#new species just dropped

[punksvspreps]

Antarctic Strawberry Feather Star

[detectiveapparatiagreen]

I went on a tour of a cave once and the tour guide explained, “When people think of bats, they think of crazy bloodsucking vampire hybrid horrors. we don’t have those. our bats are like… chicken nuggets with wings.” And i have loved bats ever since.

obsessed with this sign i saw taped up outside the bat room at the zoo yesterday. the enthusiasm, the hand-written note, the bat drawing.

[markscherz]

Meet the seven new frog species we just named after iconic Star Trek captains!

Artwork by A. Petzold, CC BY-ND 4.0

At the right time of year along rushing streams in the humid rainforests that stretch the length of Madagascar's eastern and northern mountain ridges, otherworldly trills of piercing whistles can be heard.

Are they birds? Insects? Communicator beeps? Tricorder noises?

No, they're little treefrogs!

Boophis janewayae. Photo by M. Vences, CC BY-SA 4.0

Until recently, we thought all of the populations of these little brown frogs across the island were one widespread species, Boophis marojezensis, described in 1994. But genetics in the early 2000s and 2010s showed that there were several species here, not just one.

Now my colleagues and I have shown that they are in fact eight separate species, each with unique calls!

These whistling sounds reminded us so much of Star Trek sound effects that we decided to name the seven new species after Star Trek captains: Boophis kirki, B. picardi, B. janewayae, B. siskoi, B. pikei, B. archeri, and B. burnhamae.

Photos of all new species described by Vences et al. 2024. CC BY-SA 4.0

I subtly and not-so-subtly built some Star Trek references into the paper, but probably the best one is this one:

'Finding these frogs sometimes requires considerable trekking; pursuing strange new calls, to seek out new frogs in new forests; boldly going where no herpetologist has gone before.'

— Vences et al. 2024

There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that there are at least two Trekkies amongst the authors (including yours truly). As fans of Star Trek, we are also just pleased to dedicate these new species to the characters who have inspired and entertained us over the decades.

On a personal note, this marks a milestone for me, as it means I have now described over 100 frog species! I am very pleased that the 100th is Captain Janeway's Bright-eyed Frog, Boophis janewayae (if you count them in order of appearance in the paper)—she is probably my favourite captain, and I really love Star Trek: Voyager.

You can read more about the discovery of these new species on my website! You can also read the Open Access paper published in Vertebrate Zoology here.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This is Boophis Pikei,

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2451789-seven-newly-named-frog-species-make-whistles-that-sound-like-star-trek/

[hallowshumour]

Updated ref and species change for Deans Agent, Sid. 🚬🐅🔷️❌️

[mazyb0i]

The snake looks so ANNOYED LMAO

hi do y'all mind if i misuse this blog entirely for a second. idk why i'm asking i don't actually care they found a new snake it's a New Snake we didn't know about this snake before!!!!

[the-dragon-girl-27]

flocking drawings!!

Young Altispinax preparing to do a mating display

Thyreosaurus slaying a Theropod

Ornithoprion just swimming round

Mama Mapusaurus bringin home a Chakisaurus carcass for her daughter

[waterlogged-detective]

The first and greatest of The Tea Ladies (The Surgeoness' girl group)

[greenerteacups]

hi GT! thanks again for the great chapter—loved it (as usual).

just wanted to come on here to sing you praises with just how well you write touch/physical affection especially in the most recent chapter’s first half: draco & hermione being v touchy while entering hogsmeade vs. draco’s jealousy with ron + hermione, and how you depicted draco’s reaction to both (i.e., his awareness on just how not-platonic his actions were vs failing to see that ron and hermione might not be also sharing the same thing) and the way his jealousy flares up. it’s starkly real and engaging and you just leave us wanting more.

just wondering: would there be more platon-ish (or more) moments in the realm of Lionheart, since the books were PG?

hope u have a good day!!

Thank you very much! I hope you have a good day, too.

I think of Lionheart right now as a story that rides the line between PG-13 and R (for gore, and I guess also technically for swearing, since there's been more than one "fuck.") Those things will only scale up as the story goes on, to an extent that will soon surpass the books. If the original series can be split up into "children's / young adult" around the lynchpin of Book 4, I think of the volumes of Lionheart as "children's / young adult / new adult." New adult is, naturally, more capacious as a genre than young adult is, and I'm cautiously feeling out my comfort level in the new territory it opens up.

To be completely honest, I'm still making up my mind on how far to push past canon there. I know that explicit scenes are common and welcomed in the D/H fanfic space, to an extent even expected, but the jury is out on how much it will be relevant/necessary/something that I'll enjoy writing. (I'm aware that this is a totally confusing and not helpful answer. Friend, I also wish it was not like this.) Basically, I'm just trying to figure out what the story needs.

I guess the most I can say currently is that I'd definitely be comfortable writing it — I've written it before — and for the rest, I'll play it by ear.

[pansexual-exoplanet]

THIS IS SO COOL and I just wrote my evolution final so I think I can help a little.

SO my favourite hypothesis about humans is that humans really evolved as scavengers and hunters if small prey, and tool use is something we developed to help us along the way. We also developed a language that's pretty flexible and it sets us apart from most other animals.

Now, there are birds that ALSO have tool use and language and my favourites are corvids (like crows and ravens) and parrots (like the kea who love fucking with people)(seriously there's tons of Youtube videos that are hilarious go watch them). They typically use stuff like twigs with their beaks to reach places they normally can't.

The way evolution works is that it acts on an organism at each stage of change, so each transitional form between an ancestor and a successor must be viable and fit. So I don't think they would lose their wings, because they provide an incredible fitness advantage to modern day birds in urban environments, and each transitional form would also benefit from the added mobility, they would likely keep their wings. Also their feathers help them fly and have been pretty fine tuned to do so, so I wouldn't expect those to change either.

