times the stars have winked at him in the night. He merely focuses on his growling stomach and broken swords, and tries to keep Wado sharp as all she is used for is a kind of of spear fishing.

He’s thirsty, but he won’t die out here.

Not in this desert full of saltwater.

(Zoro’s smart, but in the kind of way that doesn’t get you killed. He knows how to survive, even if he doesn’t know how to live, so he will get through this.)

He has a promise to keep.

(His thoughts, like time in an hourglass, are melding and slipping together. He’s tired. Men were not made to be in the seas embrace without company this long. It’s dangerous.

Those that were made for this suffering isolation aren’t really men at all, and Zoro may be more than mortal but he is not of the sea. He is not meant for blue solitude.)

He won’t die.

Splash!

His head turns slowly to the front of his small, small dinghy.

Zoro doesn’t think that was a normal wave. Was it?

Splash!

There. Again.

Was he hallucinating?

(Kuina had told him to quit his moaning yesterday…)

Splash! Splash!

Fine. He’ll get up.

Zoro pushes himself up from his relaxed (half dead) position and, using the sides of the boat and Wadi Ichimonji, crawls his way to the front of the boat.

The sea is calmer than it has been, but his actions still tilt the boat from left to right. He doesn’t trust it, but he doesn’t capsize, which is enough for him.

Splash!

Shishishi!

Oh. He was definitely hallucinating if he was hearing laughter out at sea.

(Has he heard it before?)

A pause.

Splash!

Eh. He was already up. Might as well look.

Zoro’s earrings chime in his ear as he looks over the side of the boat, to deep, dark blue waters and small, foamy waves and…

And… to where…

A human- like face, smiling, sharp fanged and brilliant, stares back.

“SHIT!”

-

So.

There’s a face in the water. After Zoro didn’t stumble backwards, he had gone back for another look, and there it was again, smiling and scaled.

(There’s a scar under this mysterious person’s eye, sloping like ocean waves, and black hair drifting about their face. Handsome, in a youthful, drowning kind of way, but scales drift across their face and their eyes are so wide, so they cannot possibly be human.

Perhaps they were, once. Just not now.)

A hand, sharp tipped and surprisingly not webbed (or was it? it might have changed -), had sunk its hands into the soft wood of the dinghy. Something silver and sunset scaled and long had been making soft waves, something else spinning about the creature’s waist.

Whatever the creature was, it wasn’t leaving. Just pulling Zoro along with the ocean currents.

They haven’t spoken to him. Not at all, unless one counts the laughter.

Shishishi!

Usually, his hallucinations yell at him, or at least Kuina does.

Zoro’s trembling and weak from hunger, and doesn’t know what he’ll do if this thing is real and attacks him.

But honestly? Honestly, as the day wears on and the sun starts to set and his eyes adjust to the darkness instead of the blinding light – Zoro finds he is starting to not care.

It’s something different.

Something that is not monotonous ocean spray and hunger.

Zoro moves to the front of the boat instead of the back, and casually lays his head down at the bow, face looking towards the sky.

“Hey,” He says, to nothing at all, expecting splashing in return.

SHISHISHI! He gets in response, accompanied with a giant splash of water on his head.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” He shouts, and turns to his right, and there, grinning, is the face from the waters.

They’re leaning towards him, entire torso pulled out of the water, eyes bright and close in the dimming light, and they are smiling.

Still.

It’s like their face is fixed into it – that grinning D shaped smile. Frozen in a smile for eternity.

The creature pauses there, indescribable eyes glinting at Zoro as he slowly settles down in the dinghy when it is clear the creature isn’t doing anything.

Well, I did speak to them, is all Zoro thinks as he stares back.

The world seems to hang still in that moment, and Zoro can’t help but think that if this were any other creature, he would be terrified right now. Paralyzed.

(Or angry, slashing, in the way that his terror manifests – in demonic rage and sword.)

And he is, but in the same way he knows the darkness in his chest and the gleam of Wado’s blade despite the red covering her. It’s a familiar terror, one that he knows he can grasp in his hand or mouth or soul and conquer.

Zoro moves once more, and determines that he will never flinch again.

“Hey,” He slowly repeats, shifting upright in the dinghy.

The creature slides down in response, until their head is resting on crossed arms, settling on the rim of the dinghy. The dinghy lilts dangerously to the side but with a quick balancing act, Zoro slides to the other side and manages not to get dropped in the ocean.

Shishishi! the creature says, and it’s a hey, back to Zoro.

“Do you… want something?” He asks cautiously.

Nah! You gave me food, so I’m just bringing you to the Away Place!

“Away?”

To the shore! Its away.

“Ah. Wait – when did I give you – actually, never mind. So, you know how to get there?”

Shishishi! The creature’s grin widens if that’s physically possible and they laugh. Yeah! I think!

Zoro gives a nod and relaxes then in the center of the dinghy. The creature, sensing Zoro’s tiredness, if not the way the sun is now almost fully below the horizon, turns back to the front of the dinghy and slips into the water. A hand grips the front of the dinghy, rocking it a bit, but Zoro finds it soothing.

A lullaby by the water, rocked by a creature of the sea…

Sleep takes him fiercer than it has any other day on this voyage, and he does not spare a thought to think that possibly, possibly it could be because this sea creature makes him feel safe.

-

Zoro wakes to a hand shoving at his shoulder and the lack of rocking waves beneath his back.

He opens his eyes and oh – it’s the creature, again.

Damn, he needs a better name than creature.

Shishishi! We’re here! The away place!

“Land,” Zoro says, absentmindedly, and looks around the white sandy beaches.

Finally, he thinks, jumping out of the dinghy to bury his feet in the sand.

It’s hot, but it’s land.

Huh. He wiggles his toes, feeling sand slip between the cracks. He lost his shoes at some point. And its day time – midday really. How long did he sleep?

Eh. Whatever.

He makes sure Wado is secure by his side, checks the shattered pieces of the other, unnamed blades to see if they are salvageable, then turns inland.

Splash!

Oh.

Right.

Zoro turns around, kicking up sand and letting it stick to his wet, salty skin. Damn. He needs a shower. But first…

“You going to be good here?” He asks the gentle waves.

Shishishi! Yeah! The creature splashes whatever they have for a lower body beneath the water, a grin adorning their face still. (Their teeth are sharper, now, Zoro thinks.) They slide slowly back down into the waves till they are near completely submerged. Their bright eyes hairs, sea crusted and inky, float above the water, the ocean wave scar beneath their cheek splashing above the waterline.

Hidden, unless you were looking for them.

“Alright then. Be back soon.”

And with that, Zoro goes in search of booze and maybe food under the blazing sun of a strange island.

-

It is walking to some sort of civilization that Zoro realizes the creature did not actually speak – that their mouth, shaped in that sharp toothed smile, never moved, never changed, never spoke.

Zoro just knew, in the same way he heard Wado sing when he dueled, what the creature was saying.

He thinks he should be more worried about this.

He isn’t.

Huh, Zoro thinks, and wonders if the creature has a name.

Then he realizes that the creature is also waiting for him back at the dinghy, even though they don’t have to, and also that the creature probably ate his boots and the scraps of bone and fish heads Zoro wasn’t able to eat and tossed overboard in his journey on the dinghy.

Huh.

He’s so lost in thought that he barely registers knocking into the signpost for the island town’s tavern and blacking out either to dehydration, starvation, or the hit to the head.

It’s probably all three, to be honest.

-

Zoro was called a Sea Child once. He’s sure he still is back home, with the way Koushirou and the others watched his back as he set out in his boat.

Lost boy, they, the old ladies in the village, said in pitying tones, as he wandered around the island, he keeps looking for the sea.

The sea calls him, they would say, ushering Zoro away from the shore, we can’t let him close, not yet.

It’s why he can’t make sense of the land, they say, worrying over Zoro coming back with broken teeth and moss in his hair, he belongs to Her. The Sea.

Zoro knew it was bullshit. Is still bullshit, really.

(He doesn’t mention how ever since he was nine, every time he has gotten lost he has ended up by the shore, answering some unknown siren call.

It sounded like a laugh in his mind, sometimes.)

He’s no Sea Child. He’s heard the stories.

Sea Child, lost child, dancing by the waves…

The kids who go out to the shore and never come back, the women who sing to the sea and hear its call, the men who die at sea and smile in the ocean’s embrace.

There were people who didn’t belong to the land. Whose hearts were the Ocean’s from the second they breath the sea salt air.

Zoro belongs to nothing but the destiny he creates.

Sea child, siren woman, singing to the waters…

Suspicious, though, the way the stories never mention what happens to the Sea Children after they embrace the sea. What is like, to become one with the ocean? What is it like, after a not quite death?

Questioning this, Zoro finds he does not care – for answers or for gods, whatever the choice.

He was here now, a sword in hand. His dream is what truly matters, not the sea or the voice of the wind.

Sea child, fishing man, heading to the depths…

He’s not a Sea Child, no matter what the old ladies say, or the way he ends up by the water and feels less lonely or the way the sea is a comfort.

He’s not.

(As he sets out to sea for the first time and doesn’t feel the urge to jump in the ocean, he worries that something greater has its control over him.

After all, how can he explain the laughter of the sea breeze?)

Sea child, Sea Child, Sea Child lost…

-

The old lady he wakes up to is pretty nice, despite all her ramblings about him being sea-shook and the strange tides in the bay.

She gives him a bit of money for the bar and sends him on his way, so in thanks he drinks out the bar and eats half the food without spending a penny. A sword with the intent to use it will get you that kind of reputation.

He does, however, bring a bit of pie back to the lady’s house next to the bar.

The actual coins he trades for two steel blades that should hold up to all the bastards in the East. Its good enough till he can get his hands on some real blades.

He’ll need them, if he wants to be able to stand up against Mihawk and his Great Blade Yoru.

(Zoro is perfecting the three-sword style for a reason after all.)

He’s now walking back to the shore, belly sated and a pleasant buzz in his head, with a bag of meat over his shoulder. The old lady also made him take some water jugs with him, complaining about how dehydrated he was, so that’s on a rope over his other shoulder as well.

The sound of splashing and laughter reaches his ears as he draws closer to the shore, a Shishishi! ringing out amongst growls.

It all sounds happy. Still, Zoro quickens his pace and for once, meets his destination on the first try.

(Like a compass, like a Sea Child, he can always find his way to the shore, but it’s not the shore he’s drawn to, not at all.

It’s the horizon.

(It’s the laughter))

He arrives at the waves to a strange sight.

A sea king, golden scaled and small, playing with the creature a little way out in the bay. Both of them are splashing, looking so out of place amidst the calm waters. It’s almost funny, in a way.  The creature is practically dwarfed by the sea king – who looks oddly puppy like – yet the sea king seems to defer to them as the bigger, stronger creature.

Then again, Zoro has no idea what half the creature looks like, so they may actually be longer than the sea king under the waves.

Shishishi! The creature seems to call out, laughter echoing across the ways and lilting in time with the waves, Shishishi!

Zoro can’t hear the sea king, but he assumes by the way the creature’s smile seems slightly wider that it is laughing in turn.

He walks closer to the shore, where his dinghy is still digging into the shore, and slings the food off his shoulder.

“Hey!” He calls, hand casually resting on his swords to keep them above the waves. “You! I brought meat!”

MEAT! The creature shouts, face still never changing, and they leave the sea king in a second to come barreling on to shore.

Literally, actually. They nearly miss Zoro, slamming head and shoulders first into the sand in their haste to reach the food in the bag.

“Hey! Chill out! I don’t want any, it’s all for you, dumbass.” Zoro maybe should not have called the sharp toothed sea creature a dumbass but if they haven’t eaten him now they won’t later.

(They never would in the first place, really.)

The sea creature takes it in stride anyway with that laugh again. Shishishi!

Zoro spares a smile, and tosses one big piece of meat to the sea king out in the waves. Hopefully that will stop the kicked puppy look it’s giving him.

It’s peaceful, for a moment, as Zoro settles into the sand. He didn’t get a shower at the village, but this is nowhere near the longest time he’s gone without, so he’s pretty sure he’s okay. He’s not dead at least, and now that he’s dry the sand doesn’t stick to his clothes, only to the feet still buried in the waves.

The creature shuffles for a moment, and pulls themself up out of the water almost entirely – all in order to drag the bag of meat even closer to them.

The shine of scales almost blinds Zoro, and he has to blink a few times to truly look at this creature.

Their torso is shorter than he’d thought, bare and toned in the light with scales the color of fire and silver drifting up from the back. (And drifting, drifting, scales never in the same place for more than a moment.) A fin, vibrant and color shifting, sits folded upon their back and is disappearing into their skin the longer Zoro looks. Clawed web hands, dripping with salt water and red juices, retract into tanning, brown skin – the claw tips remaining, sharp and deadly.

A tail, long, slender, and powerful drifts from the creature’s body and out into the waves, melding into the waves as they crash over them.  

Zoro spares a thought to think mermaid? Before realizing what ever this creature is it is more than myth or legend, or the very real people from under the sea.

It’s in the danger, this creature should be emanating, their tail is spiked and deadly, barbed, beautiful fins fading into the sand and waves in colors of the sun. It is nothing sweet or calm or safe – just fatal shine, drifting out to the waves.

(Every time Zoro blinks, it is as if the color of the scales has shifted – like the sea, ever changing, ever more dangerous, dark as ocean deep or green as tropic waves in the same moments.)

Yet – his eyes flash three times and there is no tail, just two legs, covered by shorts and a sash, torn, like from some sunken sailor.

A mirage – a hallucination, still? – but nothing is right about this creature.

Zoro can’t make sense of it all. Everything changes –

Except for that smile and that ocean sloped scar.

Even as the creature devours the food and opens their maw bigger than thought possible, it is still in the shape of that smile.

(Zoro wonders why.)

Saltwater drips off limbs and makes little splats into dry sand, marking where fins were and weren’t. The creature shakes their head and more water flies, hitting Zoro in the face yet – in the same motion, something more obvious, more important, more constant that the smile and ocean scar.

A straw hat, as glowing as a crown, draped across their back with a ribbon like blood wrapped around it.

(So human and alive, unlike everything else about them. This hat was not pulled from a drowning man. This hat was pulled from a dream on fire.)

The creature pauses for a second, as if sensing Zoro’s unwavering stare.

Their head drifts to look at Zoro, slow, the sun highlighting the points of their face and the wave of their hair. In an instant, they make eye-contact with Zoro, and it is as if the breath is pulled out of him by a siren.

He’s seen their eyes of course, before, in the moments the face smiled at him from the waters.

Just not like this.

This creature –

(Webbed hands drifting between human and sea, a smile like ocean depths and fear-)

This sea creature –

(Have you heard the tales? Of those that belong to the sea and no one else? Of those that hear the legends of the waves and know that they are real, like death and life?)

Isn’t a sea creature, not entirely, no -

(Zoro was called lost to the waves, once.)

They’re a Sea Child.

(And Zoro is lost to their pull – to their human-not-human body and ocean soul.)

-

He’s never quite wondered before, what Sea Children look like.

All that ever has come to mind is people with lost faces setting out to sea. Not what came after. Not what it looks like when the Ocean claims you.

(Koushirou, with a firm line to his lip, had mentioned the Drowned once. Bloated bodies of dead men and women and children – dead bodies of sailors swallowed up by the sea, that still reach up towards the light.

Run, he had said, if you see them.

Koushirou didn’t believe in legends, but he had an old boat from a distant country by the shore. There were scratches in hull made by gouging hands.

They weren’t Sea Children, not even close, but the stories said they were Claimed.

When a dead body from the sea washed up on the shores one day, Zoro had wondered if that was the fate of Sea Children.)

Now, he knows.

This Sea Child changes with the flow and ebb of the waves. A human drowned alive and still breathing, still loving, still dancing with the tide. Saltwater veins and coral eyes, skin breaking apart in scales and the way of tides.

The Ocean born again – that is what a Sea Child is. A child born to the land of the waters.

Zoro will never forget the Ocean’s claim – not now.

