i said it was my favorite piece of media that i’ve hyperfixated on since the tender age of 12 and have not let go of since. i didnt say it was a Good piece of media
Because you can’t group (lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians) without also including (birds)
So if you don’t want to include birds in reptiles then you have to leave out some things we’ve called reptiles
birds are dinosaurs though, full stop. we’ve already defined what a dinosaur is and it includes birds. but reptiles isn’t really defined so much as thrown against a wall angrily.
But don’t turtles and alligators have more in common with modern reptiles than modern birds have in common with modern reptiles?
I’m not trying to contradict, I’m trying to understand. Mammals and reptiles have a common ancestor as well, but we do not make them the same group.
It’s not about having things in common. It’s about common ancestry, which is how we classify animals in light of extinct species, which defy trait-based classification.
And, the common ancestor of [lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians] by definition is also the common ancestor of birds. It is NOT the common ancestor of mammals.
So, either we decide that Tuatara Lizards and Snakes are the only reptiles, or we include birds as reptiles. Or we just decide reptiles are no longer a thing.
Well, technically they’re equally-closely related to crocodiles, alligators, gharials and tomistomas. As archosaurs, they’re all descended from small reptiles that looked something like this
The two main groups of archosaurs are the Pseudosuchia, or crocodile-line archosaurs, and the Ornithodira, or bird-line archosaurs. Both groups were massively diverse in prehistory, with the Pseudosuchia dominating most land-based niches in the Triassic, and the Ornithodira, especially the dinosaurs, doing the same during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. However, most of them have been wiped out due to the Triassic and Cretaceous mass extinctions, leaving them each with only one surviving clade: Aves, the true birds, and Crocodylia, the semiaquatic, ambush predators like crocs and gators.
This entire post sums up everything we’re not allowed to mention in our Vertebrata classes because the last time someone started that argument they had to break up a fistfight.
Hm. Your interpretation of this character displeases me. Guards! Take them away! Make them read the source material once more, and if that fails, the stocks.
The ballot box is closed, the votes have been counted, and it is time once again for authors to be unmasked! We are incredibly grateful to the 30 authors who wrote 117,556 words across 41 fics for this round of TUA Masked Author. Among the 3MA authors, we were privileged to have an amazing eighteen authors who were new to the event (including three authors who took the plunge of publishing fics for the first time!), our first collaboration, seven second-time submitters, as well as five dedicated authors who have taken part in all three rounds. The fics they wrote made us laugh, cry, and deepen our appreciation of the show and fandom we all love, for which we say a sincere thank you!
This round proved tricky for would-be investigators (one fic evaded detection entirely -- Remembered Burning by Blue_feathered_corvus managed to fool all the guesses), but some were still able to suss out deep-hidden hints and canny clues that lead them to the truth!
Reigning champion @melivian dug deep into the fics (and assembled another spreadsheet or two, we hear) and successfully defended her title as the most successful guesser for 3MA! Huge congratulations to her for guessing correctly on 83% of fics, unmasking the authors of an incredible 34 fics 🎉
In second place was Lee, who correctly identified 22% of 3MA fics’ authors, followed closely by @destinyandcoins, who came third with 20% correct!
Congratulations to our top guessers -- enjoy your well-earned bragging rights!
Over the next week, we will be reblogging all fics that were promoted through tumblr with the name of the author, along with statistics such as the top guess and % guessed correctly.
