*muffled sounds of Marine Ecology in the distance*

Harvestmen, otherwise known as daddy long-legs (not to be confused with the cellar spiders of family Pholcidae, which are also described as daddy long-legs) bear a striking resemblance to spiders, but they actually belong to a separate order of arachnids known as Opiliones. These strange-looking creatures have eight legs, but only two eyes, and their body segments are largely fused together, giving the body a noticeably rounded, pill-like appearance.

Above: Metagryne bicolumnata, commonly known as the bunny harvestman

There are roughly 6,700 known species of harvestman, but researchers estimate that a total of more than 10,000 species may currently exist. Their physical features vary greatly from one species to the next; some harvestmen have crab-like claws, spikes, thorny legs, elongated bodies, colorful features, or cryptic markings. Most of them are equipped with long, spindly legs, but there are some that have shorter, stockier limbs instead.

Above: Megabunus diadema and two unidentified species from family Sclerosomatidae

Unlike spiders, harvestmen have an omnivorous diet that includes fungi, fruit pulp, seeds, pollen, lichen, algae, and invertebrate prey, and they are capable of consuming solid food, whereas spiders are typically carnivorous and feed only on fluids.

Above: a harvestman from genus Chasenella munching on a mushroom-cap

As this article explains:

Harvestmen consume mushrooms, fruit pulp, seeds, and seed appendages more frequently than spiders probably because they are “solid food feeders," which means they can ingest solid tissues by biting off small pieces. In turn, spiders are “fluid feeders” and feed on vegetable matter most frequently in the form of fluids (e.g. nectar, stigmatic exudate, plant sap, and honey dew) rather than fungal or plant tissues.

Above: genus Marthana

When given a choice between fresh fruit or invertebrate prey, some harvestmen actually prefer the fruit:

Schaus et al. carried out a feeding trial in which the Neotropical harvestman Erginulus clavotibialis was given a choice between fresh pineapple and live invertebrate prey. This harvestman demonstrated a distinct preference for fruit over the invertebrate prey.

Above: Dentobunus quadridentatus

Harvestmen are also much more social than spiders, and the males of some species have been known to engage in paternal care, which is a trait that rarely occurs among arthropods:

Single fatherhood is the rarest form of parental care in nature. Still, males are often the sole caretakers of progeny among a number of species of daddy long-legs, also known as harvestmen. In these species, fathers are exclusively responsible for guarding eggs that females lay on the undersides of leaves; the males remain on the eggs nearly constantly for months.

Above: several harvestman eggs and a young hatchling

When threatened, harvestmen often bob up and down erratically in an effort to confuse their attackers. They also have several other defense mechanisms, including pungent, foul-tasting secretions, the ability to "play dead," and autotomy, which is the ability to discard one or more of their own limbs in order to escape from predators.

Above: the photo at the top shows an unidentified harvestman from family Cosmetidae, while the photo on the bottom shows a species from genus Gnomulus

Harvestmen are completely harmless to humans. Their mouthparts are far too small to penetrate human skin, and contrary to popular belief, they do not have the "world's deadliest venom" -- in fact, they don't produce any venom at all.

Above: genus Obidosus

Sources & More Info:

BioOne: Fungus and Fruit Consumption by Harvestmen and Spiders: the Vegetarian Side of Two Predominantly Predaceous Arachnid Groups

Laboratory of Arthropod Behavior and Evolution: Harvestmen

Argo Biology: Citizen Science Reveals How Devoted Harvestman Dads Evolved Again and Again

NBC: Daddy Long-Legs Paternal Care Pays off in Longer Life, More Sex

PLOS One: Paternal Care Decreases Foraging Activity, but Does Not Impose Survival Costs to Caring Males in a Neotropical Arachnid

Gulo in Nature: Are Daddy Long-Legs Venemous?

hey guess what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT IS SO COOL.

gonna give fog a round of applause next time I see some

also I low-key want to study fog now, whoops.

(Also, the line 'This question hung over cloud researcher Thi Thuong- ' made me smile. writer could have gone with 'cloud researcher asked this question' or 'so-and-so decided to seek answers to this question' but no.

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!

When I first opened the livestream, the mother osprey seemed deeply dissatisfied with management.

She spent the first hour loudly BBBBBBB-ing at regular intervals while her partner disappeared into the distance to find fish.

The fish did not appear. Twice.

The BBBBBBB-ing continued.

Eventually the father returned with a fish approximately the size of his career prospects.

Peace was briefly restored.

The mother ate.

The chick ate.

A suspicious little yellow bird appeared and stole a few bites.

Nobody seemed particularly happy about this, but nobody stopped it either.

