Fossil diatoms retain their intricately patterned glassy silica shell cases. Called frustules, these may be either rounded or elongated. Living diatoms are single-celled, algae-like protists. They make up much of the plankton in the marine and freshwater food chains. Their shells accumulate by the millions on the seafloor, eventually fossilizing to form a siliceous sedimentary rock called diatomite.
"which reptile is the most catholic?" obviously Komodo Dragons because they have virgin birth
many other reptile lineages also have virgin birth (parthenogenesis), there's even MULTIPLE species of whiptail lizards that reproduce entirely this way!
there are no males in these species. only females.
however! they still court each other and do some copulating.
LIZBEANS.
It's not every day you see a fish walking on land! However, when the streams and ponds of the airbreathing catfish dry up, this species will readily wriggle across the jungle floor in search of a new home. Thanks to a special organ called a labyrinth organ, they are able to breathe air and can remain outside of water for several hours provided they stay moist.
(Image: A Java walking catfish, Clarias batrachus, by sdickman via iNaturalist)
If you like what I do, consider buying me a ko-fi!
i love these wacky guys
I met some relatives of my beloved leatherleaf slugs in the mangroves of Singapore, the onch slugs! they’re perhaps some of the slowest-moving animals I’ve ever encountered; this is one in a hurry:
the species pictured is a Platevindex, which are particularly interesting to me since their backs are studded with extra eyes! the dorsal papillae each have a little black dot that’s a photoreceptor, which helps the slug detect changes in light exposure.
onchidiids are marine animals, living on costal rocks and in mangroves, but breathe air and spend much of their time out of the water. like the leatherleafs, they’ve got a dry, tough hide that maintains water balance, but Platevindex takes that to an extreme—when I picked one up, it felt like a vulcanized rubber tire!
This lie was pushed by the White House as well as every major Western news source...
who still haven't recanted it with anywhere near the energy they spread it with.
This lie is still being used to justify the extermination of the Palestinian people
There must be a ferocious reckoning for this.
I get so confused whenever I see an AI-generated sea slug of a species that doesn't even exist, like is the world not beautiful enough for you? Do you care not for Babakina anadoni...?
Nemesignis banyulensis?
Bornella anguilla?
Phyllodesmium poindimiei?
Sea angel??