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bogleech · 2 months

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Simple lifeform facts I take for granted that I've now seen blowing people's minds on here:

That sea urchins walk around and have mouths with teeth on their undersides

That corals are related to jellyfish

Barnacles being related to crabs and shrimp

Ants being an offshoot of wasps

Termites being totally unrelated to ants and all similarities just being convergent evolution (they're actually a group of cockroaches, but even science didn't know that part until a few years ago)

Starfish having an eye at the end of each arm

That the bodies of ticks and mites are also their heads, essentially big heads with legs (they even frequently have eyes way up on "the body")

Sperm whales have no upper teeth, and also their bodies are flat from the front

Goats also having no upper (front) teeth

Tapeworms having no mouth at all and just absorbing nutrients over their entire body surface

That flies are bigger pollinators than bees

That moths are bigger pollinators than bees

That wasps are just as important pollinators as bees (more important to many groups of plants) and when we say they're "less efficient" at it we just mean individually they get a little less pollen stuck to them.

That honeybees are nonnative to most of the world and not good for the local ecosystem, just good for human agriculture

That earthworms are also nonnative and destructive to more habitats than the reverse

There being no hard biological line between slugs and snails; all slugs aren't necessarily related to each other and there are gastropod groups where some have shells and some don't

That ALL octopuses (not just the blue ring) have a venomous bite

Most jellyfish and sea anemones being predators that eat fish

"Krill" being shrimp up to a few inches long and not some kind of microbe

Blue whales therefore being the deadliest predators to ever evolve as they eat up to several million individual animals per day

That krill are still "plankton" because plankton refers to whatever animals, algae and other organisms are carried around by the sea's currents, not to any particular group of life or a size category

Fungi being no more related to plants than we are, and in fact more like a sibling to the animal kingdom if anything

Venus fly traps being native to only one small area of North America in all the world

Parasites being essential to all ecosystems

Leeches not having a circular ring of teeth anywhere

That algae is not a type of plant

That most seaweed is just very big algae

That enough wood ends up in the ocean that plenty of sea life evolved to eat only wood

Speaking of which the fact that the "ship worms" that make tunnels in wood are just long noodly clams

Butterflies technically just being a small weird group of moths we gave a different name to

That insects only get wings once they reach maximum size and therefore there can never be a younger smaller bee or fly that's not a larva

Spiders not being any more likely to kill their own mates/young than just a cat or dog might, for most species maybe a lot less often?

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probablybadrpgideas · 27 days

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Fun New Treasure Table. Roll A D10!

Normal boring treasure. What a disappointment.

Just a big vat of EXP. Grab a straw, lads!

Hot indie video games, but it's the D&D world so no-one can play them.

Colony of mimics playing the long con. They act like gold until you pay for something with them, then they eat the shopkeeper. Play along and they'll share the tastier organs ;)

Crabs. The Dragon heard that they're the end point of evolution so collected them all to become the ultimate lifeform.

Holy texts all written about the GM, which the GM reads to you in excruciating detail.

All the rejected Deck Of Many Thing cards that were thrown out for being too game-breaking.

Blades In The Dark characters who are in this system as part of their latest heist. Make a fortune roll!

Massive amounts of exotic physics matter. If you take it out, it'll start a chain reaction that will destroy the world. Also, in a neat physics discovery, it looks exactly like precious stones.

Me. Please let me out. It's been years.

#D&D #item idea

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riding-the-sunset-bird · 5 months

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Hello! As someone with an newfound interest in Ren'Py and the way it works, I'm going to be dissecting the code of Our Life to explain (roughly) how the game adjusts Cove's look based on your actions. We'll be looking specifically at the transition between Step 1 and Step 2 Cove since that's the very first one that players will experience (I might detail Step 3's changes and Step 4's changes if people want that).

According to GB Patch themselves in response to asks, the way Cove changes his appearance is relatively simple:

His appearance is based on your choices and not random, but it’s taste/aesthetic-based choices rather than the usual conversation type options. So, being nervous or outgoing or what have you will influence Cove’s personality, while choosing the things you like will impact the way Cove looks.

Technically, this is accurate, but not entirely in terms of some decisions you can make that determine Cove's appearance.

Coding-wise, changing Cove's appearance is a simple True/False (yes/no) variable, not a point system. After one decision, Cove might change from the natural evolution of his Step 1 hair (Hair1) to the fluffier hair (Hair2) and it doesn't matter how many times you pick options that would cause that hair: if the last decision is for the hair with the middle part, that's what you'll end up getting.

The TL;DR of it is that, for the most part, things that the MC notices/picks up/favors/focuses on will influence Cove's appearance, but there are a couple that aren't like that and will change him anyway. If you're doing a repeat playthrough and are intentionally trying to get a different Cove, then picking different taste/aesthetic choices is the way to go, but be aware that it's not a guarantee; some options will lead to the same outcome you chose before.

If you want to see what options specifically change his look, then feel free to continue reading\~

The first chance that the player has is when they meet Cove on poppy hill during the prologue. They're given choices on what to "notice first" (according to the game's internal code) and the options lead to different appearance changes:

Green hair. [takes off Cove's glasses and puts on his left pink beaded bracelet]

Wavy eyebrows. [takes off Cove's glasses]

Huge glasses. [sets Cove's glasses to the rounded brown ones]

Pink casts. [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

Sad frowns. [sets Cove's glasses to the rectangular blue ones and puts on his left pink beaded bracelet]

The last chance is during the ending of Step 1 where you have the option to either go home or stay with Cove, completely unrelated to taste/aesthetic altogether.

