synapsidgirl

[synapsidgirl]

The protocetids were some of the first oceanic cetaceans, occupying a transitional position in the evolution of whales, with four paddle-like limbs and nostrils only partway up their snouts.

Early members of this group swam like otters, using a combination of undulating their bodies and paddling with large hind limbs, but somewhere in the Late Eocene they switched over to propelling themselves entirely with their tails and gave rise to even more whale-like forms like the basilosaurids.

And Aegicetus gehennae was right in the middle of that switch.

Discovered in the Wadi Al-Hitan (“Valley of the Whales”) fossil site in Egypt, Aegicetus lived around 37-35 million years ago. It was similarly-sized to earlier protocetids like Georgiacetus, measuring about 3.5m long (11'6"), but its hind limbs were proportionally smaller. Its hips were also completely disconnected from its vertebrae, giving it much more flexibility to undulate its body and tail – and preventing it from supporting its weight on land, suggesting that it spent its entire life in the water.

It wasn’t a direct ancestor to more “advanced” cetaceans, since it lived alongside several species of basilosaurids. Instead it seems to represent a late-surviving example of what the earlier protocetid-basilosaurid transitional forms would have looked like.

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Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Pillowfort | Twitter | Patreon

[synapsidgirl]

A rarely seen uncropped version of the only known photo of a live bubal hartebeest, a female who lived at the London Zoo from 1883 to 1897. The photo itself was taken by Lewis Medland sometime in 1895. [ x ]

[synapsidgirl]

3-Million-Year-Old Fossil from New Zealand Rewrites Evolutionary History of True Seals

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/eomonachus-belegaerensis-09044.html

#reblog #paleontology #new species #eomonachus #monk seal #phocidae #true seal #pinniped #carnivora #mammal #marine mammal

[synapsidgirl]

Hey, I just want to say thank you for being so considerate in your response to this. It would've been completely understandable to get defensive after the tone anon took imo and you've handled it admirably. Thank you, and take care!

Thank you.

[synapsidgirl]

Ah. So you're capitulating to pressure politics. Nice to know. (leaves)

I'm not capitulating to anything. I just understand that there are people with different experiences than me, and that sometimes things I don't even notice can be harmful to somebody else.

[synapsidgirl]

You didn't do anything even REMOTELY "Terfy" that anon is just a whiny pissant trying to find shit to be mad about.

I mean I see what their problem is. I should read the stuff I reblog before doing so, and it does show a degree of privilage I have to be able to just not instantly pick up on language like this. But thank you for the support.

[synapsidgirl]

so you admit to supporting terfs. lol

No??? I don't follow the person who posted it originally, I've never seen the person I did reblogged it from say anything that would make them seem like they're a terf, and I sure as fuck don't support terfs.

[synapsidgirl]

You better knock it off with the terfy language

Considering I've never used any gendered language (apart from 1 tag, at that is the name of the movement behind those protests) in my post, I was really fucking confused as to what the hell are you even talking about, until I went back, and read the orinial post carefully. If your problem is whith the way the OP described the protest than yes, I agree that it was exclusionary. I didn't read their caption fully, which was a mistake on my part, and rather careless. I'm sorry, it was the only post mentioning those protests I've seen on my dashboard, and got too excited to share the only good thing happening in my native country right now. Obviously, the abortion ban isn't only a problem for cis women, and affects also non-binary people, as well as transmen, and I'm well aware of that.

[synapsidgirl]

Edit to address the OP's wording I didn't notice when first reblogging: Obviously, this isn't just an issue for cis women, but for trans men, and non-binary people as well. Also, it's not just women protesting. The protests have been going on, in many cities, not just Warszawa, since the Constitutional Tribunal decided that abortion in cases of severely damaged foetus is suddenly unconstitutional ( this version of constitution and the so called abortion compromise has been around since the early ‘90s). What I love about it isn’t just the sheer scale of the protests, the fact that the church is also getting its ass whooped (as it should, they constantly exert their influence over politicians, resulting in garbage like this), but also the fact that they clearly thought that, with covid restrictions in place, they’ll get away with it this time. Yeah, good fucking luck with that. And if you’re wondering about the “this time”: several years ago (2016? 2017? Don’t remember exactly) there were equally massive protests when they tried to ban abortion outright, in all cases, including rape and incest. Abortion is already restricted in Poland, but that’s clearly not enough for them. I just hope maybe next elections will kick those morons out of the government, but I won’t hold my breath. The ruling party still has the majority of support.

