how strange it is to be anything at all

Observed by beetlii, CC BY-NC

photograph by Kara Zanni

Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea), Madera Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona.

Full body view of a geometric moray (Gymnothorax griseus) shot during a night dive in Ras Muhammad National Park, Red Sea, Egypt.

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(sources: left, right)

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Atopodentatus has one of the best paleontology glow-ups. When it was first described in 2014, scientists thought this marine reptile had a genuinely bizarre zipper-like mouth. Then in 2016, two new fossils showed up and revealed that the original specimen was badly crushed. Its actual face looked way more like a handheld vacuum cleaner than a zipper. Art by Joschua Knüppe. Merchandise available at https://fossi.ls/I5mFds.

Pine Marten, female and kit by Mark Bowen

Hey don't cry, okay? We just found Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, a species thought to be extinct for the past 60 years.

by R Hardy

Image source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41585854

the kowari....

photographs by Gursewak Singh

The fancy Redwinged Blackbird with potential bilateral gynandromorphism is still around, here are some more clips from the last couple of days. I have not edited them other than stringing them together for this video. This is how they were recorded. Every time I think it must be a molt, this bird turns around and looks completely like a female. So intriguing. It also has a lot of red on the face.

Edit: I also just noticed that you can see the right ('male') wing and leg are longer and thicker than the left ('female') side!! Male RWBL are usually a little bigger and heavier than the females so seeing this on the same bird is so cool!!

*gazes at you with my soulful wet eyes*