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mysticetus · 2 years

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Can you tell us fun facts about the whale Megaptera is based on? I love learning new things when you post about creatures

oh god you mean humpback whale. brother that is going to be a very long post

i cant talk too much about the character herself because i prefer to keep it secret until the time is right but the whale she is, megaptera novaeangliae, or humpback whale, is one of my favorite rorquals

rorquals (balaenopteridae) are baleen whales that specialize in lunge feeding behaviors, which (like most animals) dictates almost all parts of their physiology which have been specialized to aid in foraging. rorquals sport long, streamlined bodies designed to lunge at clouds of prey, and a throat lined with grooves (striations, or ventral pleats) that inflate like an accordion to accommodate the huge mouthfuls of water and prey they consume. a defining feature of rorquals, and all baleen whales, is a lack of a mandibular symphysis, meaning the halves of their jaw bone are unfused and can actually spread apart to maximize the volume of their "gulps". this odd feature, basically unseen among mammals, is what caused coastal communities to mistake rotting whale corpses for giant boars or tusked creatures and gave rise to legends like sea pigs.

which is ironic considering that cetacea (all whales) are actually artiodactyls (hoofed mammals) ... and their closest land relatives are hippos. also included in this family are deer, sheep, and pigs.

its really really interesting to me how arguably some of the most successful and fearful predators in the world today (orcas, or even just the fact the largest animal ever to exist which also eats millions of creatures in a single day) have the vestiges of meek ruminants complete with chambered stomachs and long small intestines designed to break down fibrous plant material.

but thats just rorquals in general... humpback whales in particular have many attributes that make them some of my favorites. theyre particularly unique among rorquals being the only species under genus megaptera. one of my professors called them the minivan of mysticetes (baleen whales), because theyre rather stout.

(i mention a professor but most of this information is actually stuff ive learned from doing web dives and reading academic papers)

one of my favorite attributes is the fact they retain their vestigial vibrissae (whiskers) through adulthood. their trademark tubercles (lumps around their mouth) are actually oversized hair follicles, and each one has a tiny, cm-long hair in the center. they also have quite a few hairs on their chin. (this may look like a "mustache", but rorquals and most cetaceans actually have an underbite, so its really a "beard")

they also have stark black and white coloration similar to an orca. the northern hemisphere populations tend to have less white than the southern hemisphere populations. some southern hemisphere humpbacks even have eyespots akin to orcas. heres a southern hemisphere humpback - note how the while coloration creeps up above the armpit.

thats just physiology though. theres a wealth of behaviors unique to humpbacks like the cultural exchange of songs between populations or feeding behaviors like bubble net feeding, where a team of adults will assume specific roles (herding, blowing bubbles, calling) to trap schools of fish. its a little bit terrifying how they use extremely loud songs to stun and disorient the fish, and then a "leader", usually a female, dives down and sounds out a call to signal everyone to lunge up and feed. heres a really funny animation illustrating tag data on the spiraling swimming behaviors.

theres actually a female humpback whale that routinely comes back to a salmon hatchery in alaska every april to completely decimate the stocks. she literally sneaks into the hatchery's nets and consumes 13 million dollars worth of salmon before theyre released. its over

other things are escaping me right now. i just really enjoy these creatures

#ask #cetacea

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cherita · 6 years

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11 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Deluxe Edition Books for Gift Giving

Books make for great gifts, don't you think?

Except . . . book lovers have probably already bought or read most of the books they want. Enter the deluxe edition: those fancy, illustrated editions designed especially for gift giving — I mean, I assume that's what they're for, with their gilded edges, pretty pictures, and fall release dates.

If you're searching for the perfect book to give your favorite sci-fi or fantasy reader, elevate your giving with a deluxe, anniversary or collector's edition of a beloved book. Or a hardcover edition instead of a mass market paperback, or a series collected into one volume. Here are 11 such deluxe edition books to get you started in these trying holiday shopping times...

Jump to: Sci-Fi Books || Fantasy Books || Young Adult Books

For Science Fiction book lovers...

Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy

Jeff VanderMeer

In time for the holidays, a single-volume hardcover edition that brings together the three volumes of the Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance — perfect for fans of dark sci-fi films and books alike, as the Annihilation movie adaptation starring Natalie Portman is set to hit theaters in February.

SYNOPSIS: Area X — a remote and lush terrain — has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer. This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers — they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding — but it's the surprises that came across the border with them, and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another, that change everything.

