there's beauty in death, if you know where to look @fox-and-fischer - Tumblr Blog

Hello!

After having this blog for who knows how long, I thought it was finally time for me to make a proper intro post of sorts.

My name is Hemlock! You can also call me Nessie, or just fox-and-fischer if you'd rather. My pronouns are they/it, and I study and work in the field of wildlife conservation.

I've been involved in witchcraft and spirituality communities for five years now. My practice is rather unstructured, and I kind of make things up as I go that fit within my paradigm. In other words, the way I view the world magically and understand how it works is what defines and designs my actions in my practice. This also means that most of my personal blog posts will be my unverified personal gnosis, aka UPG. I'll try to mention this on the applicable posts, but it's safe to assume that any of my posts entitled 'Personal Practice' or tagged with '#hemlock talks about its practice' are UPG, and are not 'rules' of how anything works :)

This page will include photos and descriptions of deceased animals, as a lot of my practice is oriented around death and I use a lot of real animal parts as vessels or spiritual tools.

My hope and goal for this blog is to be a place where I can document my own experiences, thoughts, workings, and the like, and also a place where I can engage with the larger community on Tumblr! My ask box should be open at all times, and you're welcome to ask me anything at all! If I'm not comfortable answering it, I simply won't answer, and I'm a strong believer of no-stupid questions. I really want to get involved and interact with everyone here, so don't be shy!

My tagging system is as follows:

the poison plant rambles -> my tag for any post that I add text to, whether it's an original post or a reblog. hemlock talks about its craft -> my tag for things discussing my personal practice, perspective, or things of that nature! animal death -> my tag for discussing animal death. Clean bones and furs will not be tagged. be aware if that bothers you!

I thiiiiiink that covers everything for now! This will probably be edited over time as I think of more things to add or as things change with me and my practice.

#witchcraft #spirituality #death witchcraft #animism #witchblr #intro post #get to know me

criticalthinkingwitches

The concept of animism crops up a lot in witchy circles, but sometimes it's hard to see where the idea of spirits might fit into a skeptical or secular practice. The lovely thing about belief is that it's a spectrum, and we have plenty of room to play with the innate value and being of a tree, a river, a plant, a place without drifting into more woo than we're comfortable with. ✨ If this piques your interest, consider this your invitation to join our FREE online event next Saturday, May 30th, 2026 ✨ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989548712757?aff=oddtdtcreator Our seasonal Witches' Brews are FREE online witchy mini conferences that include potion making (our magical beverage segment), guest presentations, sometimes a hands-on project, and time to socialize & connect with other attendees, Brew guests & hosts, & the CTWC community. Our Brews are a wonderful way to dip your toe into the CritWitch community, and a great preview of what you can expect from our annual 3-day virtual event CRITWITCHCON. This month's Witches' Brew: Dig Into Animism features presentations by our own History Witch Lee Ignire on animism; potions (potable & otherwise) with Jul Bloomfield and Alex Wrekk; and creating our own genius loci sigil! There'll be in-event chat, plus our favorite breakout room sessions for community connection and discussion! Witches' Brews are recorded (minus community chat) and available to our paid Patreon subscribers later in the season, so you can revisit our presentations. Learn more about us at www.criticalthinkingwitches.com

Join us for an exploration of animism in secular witchcraft, with potions, presentations, & hands on activities!

im thinking of attending the critwitch brew today! I've never done one before, but it looks like it'll be a fun time :)

#the poison plant rambles #witchblr #witchcraft #animism #<- (the whole brew is discussing animism)

fox-and-fischer

hello :) it's been a bit.

belief is... really hard, for me, generally. i will go through phases of fervent passion for my spirituality and craft, and times where i feel like i cannot embrace it at all- or even think about it- without scoffing at myself or berating myself for falling into childish fantasy.

however. last december, my nesting partner and i were in a tough housing situation, and i prayed to Hestia to help us find a home. i promised her that, of she would help us find a suitable home, she'd have a home with us for as long as we lived there.

we ended up exactly were we wanted to be with less than a week of turnaround from 'finding out we needed to find somewhere to live' and 'having a lease signed and keys in our hands'.

