The Simic Combine

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

The wings are folded using curved lines, which allows for them to be packed into an even smaller package on the earwig’s back. Could make a remarkable design for a parachute or flying suit in a low gravity world…

I want to try this method to recreate the folding pattern using paper… It’s like a fan that tucks into itself…

Moths of the genus Coenodomus have a very peculiar feature -- each male has a pair of horn-like appendages sprouting from his head. These "horns" are actually soft, pliable structures that are known as scape extensions, because they grow from the scape (i.e. the base) of each antenna.

The scape extensions are covered in long, fuzzy-looking scales, and they're often held in an upright position, with the two "horns" curling together to form a tiny horseshoe/halo over the moth's head.

They can also be folded back toward the body; in some cases, they're even tucked down to the point where they are barely visible.

It's unclear whether or not these "horns" have any adaptive purpose, but some sources argue that they might be used for courtship, camouflage/crypsis, or sexual selection.

There are at least 15 different species of Coenodomus moth, and they can be found in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Bhutan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, and Australia.

Sources & More Info:

Annales Zooligici: A Review of the Genus Coenodomus in China with Descriptions of Four New Species

iNaturalist: Genus Coenodomus