mageofchaosyt

[mageofchaosyt]

stop harassing Trans Women

We Asked an Expert...in Herpetology!

People on Tumblr come from all walks of life and all areas of expertise to grace our dashboards with paragraphs and photographs of the things they want to share with the world. Whether it's an artist uploading their speed art, a fanfic writer posting their WIPs, a language expert expounding on the origin of a specific word, or a historian ready to lay down the secrets of Ea-nasir, the hallways of Tumblr are filled with specialists sharing their knowledge with the world. We Asked an Expert is a deep dive into those expert brains on tumblr dot com. Today, we’re talking to Dr. Mark D. Scherz (@markscherz), an expert in Herpetology. Read on for some ribbeting frog facts, including what kind of frog the viral frog bread may be based on.

Reptiles v Amphibians. You have to choose one.

In a battle for my heart, I think amphibians beat out the reptiles. There is just something incredibly good about beholding a nice plump frog.

In a battle to the death, I have to give it to the reptiles—the number of reptiles that eat amphibians far, far outstrips the number of amphibians that eat reptiles.

In terms of ecological importance, I would give it to the amphibians again, though. Okay, reptiles may keep some insects and rodents in check, but many amphibians live a dual life, starting as herbivores and graduating to carnivory after metamorphosis, and as adults they are critical for keeping mosquitos and other pest insects in check.

What is the most recent exciting fact you discovered about herps?

This doesn’t really answer your question, but did you know that tadpole arms usually develop inside the body and later burst through the body wall fully formed? I learned about this as a Master’s student many years ago, but it still blows my mind. What’s curious is that this apparently does not happen in some of the species of frogs that don’t have tadpoles—oh yeah, like a third of all frogs or something don’t have free-living tadpoles; crazy, right? They just develop forelimbs on the outside of the body like all other four-legged beasties. But this has only really been examined in a couple species, so there is just so much we don’t know about development, especially in direct-developing frogs. Like, how the hell does it just… swap from chest-burster to ‘normal’ limb development? Is that the recovery of the ancestral programming, or is it newly generated? When in frog evolution did the chest-burster mode even evolve?

How can people contribute to conservation efforts for their local herps?

You can get involved with your local herpetological societies if they exist—and they probably do, as herpetologists are everywhere. You can upload observations of animals to iNaturalist, where you can get them identified while also contributing to datasets on species distribution and annual activity used by research scientists.

You can see if there are local conservation organizations that are doing any work locally, and if you find they are not, then you can get involved to try to get them started. For example, if you notice areas of particularly frequent roadkill, talking to your local council or national or local conservation organizations can get things like rescue programs or road protectors set up. You should also make sure you travel carefully and responsibly. Carefully wash and disinfect your hiking boots, especially between locations, as you do not want to be carrying chytrid or other nasty infectious diseases across the world, where they can cause population collapses and extinctions.

Here are some recent headlines. Quick question, what the frog is going on in the frog world? 

Click through for Mark’s response to these absolutely wild headlines, more about his day-to-day job, his opinion on frog bread, and his favorite Tumblr.

✨D I S C O V E R Y✨

There are more people on Earth than ever before, with the most incredible technology that advances daily at their disposal, and they disperse that knowledge instantly. That means more eyes and ears observing, recording, and sharing than ever before. And so we are making big new discoveries all the time, and are able to document them and reach huge audiences with them.

That being said, these headlines also showcase how bad some media reporting has gotten. The frogs that scream actually scream mostly in the audible range—they just have harmonics that stretch up into ultrasound. So, we can hear them scream, we just can’t hear all of it. Because the harmonics are just multiples of the fundamental, they would anyway only add to the overall ‘quality’ of the sound, not anything different. The mushroom was sprouting from the flank of the frog, and scientists are not really worried about it because this is not how parasitic fungi work, and this is probably a very weird fluke. And finally, the Cuban tree frogs (Osteocephalus septentrionalis) are not really cannibals per se; they are just generalist predators who will just as happily eat a frog as they will a grasshopper, but the frogs they are eating are usually other species. People seem to forget that cannibalism is, by definition, within a species. The fact that they are generalist predators makes them a much bigger problem than if they were cannibals—a cannibal would actually kind of keep itself in check, which would be useful. The press just uses this to get people’s hackles up because Westerners are often equal parts disgusted and fascinated by cannibalism. 

