Exploring Animal Storytelling

While we may never know exactly what goes on in the mind of an octopus, we do know that they express themselves by changing colors. Enter the wonderful world of chromatophores and join our aquarist Candace to learn more about octopus communication! 🐙💙

This is Wisdom. She’s at least 71 years old. In the photo is one of her chicks, that she had at age 69. Her last chick was hatched in 2021, though she hasn’t bred for the last two years since her mate has disappeared.

The apocalypse is not a single event hovering in the future bearing down on us while we sit helplessly. We are at least 150 years into an ongoing "apocalypse."

The eastern USA's natural environments were fucking razed. We went scorched earth on everything.

In the 1930's, DEER and WILD TURKEYS were almost eliminated from my state. Deer. Wild turkeys. Common animals that you can see all the time.

I've seen animals close to my home that a person in the 1970's would not have been able to see. I saw river otters and a bald eagle a couple months ago! Farmer family friend remembers when a bald eagle sighting here made the news. There is a thriving population of elk (16,000 animals) in the Appalachian Mountains, for the first time since before 1850!

having my evening cucumber

A spotless giraffe was recently born at Bright’s Zoo in Limestone, TN and was just announced in the media this morning. They’re starting a public naming contest for her, of course.

photo source: Giraffe Conservation Foundation, photographed by Eckart Demasius

"Insects are Crustaceans" (Pancrustacea)

"Dolphins are Hoofed Mammals" (Artiodactyl)

"Mushrooms are closer to Animals than they are to Plants" (Opisthokont)

"Hyenas are Cat-like" (Feliformia)

"Herpetology is a LYING BASTARD since Amphibians are equally close to Mammals and Reptiles, and there's no reason it should be included like that. if anything, Herpetology should be a parent science of Ornithology, since birds are reptiles. why the fuck are toads here??" (Amniota, Sauria)

termites are cockroaches

ants are wasps

bees are wasps

butterflies are moths

ticks are mites

fleas are scorpionflies? this one's weird

horseshoe crabs are almost definitely arachnids

Crocodiles are fake-crocodiles (pseudosuchia)

False gharials are gharials

Pandas are carnivores that only eat plants

Protists aren’t a real thing and all those eukaryotes that aren’t plants, fungi, or animals are actually really complicated and diverse

Animal taxonomy is a mess and Protostomia and Deuterostomia as they are might not be a real thing

All bilaterans are worms. Some are just super weird worms.

Pterosaurs aren’t dinosaurs. You can technically call them (stem)birds, but they aren’t dinosaurs.

Dimetrodon is closer to mammals (it’s a stem mammal) than to dinosaurs.

Everything in Avemetatarsalia (Pan-Birds) can be called a bird. This includes all pterosaurs and all dinosaurs. And all dinosaurs were very, very bird like - more so than pterosaurs.

Dolphins and porpoises are whales which are hoofed mammals and closer to ruminants than to rhinos

Elephants are far removed from literally all hoofed mammals

Hoofed mammals are closest to carnívorans

Tuatara isn’t a lizard

Humans are Apes which are Monkeys

Birds evolved from reptiles and thus are reptiles

But mammals did not evolve from reptiles

Neither reptiles nor mammals (aka Amniotes) evolved from (liss)Amphibians

But all Tetrapods (Amphibians + Amniotes) evolved from Sarcopterygii and thus are Sarcopterygiians

sea stars are technically bilateral animals, their larvae look like this:

for starters, i don't believe conservation is an issue that will ever end. for example, certain species are inherently more vulnerable to extinction, and those species may need a helping hand if disease or natural disaster strikes their populations. this is especially true of species with slow reproductive cycles or small populations, or extremely limited habitat. working with these animals and having a captive stock of them will be vital should something happen to their wild populations.

It deeply disturbs me the number of people who claim that… animatronics or VR or even nature documentaries can replace seeing an animal with your own eyes. Not that those things don’t have their place—they certainly do—but to see something, to understand that it’s real, is life-changing.

Non-scientists: *nod*

Scientists in the 2000s: turns out that group of reptiles has some cousins we forgot to account for, so -

Non-scientists: HOW DARE YOU CHANGE THE DEFINITION

Scientists: we didn’t change it, we just learned more-

Non-scientists: YOU CHANGED IT YOU TRICKY SCIENTISTS