despite my best efforts, though, my belief and passion faded quickly after that. my partner kept up devotionals, but i just... couldnt. i was technically maintaining the promise; she had an altar space with her own flame and offerings, but... the spirit just wasn't there, for me.

recently, though, i've felt called back towards the craft, and im trying to take a more orthopraxic approach. so today, i am lighting her candle, burning her incense, and mindfully cleaning my home and preparing for the week. i don't know what i feel, and i don't know what i believe, and i'm choosing to be okay with that. lighting her candle and being respectful to her space in our home feels good to me. the action feels good, the smell and flickering light calms and restores me. maybe that can be enough.

i hope so, and hope is a type of belief, if you think about it.

w-y-r-d

It goes the same way for me, with the frequency and intensity of my devotion waxing and waning. To the point that I feel silly for being religious (I was an ardent atheist until my late teens, so perhaps I default back to that?) and doing so much in worship. But then it comes back, just as strong as ever, and they welcome me with open arms and warm hearts.

I'm not sure what the cause is, but it helps to know that I'm not alone in it. With social media, it's easy to think that other people have zero struggles in their faith, so I truly thank you for sharing :)

I just try not to sweat it too much, the gods have bigger things to worry about than if I've had unwavering devotion 24/7. I'll toast to them, give offerings and sacrifices, and we're all good.

Thanks for letting me ramble! I'll end it by saying Hail to Hestia! Thank you for helping them find a home!

fox-and-fischer

<3 <3 <3 Thank you so much; I can't put into words how much I appreciate you sharing your experience here.

I absolutely agree that sometimes it becomes easy to believe that you are the only one experiencing difficulties with your faith or practice. At least for me, sharing these doubts feels really vulnerable, and it can be frightening- coming from my faith heritage, sharing doubt alone could have significant social consequences- and it can feel easier or safer to hold up a façade of unwavering faith than to be open about how messy our path might really be.

All that to say: thank you for sharing. Finding community in uncertainty is a novel experience for me, but it's a more than welcome one :)

#the poison plant rambles #witchblr #witchcraft #hemlock talks about its practice #spirituality

hello :) it's been a bit.

we ended up exactly were we wanted to be with less than a week of turnaround from 'finding out we needed to find somewhere to live' and 'having a lease signed and keys in our hands'.

i hope so, and hope is a type of belief, if you think about it.

#the poison plant rambles #witchblr #witchcraft #hemlock talks about its practice #hestia

troutlawyer

Grandmas were so right about puzzles and knitting and crocheting and solitaire and reading slow and slippers and baking and watching deer in the backyard send post

afronerdism

The conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has been so severely mutilated by white “allies” that the original intention behind that conversation has become almost unrecognizable in most social contexts.

afronerdism

To explain what I mean, the conversation around cultural appropriation was started by black and native people to discuss the frustrations we feel at being punished socially and financially for partaking in our cultural heritage while white people could take, I.e. appropriate, aspects of our culture that we are actively shamed for and be heralded as innovators. It was about the frustrations we feel when the same white people who shamed us would take our culture and wear it as if they were the ones who created it while still actively shaming us for doing the same.

The original push behind naming cultural appropriation and having these conversations were so that we as a society could evaluate why we were punished for our heritage while white People were not. It was supposed to be about seeking solutions. The idea was to create a society where we could celebrate our cultures with impunity. It was never about telling white people that they “weren’t allowed” to do certain things. We did ask that white People stop doing certain things because they weren’t doing them respectfully and were not invited to do them, but the primary reason we asked them to desist was to reclaim the things they had stolen and to reassign them culturally back where they belonged.

White “allies” saw these conversations happening and instead of trying to aplify our own voices or even try to learn about the complexities behind why we were saying what we were saying, they instead began screaming over us and creating a narrative that was hardly even the bones of what we originally set out to say. It was like they took the conversation we were trying to have, completely decontextualized it, and stripped it of all it’s nuance in order to gain social currency by seeming progressive.

So the conversation around cultural appropriation went from “This aspect of our heritage belongs to us and we find it egregious that we are shamed for it. What steps can we take to address the racism that’s creating this situation as well as rehome the things that have been stolen” to “you’re not allowed to do that because if you do that you’re racist, we don’t really understand why that’s racist but you’re not allowed to do that and if you do that you’re a klansman no exceptions. So you’re not allowed because because”

At the end of the day, did I like the fact that sally was wearing dreads? No. But my primary concern was not that sally was wearing dreads but rather that sally could wear dreads and I couldn’t. THAT was the intended focus of those conversations. It was about addressing the inequality. It was about us. Now the conversation is just about sally and were completely forgotten.