Shishishi! The Sea Child laughs, scales drifting across their face like sundrops on waves. You see now!

“Yeah…” Zoro says, and passes the sea king another stick of meat. “I see. The Ocean nice?”

The best! The Sea Child wiggles further up on the beach, tail seemingly gone leaving them to dig bare feet into the wet sand. You should listen to her sometimes.

“No thanks,” Zoro says to the Sea Child, and lays back on the shore. With four limbs, the Sea Child seems only a little younger than him, a little shorter, but power comes in waves off of them, like the shore in a storm.

Zoro shakes his head, and tries to distract himself from the thoughts of ocean, ocean, ocean – if he’s not careful, he’ll be wrapped in her sway eventually. He’s already wrapped in this Sea Child’s sway, if he can hear their voice.

The Sea Child chomps on the bone in their hands and swallows it whole with an odd slurping noise. Zoro raises an eyebrow, and is met with that laugh - Shishishi! - again.

(He’s gotten used to it, like he’s used to the chime of earrings in his ear and the swish of a sword. Constant, natural, and loved.)

Belatedly, he realizes he still hasn’t gotten the name of this Sea Child. Names are important, especially those of those lost to the sea, if they still remember them. It is better than calling them Sea Child forever, at least.

Well, it’s polite to introduce yourself first, isn’t it?

“Hey. My name’s Roronoa Zoro. I’m going to be the World’s greatest swordsman.”

(His name will echo across the heavens, but even children know that the sea only hears the will of men.

After all – what is a name, to a dream?)

The Sea Child stares at him, grin ever wider, and does not laugh. Instead, they reach behind their back and pull the straw hat up upon their head.

I know.

(How? Zoro wants to ask but it doesn’t even matter, does it?)

My name is Monkey D. Luffy! they say, loud and victorious and sure, and I’m the man who will be KING OF THE PIRATES!

The way he says it is like a promise and the way the unsaid words echo across the world is like a golden bell.

Zoro looks at this Sea Child who will be king, and feels something settle in his chest.

(This is the call of the sea – to dreams, to life, to adventure, to crew. Nothing less is equal, and nothing more is greater. It simply is, and it is a call that sings in every heart and every soul.

This is call of the sea.

And it will not be ignored any longer.)

“A pirate, huh?” Zoro’s own smile turns feral. “Where’s your crew?”

Shishishi! You’re the first! Luffy’s smile is kind but his eyes look into Zoro’s and take.

Zoro has no objection.

He stands, hand steady on his blades, and lets the wind chime through his earrings. “Then know this, Pirate King. If you ever stand in the way of my dreams, I will cut you open and leave you to the earth.”

He knows it won’t happen. The sea does not stand in the way of the dreams of the strong, and Luffy is the sea, or a small portion of it.

Still, Luffy does not falter.

Shishishi! He says, a Fine with me! Ringing loud in Zoro’s head. The Pirate King should have the world’s greatest swordsman by his side.

He stands to face Zoro head on, and he’s smaller than Zoro but his presence is just like the sea. Bright, giant, and everything. He reaches out a hand and Zoro clasps it in his own.

A crew of two, formed in an instant.

(It’s how legends start, anyway.

What’d’ya say to turning the world upside down with me?)

The sun shines brighter, the sea splashes higher, and the sea king lets out a victorious howl.

When Zoro lets go of Luffy’s hand, he knows he’s found his place.

“So,” he says, as Luffy turns back to the sea they will soon conquer, “Where to now, Pirate King?”

Where else? To the Grand Line! To Adventure! Shishishi!

Luffy steps forward into the sea then, laughing and changing all at once, and Zoro has no choice but to follow the man who will be king.

He climbs in the dinghy, slinging the water and remnants of food into the bottom, and shoves off into the water. Luffy grips the edge of the dinghy and drags Zoro forward, other hand gripping the edge of the sea king’s fur.

Starving, Zoro did not think he would end up being pulled by a Sea Child and a sea king into the unknown, but now…

Now, Zoro looks to the sun and dreams of victory.

Shishishi!

(Zoro is not a Sea Child. He does not belong to the waves and he does not answer the Ocean’s call. He belongs to Luffy, and the cry of the king is the only on he will bow too.

It’s the way of the world, after all.)

-

Splash….

Splash….

Splash….

“The sea’s happy today, isn’t it Makino?”

“Aye, captain…. I think Luffy might be happy today.”

(A tear trails down a cheek, not hidden by a straw hat.)

“Perhaps he found his dream, aye?”

“Sesese! Perhaps!”

(The sea splashes at the feet along the beach, as a pirate’s memorial is held for a boy who never set out to sea.

For Luffy, the small jolly roger on the beach seems to say, for the King.)

[what-if-i-imagine]

Curiosity Killed the Catfish

“Roy Harper has always believed in the merpeople, just like his father. The only problem is, he's never seen one. Lucky for him, this little mer happens to be too curious for his own good.”

My first fic for MerMay, hope you enjoy!

Roy had grown up with bits and pieces of stories about the ones who lived in the water. It started with his father, a forest ranger who Roy had few blurry memories of, all of which were lesions about the forest around them. One lesson of his that had always stuck out was his talk about creatures who lived in the lakes.

“They are shy creatures who only come out once every blue moon to satisfy their curiosity. They’re even more curious than cats, but are even smarter as they never get caught,” he remembered the man saying as he tucked him into bed. It was one of the few memories of his birth father that was perfectly intact.

Brave Bow cared for him after the fire for a long time until he got sick. He taught Roy of water people who had long run from the forest to the oceans, the lakes having grown too small and ruined by the humans for them. From his teaching Roy gained a strong stance on water pollution and a distaste for public beaches. According to Brave Bow, they were to live with respect and compassion to their companionship with the water people. The way the world was, the way humans had ruined the lakes and chased the water people to the oceans, it made Roy’s blood boil every time he thought of it.

Then there was Oliver Queen.

Roy had been adopted by Oliver after Brave Bow’s passing. The billionaire had explained to Roy that he wished to get his life together, to be a better person, and being a father might give him that opportunity. Oliver, just like his natural father and foster father before, had an odd fascination and love of the lake creatures and water people, who he referred to as mers. He claimed a mer saved his life not too long before he adopted Roy, and it was what put his life into perspective for him.

Roy never once doubted any of his three father figures. Even as he grew up and his peers told him mers were as real as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, Roy held onto their teachings and stories. He held onto his beliefs in living in companionship with the water people, and kept an eye out any time he was around a body of water for the curious lake creatures, and every time Oliver took him to the Queen private beach, he would spend at least an hour of their day searching for the mer who had saved Oliver.

As he got older, Roy found himself wandering down to the beach alone more and more. Oliver was a busy man, and he had very important things to do, but that didn’t stop Roy from throwing himself a pity party every time his guardian was gone. Although his belief in mers never wavered, his energy to find them did, and he spent his lonely days at the private beach just watching the waves go by.

Roy laid down in the land and stared up at the clouded sky. It was one of those days that he knew even if he went to the public beach there would be few people there, most of them spending the glum summer day doing indoor activities. He enjoyed these days the most, when he knew even if Oliver came home early, he would never think to find Roy here. He could be alone and content in his own thoughts and not have to worry about Oliver, Dinah or Hal breathing down his neck after last year’s events.

He turned his head in time to see a family of robins land nearby. He recalled one of Brave Bow’s teaching of the birds’ migration, and wondered if they were going to stay in Washington for the summer with him or if they were just taking a rest on their way to Alaska.

One of the younger robins was limping about, and after watching for a few minutes, Roy spotted the problem.

Very slowly, he made his way towards the robins, being careful not to startle them. What seemed like the oldest robin was seemingly trying to help his brother, but the injured bird kept flinching away. When Roy got closer, the younger robins started to eye him suspiciously, but the oldest and injured robins were unfazed and almost welcoming to his presence.

Carefully he reached out a hand and allowed the injured robin to limp into his palm. Just as he suspected, a thorn was stuck in the bird’s wing.

“You need to be more careful, you know,” he whispered as he examined the wing for any severe injury. “We don’t want a pretty bird like you falling from the sky.”

The bird winced when he pulled the thorn out. It took a moment, but soon it started to move its wing just like new again, chirping happily.

Roy let the robin back down by its family, and smiled as he watched them all celebrate their brother being okay. The little birds ended up flying away soon after, and Roy went back to staring at the clouds as they passed by.

“Stupid rock!” a voice shouted, startling Roy out of his calm.

He got up quickly and started his slightly panicked search for the source of the voice. This was a private beach, after all, he should have been completely alone. He followed the grunts and hisses of annoyance until he reached the small cave he used to hide in when playing hide-n-seek with Oliver.

Roy took off his shoes and shirt and dived into the water, swimming around for the entrance to the cave. There inside, he found something just above the water’s surface that made his heart stop. Or more, someone.

The last time he had been in the cave was when him and Oliver decided to hide a small treasure chest as a joke. The chest hadn’t contained anything interesting, just a few broken arrow heads, chocolate gold coins, saltwater taffy and a necklace Roy had made from one of the broken arrow heads. They had made it to try and lure a mer to the cave, but never actually checked to see if it did. He had honestly completely forgotten the chest existed until that moment.

Now he stared at the shelf of rock where they had tucked it away and saw that the treasure chest had completed its purpose.

Right there on the rock just below the chest’s hiding place, a boy a few years younger than Roy sat trying to get his shimmering white tail out from under a heavy rock.

Roy was sure the boy was the most lovely thing he had ever seen. His tail reminded him of opal, white but still shimmering with a rainbow of colors as light caught on the scales. Gills the same color as his tale with opal patterns sat on his neck, and opal fins peaked out from his curly black hair.

“Are you just going to stand there and stare, or are you going to help me?” the mer snapped. Roy startled, his eyes meeting the mer’s, and struggled not to start staring again at how stunningly blue they were.

“Well?” the mer asked, irritation layering his voice, and something else Roy couldn't quite place. “You put that chest there, right? Which means it’s your fault I’m stuck here.”

“Is it really?” Roy asked with a small smirk, regaining his wits. He understood what that thing in the mer’s voice was. He was embarrassed, “I think it was your curiosity that got you stuck up there, so technically it’s your fault.”

The mer’s face went red and he looked away, going back to struggling with the rock, “If you aren’t going to help, then leave.”

“Telling me to leave my own property? That’s a ballsy move for someone who obviously needs my help.

The mer huffed but didn’t say anything more. Roy watched for a little longer as he tried to push at the rock then swam over and climbed up to sit beside the mer.

“I’m going to lift it off. When I do, dive off the rock to the water,” Roy instructed. The mer looked at him uncertanly then down to the water. When he looked back he just nodded.

Roy counted down and heaved the rock up. As soon as it was off his tail, the mer pushed up off the rock and dove down into the water. Roy dropped the rock and dove down after him, hitting the water just as the mer resurfaced.

“Thanks,” the mer mumbled.

“Don’t mention it. It’s not every day I get to save a mer’s life,” Roy grinned.

“That’s because we’re usually too busy saving your lives to need saving,” the mer rolled his eyes.

“Sorry to break it to you, but I’ve never been saved by a mer,” Roy said.

“I meant your father,” the mer said. “My dad has had to save him from drowning twice. It’s getting a little ridiculous.”

Roy froze then and just stared. This was the son of the mer who saved Oliver’s life?

“I guess I owe your dad an apology then. And a few thank yous.”

“He was just doing his job. He likes protecting humans,” the mer shrugged. Roy barely caught it, but his eyes flashed up to look at the treasure chest again.

“You aren’t going to try and get to the chest again, are you?” Roy asked.

The mer turned bright red again and snapped his eyes back to Roy, “Of course not!”

Roy raised an eyebrow and watched the mer sink a little. He definitely wasn’t going to try again, but Roy could tell he wanted to see.

With a smile, Roy swam over to the cave wall and started his climb up to the shelf. It wasn’t a very hard climb, it had been much more difficult when he was younger and smaller and didn't have as much upper body strength as he did now. He reached the chest in no time, then was climbing back down with it in one arm.

The mer curiously followed him to a flat rock in the cave that they could both sit on. He tilted his head, eyes shining with questions, and Roy had to suppress his own blush from the somersaults it made his heart do.

“There’s nothing really interesting in it,” Roy said as he opened the chest and handed it off to the mer. “Just a bunch of junk.”

“Junk?” the mer said in a voice that clearly said he didn’t believe him. His eyes sparkled and his lips grew into a wide smile that satisfied his earlier curiosity. “This isn’t junk, this is awesome!”

“You think so?” Roy asked with an amused smile as he rummaged through the chest.

“Of course I think so, just look at it!” the mer said. He pulled a handful of chocolates out of the chest and looked up to Roy. “These are edible, aren't they? I think I saw people on the beach eating them once.”

“You have to take off the foile first,” Roy said, taking one to demonstrate. When he had it unwrapped he popped it in his mouth and fought a grimace. It was salty and hard after so long of sitting in the cave, but when the mer ate it, he made it look like the greatest thing in the world.

“It’s chocolate,” Roy said, swallowing it down without any more chewing. He didn’t want to spit it out and ruin the mer’s fun.

“I’ve never had chocolate,” the mer said. “It’s delicious.”

“This is nothing compared to the fresh stuff,” Roy said. “I’ll have to bring you some someday.”

“And how do you think you’ll do that?” the mer asked with an unimpressed look. “You aren't even supposed to know I exist.”

“Well, no one can say anything if I accidentally left a bar of chocolate out on a rock after a long day of swimming,” Roy shrugged.

The mer smiled softly and looked down at the treasure chest, dark curls falling into his face. He sat the rest of the coins back in it and pulled out two pieces of taffy, wordlessly handing Riy one before eating his own.

“What are these?” the mer asked, pulling out a few of the arrow heads.

“They’re from me and my dad’s arrows,” Roy said. “We both love archery, so we come down here to shoot some arrows from time to time. A few of our arrows broke and those are their heads.”

“And this?” the mer pulled out the necklace.

“Well that’s yours,” Roy said with a smirk. He took it from the mer and placed it over his head to hang around his neck.

“What do you mean it’s mine?” the mer asked in wonder, staring down at the arrowhead that rested between his collar bones.

“I made it and now I’m giving it to you,” Roy nodded. “That way you never forget about the human who rescued you.”

“I don’t think I could forget something like that,” the mer said then looked up to him. “Thank you.”

“It’s been my pleasure,” Roy said.

The mer seemed to hear something outside of the cave that roy didn’t, his fin ears twitching slightly as he listened. Roy focused and managed to hear a voice he didn’t recognize calling for someone outside the cave.

“That’s my dad,” the mer whispered when he turned back to Roy. “I have to go, he wouldn’t be happy if he found me here.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Roy said in place of a goodbye. The mer nodded and pushed off the rock, disappearing into the water.

With an even wider smile than before, Roy placed the chest on another shelf in the wall, this one lower down so that the mer could reach it if he ever came back.

Roy swam out of the cave and back to shore, drying off a little before redressing. It was getting dark, and Oliver was going to be worried if he wasn’t home soon.

The moment he started to walk away from the water’s edge, a voice stopped him.

“Wait,” the mer called, swimming up as close as he could. Roy smiled and pulled his shoes off again to walk into the water and meet him halfway.

Without a word, the mer reached out and put a necklace on over Roy’s head. Before Roy could say anything, the mer leaned in and kissed his cheek, so softly the only way Roy knew it had happened was the tingle of the salt water where his lips had been.

“So you never forget about the mer you rescued,” the mer said. “My name is Jason, by the way.”

“I’m Roy,” he whispered back.

“Goodbye Roy,” the mer smiled, and just like that, was gone.

Roy looked down at the necklace. It was simple, with an opal hanging from it that caught the light in the reflection of the water.

When he told Oliver about his day and showed him the necklace, Oliver gave him a smile but didn’t say anything.

No matter how old he got, Roy would never stop believing in the curious mers. And he would never forget the feeling of salty lips pressed to his cheek.

