#taxonomy notes

[er-cryptid]

Bengal Fox Classification

Kingdom = Animalia

Phylum = Chordata

Class = Mammalia

Order = Carnivora

Family = Canidae

Subfamily = Caninae

Tribe = Vulpini

Genus = Vulpes

Species = Vulpes bengalensis

.

Patreon

[prokopetz]

Sideblog: A blog used to post content which doesn’t fit the theme of one’s main blog.

Subblog: A blog used to organise content because things have reached the point where tags are not sufficient.

Interblog: A blog used to coordinate activity between blogs.

Parablog: A blog which exists to explain the content of another blog.

Quasiblog: A blog platform used for non-blogging purposes.

Pseudoblog: A non-blogging platform made to serve as a blog.

Infrablog: A sideblog which presents itself as an unaffiliated main blog for plausible deniability reasons.

Unblog: A blog used to not post things.

Blogblog: A blog used to blog about blogging.

Superblog: But they were all of them deceived, for another blog was made.

[morphimus]

why did you tag that horse video with #chordate? the organizational system that implies fascinates me

[black-and-yellow]

w1ld a1 b4by

[velvetwyrms]

Heya folks! Please specify in the comments which one works best, not just the range, otherwise this poll isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do 😅 thank you!

[legobiwan]

For a writing prompt: maybe something with Luigi and polterpup? Or just Luigi and ghosts in general. The fact that ghosts are Real and Present in that world has always been super fascinating and a little upsetting to me haha. Could be as light or as angsty as you wish I just think Luigi being terrified of ghosts and having to (or in polterpup’s case, choosing to) be around them constantly is a fun concept to toy around with.

Apologies this took so long, anon. I vastly underestimated the demands of my travel schedule over the past few weeks. Oof. But now we're back!

