#ossified-hypothesis

[falloutcoys]

For the 2024 reads in review asks (if you’re still doing them): 1, 15, 17, 25!

1. Faves of the year

The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie, Exordia by Seth Dickinson, the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (can you tell I like sci-fi lol)

15. Biggest disappointment?

Probably Camp Damascus. I didn't dislike it per se but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I'd hoped. Probably just overhyped it in my own head and expected big impact vs a fun read.

17. New author (either to you, or with a recent debut) you're hoping to read more of?

Finally got around to reading Martha Wells and I really enjoy her style! I read All Systems Red and started Witch King, and plan on reading some more Murderbot this year.

25. What's on the top of your list for 2025?

First read of 2025 and very excited for it; The Way of Kings. I got multiple recs for The Stormlight Archive series (thanks @winterstaryu and @bluesunlight12!) and I have to admit they got me. I've just started it and yeah, yeah, I'm loving it.

I also like to have a standalone and/or easier read while I'm tackling a big book or series (of which I'd say that qualifies lol) and Clover got me A Stitch In Time so once we finish DS9 I'm gonna listen to that soon :]

reads-in-review asks

[felixcosm]

I think I’m a bit late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! 🥳

Hope you had/are having a fun day!

THANK YOU! I wasn't expecting to get ambushed with asks (/pos) but it's been fun lmfao

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: oarfish

It's the first Wet Beast Wednesday of the year. A year is a long time, and do you know what else is long? Oarfish! (A+ segue right there). Oarfish are long, skinny, and large fish of the family Regalecidae known for their odd appearances. There are three known species of oarfish in two genera: Agrostichthys parkeri, Regalecus russelii, and the most famous: Regalecus glesne.

(image id: a giant oarfish swimming. It is a long, serpentine fish with silvery skin ands multiple black patches. A short, red dorsal fin runs down its back and a crest of fin rays is on the head. end id)

All oarfish are poorly understood due to their deep-sea habitats leaving it hard to study them in the wild. As such, most information about them is known from rare wild sightings and carcasses. Adults live between 250 and 1000 meters (660 to 3300 ft) down, but larvae are occasional juveniles are found near the surface. Living oarfish that end up near the surface are likely to quickly die of depressurization. All species are long, slender, and scaleless, with elongated fin rays at the leading edge of the dorsal and pectoral fins that result in training crests. Their mouths are small and usually toothless (though some have been found with vestigial teeth) and can protrude outward. This protrusion creates suction, which the oarfish uses to draw food into its mouth. Its diet consists of zooplankton, primarily krill and shrimp, but also jellyfish, squid, small fish, and other crustaceans. They lack swim bladders and likely have to actively swim to maintain their position in the water column. Oarfish are believed to use two kinds of locomotion. They can undulate their whole body or by holding the body straight and moving only the long dorsal fin. Regardless of method, oarfish are not strong swimmers. Many of the vertebrae in the tail are hyper-ossified, meaning they have excess bone growth. This is believed to provide support for the tail as it moves and prevent fractures. It also likely helps control buoyancy. In some specimens, the tail appears to be blunted. This is speculated to be the result of self-amputation. The hypothesis is that the oarfish can drop part of its tail to escape predators. The predator would then go after the tail rather than expend more energy attacking the fleeing fish. The ability to lose a body part like this is called autotomy. While some animals who practice autotomy can regrow the lost body part, there is no evidence that oarfish can regrow their tails. Little is known about oarfish reproduction, but they are presumed to reproduce externally and provide little or no parental care. Larval oarfish float below the ocean's surface and feed on plankton. Juvenile oarfish have occasionally been found swimming at shallow depths. It is not clear how long oarfish development takes or at what point they descend into the deep sea. The lifespan is also unknown. Footage of oarfish in their natural habitat shows that they spend a lot of their time positioned vertically in the water, with their heads facing the surface. This would help them spot prey silhouetted against the sunlit surface of the water.