The chick, who currently resembles a dandelion with opinions, spent most of the afternoon staring at food, demanding food, receiving food, and then immediately becoming too tired to remain conscious.

At one point, the mother moved several inches away so she could eat in peace.

The chick objected.

The mother surrendered.

Later, after finally eating enough fish to improve her mood, she spent some time rearranging a few pieces of grass that apparently did not meet her standards.

The father remained mostly silent throughout these events.

Hours later, the mother finally left the nest.

The father looked down at the chick.

The chick looked up at the father.

The father appeared to have absolutely no idea where to put his feet.

Before he could solve this problem, the mother returned, BBBBBBB-ed at him intensely for a while, and sent him back to work.

I started watching birds three hours ago.

— Cormac McCarthy in Of Whales and Men

Image description: photo of a brown sign with white text that reads: "You can't save everything cute, eat everything that tastes good, and kill everything you're afraid of and expect a working ecosystem to come out of it." -- Flip Nicklin, wildlife photographer

Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?

The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!

This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.

Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:

Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or

Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.

The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.

The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).

Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.

AN ENIGMATIC DENTAL PLATE REVEALS A UNKNOWN EAGLE RAY, THE FIRST FOR THE CARIBBEAN AND THE ATLANTIC OF THE AMERICAS

For nearly ten years, a set of mysterious dental plates sat quietly in a small Venezuelan collection, collected by artisanal fishers off the coast of Chichiriviche. No one knew exactly what they belonged to, only that they came from an eagle ray, a group of winged, shell-crushing rays with pavement-like teeth. Now, an international team of researchers has re-examined those plates and made a surprising discovery: likely belong to the genus Aetomylaeus, a group of eagle rays never before documented in the Caribbean Sea or the entire Western Atlantic Ocean.

Using detailed comparisons with museum specimens and fossil records from the Pacific and Eastern Atlantic, the researchers analyzed the shape, arrangement, and proportions of the teeth. The results clearly set the Venezuelan specimen apart from Caribbean eagle rays like Aetobatus narinari (the spotted eagle ray) and local Myliobatis species. Instead, its closest match was with Aetomylaeus bovinus from the Eastern Atlantic and even fossil Aetomylaeus from Chile. This opens three fascinating possibilities: an unknown relict population that survived the closure of the Central American Seaway millions of years ago; a long-distance vagrant from Africa; or, less likely, a hybrid between two known Caribbean genera.

Regardless of which hypothesis proves correct, this finding rewrites a small but important chapter of marine biogeography. Most Aetomylaeus species are already classified as threatened or Data Deficient, and this first modern record in the Caribbean underscores just how little we know about the region's hidden biodiversity. The authors caution that tooth plates alone cannot give a definitive species identification, genetic material would be needed for that—but the evidence is strong enough to call for urgent, expanded surveys of Venezuela's overlooked elasmobranch fauna. In a world where even charismatic rays can go unnoticed for a decade in a museum drawer, this study is a quiet but powerful reminder: sometimes, the most extraordinary discoveries are found not in the open ocean, but in collections waiting for a second look.

@an-android-child

good news! its nothing to do with being smart, its a niche part of an already confusing scientific field. taxonomy is a kind of dark magic bullshit

I'm gonna walk through the meme above as a starting point because otherwise there is a lot to talk about and nowhere clear to start. Feel free to ask for further clarifications because this is now a college lecture class this will be on the test(kidding)

Oh also opinions on taxonomy vary wildly depending on a few different things so if you disagree with anything I say here, feel free to fight me to the death in the taxonomy thunderdome. I understand this is how postdocs like to settle things

First, the taxon in question: Order Accipitriformes. Hawks, Eagles, Kites and Allies. Contains well, the stuff I just listed along with buzzards(not the American understanding of the word, New World Vultures aren't accipitriformes), Old World Vultures(yeah they are different from NWV), Ospreys, and a few other odds and ends.

Disclaimer one, it does not include falcons or owls. Falcons are parrots who chose violence and I think owls are a kind of sentient beachball. I cannot help with these

Disclaimer two, most of those words(Hawks, eagles, kites, etc) mean nothing. They are honestly more of a visual descriptor than any actual category. You do have stuff like "true eagles"(genus aquila) but that doesn't include stuff like bald eagles. A Cooper's Hawk is more closely related to a Northern Harrier than it is to a Red Tailed Hawk. Honey Buzzards are a kind of kite. Just make your peace with all of that now.

Okay back to the meme. First bullet point I thinks is pretty self explanatory with my above explanation. Stop categorizing them they clearly want to make you suffer Second point: Buteo is a genus that contains a bunch of accipitriformes that are commonly known as hawks(ex red tailed hawk, common buzzard) and has a lot of taxonomic drama, which is partially why I used it for this joke. The other reason is that I'm biased and its one of my favorites.