If you choose to go home, Cove's hair is set to the fluffy hair, but if you stay, nothing will be set until you get to talk to Cove about his feelings on Sunset Bird.

"Do you hate it here?" [sets Cove's hair to the middle-parted one]

"This can be your home." [sets Cove's hair to the fluffy one]

"It'll be alright." [no change]

This means that you will never get anything on Cove's right wrist (his right, not our right) if you choose not to play any of the moments (or somehow skipped to Step 2 without playing Step 1, because Cove - by default - doesn't wear bracelets). His pajamas and jacket (the one he dons during Step 2's Road Trip) will likewise remain at their defaults.

This includes if you choose to only play Step 1's Library specifically. It's the singular moment that doesn't contain any chances to change Cove's appearance.

As for the other moments...

Shopping

Your chance is when you see the four keychains at the shopping street with Cove.

You picked up the dolphin. [gives Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt and the light blue pajama shirt]

You picked up the shark. [gives Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt and the purple pajama shirt with the compass symbol]

You picked up the crab. [gives Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt and the light blue pajama shirt]

You picked up the turtle. [gives Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt and the purple pajama shirt with the compass symbol]

Grown Up

Cove's pants change (that sounds weird but I'm not taking it back) depending on if you tell your moms what happened between Cove and Lizzie or not.

You told the truth. [gives Cove the pants with the belt]

You lied. [gives Cove the pants with the stripes]

Long Day

Changing Cove's pajamas (and only his pajamas, unlike in Shopping) is done when the MC decides which dessert they're craving.

A popsicle. [gives Cove the purple pajama shirt with the compass symbol]

An ice cream cone. [gives Cove the light blue pajama shirt]

An ice cream sandwich. [gives Cove the purple pajama shirt with the compass symbol]

Then you change his casual shirt when you're watching the clouds with Cove, depending on what you see.

You saw a dolphin. [gives Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt]

You saw a car. [gives Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt]

You saw an alpaca. [gives Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt]

You saw a smiley face. [gives Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt]

You saw cloud shapes. [no change]

Sandcastle

This time, it's the type of sandcastle you make that varies Cove's hair specifically.

A house. [sets Cove's hair to the fluffy one]

A castle. [sets Cove's hair to the middle-parted one]

A mansion. [sets Cove's hair to the fluffy one]

Then, his pants change based on what you top the sandcastle with.

Red bottlecap. [gives Cove the pants with the belt]

Blue seashell. [gives Cove the pants with the stripes]

Green piece of seaglass. [no change]

Fireflies

Cove will wear (or not wear) the beaded necklace from how you respond to your Mom prompting you on your excitedness to see/catch the fireflies.

"Yeah!" [no change]

You started eating faster. [puts on Cove's beaded necklace]

You looked over at your moms. [puts on Cove's beaded necklace]

You pushed your food around your plate. [no change]

Ghost

You get another chance to put on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet regardless of whether you choose to talk to your moms or go outside.

If you went to talk to your moms, the bracelet may or may not be put on depending on what topping you ask for on your toast.

"Jam." [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

"Peanut butter." [no change]

"Honey." [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

"Just butter." [no change]

"Extra butter." [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

If you chose to go outside instead, the kind of genre you choose for the story you say you and Cove are in decides it.

"It's a horror story." [no change]

"It's an action story." [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

"It's a fantasy story." [puts on Cove's left pink beaded bracelet]

"It's a documentary." [no change]

Barbecue

Cove's right wristwear changes if you choose to sneak a snack when no one's watching.

A baby tomato. [puts on Cove's right shark tooth wrap bracelet]

A small carrot. [puts on Cove's right wristband]

A cocktail sausage. [puts on Cove's right wristband]

A rolled piece of ham. [puts on Cove's right wristband]

A potato chip. [puts on Cove's right wristband]

A tortilla chip. [puts on Cove's right shark tooth wrap bracelet]

Cove may also get the beaded necklace if you pick certain drink options from the cooler.

Soda. [no change]

Water. [puts on Cove's beaded necklace]

Juice. [puts on Cove's beaded necklace]

Milk. [no change]

Runaway

This moment only gives you a chance to change Cove's look if you go along with him; specifically, his glasses depending on which snack you ask from him.

"Chips." [sets Cove's glasses to the rounded brown ones]

"A muffin." [takes off Cove's glasses]

"A banana." [sets Cove's glasses to the rectangular blue ones]

"Candy." -> "Fruity candy." [takes off Cove's glasses]

"Candy." -> "Chocolate." [sets Cove's glasses to the rounded brown ones]

"Nothing. I'm not hungry." [sets Cove's glasses to the rectangular blue ones]

Sleepover

If you've been following so far and been wondering when your chance to finally change Cove's jacket is, this is it! It's from how you describe the storybook that Cove picks up.