White People are always asking me what they can do to help. You want to know? Stop talking. Aplify our voices and shut the fuck up because you all have pretty much derailed this conversation and many more like it to the point that we no longer are trying to make steps to understand and dismantle the racism around cultural appropriation and instead are just using it as social shaming tactics.

afronerdism

TL;DR: read my post. Most things worth learning about can’t be summarized in the bullet points of a buzfeed article. Don’t come into academic circles and complain because everything hasn’t been conviently summarized for you. Stop pretending that things aren’t accessible to you because you refuse to do the intellectual labor that is learning.

creature-wizard

(pre emptively sorry about the long ask, this topic matters a lot to me)

i... really don't think interpretatio graeca would work the same as claiming indigenous people worship satan? like i absolutely agree that there would have been witch hunts, but that particular claim makes no sense.

for one, that analogy makes no sense because Satan is a reviled figure, a UNHOLY deceiver. dionysus is a holy divine figure, worshipped by Europeans. it would be more like if Christians decided that Indigenous people were already worshipping Jesus, just in their own traditional way under a different name, and that would have necessarily resulted in a different (altho not necessarily good) approach.

you mention the Bacchanalia, but crucially that was a) a very political and less theological decision (not that Christian persecution wasn't also very politically motivated, but this was nakedly so) and b) not focused on the god himself but controlling the practices of the cult itself, which was not synonymous with all situations dionysus/bacchus/liber would be worshipped in (rome did not want to be seen as banning a god who had been a part of hellenic & roman faith for centuries, but rather taking control of cultic practices and what counted as proper worship which was very in line with polytheistic orthopraxy (also, in the post you link, you VASTLY overgeneralize the perception of Dionysus in the Greek world; yes, many believed he was foreign, but he was also a widely worshipped and beloved god, and depicting him as being from asia was not necessarily a condemnation of him as a god. neither was the maenad's mythological madness and violence an outright condemnation of all bacchic worship, anymore than zeus being depicted as doing traditionally morally bad things meant to be a condemnation of the gods' actual moral standing). & in fact, roman elite also tried to ban the worship of Isis under Augustus and have her shrines and temples destroyed. but the ban failed because people refused to follow it. the temple of Isis in Pompeii was supposed to be torn down decades before the eruption, and it not only never was but was the first thing rebuilt after the earthquake that occurred before the eruption. rome had to settle for the cult to isis being banned within the city but practiced widely through italy. crucially, both of these were cults well established in italy and in which roman citizens were partaking, NOT practices being done by largely by non-Romans in colonial territories away from the imperial center. this on top of the fact that polytheists broadly respected the idea of ancestral/culturally specific traditions; not to the point of not doing horrific acts of violence, but enough that it made sense to them to respect such traditions as long as they didn't threaten the power structure.

Christians never worship Satan, but Romans did very much worship Liber/Bacchus/Dionysus, and Isis, and many non-Roman gods, and periods of suppression do not amount to the same dynamic as accusing everyone who doesn't practice the exact same religion as you of worshipping the literal force of evil.

and notably, even when Romans did interpretatio romana during their violent conquest of Gaul, they never accused Gauls of worshipping Dionysus to justify their imperialism, or murdering them because of who they worship. so why would they suddenly start doing that with indigenous people in the Americas? their cultural imperialism was about assimilation and submission, but not flat out destruction and demonization, unless a specific practice was identified as being a potential political tool for stirring and organizing discontent. Greeks could look down on how Egyptians depicted their gods as having animal heads without thinking the Egyptians were worshipping evil forces, and when Greece conquered Egypt, it didn't result in the destruction of Egyptian religion but the active integration of religions on both sides. Greek religion became more Egyptian as Egyptian religion became more Greek. this is a key difference between how interpretatio graeca could work in practice and how Christian accusations of satanism works. "we worship the same gods, basically" allows you to assert the dominance of your own culture, but it also allows for social integration because you are able to see commonalities and create new shared practices. "you worship our embodiment of evil" is actively hostile and creates no potential for any kind of cultural integration. this is also the root behind grecoroman antisemitism. syncreticizing with a dominating culture was common practice amongst polytheistic cultures because their religious model lended itself more naturally to blurring and adopting gods and traditions. jews, as devout monotheists, largely refused to syncretize with paganism, which made them a constant source of tension and conflict for pagan empires.