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Fic: “Sweets by the Seaside”

Just submitted a couple things over to the art contest forum, but I decided to go ahead and share what I’ve done so far here as well.  Here’s what I made for the written portion. Please enjoy! :) 

Orchid Bay and Bravo Beach might’ve been two of the top summer vacation spots, but Silya had a certain fondness for Candy Cove.  It was surrounded by a lush forest that kept it isolated from the neighborhood—keeping city noise and the amount of people bustling around it to a minimum.  More importantly though, if you passed the resting place of the Sweet Revenge and followed the creek all the way to the sea, there were none of Fuse’s monsters stalking about to ruin an otherwise perfect day by the shore.

Unfortunately, the Fusion Fighter leaders thought the same thing.  They had turned the ideal spot into one of their more secretive bases of operations.  As a result, they were always monitoring who came and went from the area.  Numbuh 20,000 was one of the worst sticklers assigned to the cove, chasing away almost everyone who wasn’t there on duty.  If it weren’t for Stickybeard and his crew, the place would’ve just become another dull mark of war.

Stickybeard wasn’t a part of the top rung of leaders, but he was one of everyone’s favorites.  He led with a boisterousness that was easy to rally behind, replacing the fear of battle with the thrill of adventure.  He made Candy Cove’s base lively.  Better still, he handed out some of the best missions—easy and fun jobs that were often a much-needed respite from the war effort.  There was no doubt in Silya’s mind that any Fusion Fighter called to his side would come running.  That went for herself too: The instant she had received a transmission from him to come to the cove, she readied her nanos, packed her supplies, and left.

Dozens of Fusion Fighters had rushed over.  After passing the sentries that kept the Candy Buccaneers at bay, Silya found herself standing on the coast with a swarm of her fellow soldiers hanging out by the water.  Some of them chatted with each other, catching one another up on their adventures. Most swam close to the shoreline, took turns jumping off the nearby cliffs, or reclined on hastily strapped-together rafts.  A few used their hoverbikes as improvised jet skis over the shallow waves.  One group had even brought a picnic.  A self-respecting warrior would balk at the rowdy mob that had gathered just to have a good time all while the war raged on.

That’s what made it perfect. Moments like this were what kept hope alive.

Silya stumbled forward as she was greeted with a forceful slap to the back, “Here ye are, lass!  Shufflin’ in with the stragglers, are ye?”

She’d recognize the red, burly mat of hair tangled with lollipops any day.  She gave the pirate a light smirk, “Considering how I had to slip away from Dex and Mandark, I’m probably lucky to be here at all.”

Stickybeard guffawed at that, walking with her to the water’s edge, “Sounds like those two boys could use some time out of the lab themselves.  I hope ye know that I didn’t just call all of ye here fer a swim though.” Looping an arm over her shoulders, he directed her gaze out to sea, “Fuse’s goons blasted a hole in me ship b’fore we could pull her onto land and try to turn her around. We thought we lost most of our candy when the infection took over. Turns out that a good part of it spilled out into the water first.”

“And you want help getting it back.”

“Aye! There’s not enough hands to go around: We needed a few extra sweet-tooths with strong backs to lift it all.” He turned to bark orders at the Fusion Fighters standing around, “That goes fer you lot! Ye can have yer fun, but ye better scrape every bit of candy off the seafloor! And a portion of the bounty to whoever rounds up enough of it!” As though to highlight his point, he tore a lollipop from his beard and plopped it into his mouth.

Aye aye, captain!  The crowd lifted in a short chorus of cheers in reply and Stickybeard marched off.  Silya paused to watch him go before hitting a few controls on her belt and kneeling to fetch some goggles and an oxygen mask from her pack.  Streaks of red, blue, and gold danced around her as she summoned her nanos.  As she readied her equipment, the trio hovered close by to wait for orders:

“Mandy, use your Finder ability to scan for anything under the water,” she began to direct as she double-checked the mask’s filter, “Four Arms, help collect any loose pieces of candy that may have sunk to the bottom.  Courage…”

She looked down to the little, pink canine that stayed low to the sand, gazing meekly at the water and the large group of Fusion Fighters that surrounded them.  He was one of her newest nanos and he hadn’t seen much experience out in the field.  She had hoped taking a bit of a break would help him find his place on the team.  However, somehow, he was even more anxious than the original Courage: It was going to take some time.

She gave him a reassuring grin, pointing over to a less crowded section of the beach, “Anything we miss could wash up on shore, so wait for us and see what you can scavenge on land.”

He blinked back up at her for a moment, then gave a somewhat relieved smile and nodded.  

Within a few minutes, they had laid out a place for him and set their belongings aside.  Nano Mandy darted off ahead to begin the search. The chill of the water seeped through Silya’s wetsuit as she waded in, biting down on the rebreather’s mouthpiece and adjusting the goggles over her eyes.  As she ducked beneath the waves, the chatter above was muffled to a dull roar and the world around her transformed into a symphony of striking blues and softly greyed greens:

A thick layer of algae carpeted over the large rocks that littered the seafloor.  A large trail carved through them where the Sweet Revenge had pulled into the creek’s mouth only to follow it and later turn around to where the ship now stayed.  There weren’t too many different types of fish around, but there plenty of mussels, clams, and sea urchins buried in the sand or tucked between stones.  Other Fusion Fighters with their own diving gear and assisting nanos wove through the rocks in search of the missing candy.

A blur of red and gold shot past her in an eruption of bubbles as Four Arms jumped in after her and swam off. She looked up and could make out the pink of Mandy’s outfit above the distortion of the water’s surface. Diving even further down, her eyes scanned the seafloor along the trail.  Whatever candy that had fallen out of the ship would more than likely have landed along the same path; however—whether because it had already been collected or carried away by the current—the way was clear.  

I just hope anything we find will be worth saving.  Chocolate dipped in saltwater didn’t appeal to her anyway, although she doubted Stickybeard himself would care too much.  Hopefully, most of the sweets were wrapped and sealed tight.  

Within a few minutes, nano Mandy returned—diving beneath the waves and motioning for Silya to follow her.  They ventured further away from the beach, swimming to one of the larger cliff-faces that sat at the edge of the cove before it spilled out to the open sea.  A chest sat lodged between the rocks.  Bingo! Leaving Silya to do the heavy lifting, Mandy returned to the surface to regain her breath and continue the search. Silya pressed a foot against one of the rocks as a platform, grabbing one of the large, bronze handles along the sides of the chest with both hands, and pulled.    

She couldn’t lift it.  She tugged it into an upright position and inched it away from the rocks, only for her to sink back down with its heavy weight. Eventually, another Fusion Fighter noticed her struggling and came to help—gripping the chest by the other side to balance the load.  She gave the other an appreciative nod, and the two kicked away from the stones in unison to launch themselves back to the surface.  

A tentacle shot out from the crevice beneath the chest to make a grab for it.  A black eye glistened from the shadows and Silya’s heart leapt in surprise as she watched the reddish-orange shape creep into view. The feeling was swiftly replaced, however, by humor at the sight of the tiny octopus that clung to the wood.  Its attempt to yank the chest back was fruitless, the Fusion Fighters carrying the sea creature with them before the latter’s nano Bubbles could gently urge the creature back to its home.  They brought the chest over to one of the waiting rafts, where another pair of hands helped them lift it onboard.  

“There better be candy leftover for us at the end of this,” she heard someone fuss to her left.  Nano Mandy hovered close by, clutching a nougat bar in her arms.  She glared hard at it for a moment, then tossed it onto the raft with a pile of other loose sweets.  

Silya briefly removed her rebreather to tease the Blaston, “Then no slacking off. We gotta make sure to get a little for everyone.”  If her nanos shared only one trait, it was an incurable love of sweets.

“No way!  Only anyone who helps gets a share!”

She and the other pair of Fusion Fighters just laughed at the bratty declaration.  After introductions were made, the group joined forces to try to collect as much as they could.  As expected, not everything they found was salvageable, but that would be for Stickybeard and the other candy pirates to sort through.  They stacked all of the candy into a large pile, sending the raft off mid-hunt to drop what they found off at the main camp, then dragging the raft back for another round.

Silya was scouring through the sand when she found something glistening under it.  She had been at her task for so long that, at first, she thought it was a piece of taffy. Upon closer inspection, however, she saw that it was a pink, speckled shell.  It reminded her of her Courage nano, and she stowed it in her pocket for later.  Maybe she could collect a shell for each of her nanos as a small souvenir.

A kind of motherly worry hit her when she swam to surface once again to check on him only to find their spot on the beach empty.  Safe as the place was, habit cast a wave of fear over her.  Even though—as a nano—he could fly, she thought of him drowning.  Even though the place was clear of fusion monsters, her thoughts went to the Candy Buccaneers not too far away.      

Her heart raced, and she began to swim back to shore when at last she spotted a pink shape several meters away from their spot.  Courage tottered back with an armful of candy he had apparently gathered along the coastline. A few seconds later, seeing her watching him, he waved at her only to clumsily drop part of his spoils.

She blinked, steadying her nerves, then smiled.

Later that evening, as the sun fell and the first stars began to appear in the sky, the candy pirates, Fusion Fighters, and their nanos gathered around a large bonfire.  Stickybeard made a big show of it, taking the opportunity to tell everyone one of his adventures—casting wide gestures with a booming voice to emphasize the action in his story.  Silya’s three nanos all huddled around her, somewhat sleepy but all too intent on staying awake.  Silya organized the shells she had gathered, sorting out which ones to give to the members of her team.

Nano Courage snuggled up against her leg, seeping in the fire’s warmth. Their group had been given a few days off for Stickybeard’s “mission” and had collected plenty of candy already, so—for the most part—they could enjoy the beach for the remainder of their trip.  There was a nano station close-by, so she’d probably switch out everyone to give them all a chance to fully enjoy the summer waves and the time off from the war.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet vacation.

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Lost no More: Chapter 2 - Taken

Summary:  After three years Hiccup’s sudden disappearance remains unsolved. A grieving father is forced to move on for the sake of his village, a blacksmith has yet to choose a new apprentice, children grow up missing the face they’ve known since birth. The Dragon Master and a fated reunion may finally give them the answers they seek.

Author’s Notes: And this is two out of three chapters that I have finished. The third one will be uploaded tomorrow and after that I will go ahead and start on the fourth one.

@coneygoil, @renkocchi, @softhairstark, @daglout, @just-call-me-emrys, @let-the-wind-carry-us and @only-girl-on-a-dragon if you guys are still interested and haven’t seen me post these chapters on Ao3.

"Toothless!" The shout left him before Hiccup could stop himself when an arrow came whizzing by much too close for comfort. It had almost hit the Night Fury's tail.

Glaring into the direction where the projectile had come from, Toothless snarled with his teeth bared as he came to face one of the men from the ship. His wings unfurled somewhat to make his size and strength be known in a show of intimidation, telling the unwanted human that he wasn't a dragon to be messed with.

Their new foe wasn't taken off guard in the slightest. As a matter of fact, he simply took another strange arrow from his quiver. He was adamant in bringing his prey down.

"Maybe we should go, Bud, back to Berk. My dad needs to know about this." Hiccup's hold on his saddle tightened. Should Toothless decide to suddenly take off into the forest, he would be ready.

It had been by pure luck alone that the dragon managed to avoid injury. Right as the arrow flew, he had turned to run deeper into the forest in search of a clearing and that move was what had saved him. This time, however, the hunter wasn't going to let them escape.

And he wasn't alone.

"Toothless..." The worry in Hiccup's voice caused the Night Fury to take a look around himself. In the growing darkness, he could see a whole group of the invaders surrounding them. There wasn't much of an escape to be made on foot.

"Get off the dragon, boy." One of the men spoke to him, but it only made Hiccup want to hold on tighter. No way was he going to let them separate him and Toothless. Even if it didn't mean much harm for him, it would be bad news for his dragon, who couldn't fly on his own.

"Get off that dragon now, boy, this is your last warning!" That same man seemed to cry out, though Hiccup couldn't pinpoint his location in this darkness.

It was becoming harder and harder to see and the boy felt more and more unnerved with the fact that he wouldn't be able to trust his eyes for much longer.

"Toothless, we have to get out of here. What do we do?" Hiccup would be lying if he said he wasn't scared in that moment.

"Shut your mouth, boy, and get off the damned beast!" Strings were pulled back and Hiccup once again sunk lower on his dragon, who glared at each of the men in front of him like a skittish animal. They were cornered and Toothless wasn't quite sure how to get them out of this.

Well, there was one thing a dragon did best, wasn't there?

Quickly gathering the gasses in his mouth, a blueish and purplish light ignited inside the Night Fury's throat before he shot a blast of fire into the direction of where Hiccup could only assume the majority of the uninvited visitors were standing.

Instead of letting their arrows fly, the targets in Toothless' range dove for cover with a shout just like he had hoped. And while then praying just as much that Hiccup was still secure on his back, he lunged for the newly created opening and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the vegetation.

As the moonlit ocean came into view in the distance, the rider realized they weren't running away from the other intruders, but straight for them.

"Uh, Bud?" Was there even time to question his dragon's motives?

"There they are!"

"Look! A boy on the dragon's back!"

"Don't let them escape!"

"Get them!"

A whole choir of voices broke out once Toothless left the safety of the forest and chose for the silent promise the sky gave them. Spreading his wings and beating them once or twice for lift off, Hiccup quickly knew that charging for the beach was simply a faster way of reaching for the air than searching the woods for a clearing would've been. Positioning the artificial tailfin, the two were off the ground soon enough.

But amongst the flurry of voices, there was one that stood out the most in how utterly gleefully they spoke.

"A Night Fury." The bald stranger said and he did so with a malicious smile, like a spider that found a squirming insect in its web.

"Capture that dragon alive! Even juveniles like that one will fetch us a hefty price of this species!" Hiccup and Toothless barely made it high enough before a series of bolas were thrown their way. One of them got hold of the reptile's tail while a second one wrapped around Hiccup, the impact of which caused him to lose his grip on the saddle and plummet to the ocean down below.

"Toothl-" The boy couldn't even finish before he fell into the freezing saltwater and accidentally swallowed almost a complete mouthful in his shock.

His dragon landed into a shallower part near the shore. Though it wasn't hard enough to hurt him, it was closer to the group of intruders and they did not wait to act. While Toothless struggled to go further into open water to search for his Viking boy, who had not yet resurfaced, chains were thrown around his neck by their attackers.

Roaring to be let go, Toothless felt himself be pulled back by the strength of several men. No matter how much he struggled, he wasn't getting anywhere like this, not with all those people pulling him back.

His urgent search for Hiccup had to wait until he could free himself first. He was already pulled up on the beach and continuing to fight them meant wasting the precious time that Hiccup might not be able to afford to lose.

So turning around to face those wretched invaders, Toothless charged with a plasma blast charging in his open maw.

While the Night Fury had been struggling, Hiccup fought to free himself from the bola wrapped tightly around his arms and middle. His mind was wrecked with panic and his legs kicked wildly to bring him closer to the ocean's surface, but the burning yearning of his lungs for air remained unfulfilled. His eyes stung with the amount of salt in the water and the boy thought it was impossible to tell up from down in this darkness.

Only one other time had Hiccup ever experienced what it was like to drown and it had been at the hands of Dagur, the son of Chief Oswald the Agreeable of the Berserkers. What had seemed like an 'innocent' request from the older boy to go swimming had quickly taking a dark turn when all Dagur was really interested in was to torment the smaller boy some more.

Hiccup, aged ten at the time, had blacked out and didn't know who had saved him. Whoever had, had not made his dad aware of what had happened in the lake that day. For all he knew, it was Dagur who had grown bored and allowed him to breathe again.

Either way, that incident had not failed to give him the occasional nightmare once in a while and the teen had actively avoided going near lakes or any bodies of water whenever Dagur was visiting Berk. Swallowed by the dark sea now only served to further fuel his night terrors for the future.

But eventually he found salvation. Using the dagger he somehow pulled from the leather belt around his waist, Hiccup cut himself free from that infernal rope and he swam upwards for air as fast as he could.

Breaking through the calm waves, Hiccup gasped and coughed loudly. He tried his best to stay up and calm down now that he could finally breathe. Rubbing fervently through his stinging eyes, he longed to see what had become of Toothless while he was underwater.