What I would expect to improve is their ability to use and make tools. While modern day birds have some ability to craft and use tools, they are a bit awkward with it. I'd expect them to improve their neck dexterity to help manipulate tools in their beaks better (imagine the sphinx from dragon's dogma 2 levels of neck mobility). Their beaks could also become more supple (think rubber-like instead of the current rigid beaks) to firmly grip thicker tools. Their tongues would likely then evolve to be their primary means of manipulating these tools, probably with finer motor control developing at some point.

Another thing that would happen is an increase in the cranial volume and brain size, to support more sapient behaviours. Since bigger brains need to be carried around and are pretty expensive (in terms of fuel needed to use them, 20 percent of our resting calories are used by the brain) I'd expect this branch of birds to be bigger than their cousins. Bird brains are actually organised in structures similar to our own, with the pallium being analogous to the neocortex (the "thinking" part of the brain with the power to make associations), so they wouldn't have to be too big. They also can't be too big, because it would hurt their ability to fly. Either that, or they become big and eventually become flightless.

They also would speak using an organ called the syrinx, which would make a pretty unique language given that they could hold two tones at the same time. It sits deep within the chest, so any changes to it probably wouldn't be seen externally, but imagining a bird-kin musician singing both the lead and the backing track in a smoky pub is something I can't wait to read about.

SCIENCE TUMBLR could yall pls help me with something???

so, context, I have this OC species of bird ppl. and I know there's been design and design again(ex. harpies, arracockra- if I can spell idr) about this but I would like these to fit more into the weirdcore aspect, or more wobbly on that line between realism and fantasy than the other things go.

IF birds were to evolve similarly to HUMANS/MONKEYS, realistically, how would this play out?

would the more predatory birds play the role of humans, and the others would play monkeys? would they keep their wings, or would they fall into useless(?) bones territory like our tails? would feathers reduce to similar areas as our hair? how different would the eyes be, how would beaks evolve?

what's more, how could we/I change these bird-based humans to be able to communicate with monkey-based humans?? what would need to happen to the beak to be able not only to speak birdlike but monkeylike as well???

AUGH IM STARTING TO LOVE THIS REVAMP ALREADY

[arolesbianism]

GUYS.

New dupe real! Also new pod????? Olivia is that you girlie speak to me

[bookwyrm-art-stuff]

fluffy dragon.

(versions with and without stripes)

I overthought this way more than it looks like, so details below the cut (drawing details and the random shit I made up about this type of dragon. Don’t be fooled, I made it up as I wrote it)

This cutie lives in the mountains and other cold places. It was vaguely based off polar bears, mountain goats, snow leopards and mountain lions, besides my usual wings of fire style dragons and stock knowledge about drawing stuff like fur.

This particular individual is a juvenile, coming up on their last molt into their adult coat. Since these dragons reach maturity around when the first heavy snow hits, their new coat will be entirely white. Come spring, when the snow begins to melt and shortly after the mating season, they will molt into a more mottled and darker pelt to raise chicks.

The chicks are born live, and raised usually by two or more individuals. While capable of sexual reproduction, this species tends to reproduce asexually, but raise the chicks in groups of two to seven adults. There are around three chicks per dragon ecery season (all in one litter), and dragons in a group usually give birth in staggered intervals across the season, so that there are only three to six newborn chicks at a time. Parenting varies across groups; some have specific dragons caring for specific ages of chicks (one or two care for newborns, others care for youngsters, more care for older juveniles), some simply rotate with each litter, but one oddly consistent fact is that the parent almost never cares for their biological chicks. A dragon will slow down somewhat during the gestation period (these dragons often move to work with the youngest chicks in larger parent groups so that they don’t strain themselves with teaching older chicks more difficult things like hunting) but after giving birth they bounce back very quickly, and most keep with the younger chicks through their growth, rather than caring for their own newborns, especially if the parent is inexperienced. If there are complications in a birth or other injury or a parent dies, the rest of their group will take over care of their chicks and them if they are still alive. These communities result in a shockingly high survival rate in both parents and offspring through the summer, though during the winter these groups split up and youngsters and adults alike die from natural causes. While they separate during the winter, there is little hostility between individuals, and they often simply ignore each other until spring, though groups during mating season have been seen to act friendly towards each other year round. During “mating season,” when groups of parents gather and arrange to raise chicks, yearlings from last season are often adopted into groups of more experienced individuals of at least six years and help parent the chicks while not yet bearing any of their own.

[bugtransport]

maybe the BONGS are the characters. and the person holding them is just placeholder

i need to go to bed so badly i opened up a toyhouse link and forgot that i have an account there now (i haven't done anything with it. you haven't missed anything there) and went to the front page of the site and happened upon a character with 4 different references uploaded but they're all actually the same except that the bong the character is hitting is different colors in each. which i think is really good character design

[markscherz]

Say hello to Platypelis saikamavo, a new Malagasy species of microhylid frog with a bright yellow belly that we just described!

This species was discovered over TWENTY years ago, but it has taken until now for it to receive a name. Why? Because there was some uncertainty about another species with a yellow belly, Platypelis mavomavo. Fortunately, we were able to solve that problem last year, and thus, P. saikamavo could be described!

Photos by Franco Andreone.

[aller-geez]

And for my last dumb art post for a bit,

Geezie was bored and decided to make a new species…

Suddenly this cute lil poisonous blink dragon came to life and his name is Lozze 🐉

[gaykarstaagforever]

The UK is home to the endangered (there, at least, stop building housing and using pestisides where they live, you bastards) Great Crested Newt

Females

Males