#zoology academia

[gently-morbid]

oh to be an old university snake specimen in yellowing alcohol

[xicointhewild]

Little fellas who we taked pictures for the museum today

[spyboy2000]

ᴄᴀʀᴏʟɪɴᴀ ᴘᴀʀᴀᴋᴇᴇᴛs. One of only three parrot species native to the United States, the Carolina parakeet has been extinct since 1918. Painting (1832) by John James Audubon.

[cashmerecrow]

𝔓𝔬𝔭𝔲𝔩𝔞̈𝔯𝔢 𝔑𝔞𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔤𝔢𝔰𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔠𝔥𝔱𝔢 𝔡𝔢𝔯 𝔡𝔯𝔢𝔦 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔠𝔥𝔢

𝔙𝔬𝔩. 1 ℨ𝔬𝔬𝔩𝔬𝔤𝔦𝔢

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some Zoology Vocabulary

for your next poem/story

Aestivation - A period of summer dormancy. Summer dormancy is often exhibited by animals when conditions become unfavourable.

Anthroponosis - An infection or disease that is transmissible from humans to animals under natural conditions.

Arboreal - Used to describe an animal that lives in trees. There are many different arboreal invertebrates including species of ant, tarantula, stick insect and many different species of moth and butterfly.

Book lungs - The main respiratory organ in most arachnids (spiders and scorpions); get their name from the fact that the stacked plates have the appearance of the closed pages of a book.

Coelom - Fluid-filled cavity within the body of an animal; usually refers to a cavity lined with specialized tissue peritoneum in which the gut is suspended.

Eyespots - Markings on an insect, usually on the surface of the fore or hind wings, that resemble a mammalian eye; used to scare off potential predators by making the insect appear to be part of a much larger organism. In some species the eyespots are concealed when at rest but can be 'flashed' at a predator in an attempt to scare them away.

Haemolymph - Insect blood and is the fluid that fills the haemoceol; transfers nutrients from the insect gut to the organs, takes away waste and also transmits hormones.

Hypogeic - Describes organisms that live underground (usually within the soil).

Lepidopterist - An entomologist who specialises in studying butterflies and moths. The name lepidopterist is derived from the name of the Order of butterflies and moths, Lepidoptera.

Osculum - The main opening through which filtered water is discharged. Found in sponges.

Parapodia - A sort of "false foot" formed by extension of the body cavity. Polychaetes and some insect larvae have parapodia in addition to their legs, and these provide extra help in locomotion.

Saproxylic - Describes invertebrates that are dependent on dead or decaying wood (or dependent on other organisms that are themselves dependent on dead wood). These invertebrates may not be dependent on the wood for their entire life cycle but at least some stage is dependent on wood. A good example of this are the larvae of some beetles that feed on decaying wood. The adults may feed on other things (such as nectar).

Thanatosis - "Playing dead"; displayed by many species of insect when they feel threatened by a potential predator. The insect will often fall to the ground and tuck in any protruding legs or antennae. The insect will remain like this for some time, even when prodded or poked by the predator. Some time after the predator has lost interest the insect will start moving again and make its escape. It is commonly found among the beetles - ladybirds are particularly good at 'playing dead'.

Venation - The arrangement (number and position) of veins within an insect's wing; often used as a way of differentiating between species. In early insects, the veins running down the wing (longitudinal veins) were connected by a series of cross veins. Most insect groups have lost, or dramatically reduced the number of, these cross veins. However, some insects such as dragonflies and damselflies have wings that contain many cross veins.

Xylophagous - Describes animals that feed almost exclusively on wood. Insect examples of such animals include furniture beetles and death watch beetle.

Sources: 1 2 3 ⚜ More: Word Lists

[damn-this-pool]

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[dead-dogs-still-fetch]

A Trip to the Field Museum

Some past photos from my previous trip to the Field Museum last year during a free day. The museum has an amazing collection of specimens and fun temporary exhibits. The one they were hosting when we visited was the Blood Suckers exhibit.

The museum offers free admission days serval times a month for residents or students in Illinois.

[tokyoviee]

distracting you from my messy notes.

what I did this week :

academics

attended a 4 hour lecture in the morning

went to library to do physics and botany

revised breathing and exchange of gases

revised biological classification

watched lectures from pw and biofairy

non academics

journaled this week

watched s1 of kota factory

re watching operation mbbs (for 1938 time)

finished all episodes of skip to loafer

🎧 🍀 : where have you been - rihanna

[spores-and-such]

BONE WORMS! 🦴🪱

Sorry for not posting in a while, things have been busy so I offer this post as atonement. Today I share with you a genus of polychaetes that I think is neat, the humble Osedax, AKA bone worms

If you like whalefalls then you’ve probably heard of these little freaks. These worms have adapted to the unique lifestyle of feeding on sunken vertebrate bones and absolutely thrive at whalefalls. Though most associated with whales, they are not picky and will feed on any type of bone. Amazingly, fossil evidence of their activity has been found from the Cretaceous on the bones of marine reptiles like mosasaurs, millions of years before whales even evolved!

You might think they’re feeding on the marrow or fats within the bone, but they actually feed on the collagen. To understand how they do this, we’ll need to pull one out of the bone and see what lies beneath…

what the hell is that?? This is the worm’s ‘root’, a unique structure that bores into the bone by secreting enzymes and acid that break down the bone’s matrix. The root is also home to endosymbiosic chemoorganotrophic bacteria. This is just a fancy way of saying symbiotic bacteria living in their tissue that feed on organic compounds. These bacteria metabolise the collagen into useful compounds for their worm host.

What’s even weirder is that only the female worms look like this. The males are microscopic and live within the female’s trunk. Over time, a female can amass a harem of multiple malewives. This dimorphism likely evolved due to it being rather difficult to find a mate on the ocean floor when you’re a sessile worm stuck to a bone. With a constant supply of sperm, the female can release hundreds of eggs into the water that hatch into free-swimming larvae which spread out and find new bones to colonise.

I’ll stop rambling there but I hope you guys find these things as interesting as I do :) I had to write a 2k essay on these things so if anyone has any questions about them feel free to ask 🪱🦴

[kaya-being-an-academic]

Today's day was a bit productive I did self study for about 6 hours which is an improvement cause since few days I was slacking off alot....

I attended my physical lectures after a week today , they were about 4 hours long....

Non academically I started reading "Norwegian Wood" by Murakami today.... Seems like a good book to me....

Also started preparing for an upcoming MUN but still there's a lot of work left to do

Also clicked a few pictures of moon on my way back home <3

Moon is beautiful isn't it ?

All the pics are by me

[gently-morbid]

Stinkpot Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) caught and released for a turtle study in a local bayou

Edit: For those curious, this species does have a unique smell. I wouldn’t say it’s awful, but it is strong. In my opinion, it smells like the overpriced soap you can find in any Earthbound Trading Co. It’s a musky/earthy smell.

Another notable thing about this species is its attitude. Stinkpots are very feisty when handled. Most turtles fight being handled, but Stinkpots are known for putting up an unexpectedly big fight for such teeny turtles. This attitude is one of my favorite things about them.

[xicointhewild]

The little foot🤏🤏

[xin-bloomx]

the beauty of microscopy

rattus norvegicus

thyreoidea, trachea, esophagus

institute of biology

🧫instagram🧫

[clair-blake]

I am in love with a dead thing.

Trinity College Zoology museum, Dublin, 2023

[belovedapollo]

from when I went and visited the Zoological Museum in Hamburg 🪲 reblog is ok, don’t repost/use

[cashmerecrow]

Visited my local ossuary...