(*´∇｀*) @alargeswarmofbees - Tumblr Blog

Great shots of Cepahalotes clypeatus, the golden turtle ant, taken by Alex Wild. Turtle ants have a special subgroup of workers with broad flat heads which can be used to plug nest entrances. Some species of Cephalotes are also called glider ants and can use their flattened bodies to glide through the air and return to the trees they dwell in should they take a tumble.

osabishi-yama

ヘラクレスオオカブト

bowelflies

DEPLOY THE BOYS

bogleech

You really won’t ever appreciate how cool insect wings are until you’ve seen all this footage. The ones with wing covers that completely open up are beetles, by the way, but the ones LIKE beetles whose protective cover remains in place are bugs. Bug is supposed to be a special term for just one insect group! Mid-way through is an earwig’s wings, which is neither a beetle nor a bug, but does have very beetle-like wing cases.

bowelflies

cuban spiny isopods, Pseudarmadillo assoi

#OOOOOOOHHHHHHH

brontozaurus

If we’re gonna talk about animals evolving to do things they weren’t meant to we’ve gotta talk about Thylacoleo

Thylacoleo, for the uninitiated, was Australia’s equivalent of the sabre-tooth cat. It was the size of a leopard, murdered rhino-sized marsupials with sharp teeth and huge claws, and looked like this:

Its closest living relative is this:

Yes, the most vicious mammalian carnivore Australia has ever produced is most closely related to a herbivorous furry cube.

What the fuck.

It’s obvious when you check out Thylacoleo’s teeth. Most mammalian carnivores have a similar setup: incisors, canines, premolars and molars. Dogs have it, cats have it, we have it. Thylacoleo’s teeth look like this:

You’ve got pincer-like incisors in the front, giant sharp-edged molars in the back, and no canines to speak of.

That last bit’s the important part. Canines are most useful for holding meat, so herbivores tend to shrink them down to nothing. Thylacoleo’s lack of proper canines show its ancestors were originally herbivores. But because you can’t just re-evolve features once they’re gone, it had to make do with what it had. Hence those ridiculous fucking teeth, which were nevertheless perfect for grabbing and chopping meat just like every other carnivore’s teeth do.

tl;dr: at some point in time a bunch of vegans decided to weaponise their limitations to kill everything and by god did they do it

sixth-extinction

I love thylacoleo’s bizarre dentition.

otter11

amaheso

thomastapir

Chex Mix? Tex Mex?? No, crab mechs!

TOP: http://futabalog.com/img/23133120 MIDDLE: http://imgur.com/a/4kV6u BOTTOM: http://i.imgur.com/rpQZHh0.jpg

I love how the top crab has both reactive armor and spare bogey wheels–doesn’t that seem kind of redundant??

bulletnurse

historyarchaeologyartefacts

Mesolithic headdress made from a skull of a red deer, ca. 8000 BCE [OS][750x522]

#*wears this to the mitski show*

hirespokemon

Illustration from the 1997 “タイプ別・ポケットモンスター必勝マニュアル” (Pocket Monster Type Strategy Manual) depicting a Psychic vs Poison type battle. Unfortunately, the illustrator is not credited anywhere.