"I love the main character 'cause the squire's really brave and funny." [gives Cove the white and bright pink jacket]

"It has cool pictures. Some of them even take up the whole page." [gives Cove the gray and black jacket]

"Mommy reads it to me. She uses different voices for every character." [gives Cove the white and bright pink jacket]

"There's a dragon in it and crazy things happen." [gives Cove the gray and black jacket]

So, just in case you're the type of player who doesn't like using the Cove Creator but still wants a little more control (either by picking different options or changing the order of moments so your last choices land on what you want), now you can engineer things to your liking because you know how it works!

And if you were just here for the data, then I hope you enjoyed anyway~

#our life #our life: beginnings & always #olba #cove holden #type: cracking the cove

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eoieopda · 1 year

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JADE, HEAR ME OUT, OKAY? NAMJOON AS A DAD. That’s it, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll see myself out.

dadjoon is his final evolution, i’m sure of it. if he can raise a jungkook, he can raise an actual baby.

also, for purely selfish reasons, i have created girl dad!joon. i can picture him exploring with a teeny tiny daughter, making sure she knows all the cool science/nature stuff that society thinks little girls can’t/shouldn’t be excited about 🫠😵‍💫🥹

Fate was a funny thing.

For as long as you’d known him, Namjoon had always been honest that his greatest wish in life was to be a father. It shocked you back then, hearing a nineteen-year-old dreaming so openly about domesticity; especially when all his friends could focus on was how many clubs they could hit in the night ahead. But you knew it, even then, that Namjoon was a nurturer. He always was.

Although he wasn’t shy about expressing his emotions, you’d only seen him cry on a handful of occasions. One of those was when he laid eyes on the pregnancy test you held out, trembling with joy and - inwardly - a hell of a lot of panic. For the nine months that followed, people often asked what you wanted: boy or girl? With a sheepish smile, he always answered the same way - a boy, because he knew what that entailed.

Having a little girl? Well, that scared the shit out of him. That was unknown territory and if his sister taught him anything, it was that he had absolutely no idea what kind of strength and finesse it took to navigate the very unique difficulties of girlhood. He was terrified, he said, of fucking up - of making it all harder.

The next time you saw him cry was when he first laid eyes on your daughter. Watching him hold that wriggling, pink-faced angel, there’d been a knot in your stomach. You wondered to yourself if he was secretly disappointed not to have a son, even if he’d never say so. But over the past three years, he proved you wrong over and over and over again.

Fate made the right call - Namjoon was born to be a girl dad.

Sitting on your beach towel, you hugged your knees to your chest and rested your chin where they bent. It was the most at-peace you’d ever felt, lounging in that salty wind, even though the excited squealing up ahead had scared all the seagulls away.

Waddling on chunky legs next her father, Kim Yeong-Ja gripped the same hand that had crafted the braids bouncing against her shoulders. She stared up at him with palpable adoration - like her mother - and her eyes were sparkling wide with wonder - like her father. If you squinted, you could see the purple fingernail on his right index finger; the one she messily painted after barely even having to ask for his permission, receiving all the trust in the world.

“Ja, look!” Namjoon gasped as his hand dipped gently into the tide pool below. When he pulled it back out, whatever he now cupped in his hand was invisible to you. “Do you know what this is, baby?”

Yeong-Ja’s gasp was identical to her father’s. Then that little ham pulled her free hand to her cheek in surprise - another perfectly mimicked trait of his - before her tiny voice replied, “Mermit!”

His eyes crinkled above his all-consuming grin. It didn’t disappear when he bent over and kissed the top of her head, “Hermit crab! Good job, baby. You’re a genius, just like your mama.”

Your heart soared at her reaction, which was to turn and find you with her big, bright eyes and open-mouthed smile. She giggled like a fiend when you waved. You swooned.

“Show mama!” Yeong-Ja barely warned him before she took off, tugging him behind her. He swooped in and tucked her under one arm so she wouldn’t fall on the rocks but, out of respect, kept up her desired pace. Her belly laugh had become the soundtrack of the day. Like the tide below, it crashed over the sand and sprayed in every direction.

Soon enough, your two greatest loves came clambering up to you and dropped clumsily - but safely - on the other half of your towel. You could’ve sat there forever, counting their twin freckles; but there was now a very small child holding a very small crab near your face with extremely cautious hands.

There were two pairs of eager eyes blinking up at you.

“Wow, Jaja! Look at your little friend!” You gushed before pressing a kiss to her damp, chubby cheek, “Is daddy teaching you all about nature?”

There was a tiny wrinkle between two black brows. She corrected you gently, though it made your heart explode, “Mermits, mama.”

“Quite right, Ja,” Namjoon waved his hand in diplomatic agreement before resting it on the small of your back. He shot you a wink but maintained his otherwise serious expression, “Mermits, mama.”

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nintendoteuthis · 1 year

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Some thoughts on the books, comics, and magazines you can put in your lockers

Disclaimer: This is a mix of reasonable inferences and headcanons.

Comic books

Comedy comic: A comic book featuring the character Monkey Crab (that's who that is. he seems to be quite popular). Aimed at younger readers; has a more light-hearted tone

Romance comic, fangirl comic, love-and-war comic: All romantic manga, probably written by the same author. Don't know what's inside, but I'd wager that the first tells a relatively simple story of a boy and girl falling in love, the second involves a romance developing between a performer and one of her fans, and the third involves a love triangle involving two men on opposite sites of a war. Not the most complex of plots, but Inklings and Octolings eat it up.