Minor TWs in this one for general talk of death, existentialism, and broad references to both animal and child death (nothing graphic, nothing extreme, no on-screen death).

~~~~~~~~~~~

Of Ghosts and the Afterlife (Luigi’s Mansion 1)

Luigi didn’t like to think about death.

Not that there was much he could do about it. Death was as inevitable as a subway car with broken air conditioning on a hundred-degree day.

There was no such thing as the afterlife, Luigi having long ago abandoned the faith his brother and what remained of their family clung to, a practice more cultural than spiritual, steeped in the mores and traditions of a country and people he shared little in common with beyond his last name and an untamable mane of wavy, thick brown hair. 

For Luigi, death was death - game over, end of the line, see you never. A philosophical problem he didn’t enjoy contemplating, but one he could easily shove into a forgotten closet of his subconscious, the more pressing concerns of his daily life taking up his mental energies, banal things like scraping up enough plumbing jobs to pay the rent, dealing with corroded spark plugs in the repair van, and being forced make a meal of the questionable meatball subs from the corner bodega.

Death was death. Religion was religion. And ghosts were…a fairytale, a folklore conjured to rationalize away the heavy weight of existential dread. That, or something used as a cudgel, to keep people on the side of moral righteousness, lest they be doomed to walk the earth for all eternity in the shadows of existence.

Ghosts were a thought experiment. A fun diversion in a cramped Bensonhurst studio, the heating bill long unpaid, he and his brother buried under a set of fraying blankets, their father’s hefty industrial flashlight in hand, competing to see who could scare the other the most as the D Train rattled its metal bones past their window at two in the morning.

Mario was good at stories. (Mario was good at everything). And it wasn’t that Luigi was afraid of the spirits his brother would describe in gruesome detail, the way they’d seep through cracks and keyholes, wrapping their grey, misty arms around skinny, lost children who kept too many secrets. No. He couldn’t be afraid because ghosts weren’t real.

Not until he had been unceremoniously dumped into the Mushroom Kingdom, that was. 

He could deal with the existence of Boos. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but he could at least assign them a category outside the paranormal. Boos were just another strange species, a bunch of floating marshmallows that looked like ghosts and acted like ghosts, but in no way were actual ghosts. Boos were something real, something alive, but beyond Earth’s limited taxonomies, just like everything else in this impossible world of talking mushrooms and tyrant turtles and evil wizards and booted dinosaurs and a million-and-one things that could leap out with fangs or fire or spikes and kill you at any moment - 

Death, he had once nervously told his brother over a campfire on the outskirts of Toad Town, felt like it had become a way of life. 

The letter had arrived on a crisp autumn morning, the early sunlight peeking through the gaps of Luigi’s drawn curtains. He remembered thinking it was a clean kind of light, unsullied by the drudgery of heavy coats and thick scarves, of greying slush and oily puddles pooling in the gutter, cigarette butts bobbing up and down like the stained buoys off Brighton Beach. Life had been, if not normal (he didn’t think he’d ever consider his existence in the Mushroom Kingdom normal), at least less chaotic than usual. There had been no invasions, no kidnappings, no pleas from neighboring kingdoms for help. For the first time in a long time, his daily routine was…pedestrian. A little boring, even. It was a nice change of pace.

He should have known better. Did know better. 

No one gave away mansions.

Yeah, and I’m sure they also have a bridge in Brooklyn they’d like to sell me he had muttered, crumpling up the notice, tossing it into a dented, mushroom-shaped garbage pail without another look as he groped for a gurgling coffee pot.

Three days later, a short, wiry old man was thrusting a souped-up vacuum into his hands, blathering all kinds of nonsensical instructions about ectoplasm and strobe lights and hearts and all that Luigi could think through the high-pitched static descending on onto his brain is that my brother is in danger and holy shit this entire mansion is filled with actual, real ghosts.

There was no time to wrap his head around the metaphysics of it all, the very real danger of being killed by an entire army of irate specters overriding any considerations as to the how or why of the entire situation. Ghosts apparently existed, not only as Boos, but as colorful, globulous forms, as cantankerous old knitting women, as mechanical, murderous toy soldiers, and worst of all, as small children and even screaming babies, the terrible implications of which rattled around Luigi’s already frenzied consciousness as he sucked the heart from a wailing infant, in all likelihood murdering it a second time. (A hazy memory had surfaced, a small, doll-like figure laid on a cheap, linoleum kitchen table, legs unstable as a small cadre of extended relatives wept and laid kisses on the child’s forehead. Forty and eight hour, their great-grandmother had commanded in broken English. To be sure the true dead. Spirito.)

It had been less than twenty-four hours, he reminded himself. Mario wasn’t dead. Or undead. Or whatever. Not according to tradition, and certainly not according to Luigi’s empirical observations (which seemed to be holding less and less weight as the paranormal evening drew on). No, he had seen his brother through the marble fangs of the dragon’s head. He was in the painting, banging for his life against an invisible prison of oils and canvas, his mouth open in a silent scream.

A victim of magic, but not a ghost.

Not if Luigi had anything to say about it.

He ran. Up broken, splintering sets of stairs; down dimly-lit corridors with threadbare rugging; through trap doors and flocks of toothy, golden bats, vacuum hose at the ready, sucking away at anything even resembling a ghost (how many curtains, how many dresses and bedsheets had he whisked into shreds all because of the ripple of a breeze or a trick of the light?)

He fought his way through chamber after chamber, slurping phantasms from earthly existence, unwilling to consider just what he’s damning his enemies to, if he’s killing them again, if they can feel pain or remorse, if this whole situation is maybe a figment of his imagination and in reality he’s back in Brooklyn, or worse, committed to a padded cell in Bellevue, colorful apparitions dancing on blank, white walls, the evidence of a broken mind. 

He found his brother’s portrait hung in a baroque, gilded antechamber, the room something as alien as the specters he had been fighting, his grimy boots sinking into blood-red, lush carpeting as gems and pearls and other precious-looking stones twinkled in the light of a silver candelabra. 

The keeper of Mario’s canvas prison turned to greet him, a gargantuan Boo with a jeweled crown named ��King Boo” - an uninspired moniker if there ever was one - who pontificated at length, swearing vengeance on both Mario and Luigi, demanding reparations in blood and soul for crimes Luigi couldn’t even begin to understand, no less remember. 