Ender’s Game (Hardcover Reissue)

Orson Scott Card

This engaging, collectible, miniature hardcover of the Orson Scott Card classic and worldwide bestselling novel makes an excellent gift for anyone’s science fiction library.

SYNOPSIS: Once again, Earth is under attack. An alien species is poised for a final assault. The survival of humanity depends on a military genius who can defeat the aliens. But who?

Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child.

Recruited for military training by the world government, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battle School. Among the elite recruits Ender proves himself to be a genius among geniuses. He excels in simulated war games. But is the pressure and loneliness taking its toll on Ender? Simulations are one thing. How will Ender perform in real combat conditions? After all, Battle School is just a game. Isn't it?

Old Man’s War (Hardcover Reissue)

John Scalzi

A perfect gift for an entry-level sci-fi reader and the ideal addition to a veteran fan’s collection, John Scalzi's Old Man’s War will take audiences on a heart-stopping adventure into the far corners of the universe.

SYNOPSIS: John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.

The good news is that humanity finally made it to the stars. The bad news is that, out there, planets fit to live on are scarce―and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Responsible for protecting humanity, the Colonial Defense Force doesn’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth, never to return. You’ll serve two years in comb

For Fantasy book lovers...

The Broken Earth Trilogy

N.K. Jemisin

For the Kindle lover, get the complete New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with The Fifth Season (2016 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel) and The Obelisk Gate (2017 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel), and concludes with this year's highly acclaimed The Stone Sky.

SYNOPSIS: This is the way the world ends...for the last time.

A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Edgedancer

Brandon Sanderson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, a special gift edition of Edgedancer, a short novel of the Stormlight Archive (previously published in Arcanum Unbounded).

SYNOPSIS: Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older--a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can't help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

The Name of the Wind 10th Anniversary Edition

Patrick Rothfuss

This deluxe, illustrated edition celebrates the New York Times-bestselling series, The Kingkiller Chronicle—a masterful epic fantasy saga that has inspired readers worldwide.

The anniversary hardcover includes more than 50 pages of extra content; a beautiful, iconic cover by artist Sam Weber and designer Paul Buckley; gorgeous, never-before-seen illustrations by artist Dan Dos Santos; detailed and updated world map by artist Nate Taylor; and more.

SYNOPSIS: My name is Kvothe. I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.

So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature—the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.

Neverwhere Illustrated Edition

Neil Gaiman

The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s dark classic of modern fantasy, beautifully illustrated with strikingly atmospheric, painstakingly detailed black-and-white line art by award-winning artist Chris Riddell, and featuring the author’s preferred text and his Neverwhere tale, “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back.”

SYNOPSIS: Richard Mayhew is a young London businessman with a good heart whose life is changed forever when he stops to help a bleeding girl—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth.

Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Here in Neverwhere, Door is a powerful noblewoman who has vowed to find the evil agent of her family’s slaughter and thwart the destruction of this strange underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life and home, he must join Lady Door’s quest to save her world—and may well die trying.

For Young Adult book lovers...

City of Bones 10th Anniversary Edition

Cassandra Clare

Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones with this gorgeous new edition, complete with new cover art, gilded edges, over thirty interior illustrations, and six new full-page color portraits of everyone’s favorite characters! Also includes the Clave’s official files on some of the series’ most beloved characters, written by Cassandra Clare.

SYNOPSIS: This is the book where Clary Fray first discovered the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world and back to their own. The book where she first met Jace Wayland, the best Shadowhunter of his generation. The book that started it all. A perfect gift for the Shadowhunter fan in your life.

A Darker Shade of Magic Collector’s Edition

V.E. Schwab

A stunning collector's edition of the acclaimed novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab. With an exclusive metallic ink cover and reading ribbon, this edition will feature: end papers of London, fan art, a glossary of Arnesian and Antari terms, an interview between author and editor, and original (never before seen!) tales from within the Shades of Magic world.

SYNOPSIS: Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes―Red London―and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Leigh Bardugo

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of lavishly illustrated short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

SYNOPSIS: Enter the Grishaverse...

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, the tales in The Language of Thorns will transport you to lands both familiar and strange―to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, each of them lavishly illustrated and culminating in stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Red Queen Collector's Edition

Victoria Aveyard

A beautifully designed collector’s edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, featuring exclusive content, fan art, a redesigned cover, printed case, stained edges, a never-seen-before look behind the scenes of the Scarlet Guard, and more!

SYNOPSIS: Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

The perfect gift for anyone looking to add this beautiful edition to their collection, and for new readers eager to discover the lush, vivid fantasy series where loyalty and desire can tear you apart and the only certainty is betrayal.

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