Sci-fi comic, sports comic: Pretty much what they say on the tin.

Sharktooth Comix: Basically Weekly Shonen Jump but for the Mollusk Era. Weekly anthologies of comics aimed at a young male demographic. From the covers, we can infer that among the series inside are comic adaptations of Ultra Squid and Octo Kong Country (and another series based on Monkey Crab).

Magazines and journals

Boneless Appetit: A cooking magazine aimed at a younger demographic. They're trying to make cooking fun.

Drip Squad: A fashion magazine. This issue includes a feature on Inkline.

Evolved Science Journal: A scientific journal focused on biology, paleontology, and evolution. The study that made the cover presumably discusses Inkling evolution.

Ink & Splatter: Based on the title, the Roller on the cover, and the Ammo Knights logo, I think this magazine focuses on inksports, especially weapons and strategy. Sponsored by Ammo Knights.

Inkopolis Illustrated: Hey! That's HaikaraWalker! A general culture magazine that covers the styles, sports, and music of Inkopolis. They try to find interesting things about the city to cover. Lots of Inklings and Octolings who moved to Splatsville subscribe to this, so they still feel like they have some connection.

Nostalgia Power Magazine: A retro gaming-focused magazine. Not to say that it doesn't include stuff about older games as well, but retro gaming is its focus. It seems that retro games are very popular among Inklings and Octolings (based on locker stuff, the N-ZAP, and all the stuff in Ancho-V Games).

Rockin' Music Quarterly: A music magazine. Not much to say.

Squidgital Game Guide: Another gaming publication. In order to avoid competition with Nostalgia Power, it probably focuses more on walkthroughs, tips, and trivia about newer games.

Tunnel & Track: For the real train nerds. This magazine is all about public transport.

Other stuff

Fantasy novel: Can't really say much more about this from the cover.

Popular novel: Also a novel. I think that this is, like, a "classic" - the type of thing you'd be forced to read in high school English classes.

Salmon Manners Handbook: Honestly I'm not sure what this is. It seems to be geared towards fish, and it also doesn't seem to have anything to do with Salmonids. Any ideas?

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #locker stuff #my headcanons #(I guess)#oc

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learnyouabiology · 2 years

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Spooky Fact: The Worm that is ACTUALLY an Amphibian!

That^ is not a worm. It’s an amphibian.

Known as caecilians (pronounced seh-SILL-yens), these critters are unfamiliar to most people, and are also an excellent example of evolution trying to create ANOTHER worm (move over, crabs, worms are the REAL final form of evolution 😉).

These guys have SO MANY SPOOKY TRAITS! There’s slime, there’s scary teeth, and there’s even cannibalistic babies!

But let’s start with some decidedly un-spooky information. There are approximately 200 species of caecilians, all in the Order Gymnophiona, and all live in tropical and sub-tropical habitats around the world. That said, people don’t see them very often, because they spend most of their time hiding underground or in other seldom-seen locations. They range in size from ~9 cm to 1.5 m, and honestly, I like them so much.

(Handsome baby! from Stuart et al. 2008)

Reportedly, their smooth, slimey skin makes them extremely hard to catch, and researchers have compared handling them to trying to handle a wet bar of soap (sources 1, 2).

(the most slippy boi in the whole world probably <3)

Even though the word caecilians means “the blind ones”, they’re not actually blind (source x); they can differentiate light and dark, which COUNTS as sight (although if we’re defining blindness by “legal” blindness in humans, then… yeah, they would qualify as blind, I guess).

its eyes are small, but I PROMISE they work. they don’t work well, but they’re good enough for the caecilian’s needs.

Before I get to the spooky bit, I want to say that I find them to be quite lovely. They come in many colours, and I think they’re very sweet with their derpy sock puppet faces. Some species also have poisonous skin, which I, personally, respect so much (source of info: 3, source of respect: I’m happy for them).

Caecilians have such goofy faces.

that said, I have thus far been using images that purposefully highlight their cuteness and charm. There are other pictures which are... less flattering.

I’m actually going to put most of this Spooky Fact under the cut, because it is simply TOO SPOOKY.

(Seriously, though. If you dislike creepy teeth, skin shedding, and bite-y critters, maaaaybe give this one a pass. Read about oilbirds instead! They are wholesome and not too spooky)

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

(These are not props on a scifi/horror movie set! This is what their teeth look like! x, x, x, and x).

While these teeth look very scary, caecilians are not dangerous to humans, instead favouring a diet of insects. One favourite food of many adult caecilians is termites!

However, in some species, the baby caecilians hunger for something else: THE FLESH OF THE LIVING.

Caecilians give more parental care to their offspring than most types of amphibians, with many species of momma caecilians curling around her brood of babies for the first part of their life.

(a loving momma with her babies; from Stuart et al. 2008; Alexander Kupfer)

It was originally believed that the caecilian mother exclusively fed her babies with a special liquid secretion from her tail. However, there was one thing that was strange:

Many baby caecillians have pointy little teeth that don’t seem well-suited to an all-liquid diet.

(Pointy teeth are suspicious. the picture of the baby is a little blurry, so here, have some pictures from a microscope as well, just to split the difference)

The presence of these temporary teeth were baffeling until scientists witnessed a feeding.

