Socially Awkward Ork

Goat meet

How I think about the original design vs the more modern equivalent

Point of view of the exotic pet (part 1) (the rest in reblogs)

Point of view of the exotic pet (part 2)

Point of view of the exotic pet (part 3)

Point of view of the exotic pet (part 4 - final)

Shoutout to the maned wolf, which is technically neither wolf nor fox but has its own genus called Chrysocyon! Why -

why are your legs so long?

I mean, intellectually, I understand that it’s because you live in grasslands and have evolved to be able to see over the grass, but emotionally… why? Are they?? Like that??? Surely there was a way to make your body more cohesive and proportional-looking?

i will never shut up about maned wolves

just look at it

look at this

one of the animals for sure

wretched beast

If it’s neither wolf nor fox, then it’s cat software running on giraffe hardware.

I think y'all should know that the closest relative to the maned wolf is the bush dog which looks like this.

Listen evolution is a game and some of us are having fun playing it

Did you guys know that the most recent version of sharks have fins that are kinda leg like and they like to walk up onto land?

no way i must have missed an update!

The Epaulette shark is only about 9 million years old as a species, making it the most recent branch in the shark family. And it is slowly but surely evolving into a land animal

You know what to do boys

hey good news

there's a specifically designated role in the naked mole rat ecology for "guy who runs off into the wilderness and fucks their way into a stranger's house"

Y'all have no idea how absurdly strange naked mole rats are as creatures They're cold-blooded mammals that live in a eusocial structure with a queen and drones, similar to ants, bees, termites and no other mammal on the planet. They barely need to breathe, with a respiration rate low enough to let them thrive in burrows with 2% oxygen, and survive with 0 oxygen whatsoever for about 20 minutes with zero lasting effects.

They live for over 30 years, which is absurdly long for a rodent, don't grow frail with age, and are basically immune to cancer because their telomeres just never shorten.

Naked Mole Rats are rodents that attempted to evolve into bugs, failed, and unlocked the secret to immortality in the process.

here's another ant-mimicking jumping spider that I encountered in Singapore: Myrmaplata plataleoides, the weaver ant mimic.

while females look a great deal like their ant models, males (like this one) have massive, exaggerated fangs used in territorial and mating displays, which complicate the disguise. however, ants routinely carry their dead away from the nest, so it's thought that a male M. plataleoides mimics a worker holding another ant—his jaws even have false "eyes" on the ends!

his mimicry was clearly good enough to fool the ants; none of them seemed to take notice even as he repeatedly doubled back to guard his territory instead of heading further up the tree. although mimicry like this is often sensationalized as something insidious or spooky, Myrmaplata has no intention to eat the ants. rather, the spider hides among them for protection: weavers won't eat nestmates, and other predators know that weaver ants bite, spray acid, and attack in hordes. running with the ants might be risky, but he's always alert, watching their every move with his big eyes. what a life that must be, always living on the margins of a colony of hunters that would devour him, yet also keep him alive without ever knowing it

i love how hyenas still have the winter coat gene

like if you keep hyenas in cold climates they just do this. its so silly

@c-rowlesdraws fluffy :)

Very fluffy! I love that spotted hyenas still can grow winter coats. People keep tagging me in this post specifically and it’s so nice every time.

Doylist explanation: They keep making new electric mouse pokemon because they're frantically trying to recreate the success of Pikachu. Or at least because it's tradition at this point.

Watsonian explanation: A major predator of rodents is birds of prey. A mouse that can deliver electric shocks to flying-types has a much higher chance of living to produce more offspring. Thus, convergent evolution fills this niche in every region. "Pikachu" is just the pokemon universe equivalent of "crab".

More selkies! After some consideration I will stick to the bear/seal hybid designs. This makes them way more versatile and it makes sense that humans would want to transform into an animal that can swim as well as it can run. More rant under the cut

conversation I have with my ferret 1000x a day

NO ONE INVITED YOU

Most species evolving: “If I stretch these bones and maybe squeeze these close I can achieve my goals and survive!”

Ichthyosaur: “HRNNNNGH MORE BONES”

An impressive/distressing courtship display from a Ubwasmne (bladder-nose), a small species of lacetor found primarily in the cypress forests of the Lowlands. Males display by inverting and inflating their nasal cavities, accompanied by deep bellows that can be heard from miles away and establish their territory.

I still can't fucking get over how cetaceans adapted to spend their entire lives in the water and just never bothered to redevelop water-breathing. there's motherfuckers who spend an hour or more diving and the evolutionary solution is just "breathe a lot on the surface and then lower your heart rate to a near-hibernation level while actively cruising the seafloor for stuff to eat". totally insane solution to one of the oldest solved problems in biology