Warsaw makes history tonight as millions of women revolt against the government’s control of female bodies.

#strajk kobiet #poland #PIS off #we're great at voting against our own interests #plus young people rarely vote #because you never have a good candidate #just the bad one to vote against #prostests in Poland

[synapsidgirl]

Image from the paper:

[synapsidgirl]

Mammal-like reptile sculptures in the city of Ocher, Russia. All are Permian creatures whose fossils were found in the region of the city. Sculpted by Alexei Igorevich Tyutnevym, based on reconstructions by Dmitry Bogdanov. 

[synapsidgirl]

Other, instead, will just assume that you're really, really, really into the "natural beauty" scene, and expect their sibling to be called Shea.

It’s great that Castor can work as a given name so I can name my child beaver and only synapsid taxonomists will get it

[synapsidgirl]

Pudu mephistopheles de Winton 1896

Jesus, de Winton, what did the northern pudu do to you???

[synapsidgirl]

An interesting illustration showing stripe and coat color variation among some of the existing quagga taxidermy specimens.

The artist, Daniel Foidl, notes that all of the preserved skins are at least 130 years old, so some degree of fading has occurred.

[synapsidgirl]

Stuttgarter Gomphotheriums Oficially opened in vitual way 2weeks ago. #gomphotherium #gomphotheres #gompho #gomphotheriumangustidens (at Naturkundemuseum Am Löwentor in Stuttgart) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHGnDpEDSqB/?igshid=1o2yzwibary8i

#gomphotherium #gomphotheres #gompho #gomphotheriumangustidens

[synapsidgirl]

Footage of a black fallow deer recently seen in Baryczy Valley, Poland.

(source)

[synapsidgirl]

As someone from a country where declawing, cropping & docking are illegal, and living in another country where it’s also illegal, the fact there’s still discussion about this baffles me. Nobody would want to be mutilated, live in pain, and not able to communicate as effectively as they should, only because sombody else decided you’d look better that way, so why would you do this to your pet, who you, presumably, love and care about? Also, if you’re worried about “amateurs doing this themselves” then just make bringing cropped&docked animals from abroad also illegal, as this will make mutilating one’s pets pretty damn hard to hide.

I don't know if you've answered something like this before, but how do you feel about docking and cropping on Doberman from a veterinary perspective? Personally, I just like the look but its not my ears and tail so I can live with a dog with natural looks, I just hear conflicting arguments all the time about both sides

I’m not a fan for any breed for multiple reasons.

1. Even if the risk is low, there’s always a risk any time we do a medical procedure. Anesthetic deaths, infection, unregulated pain, etc. If an animal is going to be put at risk of those things it better be for a good reason. I don’t happen to think that elective procedures for aesthetic are a good reason.

2. The impact on canine communication in docked/cropped dogs hasn’t been studied, but I have concerns about taking away 2 of a dog’s most important communication devices.

3. There are zero benefits. And no, preventing ear infections in cropped dogs isn’t a thing. And preventing happy tail? Yeah ok if you don’t have a tail you won’t get happy tail but happy tail really isn’t all that common. That’s like saying we should amputate our pinky toes so we don’t stub them. So the only reason to crop/dock is for aesthetic. I know there’s lots of breed politics on natural dogs being overlooked in the ring but that’s still not a good enough reason for me.

4. All ethics aside, I think it’s ugly. Just not my aesthetic.

People always like to pull the “well if we make it illegal then amateurs will just do it instead of vets!” and that is such a dumb argument to me. Do you think the people who would crop ears or dock tails at home are the kind of people that would pay a professional to do it now? And honestly, it already happens. There was a breeder in recent news that was performing c-sections. C-sections! So of course there are shitty breeders/owners who are already doing these procedures without proper aseptic technique and pain control. But the majority of people aren’t just gonna take their dogs in the bathroom and cut their ears up with scissors. That’s just not something a normal person does regardless of if it’s legal or not.

And because someone will bring up that desexing is an elective procedure, it’s totally different. There are pros and cons to desexing, and yes some of them include human convenience, but there are serious health benefits and population control benefits to consider. I don’t agree with intact dog = bad owner but I do think the spay/neuter argument is more nuanced than people try to make it out to be.