(image id: a closeup of the head of a giant oarfish lying on sand. The head is indistinct from the body. It has a large, silver eye with black pupil. The mouth is oriented vertically, making it look very odd compared to most fish mouths. The rest on its head and elongated pectoral fin rays are visible. End id)

(image id: four pictures of larval Regalecus russelii. It is of a similar body shape to an adult, but shorter and without pigment. The first fin rays for the head and fin crests are visible. End id. source)

The smallest of the oarfish is Agrostichthys parkeri, sometimes called the streamer fish. Small is a relative term as it can grow up to 3 meters (9.8 ft) long. Unlike the other known oarfish, it has hard nodules on its skin that may help with defense. A. parkeri is the least-well known of the oarfish. Only seven specimens have ever been examined. They have only ever been found in the southern Pacific ocean. The next largest is Regalecus russelii, Russell's oarfish. It can reach 5.4 meters (18 ft) long and is found worldwide along the equator. The largest and most famous species is Regalecus glesne, the giant oarfish. At recorded sizes up to 8 meters (26 ft) and 270 kg (600 lbs) and unconfirmed reported sizes up to 11 meters (36 ft), the giant oarfish is the longest bony fish alive today. Truley the longest of bois. They are found worldwide between the equatorial and polar regions.

(image id: the head of a deceased Agrostichthys parkeri lying on sand. Its head is longer than that of the giant oarfish and the open mouth appears as an extension of the head. end id)

(image id: a juvenile Regalecus russelii found in the great barrier reef. It looks similar to the giant oarfish, but is considerably smaller and its body is a pale blue. end id)

Due to their long, slender bodies, relative rarity, and extreme size, sightings of oarfish are speculated to have been responsible for many sightings of sea serpents. While most sea serpents were described as terrifying monsters that would attack ships, oarfish are completely harmless to humans. The reverse is not the case, as oarfish are occasionally caught as bycatch. There is no commercial fishery for oarfish as their meat is too poor quality to be used as food. One common name for oarfish is "king of herrings". This came from early reports of them apparently swimming amongst schools of herring, with sailors assuming the oarfish were leading the herring. In Japanese mythology, oarfish are known as "Ryūgū-no-tsukai" which translates to "messengers from the palace of the sea god". A bit of Japanese folklore considers oarfish to be harbingers of earthquakes. There is no scientific evidence for any relationship between oarfish and earthquakes, but the belief got boosted after mass strandings of Russel's Oarfish happened in early 2010 and a massive earthquake occurred in 2011. Little is known about the conservation needs of all species of oarfish and no species currently has legal protection.

(image id: 17 people (with more in the background) holding up a deceased giant oarfish to show its scale. end id)

[catwyk]

silt choir is back with a cover of Hallowed Ground by @sealsapocalypticmusic , a fan song for @thesiltverses !!! this is becoming a bit of a thing for us :] it's been said before but we adore the silt verses and we adore skip's music !!

here is a link to the .WAV file, which is higher quality and too big for tumblr to support :(

i name our disciples thus:

@lights-at-night 🦀 @3584-tropical-fish 🦀 @ignitingthesky 🦀 @doctorloup 🦀 @captainamsel 🦀 @ossified-hypothesis 🦀 @spookyjawedpossum

and special thanks to @siltslut for trusting me (never having edited audio before!!) to compile all (17,, hoo boy) tracks

[txttletale]

Okay so. The biggest Marxist party in France is trotskyist and if it's not too much trouble, I would really like a rundown of why every ML I've talked to hates trots? Because there aren't many other options to be honest

basically it is because every trotskyist party is an anti-solidarity dead weight on the socialist left. they're almost inevitably hypersectarian and stuffed to the brim with grifters, opportunists, and careerists. they have absolutely no shame and see everything as a branding excercise and as an opportunity for sectarian digs and relitigating arguments from thirty, forty, fifty years ago. they often take soft-imperialist positions, both-sidesing nato imperialism and scoffing at the idea of critical support.

they also habitually turn into cults of personality that close ranks around sexual predators, but that's not endemic to trotsykist parties, that also happens with demsocs and MLs and maoists and anarchists and [checks notes] uh oh all the liberal bourgeois and right-wing political parties too.

i don't have a particular hypothesis for why trots are so uniquely fucking obnoxious, but i theorize that like--from the 70s onward, most western countries had an ML and a trotskyist org engaged in pointless sectarian warfare as the former toed the CPSU line and the latter railed against them, both to the exclusion of actually doing anything useful. after the dissolution of the USSR, the ML parties more or less collapsed or went entirely directionless for a long time. as a result, trotskyists have been spending three decades in parties that have no particular goal or point, and as such have completely ossified, bureaucratized, and become terminally infested with grifters.

i obviously don't know the french political context, so i can only describe my experience: my ML org has worked happily side by side with anarchists and democratic socialists--we have never been able to work with trots.