Did I kill him? Luigi had panicked, rooted to the spot, Poltergust in hand as the Boo continued his long-winded diatribe. Is that why he’s a ghost? Did Mario do something? Luigi tried not to think too hard about the ethical dilemmas of their adventures, of their roles as protectors of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sure, people got hurt, that was the nature of the beast, but…

It didn’t matter, not when King Boo conjured a several-story tall likeness of Bowser, whisking Luigi through a portal to the stark rooftop of the dilapidated mansion to engage in a twisted game of cat-and-mouse (ghost-and-plumber), the giant Koopa puppet doing its best to stomp Luigi into a fiery, broken heap of ashes.

He escaped with his life. That, and the promise of retribution from beyond the grave, King Boo spitting all forms of vile epithets and visions of eternal pain as Luigi sucked the last of his bulbous form into the squealing, smoking Poltergust. 

When Mario was spat from E. Gadd’s printing machine, tumbling across the floor in a confused pile of limbs - his brother, real, corporal and definitely not dead - Luigi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

He never wanted to see - never wanted to think about another ghost again in his life.

Of Dogs (Luigi’s Mansion 2)

He supposed it made sense. In a way.

After all, if there were Boos, if there were ghost adults and ghost children and ghost babies - there were bound to be ghost dogs. Maybe ghost cats, as well. Hell, maybe an entire ghost civilization living (dying?) in tandem with his own flesh-and-blood world. 

He hated the idea. It trampled on every tenet of thermodynamics he had carved into his brain at the age of ten, made a mockery of the physics and chemistry and engineering that had carried him through adolescence and into adult life.

The Mushroom Kingdom - that was something he had at least managed to rationalize, had begun to construct a loose schematic for, notebooks upon notebooks filled with messy diagrams and rambling equations, an inadequate translation to his Earth-bound science, but one that allowed him to find some kind of solid footing in this incomprehensible new dimension.

Ghosts did not fit into his neatly constructed template. 

Least of all, ghost dogs.

Of course, the dog had to eat the key and run away, leading Luigi on a wild goose chase (he dearly hoped there was no such thing as ghost geese). He ran pellmell through gardens, through labs, through a series of mansions and other haun - 

Other decidedly creepy spots in the Evershade Valley. Places where he was left to battle groups of angry, globulous…shadows. Specters. Phantoms. Spirits. Poltergeists.

Ghosts. 

Again. 

He would have been angry if he weren’t so terrified. 

The dog, as much trouble as he was (He? She? Did it matter?) had at least not fallen under the spell of the Dark Moon, making him the Least Frightening Ghost of this particular run-in with the ethereal undead and King Boo.

And Luigi could almost get himself to…well…maybe not like him, but tolerate him. Even though the dog ate his keys, left messy trails of crumbs and soggy, half-eaten baguettes, slobbered all over Luigi’s pants, and managed at least once to urinate in a public fountain, a phenomenon Luigi would be puzzling over for months after the fact.

Best of all, the dog, unlike almost everyone else here, wasn’t bent on killing him. 

He was just a normal dog.

Who happened to be a ghost. 

Luigi wondered if he had had a family in life. Children to grow up with. A big house with a yard. He acted more like a puppy than an adult dog, his exuberant chaos reminiscent of the little Golden Retriever pup his second cousins had gotten when their family moved out to the Island. Oyster Bay, he remembers, real fancy stuff. Sal and Tony’s house had had trees. A garage. Separate bedrooms. He and Mario had begged for a dog for weeks after visiting, shuffling furniture around their tiny-windowed room, marking out places in purple chalk for the dog’s water bowl, his kibble, his toys.

Their father had grunted at the proposal, noting the two brothers would have to sleep in the same bed to make the space for their imaginary new pet. This ain’t no place for a dog, you two. You want animals, get a job with the pound. What, you’re still going to beg? Santa Maria. You two share that bed for a week without beating each other up and then come back to me. But I don’t like the odds. You boys haven’t shared a bed since you were seven. Five’ll get you ten you last forty-eight hours before someone’s fist is in the other one's face. 

They lasted three whole days before Luigi had planted his foot in Mario’s kidneys at two in the morning.

They never saw the dog in Oyster Bay again.

A car accident, real unfortunate stuff, Aunt Maria had told them later.

The memory haunted Luigi as he unholstered the Poltergust, forcing his fingers to twist dials and push at levers. He needed that key. It wasn’t just his life on the line if he failed. 

He squeezed his eyes shut as he sucked the ghost dog into the machine, trying his absolute best to ignore the little whines and terrified yips of the struggling not-animal. After what felt like an eternity, he heard the tell-tale “pop” of the Poltergust, signaling his success in capturing yet another ghost, the silver key clanging to the cobble-stoned ground.

Luigi had never felt less heroic in his life.

I just think he wanted someone to play with, E. Gadd had commented offhandedly later, emptying the Poltergust's canister into the gigantic silver ghost vault with his usual detached efficiency, oblivious to the way Luigi's features had paled at the comment.

When he got word of the dog’s escape a few hours later, Luigi didn’t even try to deny his relief.

Of Half-Lives and Vengeance (Luigi’s Mansion 3)

Fatigue. Carelessness. Hubris. Naivete. 

Or maybe it had just been sheer stupidity.

An invitation to vacation at an exclusive, luxury hotel, addressed to him. 

Nice things never happened to Luigi. Or if they did, he could hardly enjoy them, waiting on tenterhooks for the other boot to fall.

The boot fell that evening. It was ghosts. Of course, it was. Nearly twenty floors of ghosts. At this point, he could say he was almost used to it, the creeping shiver up his spine, the gluey residue of ectoplasm which would leave him tattooed with ugly, mottled rashes for weeks on end.

Once again, he had to act as a one-man army against the mass of spectral, malevolent will. Once again, his brother had been trapped in a painting.

There were differences, of course. Polterpup was by his side, the ethereal puppy proving more loyal to Luigi than his fellow spirits. (Luigi could never say Polterpup was "his" in the way most pet owners would lay claim to a regular cat or dog. The ghost puppy had a disturbing tendency to disappear for weeks, sometimes months on end, only to make his return in the most startling manner possible, more than once sending Luigi screaming, flailing off his bed at some weird, inconvenient hour of the night. But for as much as Polterpup could have a "home" - Luigi's house was it).