What does an average day look like for the curator of herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark?

No two days are the same, and that is one of the joys of the job. I could spend a whole day in meetings, where we might be discussing anything from which budget is going to pay for 1000 magnets to how we could attract big research funding, to what a label is going to say in our new museum exhibits (we are in the process of building a new museum). Equally, I might spend a day accompanying or facilitating a visitor dissecting a crocodile or photographing a hundred snakes. Or it might be divided into one-hour segments that cover a full spectrum: working with one of my students on a project, training volunteers in the collection, hunting down a lizard that someone wants to borrow from the museum, working on one of a dozen research projects of my own, writing funding proposals, or teaching classes. It is a job with a great deal of freedom, which really suits my work style and brain.

Oh yeah, and then every now and then, I get to go to the field and spend anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months tracking down reptiles and amphibians, usually in the rainforest. These are also work days—with work conditions you couldn’t sell to anyone: 18-hour work days, no weekends, no real rest, uncomfortable living conditions, sometimes dangerous locations or working conditions, field kitchen with limited options, and more leeches and other biting beasties than most health and welfare officers would tolerate—but the reward is the opportunity to make new discoveries and observations, collect critical data, and the privilege of getting to be in some of the most beautiful and biodiverse places left on the planet. So, I am humbled by the fact that I have the privilege and opportunity to undertake such expeditions, and grateful for the incredible teams I collaborate with that make all of this work—from the museum to the field—possible.

The Tibetan Blackbird is also known as Turdus maximus. What’s your favorite chortle-inducing scientific name in the world of herpetology?

Among reptiles and amphibians, there aren’t actually that many to choose from, but I must give great credit to my friend Oliver Hawlitschek and his team, who named the snake Lycodryas cococola, which actually means ‘Coco dweller’ in Latin, referring to its occurrence in coconut trees. When we were naming Mini mum, Mini scule, and Mini ature, I was inspired by the incredible list that Mark Isaac has compiled of punning species names, particularly by the extinct parrot Vini vidivici, and the beetles Gelae baen, Gelae belae, Gelae donut, Gelae fish, and Gelae rol. I have known about these since high school, and it has always been my ambition to get a species on this list.

If you were a frog, what frog would you be and why?

I think I would be a Phasmahyla because they’re weird and awkward, long-limbed, and look like they’re wearing glasses. As a 186 cm (6’3) glasses-wearing human with no coordination, they quite resonate with me.

Please rate this frog bread from 1/10. Can you tell us what frog it represents?

With the arms inside the body cavity like that, it can basically only be a brevicipitid rain frog. The roundness of the body fits, too. I’d say probably Breviceps macrops (or should I say Breadviceps?) based on those big eyes. 7/10, a little on the bumpy side and missing a finger and at least one toe.

Please follow Dr. Mark Scherz at @markscherz for even more incredibly educational, entertaining, and meaningful resources in the world of reptiles and amphibians.

[mageofchaosyt]

[mageofchaosyt]

"you're ignoring a genocide happening now and fear mongering a completely hypothetical genocide by saying if Trump wins-"

incorrect. What I'm actually doing is being aware of the reality of things, which is that regardless of who wins, the genocide in Palestine will continue, and being aware of both candidates statements and goals for their re-election, Trump's being to enact project 2025, which does in fact promise genocide on basically all marginalized groups in the US.

