#axolotl but longer
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bethanythebogwitch · 2 years ago
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This Wet Beast Wednesday is going to get dark. Not because of any grim subject matter, but because it involves caves. The olm (Proteus anguinus) is a cave-dwelling salamander classified as a troglobite, meaning it lives only in caves and cannot survive elsewhere. Compare to a trogophile (lives both in caves and outside) and a trogloxene (visits caves, but can't survive long-term in them). It is found in caves in the Dinaric Alps mountain range and can be found near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Bosnia, and has been introduced to a few other cave systems. Historically, they have been known for washing out of caves after heavy rainfall, where they were often though to be baby cave dragons. The olm sets the record for being Europes only trogolobitic chordate and the largest trogobite in the world at 20-30 cm (8-12 in) long.
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(Image: a olm seen from above)
Unlike most salamanders, the olm is exclusively aquatic, living entirely underwater. To support this lifestyle, it is neotenic (retains juvenile characterists as an adult), having external gills for its entire life. The adult form does have lungs, but they are only used in ery low-oxygen environments. Despite sharing this adaptation with the North American axolotl, the two species are not closely related. They also have multiple adaptations for a life spent in complete darkness. Like many other cave-dwellers, olms are blind. Their eyes are very underdeveloped, but are still sensitive enough to detect light, which the olm flees from. To compensate, their other senses are more developed than those of other salamanders. They have powerful chemoreception through taste and smell, able to detect very low concentrations of chemicals in the water. It also has powerful hearing and a unique organ on its head that allows it to pick up electric fields. They are known to use this sense to orient themselves with the planet's magnetic field lines. Olm skin is thin and has no pigment, giving it a very pale coloration. They do retain the ability to create melanin and will gradually darken if exposed to light, though this is stressful for it. Their bodies are long, slender, and flexible, with underdeveloped legs. This allows them to have more sensory receptors along the body as well as helping them move through tight places.
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(image: the head of an olm)
Olms live life in slow motion. The scarcity of food in their habitats is matched with a very slow metabolism that also gives them extremely long lifespans. They feed on small invertebrates and are capable of going on extremely long fasts between meals by reducing activity and metabolic rate. Olms can last up to 10 years between meals and one was recorded as staying in the same spot for 7 years without moving. They have an estimated maximum lifespan of 100 years and an estimated average lifespan of around 68 years. It takes a juvenile around 14 years to become sexually mature (though this rate in increased in warmer water) and females typically only reproduce every 12.5 years. Sexually active males establish a territory and chase other males away. This is notable because olms are otherwise gregarious, meaning they try to live around others. Mating pairs perform a mating ritual in which they circle around each other while touching each other with their snouts. The male then releases a spermatophore (sperm capsule) and the two wriggle together until it reaches the female's cloaca. Females lay their eggs in small cracks or between rocks and protect them as they develop. Some older references state that olms give live birth at low enough temperatures, but this has never been observed by scientists.
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(gif: an olm moving around)
Olms have a subspecies called the black olm (Proteus anguinus parkelj) that is found in a very small cave system in Slovenia and has several differences from other olms. Black olms have pigmented skin, fully developed (though still small) eyes, and its other senses are weaker. This suggests that the black olm is a much more recent colonist of caves and has yet to fully adapt to an underground lifestyle. In addition, olms from different cave systems have minor physical variations, usually involving head size.
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(image: a black olm from above)
Olms are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, though local populations may have their own classifications. Their biggest threat is from pollution, especially wastewater runoff containing pesticides, fertilizers, and PCBs. Olms are also targeted by the black market pet trade and many places have laws preventing the removal of olms except for scientific purposes. Caves are temporary structures and species specially adapted to live in them will always be in danger should the environment change rapidly or the cave collapses. Olms have been introduced to a few other cave systems. Olms are considered a national symbol of Slovenia, especially as their presence in Postojna cave was one of the inspirations for the beginning of cave biology as a field and they are still used to encourage ecotourism.
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(image: an official Slovenian coin depicting an olm)
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pokimoko · 1 month ago
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Ace Week is upon us again, which means it's time for me to share some more silly little critters with you all! (If you like, you can also say hello to their friends from 2021, 2022 and 2023.) ✨Go and be as amazing as always, aces✨
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nenoname · 4 months ago
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stan twins the canon cptsd brothers i will always think about all your unaddressed issues that would make perfect plot fuel for your spinoff
and also the whole 'stan getting that poem by bill via a website which contrasts with bill getting one from the axolotl via a website' foreshadowing thing
like idk i would love something like su future but like more optimistic, aka not an accumulated breakdown that has to be mostly resolved off screen at the end :/// but something thats being kinda addressed throughout? (although would love to see one of them turn into a monster thats always fun lol)
stan having severe issues from his dad and those years of being homeless that we keep on getting more info on but never really getting confronted on (the drifter catalogue and tijuana incident...), him being completely alone for like twenty years when running the shack before soos comes along to the point that 1998 is noted as his low point, and him not really learning about bill+what he did to ford until ages after he killed him if he ever did get the full context
while i think amnesia and everyone seeing him as a hero actually helped with stan's 'i'm a worse version of my brother' thing its still a lingering issue too and we now got him being insecure over his own hands
ford being immediately thrown from 'being tortured by bill' to 'being stuck in the multiverse and being chased by bounty hunters constantly', him fully expecting himself to die when destroying bill, and him only now being safe for the first time in 30 years ....relatively safe, he's still in constant danger because of course he is
idk in the end the series wants them to be happy and they deserve it, its why i wasn't too worried about the book being like 'ooh bill is back!! and the book is haunting ford' thing cos i knew they'll be ok
#stan pines#ford pines#stanley pines#stanford pines#gravity falls#stan twins#as for the 'still on your mind' thing to me its stan literally thinking about bill despite ford resolving to move past it#or alternatively me on my same coin theory obsession lmao#me yelling and screaming at ouroboros being used to link to the axolotl and bill and how ford didn't actually keep it#which brings up even more questions about it reappearing in the shack when stan takes over#of course even if him realising about reincarnation being a thing i think its still way less to deal with than his actual issues#something something a same soul doesnt mean much when he already proved himself a better person a million times over#idk my thoughts on reincarnation as a concept is like eh??? anyway#also completely unrelated but stan writing fanfic means he knows what soos meant when he was talking about stan fics#soos seems like a gen fic writer especially with the ones we got as those promos#the train one where he comes up with a giant backstory for the setting that has nothing to do with the fic bros is super funny#but meanwhile we have stan the canonical smut writer who had to be writing it that summer#would he be a self insert shipper? would he projecting on the duchess instead? is he both???#i have many questions#then again judging from hows theres a wedding scene that he got super emotional over he might just be a shipper????#this has nothing to do with my original post#...or does it cos the axolotl last appears reacting to stan freaking out about count li--#anyway if you think this post is longer than my usual its cos i physically made myself delete most tags and put it in the actual post
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theaxolotlkween · 7 months ago
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Silly little comic I made.