Luigi also had the help of his pseudo-clone, Gooigi, a horrifying creation of E. Gadd's, an unholy combination of ghostly discharge (the nature of which Luigi did not want to know), coffee, and, Luigi's own biological samples. An impossible being with whom he shared an inexplicable telepathic connection, and if Luigi had had any semblance of a minute to consider what that all meant (was he part ghost now? Could Gooigi outlive him? Would he maintain that consciousness after death?) he would have likely run screeching into the night.

(The fact Gooigi had proven essential to his continued existence did not distract from the wildly dubious ethics behind Gooigi's creation, an issue Luigi was definitely going to have a long talk with E. Gadd about at some point. If he could manage to broach the topic without falling into a breathless panic).

But the most striking aspect of his third encounter with King Boo and his minions, something that wriggled at the base of Luigi's cerebellum as he fought floor upon gimmicky floor the largest array of ghouls he encountered yet, was the element of premeditation.

King Boo had easily disposed of Mario, the Princess, and the Toads during their first midnight encounter. Sure, Luigi had escaped down a laundry chute, chest heaving as he toppled onto a pile of dirty towels. But that shouldn't have posed an issue for this crazed version of King Boo, a being who could literally phase through walls.

Luigi should have been dead, or worse than dead, ten times over.

No, King Boo had decided to wait. To draw out the deep, sustained hum of terror far beyond its final breath.

Security cameras were posted everywhere in the hotel. Luigi had no doubt the ghostly tyrant was following his every move, watching, salivating as he fought and struggled against Egyptian gods and malevolent Mozarts, and bearded, Bayou beasts. (Were these the literal souls of the departed? Was Mozart truly in these walls? Or was this like a ghost Halloween, a once-in-a-deathtime opportunity to fulfill that longing urge to finally be someone who you will never be?)

(He remembers being six years old. Remembers dressing as his brother for Halloween, Luigi stealing Mario's iconic red t-shirt, his parents pleading with him to go as anything else - a spider, a rat, a baseball player - Luigi refusing each entreaty. The other boys aren't going to like it, Luigi, his mother had said, consonants slurring. You're going to get the snot pounded out of you, Dad had added a beat later).

(In the end, he had thrown an old floral bedsheet over his head, not even bothering to cut out eyeholes. I'm a ghost! Luigi had boasted. You're a loser, Vinny Malanga had laughed).

And worst part of it was, Luigi knew it. Knew he could turn any corner, go down any dark hallway and be met with that signature violet gemstone, that bladed, fanged smile ready to slam an empty frame down on his head and trap him for all eternity in oil and canvas. 

Death waited in every shadow.

And King Boo was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Of Death (Epilogue)

Luigi thought he knew death. After three, separate encounters with buildings chock full of the undead, after countless hours spent in the company of the best paranormal researcher he knew (the only one he knew, admittedly), after providing part-time shelter for a genuine ghost puppy, after meeting his half-undead clone - Luigi considered himself, if not comfortable, at least conversant in the hows and whys of the afterlife. 

One day, he tried to stop a wedding between a princess and a monster.

Death, he would learn, was only the beginning.

[thethingything]

one day you may find yourself thinking "maybe I should learn about taxonomy. I'll try taking some notes about it" and you may think "I know what would be fun. let's make a Notion page where you can click through different taxonomic levels to get to various species" and I would gently advise not doing that because it gets so fucking complicated and I'm almost certain I've messed up something here

that being said I've started so I am gonna carry on with this until I either create something useful or get bored of it because I am having fun learning stuff even if I'm also confused as fuck the whole time

[devon-usher]

Are dinosaurs technically birds, yes or no

No, just as apes are not technically humans, and fish are not technically mammals.

Why... was this asked to me?

Hm.

[nerdie-faerie]

Received too much psychic damage from my phone that I had to start studying

[objectbiologist]

I've been starting to wonder at night of the Biological classifications of objects. Is it a 4th domain? an animal kingdom? Some funny looking protists?

as in taxonomy? we've begun working out a rough system for this.

the system isn't perfect, but it's a start, especially with species that are as unique and hard to classify as objects.

[bitterrobin]

The Kane Family (hc)

Making things complicated for myself: pt 3, for the Flamebird AU.

In order to properly explain/get through Bette's backstory and add context to Kathy Kane, I need to actually detail my headcanon version of the Kane family (which includes canon too bc why not). To me, the Kanes are like the Kennedy family if they were from New Jersey, Jewish and just about as many in-family deaths that happen maybe a bit too fast after the other. Also, they absolutely suck at maintaining their image and finances.

Read below to get a glimpse into the overly-detailed thought I've put into something that will only really connect to maybe like, 2 flashbacks.

(Putting a cut to save your dashboards.)

First things first; the patriarch and matriarch.

Roderick and Elizabeth Kane. Canon names. Not so canon history.

Roderick had an older brother named Mordecai (non-canon) who was dating a wealthy young lady named Elizabeth Miriam Ritter, who is from a notable German Jewish family that's very conservative.

Elizabeth got pregnant out of wedlock, immediately putting her out of favor with both the elder Kanes and her own family. She was going to marry Mordecai out of genuine love, but then uh...he died young at 28.

Because the Kanes had already announced the engagement but hadn't specified which Kane brother she was going to marry, they harassed and forced Elizabeth to marry Roderick instead in order to save face with the public.

While neither are particularly pleased, they go through with it.

Really all you need to know is that this forced marriage completely soured both of their outlooks on life, and the strained marriage that followed very much affected their children and grandchildren.

Roderick is emotionally constipated, quiet, and the exact opposite of affectionate. Still, he allows his children some freedoms that Elizabeth vocally dislikes.

Roderick used to be an engineer, not a businessman (that was his brother's claim to fame) so when he's forced to run Kane Chemicals - he completely botches it.

Later on, he's blackmailed into debt by a mobster named Judson Pierce, which leads to the bankrupt of the company and Roderick has a stroke that leaves him utterly paralyzed. (this is canon).

Despite one of his son's efforts to recover the company, they're forced to sell the business to ACE - thus creating Ace Chemicals. (also canon-ish)

Elizabeth, on the other hand, is a mother who is very overprotective and too involved in her kid's lives. She's not a great grandmother.

