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I love dinosaurs as much as robots. It is very funny to me when ppl freak out about their childhood icons having feathers maybe.

But it is actually more boring if they are all just like Hollywood imagined.

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Not much going on on this post

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OMG!!!

Super niche!

Tarantula: May I have a coke please

Waitress: All we have is Pepsis is that okay?

*Tarantula sweating nervously*: Y-you have what

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Turkey tail mushroom

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[There were no true cats, dogs, or modern carnivores of any sort in the Oligocene. Hoplophoneus had no competitors higher in the evolutionary scale than itself. Stupid, slow, and awkward though it may have been in comparison with modern cats, it was nevertheless the most active flesh-eater of the time.]

Hough (1950)

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Found this handsome fella this morning!

Hyalophora cecropia

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Throwing up because this encyclopedia of fishes is organised alphabetically by common name so fish of the same genus are scattered wildly throughout.

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I think I stumbled upon some kind of ichthyological forbidden knowledge. Opened up a book of names that were never meant to be read.

You've probably heard of "can-opener smoothdream", right? It's practically a meme by now.

But the thing is, it's a deep-sea fish. And deep-sea fish have historically not had English names because nobody drops them into the conversation over a hot cuppa. Sure, there's generic stuff like hatchetfish and barreleye, but when you want to refer to the actual fish you're probably saying such euphonious phrases as Diretmus argenteus, Sternoptyx diaphana, or maybe even Opisthoproctus soleatus.

So whence "can-opener smoothdream"? Certainly no non-ichthyologist has ever used that name. It's not even a direct translation of the scientific name Chaenophryne longiceps - that would be "long-headed gape-toad". Which to me is even cooler than "can-opener smoothdream".

But I digress. The "dream" bit comes from the anglerfish family Oneirodidae, from oneiros, "dream", because those marvelous fishes look like they came out of a dream (Pietsch, 2009).

Note that Pietsch (2009), more or less the anglerfish bible, uses English names at the genus level only. So Chaenophryne is the smoothhead dreamers genus but no mention is made of "can-opener smoothdreams". So no luck there.

Wikipedia, root cause of a lot of misinformation, has this to say.

"Longhead dreamer" is a far more accurate name. And in fact, despite Wikipedia prioritizing "can-opener smoothdream" (because it's funny?), the links listed use "longhead dreamer" and "smoothhead dreamer" as the name and "can-opener smoothdream" as an alternative.

So. Again. Where did "can-opener smoothdream" come from?

The answer, as it turns out, lies with McAllister (1990).

In the book A List of the Fishes of Canada, ichthyologist D. E. McAllister sought out to list every single fish known to Canadian waters, providing both an English and a French name.

And when there wasn't an English name, like for most deep-sea fishes, he arbitrarily gave them a name. And his names "differ in many instances from the widely accepted names" (Holm, 1998)

This had varying results. This is his name for one of the netdevil anglerfishes.

The humpback anglerfish or blackdevil anglerfish becomes a werewolf (????).

This one is just confusing.

The white-spotted lanternfish or Rafinesque's lanternfish instead becomes...

And most embarrassingly, the Mediterranean spiderfish gets saddled with something that "violates the tenet of good taste" (Holm, 1998).

This then is the original source of "can-opener smoothdream". It was invented by an ichthyologist in 1990, and has seen little to no use outside of how bizarre the name is.

Maybe McAllister's goofier names will catch on. Who knows? They certainly aren't very popular in the scientific community though.

References

Holm, E. (1998) Encyclopedia of Canadian Fishes (review). The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 112, p. 174-175.

McAllister, D. E. (1990) A List of the Fishes of Canada. National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa.

Pietsch, T. W. (2009) Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. University of California Press, Berkeley.

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Throwing up because this encyclopedia of fishes is organised alphabetically by common name so fish of the same genus are scattered wildly throughout.

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People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

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Just so we’re all clear, it is okay to miss people you no longer want in your life.

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Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus), family Vespertilionidae, found in much of the United States and Canada

ENDANGERED.

photograph by Michael Durham Bat Conservation International

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Lapis idk

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Water dance

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Cartoons With Continuity (Overarching, Season-Long Arcs, Partial, Multi-Part Eps, Etc.) That Came Out Before Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)

1980s

• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1983)

• The Transformers (1984)

• Thundercats (1985)

• The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)

• Jem and the Holograms (1985)

• The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (1986)

• Ducktales (1987)

1990s

• The Pirates of Dark Water (1991)

• The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991)

• The Adventures of Tintin (1991)

• Batman: The Animated Series (1992)

• X-Men: the Animated Series (1992)

• The Animals of Farthing Wood (1993)

• Exo Squad (1993)

• Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)

• ReBoot (1994)

• Iron Man (1994)

• Gargoyles (1994)

• Spider-Man (1994)

• Beast Wars: Transformers (1996)

• Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997)

• Men in Black: The Series (1997)

• Princess Sissi (1997)

• Silver Surfer (1998)

• Batman Beyond (1999)

• Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends (1999)

• Cybersix (1999)

Early 2000s

• Jackie Chan Adventures (2000)

• Chris Colorado (2000)

• As Told by Ginger (2000)

• Justice League (2001)

• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)

• Codename: Kids Next Door (2002)

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)

• Teen Titans (2003)

• Code Lyoko (2003)

• Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003)

• Xiaolin Showdown (2003)

• Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

• Winx Club (2004)

• Danny Phantom (2004)

• Justice League Unlimited (2004)

• The Venture Bros. (2004)

• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (2004)

• W.I.T.C.H. (2004)

• American Dragon Jake Long (2005)

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BOTD: Jamaican Owl

Photo: guyincognito

"A somewhat large nocturnal inhabitant of wooded areas including gardens and parks; roosts in tree cavities or dense foliage during the day. The Barn Owl is of similar size, but it is much paler and lacks the Jamaican Owl’s prominent ear tufts. Vocalizations include a low, gruff 'wa-waaa-o' and a crescendo/decrescendo 'whoa.'"

- eBird