Big-Headed Turtle - Platysternon megacephalum

In one of the best cases of “well, that tracks” names, the Big-Headed Turtle is, er, big-headed. Even the adult form doesn’t seem quite to scale.

While it’s not well-studied, there are few enough of this turtle that it’s considered endangered or “data-deficient” in the lists available.

This species is found in the far south of China, Laos, and Cambodia. It’s also been spotted in Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Unfortunately, it’s known to be eaten for a standard (non-medicinal) foodstuff in the areas spotted, too. I assume the “eaten” means they consume the adults - this juvenile looks like a bunch of bones and a beak to me.

Brehms Tierleben, Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs. Prof. Otto zur Strassen, 1910.

Skeleton of small child

This skeleton is noted to display the characteristics of a severe case of spina bifida, without ancephaly, but with hydrocephalus. 

From a museum collection - skeleton from the mid/late 19th century China.

The first true toilet paper was made in China. By the year 1391, the Office of Imperial Supplies in Nanjing turned out 720,000 sheets of toilet paper a year - all appx 100cm x 100cm.

More fancy fish!

Rulers in Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam have valued fancy fish and ponds for centuries, much as European monarchy have valued manicured garden and regal birds (like Her Majesty's swans). They have long been bred and restricted to royalty, and common people keeping fancy fish has even had the death sentence decreed against it.

The emperor of China in 1369, Hóngwǔ, established a porcelain company that produced large porcelain tubs for keeping fancy goldfish. Long before then (as far back as the Jin dynasty - ca. 265 AD), the royal family kept the fancy red and orange color mutations of Asian carp that were raised for food throughout the coastal areas of china. 

Where the koi (ornamental common carp) were the favored fish in Japan and (at periods) Korea, other East Asian royalty tended much more towards the fancy goldfish, which were ornamental Asian carp.

Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine. 1780.

Bubble-eyes!

Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine. 1780

Both the illustration and this skull are from the British Museum of Natural History.

Rhamphotheca says that fangy deer are the best damn thing out there, so perhaps I should make an effort to get over my disgruntled attitude towards them, just because I got bit once.

Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum of Natural History, Vol IV: Artiodactyla. Richard Lydekker, 1913.

Uniforms worn while researching plague bacteria.

These plague researchers were working with the bacillus in the Philippines in 1912. The Third Pandemic was the last major pandemic of plague, which began in Yunnan Province in China, in 1855. It was considered an active pandemic by the World Health Organization until 1959, when cases dropped below 200/year. 

Unlike the Black Death, which is believed to have been at least equal parts pneumonic plague and bubonic plague (though pneumonic contributed to more deaths), the Third Pandemic was mostly bubonic plague (far less deadly, though still dangerous and highly virulent). Despite this, it still contributed to over 12 million deaths in China and India alone, and spread to all inhabited continents.

Pteroglossus ulocomus, the Curl-crested Araçari. Now known as Pteroglossus beauharnaisii. 

I like the name of these Toucans. "Ptero" means "of the wing" or "wing", and "-glossus" means "pertaining to the tongue. Tonguewings! 

From Voyage Autour de Monde par les Mers de L'Inde et de Chine. Captain M. Laplace, 1832.