i get trying to combat the narrative that European polytheism was morally perfect and inherently anti-imperialist and would've treated indigenous people super differently than Christian Europeans did. but it's absurd to claim that a religion based around exclusive claims to divine knowledge, that has an intense preoccupation with monotheism and making sure they are worshipping a singular, correct god, would do spiritual imperialism the same way as a religion that is orthopraxic by necessity and has an innate understanding that other people do religion differently and that isn't necessarily an existential threat to them or to the world. i really respect your work on conspiracism and new age cults, but this is a false equivalency and it's also unnecessary for the point you are making to be true. maybe this doesn't actually matter, you obv can ignore this ask if you want. I just wanted to point this out.

I appreciate you pointing this stuff out to me, actually! Thank you for the criticism, truly. With your criticism in mind, I'll amend my previous sentiment to say that it's possible that early modern European polytheists would have accused Indigenous people of worshiping the "wrong" way (including accusations of the sort Livy mentioned), thus creating political justification for whatever violence they felt like inflicting. (And we can't be certain they would have been any less violent than Christian colonizers, because their beliefs would have evolved and changed since ancient times.)

janusfnc14

Prev has a really good point here, but I will add that Christianity does and did have some nuance in how it integrated Polytheistic beliefs.

(From the ‘Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture - by Bernhard Maier’)

Namely that it didn’t always involve demonizing Gods. This is most evident in it’s treatment of the Norse and Irish Pantheons (as said above), where the Gods were folded into a Christian Framework and became either half-fallen but not fully demonic or Malevolent Angels, or Heroes and Demigods of old who were confused with Gods. Or alternatively, Saints (st Brigid is the most obvious one)

This allowed them to still act as culturally relevant figures whilst not violating the spirit of the Christian faith.

Edith Swan-Neck, a Christian Anglo-Saxon who was the Wife of King Harold, referred to her lineage as outright descended from Odin, and the majority of the written sources on Celtic or Norse Mythology are from the Medieval period.

The Norse tales in particular have been Christianised- note the single Man and Woman who survive past the death of the worl and the Norse Gods, alongside the ‘Good’ God of Light, Baldur. Who dies and comes back, no less.

This is not to say that this erases the WAY more destructive side of conversion, obviously, nor that this is on par with pre-Christian Syncretism

(though imo it’s the logical conclusion of it- Pre-Roman contact Celts did NOT build Temples, nor statues, for their Gods- with this being a later imposition- and Roman acceptance of Faiths depended heavily upon them having either Age, and thus precendent, practices close enough to Roman ones, and worship offered to the Roman Emperor alongside other Gods. Religions that were considered Overly faithful, credulous, ritualistic, or lacked precendent were often mocked as ‘Superstitio’ - superstitious

The point on proper sacrifice and reverence being offered was considered especially important; refusing worship and offerings to the Gods was believed to directly harm and bring misfortune upon the Empire)

..only that Christianization could come in a matter of degrees, with the presence of Pagan iconography being as much an attempt by the local populace to continue their traditions as it was appropriation

laurusamystic

Hestia is the ancient Greek goddess of home and hearth🔥 and here are some simple offerings for her:

• Olive oil 🫒 A traditional ancient Greek offering for protection, peace, and nourishment.

• Honey 🍯 Represents sweetness and the warmth of the hearth.

• Bread 🍞 Freshly baked or simple loaves as a symbol of sustenance.

• Wine 🍷 A small libation of red or white wine, symbolizing celebration and hospitality.

• Candles 🕯️ To honour her as the goddess of the hearth flame.

• Flowers 💐 Fresh flowers or faux flowers for simplicity and calm.

• Cooked meals 🍲 A portion of home-cooked food, especially soups or stews, as a gesture of hospitality.