If that draconic whining was anything to judge by, their situation had gone from bad to worse.

"Tooth-"

"I got the boy!" Cut off once more when a heavy hand pushed him back under, a distant and muffled cry of anguish reached Hiccup's ears when he disappeared from the Night Fury's sight.

That same hand grabbed hold of his brown hair and, writhing with all his might, Hiccup could not prevent this man from pulling him up on the beach. Before long he was thrown at the leader's feet.

"Hiccup..." Leaving the jovial 'master' behind him, Trader Johann addressed the teenaged boy and he, coughing and wheezing, looked up to his apparent captors.

"You know this boy, Johann?" The bald man asked with his heavy accent, pointing his blade towards the trembling youth.

"Yes, indeed I do. This is the scrawny heir I was telling you about. Stoick's runt." Hiccup tried to ignore the stinging in his chest at being insulted, but nothing could compare to knowing this longtime friend of Berk had every intention to betray him and his home.

The cold touch of the blade to his chin chilled his already freezing skin and Hiccup was forced to look the more intimidating man in the eye.

"An heir, huh? He doesn't look like much." Their words were simple in their cruelty, but were not any less effective in making him feel small and powerless.

But when had Hiccup ever let these kinds of belittling words stop him before?

Pushing the blade away from him cautiously, he gazed up at the seafaring merchant.

"Johann, I-I don't understand... What're you planning on doing to Berk? To me? What do you want from my dad? What's this 'King of Dragons' you're talking about?" His questions remained unanswered.

"Oh, he doesn't, does he? He's the son of an incredibly powerful chief and he just came riding in on one of those flying lizards. I hate to say it, but this boy may prove useful to us after all." Johann was stroking his beard in a way Hiccup shouldn't have liked, but his attention was elsewhere.

Scanning the beach, boy found his dragon pinned down, chained, and muzzled. They had overpowered him.

A powerful creature such as a Night Fury, rendered to such a sorry state in an amount of time as short as this? The sight made him both angry and fearful.

"Are you listening, boy?!" A painful kick to his ribs send Hiccup sprawling on the sandy shore. They were sure to bruise later and his chest was already hurting so bad.

Toothless growled in the background, but all it did was amuse the man further.

"My name is Ryker Grimborn and I'm a Dragon Hunter. And you, Hiccup Haddock, are going to tell me just how you managed to tame a Night Fury." The man, who Hiccup now knew for sure was called Ryker, spoke in such a decisive manner. He was apparently very certain he was going to get every dirty little secret out of the teen.

Well then, he hadn't truly met Hiccup Haddock the Third yet. His lips were sealed.

"Okay, sure, I'll tell you everything that I know." No matter how much it pained his tired body, Hiccup pushed his scrawny self up on his feet, removing the sand from his hands and person.

"Starting with the fact that I didn't 'tame' Toothless. And that my father, Stoick the Vast, is going to notice I'm missing and he will search for me. He would search for any missing Berkian, no matter who they are." At least, Hiccup hoped this threat would work. If just enough to buy him the time needed to think of a plan.

"I don't know why he'd go through such trouble for the likes of you, but one thing's for sure. Once you and your dragon are loaded onto the ship, your father won't find you unless we want him to." There was an awful truth to Ryker's words.

Stoick the Vast did not set foot off his island unless it was to search for the Dragon's Nest or to meet allied tribes for peace treaties. Hiccup hadn't been lying when he boldly stated his dad would come looking for his son, Gobber had often stated how he'd move heaven and Earth to make sure his only child would stay safe. The real question here was how long it would take the man to find him.

Hiccup wasn't so happy with his odds.

"Bring them both onboard the ship. We're setting sail for our home base immediately, so don't leave a single trace. We don't want Berk to have anything that can tie us to the disappearance of their heir. If they'll even look for him." After one last cruel chuckle, Ryker bid his farewel to Johann and the two went their separate ways.

Toothless struggled against his bonds as he was forced into an oddly coloured cage, but his efforts were in vain. Likewise, Hiccup couldn't fight the two men who grabbed him by the arms and lifted him from his feet, but as he wasn't tied up, he managed to land at least on solid hit with his left ankle.

"Oof! You damned brat!" The man groaned as he sunk to his knees with his hands on his groin, where the boy had effortlessly kicked with all the might his thin body had.

Hiccup would've grinned mischievously if he had the time, instead he tried to pull himself free from the second Dragon Hunter, all the while calling for his dragon.

"Toothless, shoot! Fire! Do something about that cage!" For a brief moment he managed to wiggle his arm free after stomping on his captor's foot. His arms may not be much, but dragonriding had already done wonders for his legs. He ran for his Night Fury next, hoping he could come up with something plausible before he reached him.

However, that short moment of freedom was over all too soon.

"Oh for Gods' sake, just knock the brat out and be done with it!" The order barely had to roll of Ryker's tongue or Hiccup felt someone bash him on the back of his head.

Toothless, still muzzled, released a cry as he watched helplessly how his Viking fell limp to the sand.

Hiccup didn't understand why, but Johann had watched it all happen and he had done so in glee. He didn't know what he'd done to make the man hate him so, but it was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

[lavenderek]

i wrote this for mermay and never posted it. sorry bye

Stiles has never had any particular love for the ocean. He grew up on the coast, and traveling by ship, simply because that's where he had the fortune or lack thereof to exist. It's Scott who loves the sea, being on boats and getting saltwater up his nose and shit. Stiles is just there to be his emotional support. And it has the added bonus of being away from the castle, if only for a couple hours. "I'm sure it's just a rumor," Scott is assuring Stiles. "They wouldn't actually…"

"They would," Stiles answers grimly. "I'm illegitimate, Scott."

"And?"

"And mine isn't supposed to be a happy life. Mine is supposed to serve a purpose." He looks bleakly at Scott, who's frowning. He has no argument, no recourse, because Stiles is right. Stiles isn't pleased with the circumstances—rumors of his impending betrothal—but he does like being right. "If it doesn't, I'm cast aside."

"If you're unhappy," Scott begins, empathetically, but Stiles shakes his head. The thing is, being at court is dangerous. It's like being on the front lines of a war. The king is temperamental at best, tyrannical at worst. People play the game, live the courtly lifestyle, because being in the king's good graces will ensure the livelihood of your family, your children's families, your children's families' families, as long as the status quo is maintained. Stiles has only a de facto father left, and the man's not at court anyway, so he has nothing to gain from living this life—except the fact that he needs to support the sheriff, and the fact that being away from Prince Scott is inexplicably like being away from the sun. Of course Stiles is unhappy. But he'd be more unhappy away from court. Scott persists, "I could send you away. I could send you to my lady's kingdom."

Leave his highness to visit the first person he ever loved, who is now engaged to his highness. Scott's a moron sometimes. "I'm having a great time, your highness," Stiles says instead of pursuing this topic. "Look at how much fun we're having." He's flat, sarcastic. Scott rolls his eyes affectionately.

"This is fun," insists the prince. Like if Stiles would just listen to reason, he'd be enjoying himself much more. "Let's go and eat."

"Yeah, definitely," says Stiles. "I'll catch up with you in a minute."

Scott grasps and squeezes Stiles' shoulder, and then departs. While Scott treks back up the dunes to the carriage, Stiles climbs onto the briny rocks littered throughout the tide, wanders among them, and broods. He always knew he was to get married off someday; he supposes it had just never sunk in as reality until yesterday. The terror has since subsided into depression. He wishes he had any say in the matter—at least, in who they sold him to. He slips a couple times on the rocks, simply because they're wet and he's a little gangly, but the third time he loses his footing completely and crashes into the water, a little over knee deep this far out. It's when he stands, sopping wet, and peers back at the shore (Scott, having reached the top of the dune, is laughing at him) that he sees something very strange some ways away. Sunning itself maybe a hundred yards away, secluded behind a rock formation, is what looks like—but it couldn't be—a mermaid.  

Stiles looks quickly at Scott, but he's climbed into the carriage and is departing. Stiles looks back at the mermaid. It's still there, its tail red and gold in the sunlight. Stiles would think it was dead, if it wasn't moving its tail minutely. Stiles scrambles back onto his rock and starts making his way over there.

He's heard, obviously, legends about mermaids. Who hasn't? Especially in a coastal kingdom. Fisherman and travelers boast of sharp-toothed, cold-skinned creatures with sweet tits who drag a man to his watery grave. Stiles is ready to be drowned by a beautiful fishwoman.

He supposes the thing probably hears him coming, so when it doesn't startle away and escape, Stiles is bemused. "Hey," he says, dripping wet and standing on a rock maybe ten feet away. It looks up at him, squinting against the sun. It's a man, Stiles thinks, muscular and—kind of hairy. Black hair, chest hair, arm hair, bushy eyebrows, messy beard. Are mermaids supposed to be hairy? What evolutionary purpose would that serve? "You a mermaid?" Stiles asks, inanely.

"Do I look like a maid to you?" snaps the mermaid. True. True.

"Merguy?" tries Stiles. "Mer…dude."

The merthing doesn't offer any alternative; he just rolls his eyes and lays back down. "Go away," he says. He has a nice voice, a soft, autumnal breeze, if laced with annoyance.

"Technically," says Stiles, climbing down from the rock and into the surf instead of going away, "you're on royal property. I'm well within my rights to have you captured."

The merwhatever sits up, eyes narrowed angrily. There are seashells in his hair, a chain around the crown of his head. "No one owns the sea," he says.

"False," answers Stiles jauntily. "The king owns these waters all the way out to—"

"No one owns the sea," snaps the mermaid, teeth grit. His teeth are kind of crooked, but otherwise very human. Stiles was expecting something different of a mermaid. The scales thin out into flesh at his hips, fade gently upward. In the sunlight, though, it's clear his skin isn't human skin. It glints dully, subtly, like the skin is just a layer over scales, over muscle. The tide hits Stiles' knees, and he stumbles slightly with the weight of it, the sand oozing out from under his feet.

"I mean, if you really think about it," Stiles says, "no one owns anyplace." The mermaid sits silently, glaring at him. Quietly, Stiles offers, "He just owns the surface. We can't go much deeper than that, so… go nuts."

"Go nuts," repeats the mermaid crossly. "I don't need your permission to live where I've always lived."

Stiles considers this for a long minute, eyeing the mermaid, the bunching of his muscles, the hair drying in the sun and curling away from his body, the sea-glass color of his eyes, and he feels something not unfamiliar clench in his chest. "I'm not actually gonna have you captured," he says, and his voice comes out thick. "I… wouldn't."

The mermaid stares at him for a long moment, the line of his mouth tightening, hostile. "Right," he says finally, voice crackling. "Because humans are so trustworthy."

"Hey," begins Stiles, a knee-jerk protest forming in his mouth, but the mermaid's pushed off the rock and darted through the water, disappeared in the depths before Stiles can process what's happening. For a long time, he stands, the tide lapping up against his legs, and watches the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of the merperson; but he never sees him. In fact, after he's returned to the palace to change out of his wet clothes, he starts to wonder if he ever saw him at all.

[facts-knowledges]

5 Of The Deadliest Animals Around The World

Black Mamba

The dark mamba is one of the world's deadliest snakes, notwithstanding, their name is somewhat of a misnomer. The dark mamba isn't exactly dark. They're dull brown with dark mouths. No matter what their tone, these reptiles cause a greater number of passings in Africa than some other snakes. With a few drops of toxin in every tooth upon entering the world and up to 20 drops by adulthood, the dark mamba can undoubtedly kill a human with two drops. These snakes are one of the quickest, arriving at more than 12 miles each hour. They utilize their speed to escape as opposed to assault, whenever the situation allows. They are commonly bashful animals, truth be told. In any case, when undermined, they will strike. In the first place, they signal with an open mouth to let prey (human) realize they are going to strike. When they do assault, they will keep on gnawing their casualty. This makes the dark mamba perhaps of the deadliest creature all over the planet. At the point when they get into individuals' homes (which occurs), they should be eliminated cautiously. Here is a video of a snake master eliminating a dark mamba.

Box Jellyfish

The world's most risky marine creature, the case jellyfish lives in warm water, with the most deadly assortment tracked down in northern Australia. With appendages up to 10 feet in length, the case assortment contrasts with other jellyfish in that they swim while others can drift. They additionally have bunches of eyes and can see, and it is accepted that they may really chase their prey (generally shrimp and little fish). They utilize their stingers as insurance and to handicap/kill their prey. On the off chance that a human is stung by a crate jellyfish, the toxin will cause loss of motion, heart failure, and passing. There's just a single known instance of somebody enduring a container jellyfish sting — an Australian young lady who was 10 at that point. For a long time, applying vinegar to stings was the suggested treatment, yet concentrates on showing that vinegar really increments toxin load by 50%.

Hippos

The third-biggest land creatures, behind white rhinos and elephants, hippos kill an expected 500 individuals every year. Arriving at lengths of up to 16 feet and levels of a little north of five feet tall, guys can gauge as much as 9,920 pounds and females show up around 3,000 pounds. To keep their skin cool, hippos spend up to 66% of their time in the water. They're very vocal and the range of sounds they make can be basically as uproarious as a stage performance. These monster animals are herbivores, so they don't go after people for food. They assault since they're forceful and unusual. For this reason,, hippos are quite possibly the deadliest creature all over the planet. They could feel their posterities being compromised or that their area is being attacked. With jaws that open 150 degrees and close with amazing power, they can smash creature skulls with no sweat.

Mosquitos

The mosquito is answerable for spreading a few destructive illnesses — including West Nile, zika, dengue infection, yellow fever, and intestinal sickness. Consolidated mosquito-borne sickness kills more than 1,000,000 individuals every year. Not all mosquitos chomp people. Truth be told, it's just a few hundred out of the 3,500 kinds of mosquitos that do as such. The female mosquito nibbles and their spit has an anticoagulant that empowers them to take care of effectively on blood. Benefiting from blood is expected for the females before they can lay their eggs, which they do in standing water. Certain elements influence who they nibble. These incorporate how much carbon dioxide we produce, synthetic compounds in sweat, wearing dim tones, and internal heat levels. There's a continuous discussion among mainstream researchers about whether the destruction of mosquitos - even though they are important for our biological system - would be a net advantage to the world.

Saltwater Crocodiles

Known as,   "salties," these reptiles are answerable for around 1,000 human passings yearly. These gifted swimmers are tracked down in northern Australia, eastern India, and Southeast Asia. In the wake of suffocating their prey, saltwater crocodiles go into a demise roll, where they over and over roll their catch in the water. This technique works with dissection, as the croc's teeth are made for grasping, not tearing. Salties have a life span, surpassing 65 years. It's accepted they might even live to 100+ years, yet there is no verification of this in nature. In any case, there are salties in bondage known to have experienced this long.

[vivadivageri]

3 days until Color Street launches in Canada and today I’m highlighting the Maritime Provinces 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 My family visited New Brunswick in 1994 along with some of the other Maritime Provinces. The photos are nice for me to remember this trip when my boys were 12, 10 and 8. It was a camping trip for us and it was a rainy day when we visited Fundy National Park. New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy has the highest tides on earth and is one of the most accessible viewing areas for marine life in the world. The Bay of Fundy is a pristine sanctuary for all kinds of rare, unusual wild creatures. Immense blooms of plankton provide a vast feeding ground for up to 15 species of toothed and baleen whales, including Finbacks, Humpbacks, Pilot whales and the rare right whale. New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province. English and French have been the province’s official languages since 1969. New Brunswick is home to the largest ocean tidal whirlpool in the western hemispheres. It is located off the coast of Deer Island and is named the 'Old Sow'. The University of New Brunswick is tied with the University of Georgia as being the oldest University in North America. New Brunswick has more than 60 lighthouses and is famous for its inland lighthouse system that dots its inland rivers. New Brunswick has the warmest saltwater beaches in Canada and more than 55 remaining covered bridges. Please share any memories or photos of New Brunswick you’d like to share. @vivadiva.geri #vivadivageri #newbrunswick #canadatour #colorstreetcanada #colorstreetcanadastylist #canadiangirl #travelmemories #my3sons💙💙💙 #momof3boys #maritimeprovinces #maritimeprovincescanada https://www.instagram.com/p/CSPqOSnLWGJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[interestingfactsquotes]

What Is The Difference Between An Aligator And A Crocodile?