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ckret2 · 11 days ago
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So will you be continuing the Goldilocks fic or not? I havent been following up that much so I'm kinda confused...
I'm confused by your confusion. It is actively being continued right now. I'm posting a chapter every week. I posted a chapter 45 minutes ago.
Did you come from AO3? If you did: AO3 updates are on hold until I've finished writing this current plot arc, explanation here.
If you didn't come from AO3: did you overlook the recent chapters because the last few weeks they've been about triangle Bill instead of human Bill? Right now we're taking an intermission from the main storyline to do an extended flashback to Bill post-Euclidean Massacre. It's still part of the fic. The sci-fi cosmic horror political drama is relevant to the overall storyline.
If you've skipped over the last few weeks' chapters because you didn't see human Bill's pretty face in the chapter art, you can find them all here.
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aardwoof · 6 months ago
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this took me like 3 minutes. love me a man that’s easy to draw.
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thesinnersgallery · 7 months ago
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behold: kinito 3d model (the gills were a bitch to make)
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askingtherapybill · 3 months ago
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Uh, where did your hat go? we never took it.
are you doing something?
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@malon-lonlonranch @deuterium-is-way-too-common
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I STILL HAVE IT! IT JUST DOESN'T FLOAT ANYMORE. NOT AS FUN.
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lucent-nargacuga · 16 days ago
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the fact that the old gownwyrm is longer than slinking mawphantom (which is the largest and most aggressive of the mawphantoms) is lowkey terrifying
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There are 4 2010s cartoon villains i know of with the horned animal skull aesthetic and 5 2010s cartoon villains i know of with the big horns and glowing eyes in general. I love that shit the design fucks so hard. Does anyone have more examples im starting a collection
#the owl house#emperor belos#centaurworld#the nowhere king#adventure time#the lich#over the garden wall#the beast#amphibia#darcy#that last one is a little different bc darcy and the core are axolotls not deer or other horned mammals#and also their vibe is REALLY sci fi and robotic#still has the big branching horns though and the glowy eyes and cool voice#the lich the nowhere king and belos both have the aesthetics or rot#and the three plus the beast pick at that creepy rural horror if thats what you call it#something that should be a deer but is no longer a deer#a primal horror or sorts#like idk about the lich but the beast the nowhere king and belos are all like#theyre the scariest when you see just their silhouettes in the distance#like the nowhere king and belos are both goop guys and its gross but when you cant see that#whatever you fill in with your imagination is more spooky#darcy and the lich arent really that but they work best when theyre lurking in the background like you can see them#but the threat of what theyre going to do is scarier than what they actually do i think#the lichs corruption goes hard i guess but maybe i was too old for adventure time for it to leave an impression on me#while i loved darcys badass scythe fight but just them lurking in the background was more intimidating#i guess the beast is also like this? he was more passively manipulative#meanwhile belos and the nowhere king are Bastards that do war crimes and are great at it#also are very very tragic figures and are doomed by the narrative and whatnot#or rather doomed themselves#shut up pandora
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the-august-axolotl · 2 years ago
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Nightmarch Day 6- Nocturnal 
Axolotl!Nightmare is from @project-bestiary​! Co owned by @shiroinacoma​
I have wanted to draw this little lad for so long I love him so much :,,,,,D 
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godsfavoritescientist · 1 year ago
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I finally did it. I fully outlined the first story arc for my fic
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nenoname · 2 months ago
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i wonder if theres any fics of ford finding out that an axolotl just so happened to be living in the mystery shack for over 30 years and the slow realisation that it was a god hanging out around stan (but also him not using the frilliam name for it lmao i think no one is happy with that name)
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silverislander · 11 months ago
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last year for my birthday my friends got me a stuffed axolotl. THIS year for my birthday another friend got me another, longer stuffed axolotl
we just got back from secret santa christmas party and guess what i got. no just guess
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the-isopodcalypse · 4 months ago
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Handsome boy demanding worm
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paintedpawz · 1 year ago
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Finally found the art program for me it seems, even though Krita gave me some troubles at first, I got comfortable pretty quickly once I worked out the tools. :D I’ve been wanting to practice with reference images, as well as it helps cement my fursona’s design!  Still might tweak the colors to be a little more pleasing to the eyes.  Even than, Pig looks amazing in digital art now that I got a better grasp on their design! 
Anyway, Pigment is happy because they woke up and remembered it’s pride the 1st!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈
Reference was this meme~
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