Fear mongering, is using blatantly false or misrepresented information, to scare people into believing something that isn't true for political gain, but the Republican party, and Trump himself have outright TOLD US they are planning to wipe queer people, immigrants, etc. out of America, and strip women's rights to literally nothing, it's not fear mongering if it is the actual reality of what's happening and what's being promised by the candidate most likely to win if every Democrat or leftist splits their vote thirty different ways or doesn't show up at all.

Reality hurts, but we have to be aware of it and face it to fix it effectively. There is no way for us as citizens to quickly and swiftly end the current genocide in Palestine, we can only keep protesting and boycotting until the pressure puts the Palestinian genocide to an end, but by not voting or splitting your vote off, you're allowing a candidate who wants to make deportation and execution viable punishments for protesting and boycotting, that candidate being Trump, as well as allowing room for a new genocide to start right here in your home country too.

You can imagine that will make it much harder to actually continue the pro-palestinian movement, as well as send other movements back more than 50 years of progress.

Vote blue, because it's the option that lets us continue fighting toward progress. Change doesn't happen overnight, and it certainly doesn't happen if you don't actually do anything to stop things from getting worse again.

[mageofchaosyt]

[mageofchaosyt]

test

how’s everyone doin tonight i just broke tumblr

[mageofchaosyt]

how do you do that

my powers 👍

[mageofchaosyt]

Every single day I live in constant fear that trump will become president again because you stupid cunts on tumblr with no ounce of intelligence think that not voting for Biden will do any good. I'm sick to my stomach seeing this shit. You think that not voting absolves you from the consequences you think that not voting will make things better you do not understand that republicans will vote for trump not matter what and your inaction will lead to him winning. He cannot win. He cannot fucking win.

Vote for Biden and shut the fuck up

[mageofchaosyt]

"two bodyguards drag me away" has been my fav way to finish insane sentences, its up there with "who said that", "can anyone hear me", "is this thing on" and "its so dark in here"

[mageofchaosyt]

zoology is so fucking funny. what do you mean we’ve never seen a baby great white shark. what do you mean we’ve never documented a single melanistic cougar despite it being entirely possible. I dunno man. Anyways a new amphipod was just discovered 92639273947294729 meters beneath the sea

[mageofchaosyt]

You know exactly what I mean. Star of David (which has become the modern day swastika), signs with Hebrew, and honestly sorry if you don’t like it but yarmukas too. I’m not going to go up to every person in a yarmuka and make sure they’re not a genocidal maniac, it’s safer to assume they are because in all likelihood they are. If you don’t like it then tell your community to stop supporting genocide

oh ok so full mask off jew hatred then cool.

[mageofchaosyt]

via 2rawtooreal2

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NEVER THROW YOUR VOTE AWAY!

(captions added by me)

[mageofchaosyt]

You know, most Jews, even most Zionist Jews, would be criticising Bibi and Likud louder than anyone right now, and marching at the front of every protest for peace and ceasefire. But we're too busy putting out the global fires of antisemitism, getting hate crimed, and isolating ourselves in the safety of our communities. Because for as much as people want to claim that they're anti-Zionist, not antisemitic, they're sure as fuck committed to the antisemitism

[mageofchaosyt]

reminder that visibly religious people belong at pride. that person wearing a hijab is not a threat to you. that person wearing tzitzit and a kippah is not a threat to you. someone simply wearing an item that is culturally or religiously important to them is not a threat to you. however, your aggression upon seeing a religious person at pride is a threat to them.

[mageofchaosyt]

reminder that visibly religious people belong at pride. that person wearing a hijab is not a threat to you. that person wearing tzitzit and a kippah is not a threat to you. someone simply wearing an item that is culturally or religiously important to them is not a threat to you. however, your aggression upon seeing a religious person at pride is a threat to them.

[mageofchaosyt]

Why did tumblr restrict this post? What’s wrong with it?

jumblr, lets say we're founding a kibbutz, what would your job be?

i'd love to teach the kids about the holidays and help them connect with the land

[mageofchaosyt]

[mageofchaosyt]