#do you guys get the reference for the “we're both unusual” pic

[haebi-nd]

—–──—─ Uraraka Ochaco - ── .✦

˖° the heroine : Uravity ⸝⸝ ⊹

ᵎᵎ₊ ⊹ ◟☰ . ウラビティ⋆.˚ ⌒⤸

quirk ⁞ zero ⸝⸝ ꒰ gravity 𓈒✴

- ྀིྀིガンヘッド マーシャル アーツ ๋࣭ ⭑-- gunhead martial arts

‣. “ Ochaco's willpower is one of her greatest strengths...from a desire to provide financial support for her family, ” ∘ ✶

© haebi-nd, haebi nice day

[lensman-arms-race]

I am fascinated by cursed biology! Our planet has so many weird guys. (I studied biology at A-level, and attempted a paleaeobiology degree before dropping out - trying to navigate mainstream education as an at-the-time undiagnosed autistic was very hard!) Some of my fav weirdos (sources are appended to the images):

Bone-eating worm (Osedax sp.)

These deep-sea worms are extremely unusual, in that they don't have mouthparts or a stomach! Instead, they secrete acid to dissolve bone and free the proteins - which are then digested by symbiotic bacteria living in the worm's digestive tract. It's still unknown how the bacteria transfer nutrients to their host, or whether the worm simply digests them. The first Osedax species to be named was Osedax mucofloris, which translates as 'bone-devouring mucus flower', referring to the fluffy-looking 'crown' of gills. The three tentacle-like appendages are the worm's 'roots', with which it anchors itself to bone.

The Osedax in this picture is female. In fact, any Osedax you can see is female - males are microscopic and live in the females' bodies. This is an extremely weird animal. I love it.

Pigbutt worm (Chaetopterus pugaporcinus)

It's a worm that looks like an arse, hahahahahaaaa!! C. pugaporcinus has no apparent reproductive organs, which implies it's actually a larva. We don't yet know what its adult form looks like, as this species was only described as recently as 2007!

Leucochloridium variae

Eye horror warning (snails, no humans involved).

Not posting a pic because some people might find it horrifying. L. variae is a parasitic flatworm whose life cycle involves both snails and birds. It first infects a snail, where it burrows into the snail's eyestalks and lays its eggs. The eggs then pulsate and attract the attention of hungry birds, who peck off the unfortunate snail's eyestalks and ingest the eggs, for the parasite to begin the next stage of its cycle. The snail doesn't die from this, and regenerates its eyestalks.

This parasite is fascinating to me because a) the snails don't seem to even mind; they don't act as though they're in pain, and b) this is one of few parasites that actively tries to get eaten (by the birds). Most parasites don't attract attention this way!

I do feel sorry for the snails, though. Snails are also among my favourite weird guys because they got dealt a bad hand in life. Snails are gastropods, which are defined as undergoing torsion in their larval stage. As a result, the main nerve line and respiratory tract are twizzled around each other - so the animal has to time its breathing and pooing so it doesn't inhale its own jobbies. Poor gastropods!

Facetotecta

Oh man. These are larval crustaceans - we have no idea what their adult form is. Someone tried to force metamorphosis in these larvae by squirting them with the appropriate hormone, and they turned into squishy things (called ypsigons) with no limbs or segments, then promptly died. What the hell!

Humans

Humans are definitely a weird creature in my opinion. Humans are top-tier animals; I love being one.

We are the sweatiest of all the mammals; it's not even close. We are sweatier than the second and third sweatiest animals combined. We're also the mammal with the greatest vocal range, and for primates we have an excellent sense of smell. As mammals go, we have superb vision too. Our healing factor is also stupid fast compared to most mammals.

We're also generally weird in that we're highly granivorous for primates, and we're one of only 2 mammals known to actively seek out spicy food (the other is the tree shrew, which is a close relative of primates, sharing the taxon euarchonta (primates, tree shrews and colugos) with us). We're also one of only 2 mammals that can get scurvy, along with cavies. We have the gene for synthesising vitamin C but it's switched off. Luckily we're frugivorous enough that it's not really a problem.

Humans also die if we experience dehydration levels of 10%, whereas most mammals can bounce back from 20% dehydration. Added to the fact that we're so sweaty, we are really weirdly soggy.

Cursed biology o'clock

Would Skibidi Toilets be classified as Homo sapiens skibidi (or some other subspecies name, such as Homo sapiens latrinus (toilet) or Homo sapiens murrine (porcelain)), or would they have to be put in their own genus? Skibidi sapiens?

Do they count as a dual organism, like how a lichen is a composite organism (made of algae and fungi working co-operatively)? Maybe the human part is still plain Homo sapiens and the toilet part counts as a separate life-form (Skibidi latrinus)?

I'm reminded of Buddenbrockia plumatellae, which is a myxozoan: a 'worm' that's genetically a jellyfish (cnidarian). They evolved from jellyfish into uni-cellular life-forms, then evolved a different multi-cellular shape from the one they had before! Looks like a wormy, technically a jelly. A skibidi toilet is presumably genetically a human, but has acquired a completely different shape.