Guided by an unknown signal, the babies react all at once, latching onto their mother and tearing off and eating her skin in a practice known as maternal dermatophagy.

(they must FEED)

Luckily, this does not actually hurt the mother, since she is taking advantage of a process that all amphibians engage in: the periodical shedding of her skin.

Most amphibians will immediately eat their own shed skin, because they’re into that it’s rich in nutrients, so it isn’t a huge evolutionary leap to just... feed that skin to some babies instead.

When a caecilian mother is caring for a brood, she will shed her skin approximately every three days (source x). This shed skin is unusually rich with fats and proteins, which is very good for the diets of growing babies!

(great momma #2! x)

here’s a clip from BBC’s Life in Cold Blood that shows this feeding frenzy! They also get an awesome shot of the babies’ fearsome teeth!

(gosh I find them cute)

We don’t actually know how common this form of parental care is in caecilians, since, again: they like to hide. But, as of 2022, it has been observed in several species which are not closely related, which makes scientists think it must be pretty common! sources: x, x.

(this is a 100% inaccurate phylogenetic tree i made in <1 minute, showing basically what I’m talking about. The two confirmed skin-eating species had a common ancestor around 100 million years ago. sources for better, more detailed figures: x, x)

The other clue that hints that skin-eating may be fairly widespread? Those “baby teeth”!

We know that many caecilian species have vernal teeth, meaning they have special teeth when they’re babies which are not present in adults. I privately think of them as “baby teeth” because I cannot be arrested for it.

(friendly reminder that this baby is smol and cannot hurt u. That^ line in the picture? It’s there for scale and represents one milimetre. That’s 0.0394 inches for the americans in the room)

These “baby teeth” are known to be present in more than half of caecilian species examined in this paper. So, if these teeth are corelated that these species engage in maternal dermatophagy, then that implies that this form of parental care could be very widespread among caecilians!

This has been Spooky Fact Friday, telling you about the spooky amphibians that Hunger For Flesh!

bonus fact: ever since I learned out them, caecilians have always reminded me of this TV show that I watched as a kid called “Freaky Stories” that was co-hosted by this puppet:

(actually it might still be on TV? wild)

also if you were wondering: yes, the once-viral “penis worm” is a type of caecilian.

sources, because I am an Extra Individual:

Kupfer, A., Müller, H., Antoniazzi, M. M., Jared, C., Greven, H., Nussbaum, R. A., & Wilkinson, M. (2006). Parental investment by skin feeding in a caecilian amphibian. Nature, 440(7086), 926-929.

Ruttimann, J. Amphibian 'worms' feed young their own flesh. Nature (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/news060410-7

San Mauro, Diego; Gower, David J.; Müller, Hendrik; Loader, Simon P.; Zardoya, Rafael; Nussbaum, Ronald A.; Wilkinson, Mark (2014). Life-history evolution and mitogenomic phylogeny of caecilian amphibians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 73(), 177–189. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.01.009

Stuart, S.N., Hoffmann, M., Chanson, J.S., Cox, N.A., Berridge, R.J., Ramani, P., and Young, B.E. (eds.) (2008). Threatened Amphibians of the World. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain; IUCN, Gland, Switzerland; and Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, USA.

Wilkinson M, Kupfer A, Marques-Porto R, Jeffkins H, Antoniazzi MM, Jared C. One hundred million years of skin feeding? Extended parental care in a Neotropical caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona). Biol Lett. 2008 Aug 23;4(4):358-61. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0217

Moraes, L. J., de Almeida, A. P., de Fraga, R., Rojas, R. R., Pirani, R. M., Silva, A. A., ... & Werneck, F. P. (2017). Integrative overview of the herpetofauna from Serra da Mocidade, a granitic mountain range in northern Brazil. ZooKeys, (715), 103.

#biology #animals #halloween #science #amphibians #caecilians #sciblr #science side of tumblr #fun fact #STEM #adhd in STEM #zoology #fun fact friday #spooky #i am out of the country rn so don't expect much lmao

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cryptotheism · 1 year

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So a friend of mine told me that alchemy was originally from Egypt, presided over by Thoth, and the evolution of runes/glyphs into a religious thing came from white alchemists obfuscating things to be more mystical and in demand. I'm pretty sure that's not ALL right but I don't think it's all wrong either. Anything obvious stand out as bullshit?

Okay basically none of that is correct, but I also see exactly how your friend arrived at those conclusions.

1. "Alchemy was originally from Egypt."

Many of the oldest existing Alchemical texts are from Egypt, claim to be from Egypt, or are reprints of texts that claim to be from Egypt. But alchemy is a body of knowledge, it doesn't "come" from any one single place. Egypt has a good climate for preserving old texts, which can make them kinda overrepresented historically.

2. "Presided over by Thoth."

It's theorized that the ritual production of metal statuary was important to Egyptian religion at some point. The people who made these statues wrote down their methods. Thoth is considered the god of the scholarly arts like writing, but actually Ptah is the god associated with metallurgy. Furthermore, the idea of Thoth being a god of magic is itself a western, non-egyptian idea. Indigenous Egyptian religion had a god of "magic", Heka.

3. "Runes/glyphs as a religious thing came from white alchemists."

