#science illustration

[nemfrog]

"Human liver in which the portal vein had been injected white." The physiological anatomy and physiology of man. 1859.

Internet Archive

[alphynix]

Spectember 2024 #05: Most Weasel

@gaycoonie suggested a "future legless mustelid":

Descended from an arboreal offshoot lineage of the modern least weasel, Maximagale gaycooniei is a bizarre mustelid that appears to have converged on the lifestyle of ambush-hunting tree snakes, evolving in northern latitudes where actual snakes are largely absent.

Growing to about 1m long (3'3"), it's not truly legless but its limbs are all reduced down to tiny vestigial single-clawed spurs, which are used to help anchor its body while climbing and as claspers during mating. It moves around with a distinctive inchworm-like looping gait, alternating grasping and releasing with its front and hind spurs.

Its build is bottom-heavy, with most of its mass concentrated in its thicker back end, and its tail is semi-prehensile. It clings to trees with its body bunched up, camouflaged with cryptic coloration, and rapidly whips its long flexible front half out to snap its powerfully-muscled jaws at prey – such as insects, birds, lizards, frogs, small mammals, and pretty much anything else that comes within its reach.

It will also opportunistically raid the nest of birds and arboreal mammals.

Due to the less frequent meals its ambush-hunting tactics provide, it has a much slower metabolism than its ancestors, and it conserves energy with daily periods of torpor and longer hibernation during the colder months of winter. It has also retained its ancestor's tendency to seasonally shrink its brain size to reduce energy requirements even more.

[rebeccarhelm]

The lost jellyfish art of Ilona Richter, from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea...

[typhlonectes]

I’m sorry, but some of y’all really need to see this…

[counterintuitivecomics]

Some colorized bits from my recent free printable zine WHY WE MASK: It's Not "Just A Cold"! I purposefully made the whole thing b&w to make printing as cheap as possible, but it's fun to add color especially to the snot-splosions.

HEY COMICS FRIENDS going to SPX or other cons this weekend - MASK UP, EAT OUTDOORS, and REST if you start feeling run down. COVID-19 levels are BAD bad right now (it's currently the worst September out of the whole pandemic) and the government does not have our backs. This virus causes YEARS worth of horrible vascular, neurological, and immune system damage, and each infection raises your chances of gaining fun new disabilities that could prevent you ever making comics again.

I strongly advice cancelling festivals, cons, indoor dining, anything involving crowds indoors OR outdoors, etc. But I know people depend on income from cons, so: PACK MASKS, NASAL SPRAY, and CPC MOUTHWASH and actually use them! If you develop any COVID-19 symptoms (headaches, dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea, sore throat, sore joints, etc) don't assume it's "just a cold". Stay in your dang hotel room and REST! You can TRY to "push through" to keep tabling but you are NOT gonna like the long-term results (aka Long COVID).

I care about all you comics people and I want you to enjoy many more decades of making and sharing and reading comics with each other. If you're feeling sick at a show this weekend and don't know what to do, drop me a line! No judgements. Take care of yourself and each other out there and remember, no one can rest your body for you but you.

(Image Descriptions are in the Alt Text. Also please feel free to print my zine and hand it out if you do go)co

[slowlytenaciouscherryblossom]

Te dejo un CHISMECITO: aquí el corazón humano

[asparklethatisblue]

Bat and human arm bones~

I figured it’d be something to help a child visualise the similarities

[natureintheory]

NEW PRINT!

A fantastical, retro-futuristic laboratory for black hole research. Originally created for The Institute for Advanced Study – The Institute Letter.

The graphics on the small screens represent real black hole characteristics: Kerr black holes, donut-shaped accretion disks, gravitational effects, binary systems & more.

Credit: Olena Shmahalo for The Institute for Advanced Study

[koenji]

Badgers of the world. Illustrations by Toni Llobet. x x

[dirtmossart]

Sedimentologist, Natacha Fabregas, using a microscope to check grain size

[comixqueen]

Repostober 7: He stretch his leggy out real far! Anchiornis from 2018, a piece from grad school.

[nemfrog]

"Phases of Saturn's rings." A fourteen weeks course in descriptive astronomy. 1870.

Internet Archive

[alphynix]

Osteostracans were an ancient group of jawless fish, closely related to early jawed vertebrates, whose fossils are known from the mid-Silurian to the late Devonian of what is now North America, Europe, and Asia.

They were heavily armored, with bony head shields and rows of large scales covering their bodies. While their flattened shapes and upward-facing eyes have resulted in them traditionally being interpreted as mud-grubbing bottom-dwellers, their paddle-shaped pectoral fins, dorsal fins, and strong tails indicate they were also quite good swimmers – and their diverse hydrodynamic head shield shapes suggest they probably had a much wider range of ecologies than previously thought.

Although many osteostracans had large flaring spines on the sides of their heads, or long snout-like spikes at the front, Tauraspis rara here was unique in having two long front-facing horn-like projections.

Around 7.5cm long (~3"), it lived in brackish and freshwater environments in what is now northern Siberia during the early Devonian, about 410-407 million years ago. Like other osteostracans it had a small keyhole-shaped "nostril" opening, and large patches of sensory organs known as "cephalic fields" on the sides and top of its head shield.

The fields were covered with a mosaic of small bony plates, and their exact function is still a mystery – but they may have been involved in sensing vibrations in the water, or possibly even been electric organs.

Similarly, what Tauraspis used its unusual pair of "horns" for is also unknown.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Ferrón, Humberto G., et al. "Computational fluid dynamics suggests ecological diversification among stem-gnathostomes." Current Biology 30.23 (2020): 4808-4813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.031

Janvier, Philippe. Early vertebrates. Oxford University Press, 1996. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294830957_Early_vertebrates

King, Benedict, Yuzhi Hu, and John A. Long. "Electroreception in early vertebrates: survey, evidence and new information." Palaeontology 61.3 (2018): 325-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12346

Mark-Kurik, Elga, and Philippe Janvier. "Early Devonian osteostracans from Severnaya Zemlya, Russia." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15.3 (1995): 449-462. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1995.10011241

Wikipedia contributors. “Osteostraci” Wikipedia, 25 Jan. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteostraci

[hannahmcgill]

Cocoon Year Weeks 7 & 8 Graphic

A little late posting this one (These do a lot better on Bluesky and Mastodon for some reason!) but I haven't forgotten my dear insect-averse tumblr crowd.

There will be an additional wrinkly baby caterpillar soon! Nom nom nom!

[img id] Digital art of a caterpillar munching its way out of a translucent eggshell. The caterpillar is chunky with a shiny black head, and little black grippy legs. Just the head of the caterpillar pokes out, while the rest of its body curls around inside of the shell. The egg rests on a nest of fine, curly milkweed hairs. [/id]

[typhlonectes]

from Science diagrams that look like shitposts.

[jadafitch]

Common Yellowthroat & Leatherleaf