What Is The Difference Between An Alligator And A Crocodile? If you cannot differentiate between an alligator and a crocodile, you are not alone. Unless you’re a wildlife expert, most of us have a hard time differentiating between the two. However, there are six proven points of difference between the two: Family – Alligators belong to the Alligatoridae family of crocodylians, while crocodiles belong to the Crocodylidae family. Snout Shape – Alligators typically have a rounder, U-shaped, and broader snout. The snouts of crocodiles are generally V-shaped and narrow.The Jaw And Teeth Structure – We cannot see an alligator’s teeth if it has its mouth closed. However, we can see some of the lower teeth of the crocodile even when it has its mouth closed. This includes their famous fang-like fourth tooth. Colour – Alligators are commonly black or grey in color, while crocodiles are mostly olive green or Tan, though seeing different colors can depend on the water. Habitat – Even though they are both reptiles, they differ in their preference for locations. Crocodiles seem to generally prefer living in saltwater (like the ocean has salt in the water) habitats, while alligators prefer to live in areas with freshwater.Temperament – Alligators tend to be on the calmer side of the scale, while crocodiles are typically more aggressive. https://youtu.be/RdrTqJY4siY You can always find more amazing and interesting facts about creatures right here at InterestingFacts.org. Check out the amazing tarsiers, wolf spiders, the tibetan mastiff, red panda, maned wolf, dolphins, tigers, horse, cats, dogs, plus much more. So many crazy facts you might end up SMH and shooting out a GIF on Tiktok. Read the full article

[sciencespies]

T. rex really could crush a car in its jaws, without damaging its own skull

https://sciencespies.com/nature/t-rex-really-could-crush-a-car-in-its-jaws-without-damaging-its-own-skull/

T. rex really could crush a car in its jaws, without damaging its own skull

The Tyrannosaurus rex had the strongest bite of any known land animal – extinct or otherwise.

The king of the dinosaurs was capable of biting through solid bone, but paleontologists had long been baffled as to how it accomplished this feat without breaking its own skull.

In a new study published in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers found that the T. rex had a rigid skull, like those of modern-day crocodiles and hyenas, rather than a flexible one like birds and reptiles. That rigidity enabled the dinosaur to bite down on its hapless prey with a force upwards of 7 tons.

“The highest forces we estimated in T. rex were just shy of 64,000 Newtons, which is about 6.5 metric tonnes (7.1 tons) of force,” Ian Cost, the lead author of the new study, told Business Insider.

Modern-day saltwater crocodiles, which hold the chomping record for any living animal, clamp down with a force of 16,460 newtons – only about 25 percent as strong as a T. rex’s bite.

(Illustration by Zhao Chuang, courtesy of PNSO)

Scientists weren’t sure whether T. rex skulls were flexible or rigid

Previously, scientists had suggested that the T. rex’s roughly 6-foot-long (1.8-metre), 4-foot-tall (1.2 metre) skull had flexible joints – a characteristic called cranial kinesis.

Some creatures need to have parts of their skull moving different directions at once, and independently of their jaws. Snakes that swallow animals whole, or birds that have to nibble awkwardly-shaped foods, benefit from having a mobile skull.

Paleontologists first hypothesised that T. rex might also have benefited from mobile joints, moving its skull bones around to help bite with full force.

But Cost said that thinking didn’t align with what scientists observed in modern-day predators like crocodiles and hyenas, which leverage the greatest bite forces of any animals alive today. Crocs’ skulls are very rigid, with little to no cranial kinesis.

So Cost’s group modelled how parrots’ and geckos’ skulls and jaws – two animals with mobile skulls – worked, and then applied those movements to a T. rex skull.

“What we found was that the skull of T. rex actually does not react well to being moved around and prefers to not move,” Cost said.

According to Casey Holliday, a co-author of the study, there’s a trade-off between movement and stability when a creature bites down with a lot of force.

“Birds and lizards have more movement but less stability,” he said in a press release.

Less bite stability and range of motion limits the amount of bite force an animal can muster.

3D map of T. rex skull showing muscle activation. (Courtesy of Eric Stann/University of Missouri)

T. rex jaws could crush a car, as the Hollywood monster does in Jurassic Park

Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, has described the T. rex as “a head hunter”, since the predator had the rare ability to bite through solid bone and digest it.

Paleontologists know this from the dinosaur’s fossilized poop; they have discovered T. rex faeces containing tiny chunks of bone eroded by stomach acid.

According to Cost, a rigid skull enabled the T. rex to bite through bone. That’s how the dinosaur was “capable of producing enough force to crush some cars, but maybe not every car.”

He added that funelling the T. rex’s 7.1 tons of bite force “through a tooth or two at impact results in incredible pounds per square inch of pressure that could puncture-crush many vehicles, Jeep tires included.”

In the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster, Jurassic Park, a T. rex escapes its paddock and attacks two Jeeps that have broken down nearby. The predator, hoping to nibble on two kids trapped inside the car, flips one Jeep upside down and proceeds to bite into the vehicle’s undercarriage, puncturing a tire.

But the T. rex wasn’t the only Cretaceous-era dinosaur to have an immobile skull, Holliday told Business Insider.

The Triceratops and Ankylosaurs also had fixed, akinetic skulls. Plus, some close relatives of the T. rex, including Oviraptors and Therizinosaurs, don’t have the features that suggest they had flexible skulls, either.

Key features of a stiff T. rex skull. (University of Missouri)

Was the T. rex was a hunter, scavenger, or both?

According to experts at the American Museum of Natural History, the T. rex was a cannibal. But scientists don’t know whether the dinosaurs killed one another or just ate T. rexes that were already dead.

When it comes to the dinosaur’s other dietary preferences, arguments persist about whether the dinosaur was a hunter or a scavenger.

“A bulk of the evidence points to T. rex being a predator, not a scavenger,” Gregory Erickson, a paleontologist from Florida State University, previously told Business Insider. “It was a hunter, day in and day out.”

Cost said his study results, which indicate the T. rex’s skull handled prey in a similar way to a hyena’s, could shed some light on the debate.

“Hyenas, we know, are both hunters and scavengers,” he said. “I think, if anything, that T. rex was both a hunter and an opportunistic scavenger.”

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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Episode 4: From Trilobites to Therapsids

Image credit: Evan Howard, under CC BY 2.0. (cropped)

The following is the transcript for the fourth episode of On the River of History.

For a link to the actual podcast, go here. (Beginning with Part 1)

Part 1

Greetings everyone and welcome to episode 4 of On the River of History. I’m your host, Joan Turmelle, historian in residence.

The history of life on Earth is punctuated by several key themes. Throughout these next three episodes, I will be explaining the events that shaped the age of visible life, the Phanerozoic Eon. This time spans 541 million years, all the way to the present day, so this is the Eon to which we are currently in. You will notice that the evolution of living organisms is often regulated by the recurring fluctuations of a mostly oxygenated atmosphere and a mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere. You’ll also see that, despite the sheer horrors of mass extinction events, they are critical in shaping biodiversity. And, perhaps most crucial of all, the development of new features among groups of organisms is mostly a process of reshaping and recycling old things. In evolution by natural selection, you will never see a new trait forming out of nothing. Nearly always, new traits are developed in specific situations and only later find new uses as the environment changes. 

The first era of the Phanerozoic Eon is the Paleozoic, or the age of ancient life. It lasted from the beginning of the Phanerozoic 541 million years ago and ends 251.9 million years ago. It was during this time that grand marine ecosystems developed and spread all across the globe, and living things spread out onto the land and made a home for themselves there.

The Paleozoic starts with the Cambrian Period (541 to 485.4 million years ago). Following a brief period when the fragments of Rodinia collided to form a new supercontinent called Pannotia, which itself split apart some 573 million years ago, the landmasses of the Earth were mostly collected into four continents. The largest, towards the south pole, was Gondwana. An expansive and long-lived continent, Gondwana includes regions that will eventually become Africa, South America, Australia, India, Madagascar, and Antarctica. Moving northwards from the south pole is Baltica, which includes most of Europe. Flanking Baltica is Siberia and Laurentia (made up of mostly North America). Two great oceans encompassed the continents, with the Iapetus Ocean separating Laurentia from Gondwana and the Panthalassic Ocean making up most of the northern hemisphere. Bordering the continents were an abundance of shallow seas, which acted as a cradle for the newly evolved animals.

As the Ediacaran faunas slipped away into obscurity, the descendants of the first animals diverged into two major groups based upon their mode of embryonic development. There is a process called gastrulation, where the growing bundle of cells collapses inwards on one side of its body and becomes the precursor to the gut. For most of the animals on one lineage, the protostomes, the opening to the gut became the mouth, and the exit-hole (the anus) opened later. For the members of the other animal lineage, the deuterostomes, the opening to the gut became the anus first, and the mouth came last. This seemingly trivial observation underpins most of the animal kingdom, and by the end of the Proterozoic Eon most of the major animal lineages had evolved.

The biggest key trait for the animals of the Cambrian was the development of hard skeletal parts on their bodies. Prior to these adaptations, most animals were soft-bodied and resembled worms. Around the beginning of the period, some lineages began to incorporate minerals like calcium and silica onto their bodies. This biomineralization is still poorly understood but has been hypothesized as tying to dietary needs. Some of the oldest fossils of hard-parts belong to the teeth of early worms like Protohertzina, that could have used their new adaptations to better grab prey items. In response, some organisms, like the early mollusks, developed hardened shells to protect themselves. One lineage of animals used calcium carbonate to stiffen their bodies and support themselves on the seafloor. Possibly related to sponges, the archaeocyathids formed symbiotic relationships with algae and bacteria that bound their cup-like bodies together, becoming the first reef-building organisms. As later animals, like true sponges and the ancestors of corals, refined their abilities to make hard-parts, they soon overran the archaeocyathids and drove the entire group into extinction.

As more and more lineages evolved hard internal and external skeletons, and the process became increasingly easier due to chemical changes in the oceans, animal diversity peaked in a grandiose display of unique and fascinating species 535 million years ago. This was the Cambrian Explosion, an event marked in the fossil record as the first time that organisms could really leave well-preserved fossils, as shells and skeletons tended to preserve better than soft-parts. That being said, there have been some spectacular fossils found in Cambrian deposits that have managed to preserve more easily decayable structures, like tentacles, internal organs, even skin pigmentation. These types of fossils seem to have formed through a rapid layering of clays that prevented the bodies of the different organisms from breaking down. Two sites stand out for their deposits, the Maotianshan shales of Yunnan, China, and the younger Burgess Shale of British Colombia, Canada.

With most of today’s animal lineages already established at the beginning of the Cambrian Explosion, much of their evolution during this time went towards the development of their primary modes of life.

Mollusks are among the most abundant animals in the oceans, rivers, and lakes of the world, but their evolution (like that of all major animal groups) began in the warm, saltwater seas off the coasts of the continents. The shells of mollusks serve as defensive structures that protect their vital organs from predators, and they themselves feed with a hardened and barbed tongue called a radula that scrapes edible materials from the surfaces of rocks. Cambrian mollusks came in a variety of forms, including the three majors groups: the valve-shelled bivalves (including clams, mussels, and oysters), the mostly coiled-shelled gastropods (snails and slugs), and the cephalopods (squids and octopodes) which gradually lost their shells.

Distantly related to mollusks are brachiopods. You’re probably not familiar with them, but during the Paleozoic Era they were one of the most common animal groups in the oceans.  They look like clams but are actually very distinct in their anatomy. The valve-like shells of brachiopods cover filamented-tentacles that collect food particles from the water, and the shell is opened and closed by special muscles. Clams, like all bivalve mollusks, have a ligament that controls the movement of their hinged-shells, and they’re free-swimming organisms: brachiopods attach themselves to seafloor sediments by a long, flexible stalk.

Though well-adapted to their environment, mollusks and brachiopods were outnumbered by the arthropods, today the largest group of animals in the world. Ancestral arthropods used minerals to strengthen their entire bodies and developed an external skeleton or exoskeleton that preserved their internal organs. Unique for most animal groups was the evolution of jointed limbs, which could be adapted to a variety of different environments and lifestyles. Living arthropods include insects, arachnids, crabs, shrimp, and millipedes: some 80% of all animals. Who could guess that an exoskeleton and jointed limbs would prove to be such a successful adaptation?

The road to the arthropods was paved by many strange experiments in evolution, and the animals that underwent these changes belong to a larger group called Panarthropoda (named because it includes arthropods as well as their relatives). Genetic evidence and fossil remains show the earliest panarthropods as worm-like creatures, with stubby limbs and soft skins that probably walked along the seafloor or gripped onto sponges, like squirrels and monkeys in the trees. Today there are a few living descendants from these early groups, called velvet worms. Their soft skins leave them vulnerable to the elements, so they only survive in moist, tropical rainforests. One particularly curious member was Hallucigenia, famous among paleontologists because it was originally interpreted as a many-stalked animal that used rows of tentacles to grab food from the water. Later studies discovered that these researchers had accidentally been viewing the animal upside-down! It was an early panarthropod, protected from predators by a row of spines that grew along its back. The “tentacles” were actually its limbs.

Later panarthropods continued to strengthen their bodies with minerals and some adapted their limbs into paddles, allowing them to swim among the sponge reefs of the Cambrian oceans. They developed two appendages at the undersides of their heads that served as sensory organs and a few toughened those organs with hard teeth. One bizarre member of this group was Opabinia, looking like some Lovecraftian beast, shrunk down to a measly 2 and a half inches. It sported five eye-stalks and had one long flexible structure that ended in a little tooth-lined clasping grip, which it used to snag food and bring it towards its mouth (kind of like an elephant).

But the group that really dominated the Cambrian was the anomalocarids, which took up a wide range of niches. Niches are like occupations that organisms hold: the roles they play in different ecosystems. For example: a tiger holds the niche of apex predator in its habitat - nothing preys on it, but it alone sits at the top of the food web. Some anomalocarids may have filled the niche of apex ocean predator. There is some possible evidence that these panarthropods used their frilled appendages to grab soft-bodied prey and direct it towards a circular mouth, lined with teeth-like projections. But many members of the group were filter-feeders, with their appendages lined with long bristles for collecting food particles, like the baleen whales of today. Though they were the largest animals in the Cambrian, anomalocarids appear to have mostly died off by the end of this period, with evidence that a few species clung on for another 100 million years before going extinct.

Proper arthropods fully divided their bodies into segments, each sporting its own pair of jointed limbs. These animals divided into two major groups: mandibulates, with paired antennae and chewing mouth parts, and chelicerates, lacking antennae and having shredding mouth parts. Mandibulates include insects, crustaceans, and myriapods (millipedes and centipedes); chelicerates include arachnids and horseshoe crabs.

The highlights of the Cambrian Explosion (and really the stars of the Paleozoic Era) were the trilobites. We’re not sure what kind of arthropods they are, but that’s really the only major mystery of this now extinct group. Their woodlouse-like fossils are so prevalent, and their record so complete, that we have a good idea how they lived, what they ate, and what their reproductive cycle was like. The name means “three-lobed” and refers to the general structure of their exoskeleton: a cephalon or head, a thorax, and a pygidium or tail. They came in a variety of different body forms, including species with spines, species with enormous eyes, and species with thin bodies. There were free-floating planktonic forms and trilobites with eye-stalks that probably hid under the sand, but most trilobites appear to have been grazed on particulate food. The largest species grew to the size of bed pillows, large enough to eat other trilobites. In the Cambrian Period, they were the most common and most successful of the newly evolving animals.