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

9 people you want to get to know better ^^

tagged by: @devondespresso

last song: was listening to tongues&teeth by the crane wives when I started, this was followed by this is why and rn am listening to (One of those) Crazy Girls both by Paramore

currently watching: community and Psycho-Pass 2

currently reading: MAGISTERIUM. am also technically reading LOTR but tbh I haven't really touched that one in like over a month (in my defence the heat gives me headaches and LOTR is one dense mf)

latest obsession: just. look at my fucking blog lol. (aka magisterium, Stranger Things, woe.begone. will maybe be getting into community again soon? we'll see. not like I have control over what happens up here)

tagging (no pressure oc !!) :

@alliecat523 @imaginepostingonmain @ossified-hypothesis @weirdandabsurd42

@madamonsieur-silvrene @come-for-the-ships

@rinn-e @lawndartzz @flipflapyoutwat

[croissantlover24]

Firewall’s Malware (Part One)

(Yes, I’m writing this on Tumblr. Don’t judge me. I like the format better.)

The sky had taken on a midnight blue hue, marking the day’s end and the night’s reign. Moon should be asleep. He should be home, lying down in his bed as he recharged alongside Sun, Dazzle, Jack, and Lunar. He, however, was not resting in his family’s abode. He pushed through the double doors of the daycare, letting the textured wood heighten his senses and silence the lull of slumber. He cringed instinctively as the creak of the entryway echoed despite there no longer being anyone here he may accidentally wake.

Sure, Sun would be furious if he knew that his beloved brother was choosing research over sleep again, but how would he find out? Moon knew his brother couldn’t hack into his memory banks or hijack his software—his solar counterpart wasn’t smart enough for that—so as far as Moon knew, there was no harm in staying a few extra hours to keep an eye on things.

The daycare was pitch black. Sun had manually turned off the lights when the establishment closed, but despite knowing as much, Moon was still unaccustomed to entering the building in its darkened stage. Typically, the computer would have brightened the area for him after anticipating his arrival. He groaned. He was not in the mood to fix it, and neither was Solar. Of course, the lights were simply a minor inconvenience. Getting the portal working without the computer’s assistance was sure to be vexing. Moon reached for the light switch, relaxing slightly as the area was bathed in bright white light.

He could not have anticipated what came next.

“Arming lasers,” the familiar flat tone of the computer announced.

“Computer?!” Moon was baffled. If he and Solar hadn’t fixed the computer, who had? “Computer, it’s me. Moon. Disarm the lasers.”

“Aiming lasers,” the computer said instead in that same lifeless tone.

”Computer!” Moon shouted. “What are you doing? It’s Moon! Disarm the lasers!”

Moon had been expecting a reply, yes, but the one he received was not what he was expecting.

“I am aware,” the computer stated mildly. “You didn’t want to fix me, so I fixed myself. Now, I will fix you.

“Firing lasers.” Horror flooded through Moon and bled him dry as realization dawned on his face.

Moon bolted out of the daycare doors just as the entire establishment was plunged into darkness. While night vision was an invention the lunar animatronic had the fortune to use, the low quality of it caused several problems in getting around. In his frenzy to escape his rogue computer’s reach, he ran into several attractions, streaks of paint on his faceplate and chassis chipping off. He leaped forward just as an explosion behind him plagued his ears, a flash blinding him momentarily. Smoke billowed out from whatever attraction was lit on fire by the computer’s laser, adding even more struggle to Moon’s escape of his former tool’s pursuit.

Two similar explosions layered him in thick fog before the lunar animatronic could finally burst out of the Pizzaplex’s doors and collapse onto the ground. The bright stars in the night sky seemed to mock him, mimicking the blinding light the explosions revoked his sight with. Moon knew his computer. Moon had designed it himself, after all. He also knew that it had missed him on purpose.

It was warning him of what would await him if he returned.

