proud kaeya stan

Tea gown ca. 1875-80

Not a biologist, but the evolution of mammals is way more granular than you might expect. Humans are the sole surviving species of the genus Homo, which was a real party before the other ones went extinct. You're in for a fun time.

Domestic cats are believed to be domesticated not from tigers, but from the African wildcat:

Which evolved to be small just because it's sometimes more useful to be small.

And no, hamsters are not off-brand rats. They're part of the rodent order, which includes beavers, moles, capybaras, guinea pigs (yes, also wild) and lots of other fun things:

this is an American Fantail. they’re a popular breed among older pigeon-keepers who want a ‘challenge.’ this bird is not just posing like this, it cannot move its head far from where it is in this picture. this is NOT a similar situation to Seramas (who set up to look Like That, and are overall pretty normal-looking chickens), this bird is just tragically deformed

this is a posed skeleton of an American Fantail with the breed standard drawing overlaid. i’ve seen these birds at shows. they can barely move and they jump at every noise because they cannot see what could be coming at them. they’re either skittish or completely shut down, and watching them try to get food is just heartbreaking (they have to turn sideways and swing their head down their tail to peck at their seed. i don’t know how they even manage to drink). sometimes when the try to walk to their food they nearly fall over because their tip-toes stance is what they’re like a majority of the time and their fan is heavy enough that they can barely support it with such delicate balance

the kicker is, people are fascinated by these birds. they marvel in how such a monstrosity is alive and want to try their hand at raising fantails themselves, because that’s what the experts do! these are the bird that everyone chooses to point out as a marvel of artificial selection, but anyone who has been around pigeons for any stretch of time knows that they are intelligent, social birds. they rely on nodding to communicate a large portion of their language, and guess what an American Fantail can’t do?

These are Jacobins. Just looking at the picture, I can’t imagine they have a whole lot of peripheral vision. Apparently their feathers in general grow so long that they have to be trimmed in order for them to breed.

This is a Zitterhall. This bird does not look okay.

This is a Modena. It looks like it’s a few steps down the road that led to the American Fantail’s abomination of a neck. I watched a couple videos of these, and they can turn their heads and straighten their necks a little, but none of the videos showed one trying to eat.

and this is what the standard dictates they should look like:

they are, in fact, much worse. the ones you found are closer (in terms of welfare concern) to the Saint, a breed with a more moderate mane that is descended from the Jacobin. they are nowhere near as bad as show quality Jacobins.

"In Pieces but Still Holding It Together." By Bouke de Vries (2020).

west coat: we hate our city and it makes us feel good