That's almost the exact opposite of true. The Egyptians we're SO into the idea that their language was the most powerful and mystical language ever invented ever. There's straight up Egyptian defixio that say shit like "May these words never be translated, lest the Greeks despoil then with their barbarous language." One of the oldest and most famous alchemical texts, the Formula of the Crab, is Egyptian and features weird symbols used as shorthand.

Additionally, the whole idea of alchemists writing in code was largely (you could easily argue against this) an evolution of the early Renaissance, when alchemists were less mystics and more entrepreneurs who had to protect their trade secrets.

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baroueman · 9 months

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Comura Trilobite's are another spiny trilobites that have spines exuding from their back. Unlike Trident Walliserops, they don't have the iconic nose-appendage. They're a member of phacopida that existed during the lower Devonian in what is now Eifel, Germany. Trilobite eyes are made of calcite, and can't stretch or focus in the way that a human's can. But they resemble a fly's and are compound eyes. These were the first complex eyes in prehistoric history; which makes them precursors of current evolution traits. Flies, bees; even certain lizard and other aquatic species like trilobites....more particularly one animal that pre-dates modern lifeforms known as the horseshoe crabs have compound eyes.

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#prehistoric life #prehistoric #prehistorian #dinosaur #fossil #fossils #trilobite fossil #paleontology #extinct #palaeoblr #trilobite #aquatic #aquatic life #sea creatures #marine life #sea life #extinct animals #extinct species #extinction

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typhlonectes · 1 year

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Crabs have evolved five separate times – why do the same forms keep coming back?

Evolution repeatedly hit upon this solution simply because it works.

Charles Darwin believed evolution created “endless forms most beautiful”. It’s a nice sentiment but it doesn’t explain why evolution keeps making crabs.

Scientists have long wondered whether there are limits to what evolution can do or if Darwin had the right idea. The truth may lie somewhere between the two.

While there doesn’t seem to be a ceiling on the number of species that might evolve, there may be restraints on how many fundamental forms those species can evolve into. The evolution of crab-like creatures may be one of the best examples of this, since they have evolved not just once but at least five times.

Crabs belong to a group of crustaceans called decapods – literally “ten footed”, since they have five pairs of walking legs. Some decapods, like lobsters and shrimp, have a thick, muscular abdomen, which is the bulk of the animal that we eat. With a quick flick of their abdomen lobsters can shoot off backwards and escape predators...

Read more: https://bigthink.com/life/crab-evolution

#carcinisation #crab #crabs #crustacean #animals #nature #marine biology #ocean #evolution #science #carcinization

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basilpaste · 3 months

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"Fighter." They say, stiff as anything.

You smile at them cordially. You've done this song and dance before. It's familiar in a way you should probably be uncomfortable with. You think you were, at one point.

"Loop!" You say back.

It's the name they've given themself. You won't push. Maybe eventually you will, but not yet. You never have before, and it would just make your already kind of awkward relationship with them worse. When you already feel so crabbing awful, you don't want to cause any more strain! It's a win-win!

Their voice is filled with a false bravado that doesn't (and hasn't ever) reached their eyes. "So!~ What can I do for you this loop?"

Loop is Siffrin. Or was. You've known it from the first time you met them. It's all in the eyes. They have the same eyes. Loop's just turn up most of the time where Sif's turn down. You can tell they're the same when they're shocked or angry, though. It's... different, but still recognizable.

Is that fair? Loop is fundamentally very different from Siffrin. It's like a case of divergent evolution. They come from the same root, but they're different people. You're not actually sure if Loop likes or hates their differences from Sif. You've never asked.

Which is why you're not gonna say anything. They'd probably brush you off, anyway. Make a show of laughing it up and then they'd deflect. Just like Sif. Which… is a really mean thing to think about both of them. When did you start to get mean? Didn't everyone call you nice before this? Reliable?

"The King knows something about Sif." You say eventually. "Or, uh, something adjacent to Sif? They don't actually seem to know each other. Probably."

"Oh? Interesting! Maybe you could look into any similarities they have?" They wink.

You don't want to compare Sif to the King for a second. But… they're probably right. You flex your fingers, strain in your knuckles that you think is probably all in your head. Hah! You have no idea what loop your on, by the way! They'd probably know if you asked. You don't... want to. They can be hard to talk to.

But... Sif and the King. And to the same extent: both of them and Loop. You try to rack your brain for an answer. What's something that connects them? Something you see within all of them.

... Stars.

Huh. You're not sure how you didn't come up with that before. You sigh. Well! There's one place in the House you know for sure talks about stars. You don't go back there very often, mostly because it's kind of a dead end, but you guess it'll probably be useful! Plus: Sif seems to like talking about them. At least for a moment. Then it sort of... slips? You're not sure why that happens. You've got a few theories, though.

"Thanks, Loop." You tell them.

You mean it every time. You're not sure that they've ever believed you.

#in stars and time spoilers #isat fanfic #isabeau isat #loop isat #isaloops au #basil writes #heres the other one!!#if any of yall saw this on the isatcord you might notice its pretty different now.#it rehashed a lot of things i talked about in other stuff. so i wanted to make it feel more natural.#i kept most of it because i thought it still worked. but i did build around it!

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headphones-lifeform · 3 months

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The main problem with Threshold is actually that IN NO WAY do salamanders align with the current evolutionary trajectory of Humans.