The previously described animals were all protostomes, but deuterostomes had also expanded in diversity. One prominent group in the oceans were the echinoderms, who incorporated minerals into a strong but flexible inner skeleton or endoskeleton. A series of tubes stretches through their bodies and helps these animals breath, move, and feed. Echinoderms today include sea stars and urchins, and the earliest members of the group were mobile organisms. However most Cambrian echinoderms appear to have been filter-feeding, stalked animals, attached to the ocean floor. Other deuterostomes include the hemichordates, which were worms that supported their bodies with a long nerve cord and breathed through gill slits at their front ends.

Perhaps the most important group to animals such as ourselves are the chordates, because this is the lineage that humans and all other vertebrates belong to. Ironically enough, chordates did not play a large role in the Cambrian oceans, and as a whole they were probably uncommon in their ecosystems. Like hemichordates, chordates have gill slits and a nerve cord that runs through the body, but in this group the cord became supported by a rod stiffened by cartilage, the notochord. Also prevalent is a tail that helped these deuterostomes control their movement as they swam through the seas. Some of these chordates retained these ancestral traits and buried themselves into coastal marine sediments, becoming the lancelets. Others hollowed out their bodies and some of those secured themselves to rocks, becoming the sea squirts and salps. The ancestors of vertebrates developed early in the Cambrian Period, around 530 million years ago. Particularly good fossils from the Maotianshan shales of China show that two early vertebrates - Haikouichthys and Myllokunmingia – had encased their brains in a skull and sported small vertebral elements around their notochord. These were not true bony vertebrae, but from these ancestral forms onwards there is a marked increase in bony hard-parts throughout the body. Animals like these were very fish-like, and for all intents and purposes could be called the earliest fishes.

By the end of the Cambrian Period, the abundance of minerals in the shallow seas changed nearly all of the major animal groups alive today, and in turn, they began to change their ecosystems as well. Prior to the Cambrian Explosion, much of the seas were covered in mats formed by microbial colonies, including those of cyanobacteria. With the rise of grazing animals like mollusks and echinoderms, these mats began to face decimation as the new animals feasted on them. As a consequence, these mat-forming microbes began to move deeper into the oceans and higher onto surface rocks where these newly-evolving animals could not get them.

Roughly 499 million years ago, deadly hydrogen sulphide levels rose and oxygen levels depleted in shallow marine waters and caused many different species to go extinct. Trilobites were severely affected, as were many unique forms of animal life. It is unclear what set off this change in ocean chemistry, but it set the conditions for new animals to evolve.

Part 2

The Ordovician began 485.4 million years ago and ended 443 million years ago. The massive continent of Gondwana moved slowly southwards and the remaining landmasses of Laurentia, Siberia, and Baltica gradually began to move towards each other. Small island continents slowly collided with Laurentia to the south and produced the first stages of the Appalachian Mountains. This continental drift caused the Iapetus Ocean to widen slightly, and there were still extensive shallow seas where large collections of sediments eroded into their waters. Like the period that preceded it, the Ordovician was mostly a hot, tropical world.

These warm oceans, now bounced back from their previous chemical changes, had many marine niches left open for species to fill. On top of that, the rise in minerals from erosion produced a bloom of planktonic organisms. There is a marked rise of fossils featuring new groups of animals during the beginning of this period, with the number of species tripling from previous levels over a 25 million-year timespan. This led paleontologists to coin a name for this time: The Global Ordovician Biodiversification Event. The animals that evolved during this period were to set the standard for marine faunas for the duration of the Paleozoic Era, and introduced a number of new modes of living. For the first time, animals began to make greater journeys out into the open ocean and some groups of mollusks and worms started burrowing deeper and deeper into the seafloor.

Reefs expanded in great numbers during the Ordovician, and the main builders during this period were a group of now-extinct sponges called stromatoporoids. They were originally thought to be types of corals because their skeletons were made of dense calcite minerals, much tougher than sponges nowadays. But they were not the only encrusting marine animals around. One of the last major groups of animals finally evolved in the Ordovician: the bryozoans. Sometimes called moss animals due to their superficial similarities, bryozoans live in hardened colonies that grow on rocks or the shells of animals. Each colony is made up of several tiny creatures with little tentacles to filter-feed with. Their numbers were significantly greater in the Paleozoic, but living species are not as common as other colonial animals like corals.

The major groups of mollusks continued to diversify, and the bivalves came into high prominence during the Ordovician. Like the unrelated brachiopods, bivalve mollusks have valved-shells (that’s where they get their name), and they’re filter-feeders, but rather than use filamentous tentacles to catch food, bivalves have plates of gills inside their shells, all lined up like a stack of paper. While the brachiopods controlled the deeper regions of the seas, bivalves were more content in nearshore waters where they didn’t have to compete for the same resources. Gastropod mollusks were doing well too, and a few of the dominant lineages evolved in the Ordovician, including the ancestors of limpets. Limpets have survived into the present day and their anatomy is remarkably ancient, lacking the coiled shells of their later relatives. Nonetheless, the conical shells of limpets are excellent adaptations: the animal can stick itself to rocks and completely cover its body with a tough exterior that most predators have difficulty with.

The heavy-weight champions of the Ordovician were the cephalopods. Although the majority of species today have reduced or lost their shells altogether, the earliest groups had spectacular shells. One lineage, the endocerids, could grow their shells up to 19 feet in length, making them the largest animals in the world at the time. They have been suggested to be major marine predators, using their tentacles to snag prey items, but it is equally possible that some species were filter-feeders. In any case, they would have been awkward animals to look at; because their giant shells were full of empty spaces the center of gravity would have made them float vertically in the water, with their tentacles facing downwards, like living icicles.

Despite their losses during the Cambrian extinction event, trilobites managed to bounce back and became more diverse than ever. Great swarms of them roamed the seabed, feeding on all sorts of organic materials. Some groups when threatened by predators could roll themselves up into a ball, using their head and tail to completely protect their soft undersides and legs, while other species used their spines for defense. There were plenty of new arthropod predators in those days, with the earliest eurypterids evolving 460 million years ago. Though they look like giant marine scorpions (and are commonly called sea scorpions), eurypterids were only distantly related to arachnids. Nonetheless, some species possessed scorpion-like pincers for snipping at prey, and one kind called Megalograptus had a spike at the end of its tail – though there’s no evidence that it was venomous. Crustaceans too were beginning to diversify. The first ostracods and branchiopods evolved: these are small-bodied animals that swim through the water with their arms or antennae. Ostracods are mostly microscopic and planktonic animals, but branchiopods are perhaps more familiar due to two major lineages: the water fleas and the brine shrimp (popularly marketed to children as ‘sea monkeys’).

All of the surviving lineages of echinoderms evolved during the Ordovician Period, including the first sea stars, brittle stars, urchins, sea cucumbers, and crinoids. Among these groups the crinoids are the least common in modern times, but during the Ordovician they were remarkably diverse, growing in groves around calm, shallow seas. Crinoids attached themselves to the ocean floors on long stalks and sported a comb of filter-feeding tentacles atop their heads. They shared their world with other long-gone lineages, including the blastoids, who looked like crinoids but had very pentagonal heads. A new lineage of hemichordates developed that were to become the dominant planktonic animals of the early Paleozoic: the graptolites. Despite their relation to the living worm-like species, graptolites were remarkably different. They were tiny colonial animals – like bryozoans – that lived in hardened tubes that simply floated along ocean currents. These tubes, made of proteins, often sported beautiful patterns and shapes, with some graptolites resembling fans or coils, and others lining their tubes with rows of spines or branches.

The vertebrate story continued at a slow pace. By the Ordovician, fish had evolved proper bones and covered their bodies in scales, and the majority of species had gone a step further and strengthened their scales into solid armor. Like most of the other animal groups, these would have proved to be a great defense against predation. However, fishes still remained a small part of the ecosystem. They were not apex predators, for they still lacked jaws and could only suck up soft-bodied food from the seafloor, and they did not venture out into the open oceans either, with all species remaining in shallow seas and along coastlines and estuaries.

The earlier development of the ozone layer proved to be a beneficial aid to life on Earth, allowing so many different marine organisms to thrive in the oceans, but for the first time ever, life began to colonize the terrestrial world. Up until the Ordovician, the only types of plants were marine species of red and green algae. The only land-living, photosynthetic organisms were the mats of cyanobacteria that moved onto surface rocks to escape the threat of grazing animals. Analyses on living species of green algae suggest that the first land plants developed from freshwater species and survived on land because they adapted their bodies to become waterproof (which prevented them from drying out). Fossils from 473 million years ago show plants very much like liverworts, which are the oldest surviving group of land plants today. Liverworts do not have roots or stems, but instead attach their flattened bodies called thalli to the ground. Like their algal relatives, liverworts and other early land plants reproduced with spores, which the adult plants release into the water where they land and grow into copies of their parents. This meant that, despite their terrestrial existence, the first land plants were restricted to warm, moist environments.

But they were not alone in their travels, because they were soon followed by the earliest land fungi. Fungi had already been around on Earth since the Proterozoic, making up on of the major groups of eukaryotic organisms. In fact, they are more closely related to animals then they are to plants, meaning you have more familial relations to the mushrooms in your soup than to the carrots or onions. Fungi are mostly decomposers: breaking down dead materials that provide them with nutrients. They had a ready food source when the first land plants began to die, and through their decomposition process they began to churn parts of the sediment, creating soil. All land plants today rely on soil for nutrients, so newly growing spores were treated to an increasingly safer environment, thanks to the fungi. Ever slowly the stage was set for the rise of terrestrial environments, as vast numbers of liverworts blanketed the margins of freshwater rivers and lakes.

The good times were not to last, as the Ordovician closed with a major mass extinction event. While the direct causes are still debated by researchers, the changing conditions at the time almost certainly put pressures on marine organisms. Analysis of rock formations around 450 million years ago demonstrate that carbon dioxide levels plummeted, while oxygen levels increased dramatically. As Gondwana moved south and covered the poles, the Earth became cool enough for glaciers to form there, which expanded and took in such large amounts of water that the sea levels dropped. Many of the warm, shallow marine environments were lost as a result, and as much as 86% of marine species went extinct. Yet again, the trilobites took some serious damage and their numbers never recovered to previous levels; and there were great losses of brachiopods, bryozoans, and graptolites. What happened to all the carbon dioxide? Hypotheses blame the drop in levels due to the rise of the first land plants, because their sheer numbers on land may have photosynthesized a little too well. Other evidence points to volcanic weathering causing the drop in carbon levels; remember, weathering of certain rocks often takes up carbon dioxide. The ice sheets at the south pole were at their greatest extent during the last seven million years of the Ordovician, but when the period ended much of the marine life in the oceans was gone.

The Silurian picks up where the Ordovician left off: a relatively short geologic period from 443.8 million to 419.2 million years ago. As the Earth’s overall climate warmed up again the glaciers began to recede in Gondwana, and the sea levels rose. The giant continent itself started inching northwards. By now, Laurentia and Baltica had connected together as one landmass called Euramerica, due to the inclusion of lands that would eventually become Europe and North America. Siberia remained isolated, and the Iapetus Ocean began to close as Gondwana and Euramerica moved closer to each other.

As it had done after the Cambrian, marine life rebounded following the Ordovician, but now there were depleted stocks. Trilobites and graptolites lost much of their diversity, and the great sponge reefs had lessened in number. In their place emerged two types of stony corals that had evolved quietly during the Ordovician. The first group and the ones that primarily formed the new reefs were the tabulate corals. They were colonial organisms, like living corals, and formed flattened, table-like structures in great quantities. Among them was the second group, the rugose corals, who could form colonies or remain as single organisms. Their bodies looked like horns, but they often angled themselves in their growth. Surprising as it may seem, corals are related to sea jellies: whereas sea jellies adapted themselves to be free-floating animals, corals flipped that body plan over and resided to an existence attached to rocks and seafloor sediments. These new coral reefs became great templates that supported a wide variety of animal life.

The iconic invertebrates of the Paleozoic, the giant cephalopods and frightening eurypterids, continued to stalk the oceans. Among the mollusks, the bivalves managed to radiate into a great number of new groups, given that their main competitors the brachiopods faced such heavy losses at the end of the Ordovician.

Fish became big winners during the Silurian Period, thanks to the evolution of true jaws. Given that the first fishes were jawless animals, how did this adaptation come to be? Genetic and anatomical evidence points to a change in development of the front most gill arches (the parts of the throat that provide support for the gills themselves). These migrated towards the exterior of the mouth and allowed that part of the body to close and open at will. Given that gills help fish take in oxygen from the water, this ability to work the mouth would have helped them take in more water (this feat is called buccal pumping). These ancestral jawed fishes could effectively breath faster than their contemporaries and as a result could swim better too. Over time, this adaptation found another function, fish that had strengthened the repurposed gill arches could now catch and kill prey with their mouths more efficiently. New dietary options opened up, and now the fishes of the Silurian could eat each other! The gill arches became true jaws. This remarkable change in physiology prompted the evolution of all the major groups of jawed fishes, and as a result, the jawless fishes were now about to face some serious competition.

The situation on land grew much more serious. As collections of plants and fungi changed the surfaces of freshwater coasts, new plants evolved to join their number. Among the liverworts were the first mosses, which had special structures called rhizoids that gave them some anchorage to the soil. New plants evolved later on, around 433 million years ago, that underwent significant structural changes to their bodies. These were the vascular plants, so named because inside their revolutionary new roots, stems, and leaves was a system of vein-like tubes that could take in water and nutrients and distribute them through their body. This was a more efficient system than what the liverworts and mosses had, because it meant that vascular plants had more strength to support their bodies in the gravitationally-dominant environment. One of the icons of Silurian botany is Cooksonia, which was one of the most common land plants at the time. They were relatively tiny plants, only growing as high as 2 inches, that had a Y-shaped prong structure. At the end of these prongs were their spores, which they could release into the wind. At the other end of the plant spectrum is Baragwanathia, which was among the tallest plants on land (growing up to 11 inches high). These plants were lycopods, one of the surviving members of this new flora that can still be found today. They’re distinguished among their peers by their covering of tiny leaves all along their stems, which increased their surface area and allowed more sunlight to be captured. Traits like these allowed lycopods and other vascular plants to outgrow their competitors and really change the landscape.

But the plants and fungi were no longer alone in their world. Fossil evidence indicates that for the first time, animals began to make serious trips onto the land. Prior to the Silurian, there is some fossil evidence that certain creatures were making small visits to the sandy coasts: for example, trackways have been found that have been identified with eurypterids and aquatic myriapods like millipedes. But these animals could not have permanently stayed on land because they still breathed with gills and so they had to return to the water to survive. Arthropods that managed to survive on land had underwent mutations that changed their bodies. The first land arachnids developed book lungs that were retained inside the body and took in oxygen from the air instead of water. Other arthropods like mandibulates switched out gills for a series of spherical holes along their bodies, connected to an interworking system of tubes that carried oxygen everywhere. Among all members of the group, their jointed limbs proved to be helpful in supporting their weight as they roamed the soils. By the end of the Silurian, arachnids (in the form of scorpions and a now extinct group called trigonotarbids) and myriapods (in the form of millipedes and centipedes) established a presence of land. With new resources like plant matter, some arthropods developed into herbivores, while others took advantage of the new prey items and remained carnivores. It is even possible that the ancestors of earthworms and nematodes were living on land at this time, though their soft-bodies would have not preserved well in these conditions. Thus, the first land ecosystems and food webs were in place.

Part 3

The Silurian Period passed calmly into the Devonian Period, 419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago. As Gondwana moved northwards it started to rotate as the lands that would become Australia and China began to move towards Siberia. Euramerica made contact with Gondwana by the middle of the Period, closing the Iapetus Ocean forever. This collision of continents pushed up great mountains along the connected landmasses: these were the precursors of the Caledonian Mountains, which today can be found along Greenland, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. This mountain building also helped push the Appalachians higher. The glaciers that dominated the south pole in the Silurian had receded significantly till they were almost nonexistent. Carbon dioxide levels rose, and the world became much warmer and dryer.