• Incense 🪔 Frankincense, myrrh, copal, or sandalwood for purification and devotion.

• Simple tea 🫖 Herbal teas like chamomile or peppermint, representing warmth and welcome.

• Homemade crafts 🧶 Knitted or sewn items, representing the domestic arts.

• Grains 🌾 Barley, oats, or rice, offered raw or as part of a meal.

• Clay or pottery 🏺Small handmade items symbolizing the home and stability.

• Clean, well-kept spaces 🧹 Tidying and maintaining a clean altar or hearth area in her honour.

• Warm drinks ☕️ Coffee or hot chocolate, especially during colder months, symbolizing warmth and comfort.

yourpaganuncle

Prayer Beads Script for Hestia

This is broken up by her epiphets and may not work for all prayer beads, feel free to adjust! Each line represents a bead, the orange text being separator beads

Hestia,

Goddess of the home,

She who tends the hearth,

She who is the first and last born,

Please accept this praise and devotion,

I praise and honour you, I thank you for your blessings.

Hestia Äídios,

Keeper of the eternal flame,

She who is so dedicated to her work,

She who is always there in our lives,

Bless me with your unwavering presence.

I praise and honour you, I thank you for your blessings.

Hestia Bulaea,

Overseer of community council,

She who oversees charity work,

She who upholds civic unity,

Bless me with your inclusive care for all.

I praise and honour you, I thank you for your blessings.

Hestia Polyolvos,

Bringer of blessings,

She who is so generous in her gifts,

She who assists those in need,

Bless me with your favour.

I praise and honour you, I thank you for your blessings.

Hestia,

Goddess of the home,

She who protects family, blood or chosen

She who is forever praised,

Please accept this praise and devotion.

#saving this 👀

breelandwalker

I love Christmas: the family time, the music, the classic movies, the decorations, the aroma of evergreen trees and spice apple, the taste o

Historical Blindness - A Very Historically Blind Christmas

I love Christmas: the family time, the music, the classic movies, the decorations, the aroma of evergreen trees and spice apple, the taste of gingerbread with my coffee and nutmeg in my eggnog. I am not, however, much of a churchgoer or man of faith; therefore, I have some ambivalence about this holiday which is so often and heatedly defended as a Christian tradition.

"We must remember the reason of the season, and we must keep Christ in Christmas," or so many remind us while lamenting a culture that does not encourage people to keep the nativity scene at the forefront of all thoughts throughout December.

Recently, I saw an image being posted on social media with these statements: “Christmas is based on a pagan holiday. Jesus wasn’t born in December. Christmas trees are a Heathen tradition.” And of course, this wasn’t the first time I’d heard these claims.

Being something of a know-it-all and a pedant who is only too happy to challenge preconceived notions about both history and religion, I have been known to make such statements myself. But of course, as I have learned in making this show, critical thought challenges all preconceived notions, not only the ones that you dislike and want to dispel. The claims of the agnostic, the atheist, and the anti-religious must be examined just as skeptically and fairly as any assertions made by the religious.

So this holiday season, I’ve set out to explore the veracity of these claims and get to the bottom of just how pagan or Christian are Christmas’s origins and traditions.

Join Nathaniel Lloyd, host of the Historical Blindness podcast, on a deep dive into the origins of the Christmas holiday through the lens of secular and religious history.

If you need some more historical holly-jolly, you can also check out the subsequent episodes discussing Father Christmas, the Epiphany of the Magi, Christmas Carols, and The Iconic Christ.

From what I can see, it's gingerbread all the way down....

breelandwalker

There's a Patreon special this year too!

The Historical Jesus and the Myths of Christ Mythicism (Another Very Historically Blind Xmas Special!)

breelandwalker

This year's Christmas special is now available, and the topic is super timely!

The Roots of the Christmas Tree (Another Very Historical Blind Xmas Special!)

stormwaterwitch

Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Reblog this on the first of the month for good luck all month long!

dumbbbunnnyy-deactivated2021021

friend-crow

Honestly I feel like the whole concept of UPG is kind of silly outside of a reconstructionist context. I imagine it's pretty limited within that context as well, but I'm not really part of that world so I'll refrain from comment.

friend-crow

I guess what I'm saying is that for most people participating in a living religion/spiritual path, you can probably just say "gnosis". Personal is usually implied.