A thousand thank yous to everyone who wrote, read, or guessed for the event! We couldn't do it without you all 💛🧡💜
🎭 The full list of fic titles and unmasked authors is below the cut! 🎭
As luck would have it: A short history of close calls by Salvador_Daley
Bubble Thoughts by Kaufmann
Cease-fire on the Cleveland Express by sharkneto
Child's Play by StardustInYourEyes
crave the retrograde by StarryCleric
Ded and Gonne: Booksellers and Ghostfinders by firstpersonnarrator
"Dickheads who can fight" by hayl0ftt
Duty by burnmyself
Ended but not Finished by Kalua
fall of a soldier by KawaiiCommunism
Fiacre Drops Forward by KawaiiCommunism
the impact of haircuts by Blue_feathered_corvus
ink is thicker than blood by GiuGiu
It’s a Boy! by DarbyDoo22
Jenny Would Dance with Her Ghosts by ToriAnne
Kick Up Sparks At Every Obstacle by BooksAsFurniture
Klaus's Moving Castle by destinyandcoins & LittleRit (collaboration)
A Matter of Trust by StardustInYourEyes
never made it as a wise man (i couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing) by c_morrigan
Notes From Nowhere by destinyandcoins
Of Ghoulies and Spoons by LittleRit
An Ode to Ben by Adlee
Oogum Boogum Roadtrip by MyDarlingClementine
Problems That You Made In Your Own Head by in-a-slanted-outhouse (the_t_stands_for_tall)
Rachel Herschberger’s Immaculate Conception by Salvador_Daley
Remembered Burning by Blue_feathered_corvus
Rollercoaster of Life by Jenni4
Shots in the Night by Babblingbear09
A Sign of Life by DarbyDoo22
Sleeping Arrangements by GodsHumbleClown
Sliding Doors by Melivian
Someone Must Shoulder The Blame (So Why Not I?) by theseancequeen
Still the days seem the same by DemonaHW
Think of Me (think of me fondly, when we've said good-bye) by Jellybeanium124
though we were just novices at this, it felt like an ancient wisdom by buc_eebarnes
Three Little Birds (Everything's Gonna be Alright) by MyDarlingClementine
Under the Surface by Kaufmann
A Very Capy Tradition by GiuGiu
Void Revisited by Adlee
Where You Are by frogonalilypad
you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave by Melivian
Guessing is open to everyone - you don’t need to have written a fic (or have read 100% of the fics) to take part in the guessing!
You can read the 3MA fics (and mine them for clues!) on AO3 [HERE]
A couple things to keep in mind
Each person may only submit one ballot
You can submit your ballot through 11:59 PM UTC Friday, July 29th, 2022
If you submitted a fic, be sure to claim your free point(s) by putting your name down for your own fic(s)!
You don’t have to put a guess for every fic. That said, there’s no penalty for incorrect guesses, so why not up your chances with a wild j'accuse if you’re not sure?
The ballot will not give you a copy of your answers so make sure to jot them down somewhere safe if you want to tally up your score at the reveal!
We have included an optional short feedback section at the end of the ballot - this will not affect your score, it just helps us figure out how the event went for y'all and how we can make it even better in the future :)
Authors will be unmasked and top guessers crowned on Sunday, July 31st 👑🎉
As always, if you have any additional questions feel free to shoot us an ask or reach out to any of the organizers directly!
Throw down some carefully considered guesses, or do a completely wild j'accuse - it’s up to you!
Not read all the fics? No problem! Each fics summary is included in the ballot, throw down a random guess based on the ~vibes~. It’s a multiple choice guessing game so you have approximately 1 in 31 chance of being right!
the more ballots we get the more interesting our stats look, so come on, have a go! We don’t disclose anybody’s guesses, so you’ve nothing to lose 🥳
Guessing is open to everyone - you don’t need to have written a fic (or have read 100% of the fics) to take part in the guessing!
You can read the 3MA fics (and mine them for clues!) on AO3 [HERE]
A couple things to keep in mind
Each person may only submit one ballot
You can submit your ballot through 11:59 PM UTC Friday, July 29th, 2022
If you submitted a fic, be sure to claim your free point(s) by putting your name down for your own fic(s)!
You don’t have to put a guess for every fic. That said, there’s no penalty for incorrect guesses, so why not up your chances with a wild j'accuse if you’re not sure?
The ballot will not give you a copy of your answers so make sure to jot them down somewhere safe if you want to tally up your score at the reveal!
We have included an optional short feedback section at the end of the ballot - this will not affect your score, it just helps us figure out how the event went for y'all and how we can make it even better in the future :)
Authors will be unmasked and top guessers crowned on Sunday, July 31st 👑🎉
As always, if you have any additional questions feel free to shoot us an ask or reach out to any of the organizers directly!
blakekathryn
gracieabrams
baratheonpilled
theartofmadeline
titsay
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