While tabulate corals were still doing well during the Devonian, the rugose corals increased in diversity and joined their relatives as the main reef-building organisms. Brachiopods and crinoids continued to filter-feed among the reefs, while eurypterids decreased in overall importance in marine ecosystems. Among the crustaceans, the earliest decapods evolved, which sport ten legs. The ancestral body plan of the first decapods was very shrimp-like, and indeed shrimp and prawns belong to this group (though these are interchangeable terms for the same animals that lack any scientific basis). More prominent members of the decapod group, like the crabs and lobsters, didn’t evolve until much later in the Mesozoic Era. The mollusks themselves also gave a world a new lineage of cephalopods, with strong sutured shells that formed coils. These were the ammonoids and they became predatory mollusks, unlike their filter-feeding relatives the endocerids (which, incidentally, died out during the Silurian).

The ammonoids and decapods proved to be very special organisms, because they featured in a remarkable adaptation event called the Nekton Revolution. Paleontologists coined this term to refer to a change in the fossil record when many organisms began to adapt to a swimming lifestyle. To be nektonic is to be free-swimming. Now more and more animals were occupying niches in the open ocean, and the seas began to crowd with an abundance of different organisms.

The fish, which had already developed into their main groups, were now diversifying into different forms and taking advantage of the new niches that were being created: it was the Age of the Fishes. One group of jawed fishes called antiarchs converted their front fins into hardened plates and moved their eyes to the tops of their heads, possibly helping them move along the seabed and bottom-feed. Another lineage, the chondrichthyans, made their internal skeletons cartilaginous (that is, made of cartilage instead of bone), which lightened their weight and made them faster and more efficient predators. This paved the way for the first sharks. It’s often been said that sharks have remained unchanged since the Devonian, but a quick glance at the fossil record debunks this: most of the early sharks of the Paleozoic were strange and weirdly-shaped animals, one example being Sethacanthus which sported an anvil-shaped growth at the top of its back that paleontologists have had difficulty explaining. Modern-type sharks won’t evolve for a long time. But the most spectacular of all the fishes in the Devonian were the arthrodires, who strengthened their heads and jaws with thick armor plating. The biggest members of the group included the open-ocean filter-feeder Titanichthys and the apex predator Dunkleosteus, both reaching lengths of up to 33 feet. With the rise of jawed fishes like these, nearly all marine ecosystems from the Devonian to the present day had vertebrate animals as their main predators.

Among the bony fishes stemmed two kinds. There were the ray-finned fishes or actinopterygians that trading in their fleshy front fins for a webbed-ray of bony or cartilaginous spines. In the present day, most fish species belong to this group. The other group of bony fishes kept their fleshy-fins and developed a lobed-anatomy where the fins encased a series of bones. These lobe-finned fishes or sarcopterygians are vital to the story of our evolution, because it was from this group that the ancestors of land vertebrates originated. How did this remarkable transition from aquatic animals to land animals take place?

The current fossil evidence we have points to the bony fishes of the Devonian evolving along seashores and coastal environments. Most of the lobe-finned fishes were finding food in estuaries and freshwater rivers. They were not particularly fast vertebrates, and they didn’t need to be, as they did not face any of the pressures of open ocean living that their relatives the ray-finned fishes faced. By growing out the bones in their fins and creating a wrist joint, sarcopterygians could skulk about the riverbed or cling to aquatic plants. Over time the fins became more flexible and more joints developed: from ankles to elbows. Now the sarcopterygians had proper limbs that allowed them to better move through their freshwater environment. But at the same time, this anatomy proved beneficial when a few of these fishes started making temporary journeys onto the shores in search of food, as there were plenty of arthropods already there. Repeated trips caused their skeleton to strengthen and become more flexible. The hip bones adjusted to the hind limbs and gave them more support, while the shoulders separated from the ribs to aid with steering the body. A neck formed, and some of the bones of the limbs moved outwards and formed digits. They could breathe the air with lungs and collect oxygen from the water with gills. It’s important to state that fishes ancestrally had air sacs: ray-finned fishes modified them into swim-bladders to aid with buoyancy, while lobe-finned fishes developed them into proper lungs. The stegocephalians had arrived, spearheaded by the appearance in the fossil record of forms like Tiktaalik, Acanthostega, and Ichthyostega. While these fishes were capable animals on land, able to shuffle along the sands and silts like seals and mudskippers do today, they were primarily aquatic and still gained most of their resources in the water. But it was a capable start of things to come.

The land became a truly inviting place during the Devonian. Liverworts, mosses, and lycopods blossomed into a number of larger forms, and they were joined by a host of new vascular plant lineages that grew into complex branching forms with the first proper leaves. Monilophytes – the group that includes the ferns and horsetails – gave their roots the ability to spread out and form new copies of itself. Because these structures form underground, they can allow monilophytes to survive in harsh conditions, meaning that the earliest ferns and horsetails were able to spread out farther than other plants previously could. Another lineage of vascular plants went from using spores to dividing their sex cells into different structures, with the female sex cells staying in the parent plant and the male sex cells needing to be dispersed as pollen grains. This simple adaptation allowed these plants called spermatophytes to increase their genetic diversity and their range of distribution, because now pollen could be carried further by the wind. Not only that, once the two sex cells met and formed an ovule (or egg), special cells were directed to form a hard outer layer around it. This shell enclosed a wet storage of food that sustained the embryonic plant until it could be planted somewhere else. This is how seeds formed, and fossils of Devonian plants called Elkinsia and Runcaria reveal this process in action. In the meantime, some of the members of the monilophytes and seed plants started to grow more and more vessels for transporting water up their stems. These structures were formed by an organic molecule called lignin, which itself was encased in another organic molecule called cellulose. Following generations of growth, the lignin-cellulose outer-layers of plants strengthened and hardened and gave rise to the first plants with woody stems. Wood is a tough material and it allowed plants to rocket to the skies: the first trees had evolved. Understandably, they started out small, but soon towered over their neighbors: one of the oldest trees, Wattieza, was 26 feet tall. With the evolution of seeds and wood, plants spread much farther from the waters than they ever could before.  

Arthropods and mollusks flourished in the growing forests: the earliest mites, spiders, and harvestmen, accompanied by the first air-breathing snails. Insects begin their story in the Devonian, having evolved from freshwater crustaceans related to branchiopods in the Silurian. These hexapods, as their name suggests, developed a body plan with six legs. Some of these early hexapods adapted their tails to act as ‘spring-boards’ that could propel them away from predators. They survived to the present day, earning their common name springtails. The first insects distinguished themselves by growing larger and moving away from the underground, moist environment of their ancestors. They became herbivores, ingesting the leaves and stems of the new plants that were evolving. Like the springtails, remnants of this time still exist today in the form of the soil-living bristletails and those domestic pests the silverfish.

Right around the end of the Devonian struck a series of mass extinction events. The expansion of terrestrial plants with deep, piercing roots seems to have allowed great quantities of soil nutrients to wash away into the rivers and seas, causing oxygen levels in the water to decrease. This eutrophication would have caused vast regions of the seas to become anoxic and deadly for living things. It was a particularly damaging collection of extinction events: estimates place the loss of marine groups at 40-50%. Some of the organisms that were still recovering from their losses in the Ordovician, like the trilobites and brachiopods, were hit hard. In fact, all but one lineage of trilobites was wiped out. The graptolites, that curious lineage of hard-shelled, planktonic worms, vanished from the Earth, as did many unique forms of echinoderms and most of the newly-evolved ammonoids. The great reefs of tabulate corals and sponges met their end, leaving those organisms relegated to lesser roles in the ecosystem. The Age of Fishes ended with losses too: all of those weird and wonderful jawed fishes, the arthrodires, the antiarchs, and others, died in the low-oxygen oceans. Jawless fishes saw most of their number go extinct, leaving two lineages of worm-like animals, the hagfishes and the lampreys, to go on to present times.

Part 4

So the world entered a new period, the Carboniferous, from 358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago. Euramerica and Gondwana remained connected as a giant continent, but by the middle of the period those pieces of Gondwana that would go on to form the lands of China had collided with Siberia. In turn, these ancestral Asian lands pushed against Euramerica and rose up the Ural Mountains. A vast expanse of water was opened, creating a new ocean called the Paleo-Tethys. Parts of Gondwana still hovered over the south pole, and the small glaciers there slowly began to grow again. At the western edge of Euramerica, the Rockies were beginning to raise.

But the primary modifiers of the Earth’s land and climate would prove to be the living things that resided upon it. The seas of the world were much reduced in diversity following the Devonian Extinction Events, and for a period of time there were no major reef-building organisms. The rugose and tabulate corals were still around – in lower numbers – but they did not form reefs. In their place emerged great forests of crinoids, those stalked echinoderms that filter-feed through the water. Often termed ‘meadows’, these expanses of crinoids grew and died in such rapid succession that they formed deposits of limestone.

On land, the foundations of the world’s coal deposits were developing. As plants continued to evolve and spread across the land, great forests grew and went on to cover much of the available land. New species of trees evolved among the vascular and non-vascular plants. Some kinds of lycopod, like Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, could tower 130 feet in the air and sported scale-like bark. There were giant horsetails too: Calamites reached up to 66 feet high and in some cases had stems 24 inches thick. Tree ferns were present and seed plants also produced enormous forms, like the 148-foot high Cordaites. As you can see, giant trees were the norm in the Carboniferous. There were so many tough, woody plants around, but nothing to eat them. Despite a patchy fossil record, we can be confident that wood-eating bacteria and fungi had not evolved yet because of how these trees ended up dying. When they eventually dropped to the ground, rather than decompose, the trees got covered up by swampy sediments. Over time, the remains of the trees piled on top of each other, and millions of years of heat and pressure from the Earth’s surface converted the biological remains into coal deposits. The most prominent remains of coal come from Carboniferous rocks, which is what gave the period its name: due to the lack of decomposition, all the carbon that the plant took in is still there. Keep this in mind for later.

With so many forests on the land, carbon dioxide levels plummeted while oxygen levels rose significantly: over 30% above present day levels. In turn, the presence of so much oxygen in the air (plus the fact that wood now existed) meant that passing lightning strikes could spark fires for the first time. All this oxygen had another adverse effect on animal life too.

Due to the way arthropods breathe, the more oxygen is available to them, the larger they get. This period of Earth’s history is famous for its abundance of seemingly-improbable giant arthropods. The myriapods begat the giant millipede-relative Arthropleura, an herbivorous species that grew over 7 feet long. There were massive three-foot scorpions roaming the coal forests, preying on the hordes of new terrestrial species. And insects truly began to diversify during this time. The key adaptation that marked the path for the insects was wings. While still a controversial discussion in paleontology, genetic and morphological evidence has suggested that the precursors of insect wings developed from gills that became repurposed for movement in air rather than water. The first wings were stiff structures that were held outwards from the body, and these were found in the first mayflies, dragonflies, and damselflies. Relatives of these insects, the dragonfly-like griffinflies were among the giant arthropods of the Carboniferous. The wingspan of one called Meganeura reached 26 inches meaning that it would have been a formidable aerial predator. Later insects modified their wings to fold inwards towards their bodies, and this proved to be a beneficial change because it meant that these delicate structures could be protected from wear and tear. By the end of the Carboniferous, the ancestors of grasshoppers, cockroaches, lacewings, and beetles had made a home for themselves in the coal forests.

Stegocephalians remained mostly aquatic animals for most of the Carboniferous, but a descendant branch of this group, the tetrapods, began to diversify into a myriad number of lineages. Tetrapods are proper four-limbed vertebrates that all (at least ancestrally) retained five digits on each foot. One group, the temnospondyls, produced crocodile-like forms that lurked in the swamps and fed upon large aquatic animals. It is among the temnospondyls that we find the ancestors of true amphibians, who retained an aquatic larval stage. Other tetrapods formed lineages that did not survive the Paleozoic, including worm-like animals that lost their limbs. The most significant development in the vertebrate story was the amniotic egg, where the embryo is stored with water and nutrients inside a hardened shell that could be laid on the land, rather than in water. With so many opportunities for predators to feast upon the jelly-like, soft eggs of their predecessors, this adaptation meant a better chance for survival. So the amniotes evolved to become proper terrestrial animals, able to survive away from the water and take on the newly emerging ecosystem that is the land. As a consequence of living in a dry world, amniotes developed toughened, water-proof skins and claws on their digits allowed them to better maneuver over rough surfaces or brush. By the end of the Carboniferous, two lineages of amniotes had evolved, becoming the two great groups of land vertebrates: the sauropsids or reptiles, and the synapsids, the ancestors of mammals. The two groups are distinguished by the placement of holes behind the eye socket that aid with jaw-muscle attachment. Reptiles typically have two holes behind their eye socket, while synapsids have just one. And there were herbivorous and carnivorous species that played vital roles in their food webs.

The Carboniferous was a dramatic time for life. The effects of the coal forests proved too great for the planet, and the resulting losses of carbon dioxide and gains of oxygen caused the Gondwanan glaciers to grow in size until they expanded across the continent. The climate cooled and caused many of the forested swamps to fragment in size or die off altogether. Wetland-adapted tetrapods died off in huge numbers and many of the giant lycopod trees perished as well. It was the hardy plants and animals that took over their ecosystems. Ferns and seed plants expanded their range and formed vast swaths, and the amniotes diversified in the new drying world. This glaciation was short-lived, but of course that meant that its effects put greater pressure on life as a whole.

The final period of the Paleozoic Era was the Permian, 298.9 to 251.9 million years ago. The Gondwanan glaciation ended during the early part of this time, around 280 million years ago, and the levels of carbon dioxide rose again. The famous supercontinent of Pangaea formed during this time, as the Gondwana-Euramerica landmass collided with Siberia and the other continents. This meant that, had our modern borders been present at the time, you could walk from Sumatra to Argentina without ever needing to cross a body of water. With the shrinking of the coal forests and the rise of upland, terrestrial ecosystems, vast parts of the land were not in contact with any river or coastline and they subsequently dried up and formed deserts and scrublands. Thus, the Permian was a hot, dry planet, but one populated by animals and plants that could withstand it.

Marine faunas bounced back slightly, and sponges once again took the helm as the main reef-builders. Brachiopods and bryozoans managed to do very well and were common animals in the seas, while the trilobites were few and unimportant. Ammonoids regained their former numbers. The diversity of fishes, while much reduced from their Devonian days, was still high, and there was even room for experimentation. A relative of sharks and rays, Helicoprion, sported a strange coiled row of teeth in its mouth and this baffled paleontologists for years because no one knew where exactly it was supposed to go. Reconstructions abounded, with some placing the whorl at the front of the jaws and some placing it deep in the throat. The most recent interpretation, based on better fossils, finds the tooth whorl in the center of the lower jaw where it stuck out awkwardly.

Alongside the ferns grew newer kinds of seed plants. Gymnosperms did remarkably well in the drier parts of the land, with the first cycads and ginkgoes taking root in the sands. Conifers (represented today by species like pine, spruce, and fir) had evolved in the Carboniferous, but they flourished during the Permian. Despite all this diversity, the most common tree in the world was not a conifer but a seed-bearing plant called Glossopteris. What made this plant so hardy was ability to cope with colder environments, including mountain ranges.  

Tetrapods roamed over the warmer and wetter regions of the planet, with giant temnospondyls sharing the swamps, lakes, and rivers with equally giant predatory lobe-finned fishes called rhizodonts. The stars of the Permian lived on land, however. The amniotes spread out far and wide over the Pangaean supercontinent and took on nearly every niche and body type available. Among the reptiles were the first land vertebrates to return to an aquatic existence, with later varieties occupying more of an amphibious niche: periodically switching between land and water. Some reptiles took to the air, developing membranous structures along their sides for short gliding. The earliest ancestors of turtles appear to have lived about this time, too.

Most of the apex predatory and herbivorous niches went to synapsids, who often were the largest animals in their ecosystem. The earliest synapsids were lizard-like animals, that walked with a sprawling gait and had an ectothermic physiology, gaining heat from their surrounding environment for metabolic functions. Included among these ancient synapsids is Dimetrodon, which sported a row of spines along its back that were encased in webbing. It was originally thought that structures like these aided in their ectothermy, with excess heat being released by the sail while winds that blew on it cooled the animal, but recent studies now dispute this: it just doesn’t seem to work like that. Newer studies have shown a role of the sail in courtship displays, meaning that Dimetrodon was almost certainly a colorful animal.

