Vila Wolf's Dyslexic Folklorist Ranting

Chelys fimbriata [now Chelus fimbriatus] - Mata mata

Some people say the Mata mata turtle looks like it’s smiling, because of its unusually-shaped mouth. The Indigenous South American nickname for the turtle, “matamata”, means “I kill”, according to Fritz Jurgen Obst. Whether that eponym meant that the turtle was good to kill and eat or the turtle killed a lot is unknown. The relatively large size and a meat quality similar to the Alligator Snapping Turtle makes the former meaning more probable.

In the wild, Chelus fimbriatus lives in stagnant waters, blackpools, and muddy streams around the Amazon rainforest. Its fringed neck and murky coloration, combined with algae that grows on its carapace, makes this turtle an excellent ambush hunter. When fish come near it, the mouth opens up, and the mata mata “vacuums” them in. This is in contrast to Alligator Snapping Turtles, which are similar ambush predators, but with a different strategy. The tongue of the snapping turtle acts as a lure, and unsuspecting fish swim right into its mouth.

Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 1885.

A follower reminded me (via a meme with a tortoise on it…) that it was World Turtle Day today.

CELEBRATE THIS TURTLE AS IT IS BEST TURTLE

Cutis laxa, an extremely rare connective tissue disorder. Krankheiten der nerven, Muskeln und Haut. 1907.

Dermatochalasia, also known as cutis laxa, is distinct from the more common Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, but displays many of the same symptoms, including hyperelasticity of the skin and joints. 

Cutis laxa is caused by defects in the elastin fibers of the extracellular matrix, while Ehlers-Danlos is caused by defects in the collagen fibers of that matrix. Both conditions can be inherited in either an autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive pattern, but all are caused by genetic mutations.

Perinatal Osteogenesis Imperfecta (probably type II) and Blue Sclerae of OI

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), also known as brittle bone disease, is a set of disorders that involves the malformation or insufficient formation of collagen.

All types of this condition are genetic, and are present at birth. Types I through V are autosomal dominant, and Types VI through VII are autosomal recessive. Given the severity of types II and III, the fact that they’re autosomal dominant rarely comes into play.

Most variants of OI (but not type IV) display blue sclerae, which is one of the primary diagnostic criteria. X-rays showing multiple bone fractures in varying stages of healing are also common in OI, and the x-ray above shows many nodules where the ribs and arms have fractured during the antenatal period.

In the past, OI was often assumed to be rickets or osteomalacia, and in the modern era, child abuse is often suspected when symptoms aside from frequent fractures are not present.

A Text-Book of Pathology for Students of Medicine. J. George Adami and John McCrae, 1912.

Prolapsed double uterus in pregnant woman.

A double uterus is known as uterus didelphys. Though the condition doesn’t tend to interfere with pregnancy (when conception occurs - it’s not uncommon for those with a double uterus to have trouble conceiving), it frequently occurs along with other gynecological problems, such as weak uterine ligaments. Since surgical intervention was still fairly risky, even after the advent of aseptic procedures, gynecological surgery was not commonly used for conditions such as prolapsed uterus.

An American Text-Book of Obstetrics. 1895.

The Majestic Sea Unicorn aka the NARWHAL - Monodon monoceros

How I have not covered this as many times as the platypus or sloths is beyond me, but the narwhal is the coolest cat in the sea. And by cat I mean cetacean and by the sea I mean Arctic ocean.

Narwhals are closely related to beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) and are members of the “white whale” family, Monodontidae. Given the meaning of “Monodontidae” (one-toothed), the narwhalian (it’s a word because I said so) origin of the name is clear. Both belugas and narwhals have no true dorsal fin, just a back ridge, no snout, prominent melons (used for echolocation), and reduced teeth (multiple simple teeth in the beluga, only two teeth in the narwhal). They’re both highly vocal, and have unfused cervical vertebrae (all other cetaceans have at least partially fused cervical vertebrae) as well.

Narwhals are more northerly in their range than their counterparts - belugas are both Arctic and subarctic, while narwhals stay in the coldest parts of the Arctic Ocean. However, they have significant overlap in their territories, and it’s believed that they’re able to interbreed, though the offspring are almost certainly sterile.

—————————

The other major difference between the two is obviously the “horn” that almost all males and a some (15%) female narwhals possess. The horn is more accurately described as a tusk - it’s the projection of the left canine tooth through the upper lip, and not a bony or keratin-based growth. Despite what it seems like it might be used for, it’s is rarely used in aggression - instead it seems to be used primarily to measure salinity and other water metrics. The “tusking” behaviors that scientists once believed were males showing aggression towards each other appear to be an exchange of water and range data, with additional observation. Narwhal tusks are rich with nerve endings, up to 10 feet long (generally around 5-6 feet), and twisted in a helix pattern.

Of course, with how awesome it looks, European whalers used to pawn narwhal horns off as “Unicorn horns”. While the origin of the unicorn myth is probably related to oddly-antlered deer and mistaken identities of large goats and sheep, the narwhal absolutely shaped the mythos in the Medieval and Enlightenment periods. It wasn’t until the large-scale swindling of prominent figures that the narwhal tusks were unicorn horns that unicorns generally became portrayed as having a spiral (and very long) protuberance.

Maybe there’s more truth to the myth than they think…?

Read More!

The Mystery of the Sea Unicorn on The Loom (Carl Zimmer) at National Geographic

Unicorn of the Sea at World Wildlife Foundation

Images:

Histoire generale des drogues, traitant des plantes, des animaux, & des mineraux. Pierre Pomet, 1694.

British Mammals. Thoriburn Archibald, 1921.

Narwhal Males “Tusking” - World Wildlife Foundation

“Rainbow Magic” by Kozyndan/Pretty in Plastic via Laughing Squid

Lister’s antiseptic operating technique,1883

Happy Women’s Equality Day, everyone. As these unsung women of science show, we still have a ways to go.

Desert Cat

The desert cat was ubiquitous in Egypt when it was settled by the first agricultural humans, thousands of years before recorded history. For a while, since the desert cat (and other cat species) did not compete with them for food or try to eat them, humanoids invited them to come around and did not attack them. The cats controlled the mice and snakes that frequented the valuable granaries and got easy meals; humanoids got grain that wasn’t spoiled or consumed by rats and mice, and were not threatened by the snakes that came around to eat them.

Though cats did not contribute significantly to the actual survival of humans, they were still seen as intelligent, motherly, a manifestation of fertility and protection, and loved as much as relatives. 

When a cat belonging to someone died (as opposed to the semi-ferals that still wandered the granarie,s long after domestication), they were expected to go into the same level of mourning as proceeding the death of an immediate family member, including shaving off their eyebrows, somber dress, and (if they could afford it) commissioning their cat to be mummified.

Handbook to Carnivora. Part I: Cats, Civets, and Mungooses. Richard Lydekker, 1896.