She's very religious compared to Roderick, which sows conflict between her and her children, as they are variously devoted to Judaism.

Dislikes all of her grandchildren bc they are all born of non-Jewish marriages out of wedlock or just out of a marriage that's not beneficial to the Kane name. Did not take in Bruce bc he's a Wayne, did not take in Bette bc she's born of a heavy scandal, and has no relationship with the twins bc Jacob purposefully kept them from her.

Not abusive, but overbearing and disapproving in that stiff, "will pinch you harshly if you're misbehaving" and be uncharacteristically affectionate in public when you do something "good" way.

Then, there's the Kane siblings, each known by the public whether its good or bad publicity. The number of siblings is not canon, but I need a way to explain how some of these people exist in canon along with Martha and Jacob, especially with the number of children they have.

Nathan Eli Kane (canon)

the oldest

Mordecai's biological son, but no one ever told him this.

Smothered by his mother and neglected by his father.

Protective of his siblings, especially fond of Martha.

Prepared since birth to be the Kane heir and an exceptional son.

Stifled by this, which explains why he dates and eventually marries the daredevil and unladylike Katherine "Kathy" Webb.

Fun fact, he canonically bought an entire circus for her.

He was formerly a Gotham City Councilman before he basically quit and fucked off to elope with Kathy as an act of rebellion when Martha was disowned.

They moved out of Gotham for the rest of their marriage.

He died of a heart attack at around 42 (out of stress/heartbreak not too long after Martha's death) - leaving Kathy Kane a widow. Canonically, he's around 47 when he dies, but it seems too old for the timeline I'm working with.

Never had children.

Philip Walton Kane (canon)

second eldest (2 yrs younger than Nathan)

a perpetual bachelor.

Doted on by his father, the most spoiled and objectively annoying of the siblings. Was one-sidedly jealous of Nathan.

Allowed to study and do whatever he wanted bc Nathan was supposed to run the company and his other siblings were too young to object.

As a teen, he became disillusioned with Gotham and moved out of the state. He almost renounced the family name when Martha was disowned, but decided against it bc he's still a daddy's boy.

Canonically studied to be geologist before being brought back by Roderick to run the company. (before the stroke).

Philip sucks ass at running the company and is partially the reason why his father gets blackmailed by the mob.

Took over Wayne Enterprises after Thomas and Martha were killed bc Bruce was too young. Canonically made business decisions that Bruce hated.

Died at 51 after being shot by the Joker (back when he was the Red Hood.) (also canon)

Never got married or had children.

Jacob Asher Kane (canon)

the middle child. 1 yr younger than Philip.

While Nathan and Philip always argued, adding to the strife of parents that did not love each other, Jacob never involved himself in any arguments.

He refused to be shoved into any kind of limelight, so he's not as famous as his siblings. He also kept to himself most of time, so no scandals either.

The second he graduated high school, he joined the army half out of a sense of duty, half to escape his family.

While in training, he met Gabrielle "Gabi" Hunter and they began to date.

Indifferent to his older brothers, but he doted on Martha, who was his favorite sibling. Simon was too young for them to bond.

The father of Kate and Beth Kane.

Named them after his mother bc of tradition and begrudged affection, never calls them their full names out of spite.

Martha Romi Kane (very canon)

middle child, the only daughter of the family. 3 yrs younger than Jacob.

Spoiled and doted on by all of her siblings, the most famous Kane child out of the good deeds she did and the scandals she was involved in.

the "wild child", I hc her as being just as weird and neurodivergent-coded as Bruce. She was incredibly interested in medicine, funerary practices, insects, self-defense, business, politics and many other "unlady-like" things of her time.

Despite her mother's efforts, Martha was never the picture-perfect daughter. She regularly skipped social events with Jacob and actively sabotaged public figures she disliked.

Fun fact, she was canonically nicknamed Marty in some stories.

The most philanthropic of her siblings, she regularly created and donated to various Gotham charities, volunteered, and was often seen disguised in the poorer parts of the city in order to help.

The biggest scandal of the city was when she started dating Thomas Wayne.

The Waynes had an eternal reputation as the name of womanizing, debaucherous men and scandalous, rude women. Both Roderick and Elizabeth were vehemently against Martha's relationship with Thomas. Not completely unjustified as Thomas had a reputation for being a womanizer and an alcoholic before he met Martha, despite his renown skill as a doctor.

Adding to the scandal, the Waynes were very Catholic.

Roderick actually liked Thomas, he just didn't want him to marry his daughter. Elizabeth absolutely hated Thomas and thought he was the evil of all evils.

When Martha threatened to elope, Elizabeth decided to disown her instead. Her siblings never forgave this.

By the time she was murdered, Nathan was in self-exile and both Philip and Jacob were out of state. Philip took legal guardianship of Bruce for a week before Alfred Pennyworth took over bc Philip just isn't a fatherly type.

Simon Mordecai Kane (non-canon)

the youngest Kane. 4 yrs younger than Martha.

Too young to bond with any of his siblings, but he actually loved his parents deeply.

He followed Martha around at a young age, idolizing her tough spirit and confidence.

He was separated from his siblings before they could really get to know him, as he was sent to a boarding school.

When he was 19, he had Bette by accident when he got the daughter of a businessman pregnant. She sent Bette to him as an infant to raise.

Bette's full name, Mary Elizabeth, is completely in loving reference to her grandmother.

At Gotham University, he studied architecture and contributed to Gotham's skyline and various other buildings later on. Bette was always with him in lectures and in his office.

A closeted and heavily repressed homosexual, he never married - which his mother resented.

As a young adult, he was well-adjusted and was a loving parent to Bette. He re-kindled a sibling relationship with Martha and a friendship with Kathy Webb-Kane, becoming close to both women.

He had a dangerous romance with the scion of an old, wealthy assassin organization - which may or may not have contributed to his death.

At 28, he died in a particularly fire-filled car crash on the Kane bridge. Bette was with him, but she wasn't mortally injured as he managed to get her out of the car before it exploded. (She was 9 years old.) By this time, Bruce was already 26 and Kate was 25.

As per his will, Kathy Webb-Kane adopted Bette and raised her up until she was 15.

That finishes it. If anyone has any Kane family headcanons or comic references that might change this, pls tag/comment!

A good majority of this will not make it into the fic as text, but there will be references.

[er-cryptid]

Ussuri Raccoon Dog Classification

