#world cassowary day

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Apparently it's World Cassowary Day

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldCassowaryDay :

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (France, 1686–1755)  

Cassowary, 1745

oil on canvas, H 63.7 in (161.9 cm) x W 50.1 in (127.4 cm)

Staatliches Museum Schwerin

🆔 Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius), aka the Double-Wattled Cassowary

[luxiiien]

[carbonatedjem]

ITS WORLD CASSOWARY DAY THATS MY FUCKING GOAT MY FAVORITE BIRD LETS FUCKING GO!!!!!!

[the-faramir]

Happy holidays! Today is World Cassowary Day.

World Cassowary Day 2024: Protecting the Most Dangerous Bird from Extinction

[kimjimagery]

Quick art for World Cassowary Day

[corvidaemnit]

let’s talk about the kiwi!!

(an info-dump about one of the weirdest, most scientifically interesting birds we know of today!)

so, we’ve all heard about ratites, right?

well, maybe you don’t know them by name, but you’ve most certainly either heard about them or seen them at some point.

some commonly known members of the ratite group are species like ostriches, emus, and cassowaries— as shown below:

ratites are all flightless birds within the infraclass palaeognathae— the infraclass that none other than the (now extinct) moa and elephant bird belong to!

now, these birds all share very similar characteristics; they’re large, long-necked, and long-legged with big clawed feet. all of these birds are also diurnal— which means they’re primarily active during the day time, just like us!

however, there is one species in this infraclass that is not quite like the others..

the kiwi.

not only are kiwi significantly smaller than their fellow ratites, but they also happen to be nocturnal.

and despite being small, their eggs are incredibly large, taking up to around 20% of the kiwi’s body weight, which has caused a lot of rigorous debate between scientists on exactly why.

one outdated theory suggested that perhaps the kiwi had shrunk over time from previously being very large like its ratite relatives, while its egg remained big…. but this has been debunked in recent years.

the current consensus, while still a theory, is that the egg size has to do more with precocity than anything else;

kiwis are born precocial, which makes them pretty much immediately independent upon hatching, with the ability to run and feed themselves without the help of their parents.

modern DNA analysis suggests that the size of kiwi eggs is not just a left-over trait from ‘incomplete’ evolution, but instead the exact opposite— an evolved adaptation to ensure better chances of survival.

due to their sheer size, kiwi eggs house more yolk than average, which ends up keeping newly hatched kiwis nice and fed until they learn to forage food for themselves.

when mammals began to spread in new zealand, kiwis had way more predators to worry about, and it’s theorized that they were previously unequipped to deal with this startling introduction of land-predators, such as stoats and rats, that started feeding on their eggs.

this could explain why kiwi eggs have developed to be so large over time— they give the chicks plentiful nutrients and thicker shells to ensure a better chance of survival against predation.

so… yeah. kiwis produce monster eggs and no one fully knows why just yet. neat, huh?

and that’s not even where the weirdness ends, my friends!

on top of all of this, it’s been a running joke in the bird world that kiwis are ‘honorary mammals,’ not only because of their weirdly mammalian appearance, but also because of some of their atypical biological traits.

for instance, kiwis have an average body temperature of around 38 degrees celsius .. aka, 100 degrees fahrenheit.

while this is not typical at all for birds, this is very typical for mammals, which has stumped a lot of researchers over the years.

similarly, kiwis are also the only bird in the world with exposed nostrils at the end of their beak, which can help them detect prey by using scent instead of their vision, which is very poor.

so… yeah. kiwis are the nocturnal, freakish little cousins of some of the biggest, most dangerous birds on the planet, and scientists are, quite frankly, still a little weirded out by them.

[4ndj4]

Video games the Dogs would play

(headcanons)

! ! !

Cn – games they could actually "canonically" play (1972-1992)

Mdrn – games they would play in this day and age (1972-2024)

~

Mr. White

Cn: Dune

Or any rts games

I think he'd like Warcraft: Orcs and Humans the most but he didn't even get to see it 😭

Mdrn: Mount and Blade

Ridiculously kind to every npc, has to max out every relation score

I said it a billion times and I'll say it again, he likes history.

Mr. Orange

Cn: Police Quest III

I wonder why-

I guess he'd also like Street fighter, I can imagine him playing with Holdaway (Bison player??)

Mrdn: Far Cry 3

Vaas Montenegro fanboy??

Plays the whole thing in like a week, then tryhards the open world

Shits his pants every time he sees a cassowary or a rabid dog

Mr. Pink

Cn: Civilisation I

Mdrn: Oh uhm, League of Legends (I'm sorry)

I know this bitch spend hours on Civ cursing at Barbarians

Every single npc hates him

Not a hardcore stinky tryhard though...

Refuses to play female characters so people don't think he's a simp

Maybe even World of Tanks

Mr. Blonde

Cn: Wolfenstein or Doom

I mean it has to be fps games...