Third point: Buteogallus is you guessed it another genus of a bunch of accipitriformes(Black Hawks and Allies). Most of them are known as hawks, but the Chaco Eagle and Solitary Eagle are both also in buteogallus, because they hate you. I picked them for this joke because they are relatively closely related to buteos. There are a few that are more closely related to buteos, but the name similarity made it funnier to me. Buteos and the Cooler Buteos

"Initial ID was Nisaetus Cirrhatus but it's actually Pernis Ptilorhynchus" If you ever wanted proof that morphological taxonomy is fake, that's what this is for. The birds mentioned are Changeable Hawk-Eagle and Oriental Honey Buzzard respectively, and often get confused for eachother by people on iNaturalist, so it's a correction I make semi-often. However, they are pretty far from eachother on the taxon tree(I believe Nisaetus is closer to True Eagles? It recently was shifted around though cuz it was split off from Spizaetus so don't quote me).

Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Oriental Honey Buzzard

"Frameworks and binoculars" This joke was just me dunking on birders. I have no idea how often actual taxonomists use binoculars. I'm an engineer

The images:

A tree???: This is a taxon tree showing the updated position of Booted Eagles relative to other eagles based on a recent genetic study. I think I chose this one in specific because it was the only one out of the ones I have saved that fit in the slot. Yes I have multiple accipitriforme taxon trees saved don't worry about it

Range Overlap Hell: This image shows the complete range distribution of the Common Buzzard(buteo buteo)(also known as the steppe buzzard)(also known as motherfucker who makes my life harder). It's called range overlap hell because, well, it overlaps with a lot of very similar looking birds, and makes it a pain to ID everyone involved

Also it keeps having taxon changes every 5 minutes with stuff getting rolled into a b.buteo ssp or being split off into a morphologically identical sp and I'm this close to losing it I swear to god. Anyway heres a common buzzard and a bunch of birds its range overlaps with. Yes these are all different species no I am not fucking with you

Common Buzzard, Upland Buzzard, Eastern Buzzard

Himalayan Buzzard, Long Legged Buzzard, Forest Buzzard

Now that you are starting to understand my ire, the next joke: This Motherfucker

That image is allegedly of a Cape Buzzard. What's a Cape Buzzard? Good question. I can't answer it. It may be a new buteo species found in South Africa. It may be that a handful of migratory Steppe Buzzards are staying in South Africa year round instead of heading back where they came from. It might be that nobody can consistently identify a Forest Buzzard. Who knows. Not me. They won't let me DNA sequence the buzzards for some reason.

(I cannot, for the life of me, find the photo I used here. However I think you've seen enough brown buteos with belly streaking to get the point)

"Hello I'd like to see a specimen of Buteo Buteo ssp Buteo''

Buteo Buteo as stated earlier is the scientific name for Common Buzzards. Ssp stands for subspecies, and b. buteo has a bunch, with are indicated with different names. You can also specify that this is the "default" ssp by repeating the species name. So a steppe buzzard would be buteo buteo ssp vulpinus, while the default is buteo buteo ssp buteo.

PENGUINS CAUGHT ON CAMERA EATING "SEA BUTTERFLIES"

For the first time, researchers have captured video evidence of Adélie penguins actively feeding on shelled pteropods, tiny, free-swimming sea snails, in East Antarctica. The team equipped eight chick-rearing penguins with cameras and GPS loggers. Over 86 hours of footage revealed that seven of the eight birds consumed pteropods, with two individuals deriving over 60% of their prey from Clio pyramidata and Limacina rangii. While krill remained the dominant food source, the penguins opportunistically targeted dense pteropod patches, suggesting this overlooked trophic pathway may serve as an important supplemental prey.

- Pteropods found and consumed by Adélie penguins A solitary Clio pyramidata. B aggregated C. pyramidata in the water column. C a capture event of C. pyramidata and D a capture event of Limacina rangii.

This discovery carries significant climate implications. Shelled pteropods are highly vulnerable to ocean acidification caused by fossil fuel emissions, and their availability could shift as Southern Ocean chemistry changes. The study is limited to one colony and one season, but it raises critical questions: will Adélie penguins increasingly rely on pteropods as a fallback food, or will acidification collapse this emerging link? Future research will explore whether this behavior persists across years and colonies, or only emerges under specific environmental pressures.

Reference: Watanabe et al. 2026. Video evidence of pteropod predation highlights diet flexibility in Adélie penguins. Marine Biology. 

Posting wasp propaganda because my ass is seething yo!