-- Kingdom = Animalia

-- Phylum = Chordata

-- Class = Mammalia

-- Order = Carnivora

-- Family = Canidae

-- Genus = Nyctereutes

-- Species = N. procyonoides

-- Subspecies = N. p. ussuriensis

.

Patreon

[atthebell-moved]

what are your fav types of snakes?? :0

HI MOSS 🩷🩷

well im very partial to boas and pythons as ive kept them as pets for a long time

[coastal rosy boa (photo by connor long) & ball python (photo by musikanimal); both from wikipedia]

as a californian im also very partial to kingsnakes and i think it's cool that they eat rattlesnakes!!! they're naturally resistant to rattlesnake venom & are super strong constrictors. they make solid pets bc they're pretty easy to take care of & don't contribute to exotic pet trade issues since they're native to much of the americas

[california kingsnake, photo by connor long & wikipedia again]

but truly my absolute favorite is the same as my brother's-- the green anaconda 💚💚💚💚💚

[photos by lutz dirksen and the milwaukee county zoo (that lovely anaconda is named olive!!) respectively]

anacondas are also known as water boas bc they spend a lot of time swimming and just vibing in the water; they're also one of the heaviest & longest snake species (snakes are measured in a lot of different ways but for sure anacondas are chunky mfs).

they're native to south america, particularly the amazon river, & are also subject to a lot of weird fear mongering bc of various movies and animal myths. obviously they're dangerous and similar to burmese pythons have had issues in places like florida where the exotic pet trade has led to invasive species taking over niches but there are not a bunch of car-sized snakes crawling around the florida suburbs, unfortunately for the news outlets using photoshopped images of them. anyway. i think they're beautiful and really cool.

im also obviously very fond of venomous snakes like pit vipers & cobras-- did you know some cobras play dead like possums??? they look really goofy when they do it 😄 also idk if you're familiar with "The Brahmin and the Mongoose" or rikki-tikki-tavi (🤮 rudyard kipling) but mongooses are known for being able to predate on cobras bc they can bite them on the head. wild!!!!

ty for letting me infodump <3333

[ultimateinferno]

Funny thing about atheist ex-Christians is you'd expect there to be some kind of comradery between them and at times there is, but also you can consistently rely upon ex-Protestants and ex-Catholics to bicker about theology as much as any fervent believer so long as you maintain the charade that the whole thing is strictly academically secular. The culture runs far deeper than any spirituality ever will.

And by god, I enjoy it every time it happens. I love standing on the sidelines to see them bemoan about doctrine they've alleged stopped giving a shit about all while sitting on the sidelines pitching more fuel for the debate regarding the nature of the Virign Mary, knowing full well as an ex-Mormon I could derail the conversation in an instant if I truly wanted to.

[tunnels-end]

It is deeply, deeply beneficial to TERFs if the only characteristic of TERF ideology you will recognize as wrong, harmful, or problematic is "they hate trans women".

TERF ideology is an expansive network of extremely toxic ideas, and the more of them we accept and normalize, the easier it becomes for them to fly under the radar and recruit new TERFs. The closer they get to turning the tide against all trans people, trans women included.

Case in point: In 2014-2015, I fell headlong into radical feminism. I did not know it was called radical feminism at the time, but I also didn't know what was wrong with radical feminism in the first place. I didn't see a problem with it.

I was a year deep into this shit when people I had been following, listening to, and looking up to finally said they didn't think trans women were women. It was only then that I unfollowed those people, specifically; but I continued to follow other TERFs-who-didn't-say-they-were-TERFs. I continued ingesting and spreading their ideas- for years after.

If TERFs "only target trans women" and "only want trans women gone", if that's the one and only problem with their ideology and if that's the only way we'll define them, we will inevitably miss a vast majority of the quiet beliefs that support their much louder hatred of trans women.

As another example: the trans community stood relatively united when TERFs and conservatives targeted our right to use the correct restroom, citing the "dangers" of trans women sharing space with cis women. But when they began targeting Lost Little Girls and Confused Lesbians and trotting detransitioners out to raise a panic about trans men, virtually the only people speaking up about it were other transmascs. Now we see a rash of anti-trans healthcare bills being passed in the US, and they're hurting every single one of us.

When you refuse to call a TERF a TERF just because they didn't specifically say they hate trans women, when you refuse to think critically about a TERF belief just because it's not directly related to trans women, you are actively helping TERFs spread their influence and build credibility.

[i-should-have-studied]

IA Prep: Botany (Taxonomy)

APG System:

The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group is an informal international group of systematic botanist who came together to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of angiosperms that would reflect new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies.

An important motivation for them was what they considered deficiencies in prior classifications since they were not based on monophyletic groups.

Angiosperm Classification

In the past, classification systems were typically made by a single botanist or a small group, resulting in many systems. Different countries favored different systems.

Ex: The Engler system in continental Europe and the Bentham and Hooker system in Britain (preferred by Kew)

Before the availability of genetic evidence, angiosperm classification was based on morphology and biochemistry.

After the 1980s, detained genetic evidence analyzed by phylogenetic methods became available. While confirming or clarifying some relationships in existing classification systems, it radically changed others.

The genetic evidence created a rapid increase in knowledge which led to many proposed changes, posing problems for all the classification systems at the time.

The impetus came from a major molecular study published in 1993 based on 5000 flowering plants and a photosynthesis gene rbcL, producing shocking results.

At first there was reluctance to develop a brand new system entirely based on a single gene, but subsequent work continued to support these findings.

The studies involved were a huge collaboration between a very large number of scientists. Instead of naming each person's part individually, they opted to name the entire project Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification or APG.

The first APG publication was in 1998 and was widely accepted. After that 3 revisions have been published: APG II in 2003, APG III in 2009, and APG IV in 2016.

13 researchers have been credited as authors for the 3 papers and 43 more as contributors.

Principles of the APG system:

principles of the APG's approach to classification were set out in the first paper of 1998, and have remained unchanged.

i) The Linnean system of orders and families should be retained. "The family is central in flowering plant systematics." An ordinal classification of families is proposed as a "reference tool of broad utility".

ii) Groups should be monophyletic. The main reason why existing systems are rejected is because they do not have this property, they are not phylogenetic.

iii) A broad approach is taken to define the limits of orders and families. It is said that a limited number of larger orders will be more useful. Families containing only a single genus and orders containing only a single family are avoided.

iv) Above or parallel to the level of orders and families, the term clades is used more freely.

APG I (1998)

The initial paper was the first to systematically re-classify angiosperms primarily on the basis of genetic characteristics.

The authors' views were that there is a need for a classification system for angiosperms at the level of families, orders and above, but that existing classifications were "outdated".

The main reason why existing systems were rejected was because they were not phylogenetic.

An ordinal classification of flowering plant families was proposed as a "reference tool of broad utility".

The broad approach adopted to defining the limits of orders resulted in the recognition just of 40 orders.

Only a handful of families had been adequately studied, but the primary aim was to obtain a consensus on the naming of higher orders

While the relationship of orders was established, their composition and order was not.

A major outcome of the classification was the disappearance of the traditional division of the flowering plants into two groups, monocots and dicots. The monocots were recognized as a clade, but the dicots were not.

A number of former dicots were placed in separate groups basal to both monocots and the remaining dicots, the eudicots or 'true dicots'.

APG II (2003)

The second paper was published as an update to the classification of 1998.

the focus shifted to the family level, in particular those families generally accepted as problematic.

consensus was achieved relatively easily resulting in an updated classification at the family level

The authors stated that changes were proposed only when there was "substantial new evidence" which supported them

The classification continued the tradition of seeking broad circumscriptions of taxa, trying to place small families containing only one genus in a larger group

The authors stated that they have generally accepted the views of specialists, although noting that specialists "nearly always favor splitting of groups"

APG II continued and extends the use of alternative 'bracketed' taxa allowing the choice of either a large family or a number of smaller ones.

Some of the main changes in APG II were: (important)

i) New orders were proposed, particularly to accommodate the 'basal clades' left as families in the first system.

ii) Many of the previously unplaced families are now located within the system.

iii) Several major families were re-structured. In 2007, a paper was published giving a linear ordering of the families in APG II, suitable for ordering herbarium specimens.

APG III (2009)

The third paper updates the system described in 2003.

The broad outline of the system remains unchanged, but the number of previously unplaced families and genera is significantly reduced.

This requires the recognition of both new orders and new families compared to the previous classification.

The number of orders goes up from 45 to 59; only 10 families are not placed in an order and only two of these (Apodanthaceae and Cynomoriaceae) are left entirely outside the classification.

Authors say that they tried to leave long-recognized families unchanged, while merging families with few genera. They "hope the classification will not need much further change."

A major change is that the paper discontinues the use of 'bracketed' families in favour of larger, more inclusive families. As a result, the APG III system contains only 415 families, rather than the 457 of APG II.

In the same volume of the journal, two related papers were published. One gives a linear ordering of the families in APG III; as with the linear ordering published for APG II, this is intended for ordering herbarium specimens.

APG IV (2016)

In the development there was some controversy over the methodology and the development of a consensus proved more difficult than in previous iterations. In particular Peter Stevens questioned the validity of discussions regarding family delimitation in the absence of changes of phylogenetic relationships.

Further progress was made by the use of large banks of genes, including those of plastid, mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal origin

The fourth version was finally published in 2016. It arose from an international conference hosted at the Royal Botanical Gardens in September 2015 and also an online survey of botanists and other users

The broad outline of the system remains unchanged but several new orders and families are included, and some previously recognized families are lumped.

This brings the total number of orders and families recognized in the APG system to 64 and 416, respectively.

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Herbarium: Meaning of Herbarium

A herbarium is a place where plants are collected from far and wide and preserved in a pressed and dried condition.

They are stores in pigeon hole almirahs according to accepted systems of classification.

The dried plant is pressed onto a sheet. Fleshy plants like Cactaceae (cacti) are preserved in preservatives instead of a dried state.

Herbaria were initiated by an Italian taxonomist Luca Ghini, but the concept of preserving plant specimens in dried form is 450 years old.

The first herbarium of the world was established in 1545 in University of Padua, Italy.

Present day Herbarium sheets have a definite size: 29x41cm. ± 1 cm.

Functions of Herbarium

is it an invaluable conservatory of plant material of flora from around the world, they provide one place to study it all.

The labels of herbarium sheets are valuable, they provide data for botanical, ethno-botanical, and phytogeography studies.

The herbarium serves as a helpful aid in teaching botany to students in institutions where they are present.

Preserved specimen are used in almost all types of taxonomic research, it is essential for biosystematics today to correctly identify and name plants.

The specimen are used as a source of material for anatomical, palynological and chemo-taxonomical studies.

They provide important data on places of plant occurrence, time of flowering, and other data for research in embryology, cytology, and ecology.

Kinds of Herbaria

Depending upon the interest of the organization or institution:

- Herbaria of Organizations

- Regional Herbaria

- Local Herbaria

- Herbaria of institutions, Universities, Colleges, etc.

Depending on categories:

- Herbaria of drugs and medicinal plants

- Herbaria of crop plants and weeds in cultivated fields etc.

Important Herbaria of the World

- Royal Botanic Garden (Kew)

- Museum National d’ Historia Naturelle (Paris)

- Kemerovo Botanical Institute (Leningrad)

- Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques (Geneva)

Herbaria of India

- Botanical survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar circle, Port Blair

- Botanical survey of India, Arid zone circle, Jodhpur.

- Botanical survey of India, Sikkim Himalayan circle, Gangtok, Sikkim.

- Delhi University Herbarium, Delhi.

- Lloyd Botanic Garden, Darjeeling.

- School of Plant Morphology, Meerut College Meerut. (contains approximately 25,000 specimens).

Making of Herbarium

Involves collection, drying, poisoning, mounting, stitching, labeling and deposition.

Collection: Plants are collected first, angiospermic material should have grown leaves, complete inflorescence, flower and fruit etc.

Size of the material depends upon the requirements and availability. Herbaceous small plants may be collected with roots, but for woody plants just 4-6 twigs are enough.

One should not collect diseased, infected or inappropriate plant material.

The collection should be given a field number. The species should have least 4-6 specimens with same field number.

The habit, habitat, flower, color locality interesting features etc. should be noted down in a field note book.

Drying and Poisoning: The specimens should be preserved in blotting paper or newspaper after spreading it correctly.

It should be pressed in field press.

After 2-3 sheet changes, the specimen is dried.

To keep the specimen away from disease or pests poisoning is done. Chemicals like corrosive sublimate (HgCh) are either sprayed or painted on the dried specimen.

Mounting, Stitching, and Labelling: Dried specimen are glued and or stitched onto herbarium sheets made up of thick card sheets of 29 x 41 cm ± 1cm size and labelled.

Labels have all the information about Botanical name, Local name, Locality, time, characters, collector’s names etc.

After identification the sheet is placed in species cover.

All the species of one genus are placed in one genus cover, which finally is kept in family cupboard of Herbarium.

For keeping the specimen for long time, they should be protected from pests and insects like Silver fish and Book worm etc. DDT spray and or copper sulphate solution helps.

Identification and Determination of Plants:

Usually identification is the process through which specimen whose name is not known is recognized by its characters to known plant and given the name.

Now the practices are stopped since no plants are identical. The process is called determination and the slips are marked Determinovit (Det) slip.

For identification, the scientific method is to first study the character of plant, check them with the flora of the region, work keys and, compare with full description and illustration, then it is carefully compared with earlier identified plants of that species or variety.

If s plant does not fit in the key or match in the herbarium, it is compared to species of adjacent floras in large herbaria.

After identification the important process is to use correct nomenclature. Always use the latest nomenclature.

Problems in Management:

- Lack of knowledge on significance.

- Wrong notion that it is simply a storehouse of dead plants.

- Lack of sufficient trained man-power

- Lack of taxonomists (i wonder why ffs)

- Lack of funds

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Bentham and Hooker Classification (Natural System)

The work of G. Bentham and J.D. Hooker.

They have grouped together advanced seed bearing plants into a major division called Spermatophyta.

Class Dicotyledonae: angiosperms in which the seed bears two cotyledons, leaves exhibit reticulate venation. Divides into 3 subclasses:

Subclass Polypetalae: flowers contain perianth (calyx and corolla), in the corolla petals are free. Divides into 3 series:

1 Series Thalamiflorae: Thalamus is conical, elongated or convex, flowers hypogynous. - 6 orders and 34 families.

2 Series Disciflorae: Flowers hypogynous due to presence of ring like disc below ovary - 4 orders and 22 families.

3 Series Calyciflorae: Flowers epigynous or perigynous - 5 orders and 27 families.

Subclass Gamopetalae: Flowers with distinct calyx and corolla. In the corolla petals are fused. Divides into 3 series:

1 Series Inferae: Epigynous flower, either regular or zygomorphic - 3 orders and 9 families.

2 Series Heteromerae: Ovary superior with more than two carpels with regular flowers - 3 orders and 12 families.

3 Series Bicarpellatae: Superior, bicarpellary ovary. Flowers actinomorphic to zygomorphic - 4 orders and 23 families.

Subclass Monochlamydae: Flowers with either absence of or one non-essential whorl (perianth). Divides into 8 series:

1 Series Curvembryae: Usually single ovule, embryo coiled around the endosperm. - 6 families

2 Series Multiovulate Aquaticae: Aquatic plants with a syncarpous ovary and many ovules. - 1 family

3 Series Multiovulate Terrestris: Terrestrial plants with syncarpous ovary and many ovules. - 3 families

4 Series Microembryae: one ovule, small, tiny embryo endospermic seed. - 4 families

5 Series Daphnales: one carpel and one ovule - 5 families

6 Series Achlamydosporae: Ovary inferior, 1 to 3 ovules, unilocular - 3 families

7 Series Unisexuales: Flower unisexual, perianth usually absent - 9 families

8 Series Ordines Anomali: Plants with uncertain systematic position but close to unisexuales - 9 families

Class Gymnospermae: gymnosperms in which seeds are not enclosed in fruits,

Places in between dicots and monocots, could not recognize the phylogenetic significance.

Divided into 3 families: Gnetaceae, Conferaceae and Cycadaceae.

Class Monocotyledonae: Includes angiosperms in which the seed bears only one cotyledon. Leaves exhibit parallel venation. Consists of Closed Vascular Bundles. Divides into 7 series':

1 Microspermae: Ovary inferior; seeds minute and non-endospermic. - 3 families

2 Epigynae: Ovary inferior, seeds large and endospermic. - 7 Families

3 Coronarieae: Ovary superior, perianth petalloid. 8 Families

4 Calycinae: Ovary superior, perianth sepalloid. 5 Families

5 Nudiflorae: Perianth reduced or absent. Seeds are endospermic.- 5 Families

6 Apocarpae: Carpels more than one, free, seeds are endospermic. - 3 Families

7 Glumaceae: Perianth reduced or absent, scaly bracts present. - 5 Families

In total, Bentham and Hooker classified the angiosperms into 202 families while providing distinct diagnostic key characters to each.

Merits:

1. One of the most valuable contributions is the description of the taxa at all levels. Descriptions are accurate and it is easy to identify plant species up to family level.

Since the descriptions were based on direct observation, they have become models of accuracy.

They placed order Ranales at the beginning of the system, a reasonable choice.

The placement of dicots before monocots is also accepted by all modern taxonomists.

Demerits:

Gymnosperms are more primitive than angiosperms and should not have been placed between dicots and monocots.

The introduction of monochlamydeae is a drawback since the group consists of both advanced and primitive forms.

Among the monocots, Orchidaceae is placed in the beginning with all it's advanced characters.

The subdivision of monocots is based on the position of ovary and characters of perianth. This resulted in an anomalous situation for many families.