Tiktaalik was already a thing, so it would make more sense to say they are de-evolving.

Besides, if the ultimate evolution of Humans must be a silly Earth animal, it would be a crab.

#threshold day is over so i am safe #star trek #threshold #threshold day #evolution #science #“everything will become crabs” theory #star trek voyager

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adobe-outdesign · 1 year

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what are your thoughts on through dwebble line? been one of my favorites since first getting into Pokémon!

I don't know how GameFreak managed to make a hermit crab so cute, but they did it. The body reads well but is super simple, and the all-black eyes have a neat shape to them; kind of being cylindrical with the black part of the eye taking up the top. It's just very pleasing to look at.

The main focus of the design, the rock "shell", is also well done; it's obvious as a visual focus and the orange and brown go very well together. It makes for a nice little twist on the usual hermit crab shell while still feeling like an organic and natural element for an animal to utilize. I especially like this detail about them forming a mutualistic relationship with Hippowdon:

The only thing I find questionable about this line is the Bug/Rock typing, as hermit crabs aren't insects at all. Part of me does wonder if these guys are even crabs though, as they seem to have tails and very un-hermit crab-like bodies without their shells:

And thankfully Crustle, while less cute, keeps all the good elements of Dwebble while expanding upon the rock-shell theme. The colors once again look great, expanding into a yellow-brown-brownish red palette that feels very natural with the earth tones they were going for. The body gains a little more detail but still doesn't feel overly busy, and the striations in the rock help break up the large object and draw the colors through it nicely. No complaints here.

The only other note I have about these guys is that they apparently started out as having pottery shells (note: artwork shown in Tweet is fanart and not reflective of any actual beta design):

While I think that going with the rock idea worked out really well, I can't help but want a regional variant that harkens back to the original pottery idea; maybe they live exclusively in ruins, and have bug/ground typing to reflect the clay pots they've moved into.

Regardless, this is a pretty perfect line. The colors are pleasant, the theme is obvious, the evolution feels meaningful and suitably different from the pre-evo, and there's some nice biological aspects tossed in there as well. I'm a big fan.

#dwebble #crustle #pokemon #pokemon reviews #.gif

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thecrazyworldbuilder · 1 month

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Some miscellaneous worldbuilding brainrambles I had.

Saw some art from the Rainworld universe and it got me wondering - what if like, some Shoggoth level eldritch being, all tentacles and stuff, found humans freaking adorable. Like "OMGGGGG HONEEYYY COME LOOK AT THISSSSS" while reaching a slimy appendage to pet Mark the Cashier at the Gas Station on the head as he's frozen in fear.

What if dragons are always angry because they feel the pain of constantly growing. The older the dragon, the bigger they are. The growth rate stays the same their whole life, from egg to titan, which means their bones just ache all the time, every joint, their teeth fall out and regrow constantly like those of sharks. Imagine being stuck in puberty forever. What if gold presence eases their pains?

I like the take on prophecies where they aren't a script to follow but a ticket with restricted permissions. It's not that "the one who takes the sword from the stone will be king" but "anyone who takes the sword from the stone will be king", if they want to. It all boils down to roles in a prophecy and the amount of specification. The less specific, the less significant the prophecy. Any black-haired man can pull help a farmer to pull a donkey out of a pit, but the seventh son of a seventh son, born under an eclipsed sun surrounded by fire? That's some world-changing potential prophecy there.

"Perfection... For thousands of years we tried to achieve perfection without really understanding what it is. We might be incapable to achieve it, but we can make something that will achieve it for us. First were the automaton who were designing each other by being a couple generations where the youngest disassemble the oldest to create a new wave. Who analyze themselves for weaknesses and think like a true hivemind. Then there were the chimerae. Beings of two bloodlines, noble and drone, like ants they lived in colonies yet each member was so drastically different from others you couldn't tell they are the same species. Splicing genes of all animals in the world, all fishes, all insects and even plants. With their own queens, princes and princesses who are the closest to the Perfection. And what else? Others not so lucky, drones, experiments out of which survive only the strongest, and who can challenge the noble bloodlines. If they live they get to reproduce. Die - and become genetic food for the nobles to grow stronger. Everytime we tried to pump animals with the Evolution agents, they turned into crabs. No damn idea why. And everytime we tried to use magic for the idea, slime were created in one way or another, slime that changes state of matter between liquid and solid, quicksilvers who simply outskill everything alive in survival, shapeshifting into cogs of a grand machine they are now building. We never knew what perfection was, yet tried to achieve it nevertheless."

Thinking of those scenes in movies when something paranormal is happening and things start to float upwards, or like, completely switch gravity directions. Say, a pendant starts dangling upwards rather than down, water flowing uphill, and all that. One possible way could be to say that there is a gravity anomaly affecting items below certain weight. If such anomaly could be harnessed in mechanisms, it be so dope. You know the ancient Greek Hero's automaton? Imagine the complexity if you include opposite gravity in that equation.

Could be a spell, could be some superconductor stuff like on Pandora.

Skin tones of a metal-based species.

Takes on elven youth:

Baby-looking elves. Elves just always looking like they are about seventeen, looking like that type of youngster you'd see in a supermarket asking for some random ass beer and looking too young to be allowed alcohol. Elves looking not in this "etereal beauty" kind like the "stock photos model" Looking young, yes, but. Not. Like those celebrities and richmen who spend a fortune on looking like they are forever 20. The only part of an elf that ages is the hair, turning white with age.

