Everyone Meet Just A Normal Goose :)

hey, don't cry. marbled polecat, ok?

RATATOUILLE — 2007, dir. Brad Bird

Harley & Ivy

Here’s one good thing to come out of 2020:

Paleontologists completed a life-sized replica of Sue, the most complete T. Rex ever found.

And she is freaking GORGEOUS!

As I read more about this beauty, I found out some new details regarding things I thought I previously knew about the beast that was Tyrannosaurus Rex, and I’m going to share them with you.

First, and most obvious, her size:

This is nothing new, we all figured T. Rex was big, but I for one never stopped to consider exactly how big it was. Nobody ever really knows what to imagine when they read about something the size of a whale that walked around and ate everything it could kill. 

Speaking of eating things, I just want to remind you all that T. Rex had–by miles–the strongest bite of any terrestrial animal living or dead, somewhere around six and a half tons of force. That’s over six times greater than the current estimate of what Allosaurus was capable of, and three times what was delivered by the highest measured reading of the living title holder–the estuarine crocodile. It didn’t have to waste time swinging its head open-mouthed like Saurophaganax for a little extra oomph, or grow fancy serrated teeth like Carcharodontosaurus to cut pieces out of its prey. It opted for the simplest approach: get its mouth around something and crush it to death; imagine the full weight of an elephant on whatever was between this thing’s jaws.

“How did it find something to eat?” I hear you asking. “It can’t see something if it doesn’t move, right?”

Listen, I love Jurassic Park too, but that’s a big crock of shit.

Notice how both her eyes face forward. That gives her binocular vision (the ability to focus both eyes on one target, like you and I). More importantly it means she has impeccable depth perception due to overlapping fields of vision from each, large, eyeball. Researchers agree that T. Rex not only had incredible vision, but that it was probably better than most modern animals–including eagles, hawks, and owls–and that she could likely spot something three and a half miles away. If something that big can see that well, it doesn’t matter if you move or not, she’d be able to tell if it was an animal trying to hide or a piece of vegetation. So pray she isn’t hungry if she lays eyes on you. And even if by some miracle she didn’t see you, she’d still smell you. 

If she decided you looked tasty, you probably wouldn’t hear her coming as much as you’d feel her. Modern science indicates that T. Rex didn’t roar like in Jurassic Park, but rather bellowed or maybe even hissed like crocodilians. If she were on to you, you’d most likely feel this sense of unease creep up your spine as a low-pitched rumble in the air permeated through you. You wouldn’t know what it was or where it was coming from until you hear her footfalls. By then it’s too late–you could try to run but she’d probably catch you. There’s plenty on YouTube that reconstructs what T. Rex may have sounded like, and it’s legitimately haunting.  

To wrap all of this up, the one bit of good that came out of the cursed year that is 2020 is that this wonderful child of science and art came into the world, and reaffirmed my respect and admiration for the eight ton slab of muscle and teeth that is this magnificent creature.

…and it is nothing if not magnificent.

"Ginseng Roots is part systems exploration, part cultural history — but most uniquely, it is an exercise in journalistic listening as an act of devotion." —Thi Bui, author of The Best We Could Do

The new graphic memoir from the author of Blankets, one of Time magazine's top 10 comics of the decade.

"This is Craig Thompson's masterpiece." —Joe Sacco, author of Palestine and Paying the Land

PenguinRandomhouse.com

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson: 9780593700778 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

From the celebrated author of Blankets and Habibi comes a new graphic memoir exploring the class divide, childhood labor, family, and our gl

Gene-edited 'Peter Pan' cane toad that never grows up created to eat its siblings, control invasive species

The removed gene controls the production of the hormone thyroxine, which fuels the metamorphosis that occurs when a tadpole transforms into a toad. Rick Shine, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist at Macquarie University, is one of the scientists behind the "Peter Pan toads". He said cane toad tadpoles were known to be voracious cannibals with a preference for snacking on their kin, both in egg and hatchling form. This is especially true in Australia where rates of cannibalism of hatchlings by tadpoles have been recorded as 2.4 times that of South America — where the cane toad originated...

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-04-08/cane-toad-created-that-never-grows-up-and-eats-its-siblings/105100286

please dear god everyone look at this przewalski's horse i found on inaturalist

No one owes artists anything.

But existence is lonely and sometime you throw hours and hours of effort into a void, on the slim chance it will say something back.

bowser reacting to mario’s tux vs bowser reacting to mario’s dress