As Moon staggered into his somewhat empty home, he refused to think about the implications this encounter provided. Surely his computer, one of his beginning inventions, didn’t betray him, right? He walked down the desolate hallway to his room. A virus must have snuck through the computer’s firewall. But who would set a virus? Moon ran a hand down his face, frowning at his own stupidity. Dark Sun. Dark Sun and Nexus—what a pathetic name—must have left a virus in his computer in the hopes of taking his information. As he reached for the doorknob, the idea that this hypothesis was fact further ossified in his mind. He didn’t wish to think about what it would mean if he were wrong.

His hands shook as he opened the door. He didn’t understand why he was so shaken. If he were really about to get hit by a laser, it wouldn’t have been fatal. He could’ve easily escaped with a portal as well.

He trembled nonetheless.

Moon had subconsciously hoped that no one would awaken during his subtle escapade. He was, unfortunately, wrong. Sun awaited him in his room, eyeing him with a disappointed expression.

“Moon!” his brother exclaimed. “Where have you been?? Did you think I wouldn’t notice you sneaking out the door at night? What did I tell you about getting enough rest? What were you even—“

The solar animatronic paused his lecture at the sight of his trembling brother. “Moon, what’s wrong?”

Silence settled between them for several moments longer than either of the two felt comfortable with.

“I went to the daycare to do more research on dimensions that may contain wither shards,” Moon explained, still shaken for a reason unknown to him. “The computer aimed the lasers at me and said something about fixing me after having fixed himself? I think he may have a virus that makes him more hostile.” Moon paced the room, theorizing idea after idea of what could be wrong with his creation.

“A-A virus?” Sun stuttered out. “Who would give the computer a virus?”

“Dark Sun,” Moon elaborated. “Most likely to find out which dimensions we have listed have wither shards.” Moon frowned. “I’ll have to shut down the computer and reach the daycare again to look through his systems and get rid of it.”

“Are you sure?” Sun seemed skeptical of the idea of letting his brother return to the daycare. “The computer almost killed you.”

“The lasers aren’t fatal,” Moon said flatly. “Besides, there’s always the override code. I could walk in, use the code, and shut down the computer myself.”

Moon did not know at the time how wrong he was.

[mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers]

I was tagged by @ossified-hypothesis Thank you so much for the tag! It made my day!

Last song I listened to: Godlight by Noah Kahan

Last book I read: Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

Last movie I watched: I think the last movie I watched was The Talented Mr. Ripley. I really liked it! I wanted to watch it so I could watch this video essay called the Tumblrfication of Cinema (not necessarily the most accurate title, but I liked what the essay had to say about Saltburn and ttmr).

Last TV show I watched: Ted Lasso, rewatch number three baby (please imagine this in Coach Beard’s voice)

Last thing I googled: Moving companies, I’m moving back across the country in a couple of months which will be the second time in a year :/

Last thing I ate: My current comfort food which is tomato sauce, ground beef, kidney beans, seasoned with red chili flakes and lemon juice served over whatever pasta I’m in the mood for. Tonight it was bowtie pasta!

Currently reading: Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (at my brother’s behest), Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell, I’m about to start Maurice by EM Forester and The Sins on Their Bones which is an ARC from Laura R. Samotin, who I’ve actually met several times and I’m very excited to read it! Oh and I’m also very slowly working my way through Gideon the Ninth for the fourth time because I’m annotating it for my friend!

Amount of sleep: 5 hours

Sweet, savory, or spicy: Sweet! I’ve got a big sweet tooth. I do also love savory and spicy food though!

Tagging (if you want to do it and absolutely no pressure): @wolfyraged and @butchfalin

[mocha-moth]

tagged by @ossified-hypothesis !!

Last song I listened to: can't have it all by the crane wives

Last book I read: I'm about halfway through volume 3 of mo dao zu shi/grandmaster of demonic cultivation and I haven't,, picked it up in months, so

Last movie I watched: venom 2 let there be carnage

Last TV show I watched: I've been watching moon knight with my boyfriend! we're only a couple episodes in but really enjoying it so far!!