Runes are channels of energy, imperfections in metals, veins in your body, cracks and ores in stone, smallest anomalies in the crystals. Runes could be smithed, yes, but naturally occurring ones are stronger, better. Greater. So making a sword out of a metal chunk with a potent rune in it while preserving the rune itself yields greater results than trying to fabricate it.

Anatomic: Brain in the chest, heart in the head.

Concept:

The summoning sigils for demons (and other beings for that matter) are like calling a person's name and the only reason the demon shows up is because they grow tired and annoyed of being called like that so they are ready to do anything to stop that shit.

Imagine someone repeating your name a dozen times without elaborating what they want. Of course you will come over and ask "WHAT?"

Oooh I just got an interesting idea.

So, like, a language/culture where people's names are secondary, going after the pronoun they use.

It's like. He-John, She-Harrada, Ey-Nullée, et cetera.

But then that pronoun part is used as a third-person signifier. He, she, ey, all that, while the name is the second person pronoun (which it is in some cases). But then the part comes about verbs/adjectives getting those "genders" applied to them, as well as nouns (like "she-wolf" but, for example, "xe-smith apprentice").

There's this conversation I had with myself (typical neurodivergent queer going insane from having no reliable friends in a homophobic country that doesn't believe ADHD can exist in adults) about inflating a whole setting out of a minor detail, a smallest thing.

First it's one concept, then there's two, until the whole thing snowballs into a huge fictional world with lots of lore and stuff.

Say, concept: "Undead gods". Already amazing - sets up the assumption that A) Gods were once resurrected and B) Gods were once dead. Say if this happened to the Greek mythology, Hades - the god of the dead (but not death) himself dies and there's nobody to tend for the dead, and the Gods fight each other over the responsibility of tending over the most shitty job in the pantheon, resulting in mass bloodshed and death. Gods are dead, and only Thanatos is here to collect their souls. So he devises a plan, with ulterior motives: To give them and many dead a second chance in life. So in undeath, he lets them live as revenants, ghosts, skeletons, zombies, all devoted to different undead gods.

Undead being zapped with lightning from the blessing of Zeus. Undead breathing like a living forge of fire, blessed by Hephaestus. Chaos-bringing warriors in armor, followers of Ares. So much more.

And all from a simple ass concept, two words: Undead gods. Just that I am sometimes amazed how people who get into worldbuilding think that you must have a grand idea, a lot of things to connect together when in reality, it's just one stone, then two, then three, all together forming the building of your world(build). .

Or another, even smaller concept - "Alexandrithium is a metal that boils water on touch".

What tech will it inspire? What usage, how will it revolutionize the world? Boiling turns into steam, steam is punk (ba dum tsss). Some freaks make weapons out of this metal to cause Extra Suffering and the equivalent of the Geneva convention bans such weapons, may they be blades or bullets.

You can make an analogy of a snow ball, rolling down a mountain and sticking more and more snow to itself, or you can say that you have a balloon - the original first concept - that you inflate with ideas from within, filling in the bag, stuffing it up with all that other stuff while under the hood of the First Concept. Like.

Worldbuilding is neat.

I had a similar idea which could be called "procedural conlangs" (proclangs?)

In all technicality it is just a relex with words assigned via some algorithm, say, there's 3000 possible syllables that could be generated through some given algorithm, and to these 3000 syllables we assign the 3000 of the most frequent English words. Afterwards we can either continue assigning words their relex variants via randomly combining the 3000 syllables into bisyllabic words, or could try and piece together new translations for them.

E.g. the word for "toaster" isn't in the 3000, so we either use a random bisyllabic word without connected meaning, "ab-resh" (which would literally mean "bone-green"), or try to piece it together from the syllables already present in the 3000, like "thran-mil" (meaning something like "bread grill").

Sooo Hm.

My idea for "oriental elvish" was to base it on Japanese (the modern dialects at least) with the phonetic mutations and stuff (like "hu" being pronounced as "fu" and et.c.) But with added sounds like the English eth and thorn, + the /l/, and allowing three codas - /n, r, l/ thus (with a possible mutation coda /m/ when /n/ is before a bilabial stop).

Then once I have it I will reverse-engineer the protolang based on Chinese with added in tones and stuff, probably, and a more strict collection of phonotactic rules. And from all that a third possible dialect could be made, based on Korean.

Also sounds like me before I invented cryptolangs and thus a new brainworm that'd gnaw on my gray matter til' this very date.

Just naming stuff what sounds I fit best.

I didn't knew English that well back then, so like. One of the cities in a setting of mine was called "Meth". (I renamed it since, making it "Mett" - meant to be derived from "meeting", since the port city is one of the largest and richest, where many cultures and races meet, indeed.)

A way to count to 625 on fingers:Thumb is the index pointer in this case. Each finger is separated into phalanx and joints - 6 units per finger thus - plus the middle of the palm for one extra. Thus, on one hand you can count to 25. Now, once you count to 25, you count one unit on the other hand. Basically, an abacus of sorts.

#worldbuilding #fantasy worldbuilding #worldbuilding ideas #world creation #worldbuilder #worldbuilding tips #worldbuilding stuff

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