A recent genetic study has unlocked secrets of tardigrades, the microscopic scientific rockstars.
Read more at Earth Archives.
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Penguins are really magnificent.
I’m working on a series of infographics roughly representing the amazing evolutionary journeys of some animal groups like horses, whales and elephants! If you want to see more like this, check out my Patreon!
special thanks to @franzanth for helping me with this amazing idea.
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Leaf-Winged Shrimpfly (Garidopteryx phyllomorpha)
The shrimpfly is a crustacean adapted to live on land. Its most remarkable feature is, as the name suggests, the leaf-mimicking pair of wings. Though not very aerodynamic, allowing for only clumsy and quick flights, its great for camouflage.
The Shrimpfly's hind pair of wings is translucent and can be mostly hidden behind the first pair. When the animal is threatened, it can quickly flash them to scare potential predators with the eye spots.
Its body is mottled and patterned so as to mimic the mossy bark of trees, making it almost invisible among dead branches. Different populations of Leaf-Winged Shrimpfly have different patterns and colorations to better disappear into their respective surroundings.
The mantis-like raptorial appendages are used to quickly grab unsuspecting prey like small insects that wander too close, while the sharp mouthparts make quick work of its meals. —————————————————————————————————-
This is the fourth organism out of six that I created for a very cool ongoing project created byTyler Rhodes! It’s based around teaching evolution to kids in a very creative way, and I was one of the artists tasked with bringing some children doodles to life. Stay tuned for the others throughout this week!
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Red-Eyed Teyukai (Ruberoculus brachiator)
The Teyukai (meaning monkey-lizard in the South American Tupi language) is an agile arboreal reptile. Its arms are flexible and able to bend in almost any direction, allowing it to move quickly through the canopy by swinging from tree to tree in its habitat of regularly-flooded rainforests. The prehensile tail works as a fifth limb. A Teyukai can stay suspended by the tail only while manipulating food with its hands. The eponymous red eyes provide detailed color vision during the day and great night vision when its dark, so the Teyukai can be active at different times. Arthropods, like the Leaf-Winged Shrimpfly, are the Teyukai’s preferred food source, though it also feeds on fruits, fungi and smaller vertebrates. It can make quick work of different types of food with its oral manipulators, which remain mostly concealed when the mouth is closed. —————————————————————————————————- This is the third organism out of six that I created for a very cool ongoing project created by Tyler Rhodes! It’s based around teaching evolution to kids in a very creative way, and I was one of the artists tasked with bringing some children doodles to life. Stay tuned for the others throughout this week!
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Horned Octopode (Cornucephalos octopoda)
Octopodes are big, armored eight-legged animals that inhabit cold deserts and steppes. They use their horns for defense and combat, while the downwards projection on its chin is useful for uprooting succulent tubers and roots. The entire back of the Octopode is protected by a jointed chitinous armor, providing limited movement but high defense. The Octopode's legs don't have bones, instead they are supported by cartillagenous rings and filled with fluid. They move by means of a hydraulic system. The hardy Hand-of-the-Desert plant is the Octopode's favorite food. Being immune to the plant's toxins, its tuber provides the Octopode with all the moisture it needs. —————————————————————————————————- This is the second organism out of six that I created for a very cool ongoing project created by Tyler Rhodes! It’s based around teaching evolution to kids in a very creative way, and I was one of the artists tasked with bringing some children doodles to life. Stay tuned for the others throughout this week!
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The Hand-of-the-Desert plant (Chirofolius mycophilus)
This tuberous plant lives in deserts and produces only two big three-pronged leaves that grow quickly throughout the wetter months and wither in the following dry season. The leaves appear like green hands grasping from underneath the earth, earning it its common name. A unique fungus lives in a symbiotic relationship with the Hand-of-the-Desert. It wraps its mycelium around the tuber to access precious water, while in turn it helps the plant absorb enough nutrients from the soil to survive the harsh desert. The fungus produces fruiting bodies underground that mimic the shape, color and smell of certain burrowing beetles. This attracts fossorial insectivores that almost immediately get into shock, then a coma and eventually die upon trying to gnaw on the highly poisonous fungus, and the decomposing body serves as a valuable nutrient source for both the fungus and the plant. Some of the fungus' toxins is absorbed by the plant and stored in its leaves, making them umpalatable for smaller herbivores that can experience confusion and even temporary blindness upon eating them. Only very big animals like Octopodes can consume the leaves with little more than a feeling of numbness in the mouth.
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This is the first organism out of six that I created for a very cool ongoing project created by Tyler Rhodes! It’s based around teaching evolution to kids in a very creative way, and I was one of the artists tasked with bringing some children doodles to life. Stay tuned for the others throughout this week!
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New studies suggest the weird Platybelodon could have used its shovel-like lower teeth to eat tough plant matter, including tree bark. See more at Earth Archives.
Source: eartharchives.org
An attacking phytosaur gets ready to close the deal on a fleeing rauisuchian in the middle of a Triassic river. See more at Earth Archives
Source: eartharchives.org
A brightly coloured male Longisquama puts on a display for a camouflaged female in the forests of Triassic Kyrgzstan. See more at Earth Archives.
Source: eartharchives.org
The Fuss about Feathers
As more feathers are found with dinosaur fossils, the evidence continues to mount for the evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs. Despite this, the quarrel between researchers with two very different ideas rages on.
Dromeosaurs like Utahraptor were mostly covered in feathers and possibily behaved much like flightless birds of prey.
See more at
Source: eartharchives.org