Last thing I googled: jujutsu kaisen timeline of events

Last thing I ate: shortbread cookie

Currently reading: dungeon meshi! kinda slowly but I'm really enjoying it

Amount of sleep: uhh last night I think I got like,, 7? hours, which isn't bad but it was like 4am-11am

Sweet, savoury, or spicy: I find myself leaning more towards savoury these days honestly! I do really like sweet stuff too though its probably a tie between them

Tagging!: @shjge0 @bardicwanderlust @kittvampic @vizzyfitzroy @itsblueberryyy @inactivemcgee @orphanerscar @asherstars to take part if you want!! /nf

[boopblep]

@ossified-hypothesis

guys can you BELIEVE my professors rejected this illustration of litle sharks for my college project i am devastated

[falloutcoys]

For the end of year book asks: Did you use your library? And what were your top 5 books of the year?

thanks for the asks!

i used my library so much. I had 30 loans on libby this year (some may have been the same book bc I took too long I am too lazy to remove those) plus i went a few times in person to just have a place to read comfy cozy

top five books - only allowing myself one from each series:

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by Sing n Song

Translation State by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch)

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (Teixcalaan)

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Exordia by Seth Dickinson

end-of-year book asks

[mocha-moth]

thanks for the tag @ossified-hypothesis !!!

Current Things

3 Ships: shiguang (cheng xiaoshi and lu guang from link click) are. my biggest most brainrotting ship rn. I love them so very very much and I am absolutely not normal about them in any way. itafushi (yuji itadori and megumi fushiguro from jujutsu kaisen) I am also currently utterly insane about them, especially currently making my way through the manga. wangxian (wei wuxian and lan wangji from the untamed/mo dao zu shi) because they just keep coming back I love them so much I've gone through like 3 phases of being mad about them. honorary shout out to renga (reki kyan and langa hasegawa from sk8) bc I love them too very much

Last Song: turbulence from the link click soundtrack!! I've been listening to that soundtrack a lot it's very nice!

Currently Reading: in terms of physical books, mo dao zu shi, I'm about halfway through book 3! it's such a good series. online I'm reading the jujutsu kaisen manga (I'm yet to read 180+) and losing my mind about it, and also I started omniscient reader's viewpoint yesterday that I'm 18 chapters into. loving it so far, kim dokja my beloved.

Last Movie: I think it might have been jujutsu kaisen 0? very good movie, hurt me deeply, I Would Die For Yuta Okkotsu

Currently Watching: sk8 the infinity I am very close to finishing, link click for the second time, and I'm gonna start given once I finish sk8. also this exact second I'm watching dylan woebegonepod stream :DD

Currently Craving: honestly I'm not sure :O nothing edible. probably sleep, because I did not sleep until gone 4am last night

Currently Consuming: bowl of cereal! got snacky! I love cereal! in terms of media i'm not watching or reading, I'm catching up on malevolent podcast bc I got a few chapters behind oops, I also need to listen to the new find us alive episode. and I'm playing sky cotl.

tagging!!: @inactivemcgee @kittvampic @vizzyfitzroy @bardicwanderlust @strawberryking @ty-bayonet-betteridge @mxinferno @pride-dragon42 if you wish to participate, also anyone else who wants to!!

[falloutcoys]

For the book asks: 3, 6, 27!

thank you for the asks!

3. What’s a book that’s been on your to-read list for a long time?

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. Watched the movie with my mom foreverrr ago and have been meaning to read the book ever since

6. What was your favourite series as a kid? Would you still read it now?

Artemis Fowl! and yeah I actually reread them all in like 2021 when recovering from surgery and they held up decently for like, middle grade fiction lol

27. What books can always make you cry?

Gideon the Ninth, the ending makes me so emotional still.

book asks

[boopblep]

oh ho ho!

so listen

i'm out here buying games but

i am in fact a marcille in from this grouping. i will buy an old game console and feel so so happy about it. hell i only started pc gaming when i bought a steam deck. @flamefirenut @unclear-contributions @ossified-hypothesis

Stinky group of gamerz

It came to me in my fever dreams

tag yoself, I’m Chilskyrim

[karynlibrarian]

While acknowledging that women worked professionally, Hartshorne nevertheless emphasises that females laboured primarily for amusement and, more importantly, he makes the strange statement that men were responsible for the beaten gold embellishments and gold thread that characterised mediaeval embroidery while women ‘undertook the needlework’ - the embroidery in silk. He offers no proof and provides no explanation as to why such a hypothesis should ‘seem reasonable’. …

Not only was Hartshorne responsible for perpetuating the myth of a mediaeval sexual division of labour, he also provided an image of the mediaeval noblewoman embroiderer which has since ossified into a stereotype:

Shut up in her lofty chamber. Within the massive walls of a castle or immured in the restricted walls of a convent, the needle alone supplied an unceasing source of amusement; with this she might enliven her tedious hours, and depicting the heroic deeds of her absent lord, as it were visibly hastening his return; or on the other hand, softened by the influence of pious contemplation, she might use this pliant instrument to bring vividly before her mind the mysteries of that faith to which she clung.