Shooting stuff makes him happy

Mdrn: Counter strike 1.6

Learned Russian from the players

Hates playing the counter terrorist even though he's probably better at it

Mr. Brown

Cn: Final fantasy III

Nerd.

Probably played I and II like 30 times too

Mdrn: Genshin Impact (I am so sorry)

Eula main??

Is the hardcore stinky tryhard

Maybe even Doki Doki Literature Club, hear me out on this... (he'd like Natsuki the most)

Mr. Blue

Cn: Pong (probably)

Hehe ball go left right

Mdrn: Pong (probably)

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Carve Out Some Time for the Cassowary

Famous for their bright colors and short tempers, cassowaries are a group of flightless birds in the genus Casuarius. There are three species: the Northern Cassowary (C. unappendiculatus) which is found in New Guinea; the Southern Cassowary (C. casuarius), native southern New Guinea and northern Australia; and the Dwarf Cassowary (C. bennetti), endemic to New Guinea and the surrounding islands. All three species prefer tropical forests, though they are known to venture into savannahs, wetlands, and suburban areas in search of food.

Cassowaries are mainly active at dawn and dusk, and spend the time in between in their nests-- large pads of vegetation built on the ground. They opportunistic omnivores; their primary source of food is fruit and fungi, but they will also eat insects, frogs, fish, birds, small mammals, and carrion when available. Much of the fruit they eat is swallowed whole, which makes cassowaries invaluable for spreading seeds throughout their range. Additionally, due to their large size, adult cassowaries have no natural predators, and will aggressively defend their young from predators like snakes, monitor lizards, birds of prey, and wild dogs. When startled this birds can run up to 50 kph (31 mph), or lash out with their powerful legs.

Members of the Casuarius genus are solitary, save for the reproductive season. This season runs from May to September, when fruit is most abundant. Males maintain and defend territories, and call to attract mates. These calls are extremely loud, and at one of the lowest frequencies of any known bird, at about 23 Hertz. When a female approaches, the male crouches and allows the female to inspect him. She may also chase him, typically into water where the two perform a ritualistic fight before she submits. After laying her eggs, the female will move on to another male’s territory.

The eggs are extremely large and bright green, and usually laid in clutches of four. The male alone tends these eggs, incubating them and maintaining the nest for 50-52 days. The chicks that emerge stay with him for an additional 8-9 months until they become independent. Individuals take up to three years to become fully mature, and the average lifespan of wild Casuarius is anywhere from 30 to 50 years.

Southern Cassowaries are the largest of the three species, at up to 1.8 m (5ft 11 in) tall and weighing 58 kg (130 lbs) on average. Females tend to be much larger than males, and the species is considered to be the largest in Asia and the 3rd largest in the world. The Dwarf Cassowary, as the name implies, is significantly smaller at only 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall and 26 kg (57 lbs) at maximum. Northern Cassowaries lie between the two extremes. While all three species have black bodies, the coloration of their heads and necks vary significantly. Both the Northern and Southern Cassowary species have wattles-- pouches of skin that dangle from the neck-- that can be red, gold, purple, or white, which contrasts sharply with their blue necks. The Dwarf Cassowary lacks a wattle, and has a darker blue neck. In addition, it has the smallest head crest, or casque,; the Southern Cassowary’s casque is blade-shaped, and larger than the Dwarf Cassowary’s. The Northern Cassowary’s casque is more flared, and the largest of the three species.

Conservation Status: The Dwarf and Northern Cassowary species are considered Near Threatened and Least Concern respectively by the IUCN, while the Southern Cassowary is classified as endangered. All three are threatened primarily by habitat loss.

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a ko-fi!

Photos

Steve Parish

Kevin Schafer

San Diego Zoo

[glassandmetalwings]

Happy World Cassowary Day (according to Google) !

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Fossil Novembirb 5: It's Getting Hot In Here

Sandcoleus by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Global warming is nothing new for the planet, and even in the Cenozoic we've had our share of rapid warming events - the most notable one being the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). This event, taking place 56 million years ago, was the result of rapid carbon release from the North Atlantic Igneous Province - aka, a volcano exploded, released a bunch of greenhouse gases, and suddenly global temperatures jumped somewhere between 4 and 10 degrees Celsius (depending on location) in a very short period of time - sound familiar?

Given the obvious parallels to the current day, this event has been studied extensively, though only in a few spheres. We know that plants changed dramatically, with broad leafed plants spreading around the world and turning it into a global tropical forest, even at the polls - leading to interesting adaptations towards the strange light cycles at high latitudes. The world was wetter, and greener, and the change lead to the evolution of new herbivory methods in insects. Mammals got smaller, spread everywhere, and diversified. A mass extinction occurred in the oceans, with microorganisms seeing a larger drop in diversity than during the end-Cretaceous extinction. More calcified algae flourished in the more acidic waters.