Later synapsids gradually adapted their bodies to better efficiency. The limbs were placed underneath the body, and the sprawling gait was traded in for a walking locomotion. This would have changed their physiology too, and this has prompted many paleontologists to view these newer animals, called therapsids, as endothermic (able to generate their own internal heat). Therapsids were increasingly mammal-like vertebrates and they were more efficient predators and herbivores. Some species took on a burrowing lifestyle, while others became arboreal (living in trees). Some reached enormous sizes and resembled ferocious pigs, while others were sleek and almost weasel-like. The most spectacular members of this group, and the dominant predators of the later Permian times, were the gorgonopsians. They sported fangs that certainly helped them deliver crushing blows to their prey, and some species grew over 11 feet long.

But no matter how hardy a species you are, whether an apex predator or a cold-adapted tree, you’re not guaranteed safety from extinction. It was at the end of the Permian Period, 252 million years ago, that the mother of all mass extinctions occurred. Based upon all the evidence we have, paleontologists have recognized that around this time, a series of volcanic eruptions in Siberia unleashed a huge blanket of lava over the continent. As volcanoes do, carbon dioxide would have been released into the air, but this was on a scale of gigatons (that is, a billion tons). Over the rapid 1-million-year period of these eruptions, as much as 170,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide were belched into the air, triggering a devastating greenhouse effect that warmed the entire planet. The waters of the world became acidic and the land dried and cracked with heat. Life never came so close to being killed off, as 80-96% of all organisms went extinct. The list of casualties is pretty long, but among the animals we have met during our voyage through time, every trilobite, eurypterid, rugose, and tabulate coral was wiped away. Brachiopods, bryozoans, echinoderms, mollusks, and arthropods suffered heavy losses. For the first time during a mass extinction event, land animals were heavily effected, with many of the newly evolved synapsids, reptiles, and temnospondyls suffocating and starving to death. The only organisms that managed to actually thrive in this hellish world were colonies of sulfur-eating bacteria.

Yes, life was almost rendered extinct on Earth, but it wasn’t. The fact that you are here right now is a testament to the versatility and resourcefulness of your ancestors. To have survived the near end of the world and then go on to fill the next is a great gift, and one that should be embraced whole-heartedly. When the Paleozoic ended and the Mesozoic began, the slate was wiped clean and a new story could be told.

And with that, we must lay anchor to our river journey. In the next episode, we enter the Mesozoic Era. This was the golden age of the dinosaurs, the most famous prehistoric animals of all. But they were not the only new organisms to call the Earth home. They shared the world with a host of strange plants, mollusks, insects, fishes, and reptiles, as well as the direct ancestors of the mammalian lineage. That incredible time and all the events that shaped it, will be told to you.

That’s the end of this episode of On the River of History. If you enjoyed listening in and are interested in hearing more, you can visit my new website at www.podcasts.com, just search for ‘On the River of History’. A transcript of today’s episode is available for the hearing-impaired or for those who just want to read along: the link is in the description. And, if you like what I do, you’re welcome to stop by my Twitter @KilldeerCheer. You can also support this podcast by becoming a patron, at www.patreon.com/JTurmelle: any and all donations are greatly appreciated and will help continue this podcast. Thank you all for listening and never forget: the story of the world is your story too.

[dentcure11]

14 Home Remedies To Get Rid Of Cavities

1. Fluoride mouthwash

Fluoride is useful for teeth and it reestablishes the minerals in the teeth. Since demineralizing or absence of minerals is a reason for tooth decay, using fluoride mouthwash can be an incredible home solution for dispose of cavities just as tooth decay.

2. Clove

Clove can be the best ingredient to cure any oral medical issue, including cavities. Because of its mitigating and against bacterial properties, clove can reduce torment and counteract cavity to spread.

3. Garlic

Other than being an incredible taste enhancer, garlic is likewise a wellbeing wonder. Eating crude garlic is additionally extremely advantageous for oral wellbeing. It has antifungal and antibacterial properties in it which fill in as a painkiller. Click here to know more about the best dentist in Mumbai.

4. Bone Broth

Bone broth is a soup comprised of boiling bones of sound creatures blended with crisp vegetables. It is stacked with bunches of nutrients, minerals, and fats which are extremely advantageous for our wellbeing. It comprises of calcium and magnesium which expel cavities from our teeth and battle tooth decay.

5. Saltwater

Salt water is the most widely recognized home solution for any of the oral medical issue. It keeps the mouth microscopic organisms free and expels the stickiness from the cavities. The salt in water kills the pH level in our mouth by evacuating acids. For any dental problem consult the best dental clinic in Mumbai.

6. Clove oil

Clove contains eugenol in it, which plays a role of painkiller. Thusly, clove oil gives brisk alleviation from agony caused by cavity and tooth decay. Its antimicrobial constituents restrain the development of any microorganisms, growths or infection.

7. Oil pulling

The system of using vegetable oil to dispense with polluting influences is called oil pulling. In this strategy, you need to flush your mouth with oil for 5-10 minutes; you can utilize any vegetable oil like olive oil or coconut oil. The washing procedure hauls the microbes out of your mouth. It is extremely compelling for cavities and tooth decay, and it additionally diminishes swelling present in the gum.

8. Lemon

Lemons are wealthy in nutrient C; the acids present in lemon juice execute the germs and help in facilitating torment caused by the cavities. You have to keep a lemon in your mouth, bite it and after that flush your mouth with clean water. Visit the best dental clinic in Mumbai for dental problems.

9. Tea tree oil

Tea tree oil has mitigating and hostile to bacterial properties in it, which helps in battling the cavities. It is a straightforward procedure - you simply need to rub your teeth and gums with tea tree oil and after that flush your mouth with warm water.

10. Neem

We as a whole realize that in more established occasions individuals used to brush their teeth with neem sticks rather than a toothbrush. Neem is certainly an extremely successful approach to get more beneficial teeth. The fiber content in it fends off plaque from your teeth. The system is extremely basic, you simply need to bite neem leaves and afterward promptly need to flush your mouth with water. Neem remains the conventional answer for each medicinal condition in each family unit.

11. Baking soda

Baking soda is an antimicrobial agent. It's alkali properties neutralizes the acids present in the mouth and prevent it by causing cavities and tooth decay. Dip a wet brush in baking soda and then brush your teeth with it. You need to be cautious regarding brushing with baking soda, as it can damage the enamel. You should brush with baking soda for a few days only. Another fun fact is that baking soda also whitens the teeth. You can find one of the best dentist in Mumbai.

12. Eggshell

Eggshells have calcium carbonate in it which expels the decay and refills the mineral back in the lacquer. Clean the eggshell and bubble it and afterward further dry it and pound it into powder. Include preparing soft drink and coconut oil to the powder and use it as toothpaste. Keep the glue in an air-pressed compartment.

13. Turmeric

In Ayurveda, turmeric is frequently used to give alleviation from cavities. It has calming and antibacterial properties which keep the gums sound and avoid tooth decay. There are two different ways to utilize turmeric. In the first place, apply turmeric on the influenced teeth for a couple of minutes and afterward wash your mouth. Second, blend turmeric with mustard oil and back rub with the blend on the teeth and gums for 10 minutes.

14. Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is a decent wellspring of nutrient An and E with iron, calcium, and magnesium. It has antibacterial properties that anticipate cavities and tooth decay. Drink a glass of wheatgrass squeeze or blend 1 part of wheatgrass juice with 6 sections of water and flush the mouth with it or specifically bite wheatgrass whenever tainted.  You can get cosmetic surgery in Mumbai.

[metroidspeedrun]

Elemental questions pls thx

Earth:Leaf: What’s your favourite season? WinterTree: What’s the highest up you’ve ever been? Idk probably 6 stories up (it was not fun)Flower: What’s the prettiest thing you own? My little ceramic bunny Grass: Do you prefer to be outside or inside? Inside Soil: Have you ever planted something? YupMountain: What’s the furthest you’ve ever travelled? Like 6-8 h away from homeRock: What’s your favourite gemstone? Labradorite, the bluer the betterVines: What’s your aesthetic? Pastel grunge and super goth insidePlant: What, in your opinion, is your best aspect? My eyes or like my hair I really like my hairForest: Where are you most calm? In a tight space or anywhere where I have to be kind of scrunched upMud: Do you like to do hands-on things? YesBug: What’s your most irrational fear? That my anxiety will kill meCave: Where’s your favourite hiding place? Under tables and stuffGarden: Where were you at this time last week? In my room watching tvSpring: What’s your earliest memory? Either knocking my little brother down (the time I knocked his tooth out) or when my youngest brother bust his head openWater:Tide: Can you swim/do you like to swim? Nope and nahBeach: If you could be one place right now, where would you be? Hanging out with my best fwenCoral: Do you believe in mermaids? YesSeashell: What’s a sound that soothes you? Ballet shoes hitting wooden floorsSeaweed: Favourite sea creature? Mermaids or octopiSaltwater: Cold showers or hot showers? HotStream: When was the last time you had a bath? When I was like 15, unless this includes showers then like 10 minutes agoOcean: Have you ever been sailing? NopeHurricane: If you had to save one thing, what would it be? My innocence like not in a weird way but like in a way of getting to be a kidRain: What do you do when it rains? ComplainThunderstorm: Do you like to be outside in the rain? NoDew: What’s your favourite drink? Juice, all juice except orange juiceBubble: Do you live near the water? No Snow: Does it snow where you live? NopeIce: What’s your favourite thing to do in the winter? Be extra gay bc I have the energy for itAir:Clouds: When was the last time you were on a plane? Ummm neverBreeze: What’s your favourite dessert food? Strawberry ice-creamSmoke: Who’s your favourite artist? Like art artist? Because I really like Sarli or Koyamori and for music I really like Daniel Caesar and Tyler the Creator Fog: Do you wear glasses? YesWind: What’s your favourite song to dance to? Um anything by Bruno MarsMist: Do you like fairytales? Yes I love themSky: Do you like to wear dresses? For less than 2 hoursStars: What’s one wish you have? For my life to be normal for five secondsFlight: What are you most excited for right now? School Monday to get away from my problemsFloat: What’s the first thing you think when you wake up? What time is itBreath: What type of music do you listen to? Rap, rock, pop, jazz, country, you name itBird: If you could fly, where would you fly to? The groundFeather: How long do you usually sleep for? 3-8 hoursBalloon: What’s your favourite carnival ride? Um none of themSpace: Have you ever seen an eclipse? No, I miss them allFire:Bonfire: What’s one thing you lost that you want back? My childhood Warmth: Who is the person nearest to you right now? My brother physically Light: What time is it where you are? 6:54 p.m.Volcano: What are you most afraid of? Anxiety-related illness bc I’d hate to be the cause of my own deathSun: What would the person nearest to you right now say about you? I’m irritating and probs a lot worseLava: Do you like to do reckless things? Yes bc I’m self-destructiveFlame: Have you ever burned something? NoSoot: Have you ever hurt someone you didn’t mean to? All the timeCoal: Have you ever been hurt by someone? Mhm yupAsh: Do you have any birthmarks/scars? Yes tonsCampfire: What’s your favourite childhood memory? Native American appreciation day in 2nd grade when we built a teepee and ate colorful cornLightning: Are you afraid of storms? No I love them, but I don’t like to see lightningEnergy: Pick one word to describe your life. IntenseLantern: Are you afraid of the dark? YesSummer: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? I stabbed myself in the wrist with a sharp pen

[latestnews2018-blog]

'The Meg,' A Movie About A Humongous Prehistoric Shark, Is Ridiculous. But What Did You Expect?

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/the-meg-a-movie-about-a-humongous-prehistoric-shark-is-ridiculous-but-what-did-you-expect/

'The Meg,' A Movie About A Humongous Prehistoric Shark, Is Ridiculous. But What Did You Expect?

In a pivotal scene from summer’s latest blockbuster, “The Meg,” Jason Statham (playing rescue diver Jonas Taylor, looking fit as ever in an extra-tight wetsuit) hurls himself into the ocean with nothing but a speargun and swims toward a humongous prehistoric shark.

As his colleagues look on anxiously from the relative safety of their boat, Statham makes his way toward the titanic man-eating creature, humming the tune from “Finding Nemo” (just keep swimming, just keep swimming). His goal? Tag the beast’s fin so his team can track its whereabouts. 

Mind you, beyond having a taste for human flesh, this 75-foot shark known as The Megalodon is light- and sound-sensitive. So any quick movement can trigger its killer instincts. But into the ocean goes Statham anyway.

Yes, this movie is every bit as ridiculous as you’re thinking. But what did you expect?

For the past few years, theatergoers have been given an array of saltwater treats to tide us over between Shark Weeks. We’ve seen a wounded Blake Lively defeat a killer shark with the help of a seagull in “The Shallows” (2016) and watched as Mandy Moore and Claire Holt faced the horrors of the deep after their diving cage drifts to the ocean floor in “47 Meters Down” (2017). 2018 gives us “The Meg,” which calls back to another absurd yet iconic open-water flick, “Deep Blue Sea” (1999), about genetically modified sharks who stalk LL Cool J and company in an isolated underwater facility.

If you liked that one, you’ll be all for this Statham vehicle. 

“The Meg,” an American-Chinese Warner Bros. collaboration directed by Jon Turteltaub and based off a book by Steve Alten, focuses on oceanic research facility Mana One, run by scientist Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) and his oceanographer daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing) and financed by kid-like billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson). Zhang and his team are attempting to dive farther into the depths of the Mariana Trench, where they believe there is an undiscovered ecosystem. So they send a submarine with a crew of three to test the waters and soon discover that, yeah, there are new life-forms on the deep, dark ocean floor, including a gigantic, smart, relentless shark who attacks their sub.

After the attack, the three find themselves trapped underwater, stranded with little oxygen. That’s when Taylor (Statham) comes in to hopefully save the day. Alas, like a moth to a razor-toothed flame, he too gets wrapped up in the discovery and destructive nature of the prehistoric Meg.

“Man vs. Meg isn’t a fight,” he says at one point, “it’s a slaughter.” 

Throughout the movie’s hour and 53 minutes, there’s action (helicopters galore!), terror (tiny dog vs. giant shark!) and love (wet and shirtless Statham!). Plus, 10-year-old newcomer Shuya Sophia Cai steals every scene she’s in as Suyin’s daughter Meiying, a curious little girl whose one-liners and mischievous looks melt even the heart of steely Statham.

VCG via Getty Images

American film director and producer Jon Turteltaub, child actress Shuya Sophia Cai, actress Li Bingbing, English actor Jason Statham and Australian actress Ruby Rose attend the premiere of “The Meg” on Aug. 2 in Beijing.

The best part comes toward the climax of the film when The Meg is headed straight for the shore where hundreds of vacationers are wading in the water, sitting in neon inflatable tubes or lying on rafts. A la “Jaws,” it starts out with a dog named Pippin enjoying a swim before all hell breaks loose. The Meg enters the scene, dragging floats, eating swimmers and generally terrorizing children. It’s somehow visually stunning, incredibly scary and absolutely hilarious all at the same time.

(Just keep your eyes on ice-pop kid and you’ll get it.) 

In terms of the shark itself, the film’s special effects are pretty solid, despite the fact that the animal appears primarily as a fin rising up on the horizon. But don’t worry, you get your classic Statham vs. His Enemy moment, because what would this film be without an iconic underwater brawl scene? 

All in all, “The Meg” is exactly what you want it to be: a thrill ride full of deep sea adventure and beyond-cheesy dialogue. (“Not only did we fail, but we failed science,” Dr. Zhang sincerely mutters to laughs from the audience.) 

If you’re looking to be entertained from start to finish, well … the movie’s opening scenes try too hard to get you invested in its lackluster ― and soon to be dead? ― characters. So give it 30 minutes or so before throwing in the beach towel; the last hour is the show you were waiting for. 

“The Meg” hits theaters Friday. 

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