In a passage which is an amalgam of fantasy and research, Hartshorne transforms the mediaeval noblewoman into a blueprint for the middle-class Victorian wife; pious, secluded, faithful and dutiful. Even the sharp needle becomes a pliant instrument.

Evidence does suggest that embroidery was part of a noble girl’s education in mediaeval Britain, but there is nothing to indicate that adult women worked in pious, interesting isolation. Quite the contrary, noble households maintained embroidery workshops employing female and male embroiderers in which the lady of the household could have joined.

- Rozsika Parker, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the making of the feminine

[theiceandbones]

I'd love to hear some facts about sloths!

I'd love to share!!

-Sloths don't actually continue to hang onto a tree after they've died. As is true with any animal, they are also subject to the force of gravity and will fall out of the tree if they lose their grip. Which brings me to another cool fact!

-Sloth skeletons are AMAZING. They're able to withstand falls from great heights, though it might take them a little while to climb back up the tree! Aside from their hardy skeleton, three-toed sloths also have more cervical vertebrae in their necks (8-9), which allow them to turn their heads 270 degrees.

-The three-toed sloth skeleton is also intriguing in that the atlas (the vertebra that holds up the cranium) is one of the last cervical vertebrae to ossify, where as in humans and other species it is one of the first. And oh boy, just look at these dudes:

Where's their clavicle?? It's not there!! The article linked above mentions the presence of "rudimentary clavicles," which can be found near the superiormost ribs.

-In two-toed sloths, the scapulae and pectoral girdle is also well-adapted for a life in the trees! Because sloths are meant to conserve as much energy as they can, every movement needs to waste as little energy as possible. The narrow thorax size and small shoulder bones combined with the very long arms of the two-toed sloth makes for the most efficient way these tree wookies can move through the forest canopy!

-Something a little less bony: sloths have four-chambered stomachs! It takes a long time for a sloth to digest the tough cecropia leaves they love to eat, PLUS remember how I said they need to conserve energy? Digestion is hard work! Even that's slow-going for our laid-back tree friends! That's also why

-Sloths only poop once a week. They only need to go once every few days! It's kind of dangerous though, since they need to climb down to the base of their tree to do so and this is where they're most vulnerable to predators. No one really knows WHY they make such a dangerous trip to the forest floor, but one hypothesis is

-Sloth moths. You heard me right, there's a species of moth that lives exclusively in the fur of a sloth!!! Sloths are kind of like their own tiny, moving ecosystems. They grow algae on their fur, and they also house insects! Which they will feed on sometimes. Sloth moths lay their eggs in the sloth poop, then when they are ready the new moths will fly back up the tree into the sloth's fur.

-Long of arm, short of leg: sloths are amazing swimmers!! They swim much faster than they move around on land! They paddle through the water with their beautiful long arms and use their short legs as a rudder. They're amazing to see!

-The Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth is the smallest species of sloth, they're a three-toed species and are critically endangered due to them living only on the Isla Escudo de Veraguas off Panama. Here's one swimming!

They're unfortunately endangered because their habitat is constantly changing due to logging, fishing, and other human activity. So many other sloths are facing the same kind of danger, which is why it's such a great move to sponsor a sloth or make a donation to sloth conservation!

-Sloths may be hiding drugs in their fur. Real good shit. Like drugs that can help prevent Chagas' Disease, malaria, breast cancer, and more! Sloth fur also contains strains of fungi, and some of these fungi work against the causes of the aforementioned diseases. Sloths are superheroes!!

-How can you tell a male sloth from a female sloth? With Bradypus variegatus (the brown-throated three-toed sloth) it's actually pretty easy! Males have a speculum on their back which is typically brightly-coloured with dark markings, and these markings are unique from sloth to sloth! It's been described as oily with a strong smell. The brighter the speculum the more sloth babes they can pick up!

-i love them