But what happened to birds?

Anachronornis by @otussketching

Turns out, we're not quite sure. Bird fossils before the event are rare, and after are so diverged and varied that it's difficult to know what happened because of the event, and what happened before and just didn't fossilize. Luckily, scientists (... me) are on the case! And there were a few ecosystems that straddle the time around the event, such as the one for this post: the Willwood Formation.

This ecosystem in Wyoming takes place over the late Paleocene through the early Eocene, covering the entire PETM period. And while it showcases many different aspects of this transition, we're of course here for the birds! Not only was there Gastornis, because it was a ubiquitous presence in the Northern Hemisphere following the PETM, there were also many other weird early kinds of birds, all across the avian family tree.

Paracathartes by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Sandcoleus is one of the more notable tree birds from this ecosystem, being a relative of living mousebirds but in North America (rather than Africa, where they are found today). In fact, lots of different tree birds were present, indicating that the current dominance of Passeriformes - so called "perching birds" - was not always the case. In fact, Paracathartes was also present - our first Palaeognath, an early Lithornithid! - and it also may have been able to perch in the trees, and certainly seems to have been a decent flier.

There were also Geranoidids like Palaeophasianus and Paragrus, which were once thought of as pheasant-like and crane-like respectively, but may now actually be Palaeognaths - and some of the earliest known flightless ones to boot! That said, said, other than being long legged flightless birds, we know little about their ecologies - they may have been herbivorous, and as tropical forest dwellers, could have had similar lifestyles to the living cassowary.

Primoptynx by @otussketching

And, of course, there was also Anachronornis, the half-screamer-half-duck thing, showcasing how waterfowl were experimenting with a variety of different niches during this ecological explosion. And the large variety of new small mammals didn't go unnoticed either - while other early owls are known from Europe, Primoptynx was both the oldest and the biggest, probably thanks to all the new small mammals to eat! There were also possible ground raptors, similar to Bathornis, though they have not been named.

While there are many questions left to answer, it is clear that the PETM had a major effect like it did on everything else on the planet during that time - and the tropical ecologies that they evolved in during the early Eocene would have many implications, especially for where different clades live today!

Sources:

Houde, P., M. Dickson, D. Camarena. 2023. Basal Anseriformes from the Early Paleogene of North America and Europe. Diversity 15 (2): 233.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldCassowaryDay:

Cassowary Dance Costume, 20th c. Iatmul people, Sepik River, Papua New Guinea Rattan, raffia, shells, string, cassowary feathers, pigment 26.5 x 18.25 x 75.5 in (67.3 x 46.4 x 191.8 cm) Harn Museum of Art S85-SPNG-G233

[sixty-silver-wishes]

holy shit yall

it's world cassowary day

[cassowariess]

World Cassowary Day!

yessss!!! best dinosaurs!

[theropoda]

ur an awesome person and you are very loved. life is hard but it's worth it. you have so much to contribute to the world. i hope you have a day filled with love and light and jerma or whatever

idk what suddenly prompted you to send this but im glad you did cause it made my day :D love and light to you too anon! as a gift from me to you, here's this:

cassowary juvenile :D

[starjxsung]

“where are you!!!!” and the whole time I’m in the middle of nowhere in some small town overrun by bible verses and famous for their apple pies atoning for my sins while the old people tell me the differences between emus and cassowaries. very cool

thank u all for the lovely messages while I navigate virtual world again. I miss all of u so dearly :( life updates although nobody asked:

in late May I was sexually assaulted by a complete stranger- it took a painful amount of time to even comprehend what was happening, and I only happened to be in a moment of vulnerability because I stopped to take a picture of the moon (very on brand for me, I know.)

…. consequently, my anxiety has been crippling and I’m just having a tough time being present

this is coming out of a first assault I experienced back in January (heyyyy universe are you like…. mad at me…) so it’s really just a stacked series of unfortunate events and although I TRY not to take things so personally, my ocd does not allow me to separate cause from effect and action from consequence. I’m gonna fucking die

writing about male anatomy has been nothing short of repulsive for me right now. I’m working on it ! I’m just dealing with all things sexual through a very warped lens for the time being. it’s nothing some time (and a lot of tetris) won’t heal. I’m sure of it

anyways. give me some time to think and play some more tetris and I’ll be back as like 70% of the woman I typically am with some real content again. I’m highly considering doing my first kinktober when I’m done with this book. which is. kinky, to say the least

it’s summer here and the days are much warmer and though I feel virtually alone as I heal from all of this, I feel so much more fulfilled when I’m chatting with all of you. i’m re-learning a lot about christianity from the folks here which tickles the fancy of my religiously guilt-ridden little brain. the sunsets are largely unobstructed, which make for some pretty cool photos. and I know now that the cassowary is considered the most dangerous bird in the world. they’re not far off from humans, I think

- ⭐️