And yes, WTF is verification, even, outside of the framework of reconstruction?

There's always gonna be people trying to claim unearned authority on spiritual shit. Yelling "UPG!" at them doesn't really change that.

friend-crow

I guess I prefer my Big Lebowski meme for those moments.

elbiotipo

why bother caring about the environment when 1. It’s so obviously a lost cause and 2. There’s definitely going to be a nuclear war?

And what are you doing about it Anon? Learn about ecological restoration or get out of my way.

elbiotipo

If you read ecology books printed in the 70s and 80s, they were absolutely convinced that whales and tigers would not survive the century. There's a whole plot in Star Trek about how whales are extinct actually. Here in Argentina, we were sure that yaguaretés would have gone extinct. It was thought that rainforests would be forever lost, because there was no way that such complex ecosystems would be restored.

Now, you can go to Península Valdés and find that the whale population there is growing year after year, people can see them from their windows. In Iberá, where yaguaretés were extinct for over 70 years, there's now a population of 35 and growing, after being reintroduced just five years ago. As for rainforests?

We've becoming very, very good on restoring them. Natural environments, when given space and time to heal, can return to that they were. And after all, all natural enviroments are managed by human societies. It is up to us to implement a good management, un buen gobierno.

I firmly believe our children and grandchildren will see a restoration of Earth like never before.

Millions of people are working on this. You can learn about it, perhaps even become one of them. Or be a pointless doomer in my ask box. Your choice.

crabussy

if there are people who care, it's never a lost cause. at one point, kākāpō, a nocturnal flightless parrot species from aotearoa, were thought to be entirely extinct for decades. until 1977, where booming calls from males were heard on the small island of whenua hou. now, thanks to people who care so much they dedicated their lives to caring, kākāpō numbers are close to 300. despite the setbacks. despite the small gene pool causing infertility and health problems. people cared so fucking much that they survived. this is one of COUNTLESS, countless similar stories. I'm studying ecology so that I can go into conservation and all around me, every day, I see people who care enough to put years of their lives into learning about and solving environmental problems. I don't know man. hope isn't just some nebulous thing. it's tangible if you do something with it.

kedreeva

Tim Wong saw the decline of the pipeline swallowtail butterfly, and dedicated himself to providing habitat and raising babies, and it worked.

Spix's Macaws were extinct in the wild for 70 years, and now captive breeding and conservation groups have reintroduced a small population (with more on the way) and there are babies being successfully raised in the wild again.

And what else is there, but hope? We exist for the grace of hope. Those who have lost all hope don't stay here. If you are here to send an ask like this, it is not because you have given up, it's that you are hoping someone will show you that that hope is worth having.

It is!! It always is!!

There will be good things and if you cannot find them, make them! The time will pass anyway, you can choose what to do with it, and so many, many people are choosing to try to help.

coinin

The Lord Howe Island rodent eradication project never fails to make me cry, it’s so beautiful.

The population of an entire island working together to eradicate every last rat and mouse to save the native bird populations. They had to trap a bunch of the birds and keep them in captivity so they wouldn’t be hurt by the rodenticides, and released them after the rodents were gone. Normal residents helped by phoning in tips whenever they saw rodents. And they did it. Lord Howe Island, last I read, remains rodent free, and the native bird populations are rebounding!

Acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer, both of which were terrifying specters of my childhood, have been largely dealt with. Ecosystems devastated by acid rain are also recovering.

We are making a difference!

aetherograph

In 1979, an audacious, expensive conservation project was begun to try and breed california condors in captivity toward being released into the wild again. This was considered useless and hopeless by many people, but many more people said we had to at least TRY.

In 1991, the first captive-raised condors were re-introduced to Big Sur, Pinnacles, and Bitter Creek.

In 2006, three months before I turned eighteen, the first wild pair of condors was seen nesting in Big Sur in over a hundred years. A hundred years.

We did that. We fixed it.

How about another example.

When my mom was small, in the 1960s, there were many, many days of the year she was not allowed outside. Days and days they had recess indoors, because the air was so poisonous to breathe. Here's an article about it, with some good pictures.

My mom was 13 in the picture on the left. She was 50 in the picture on the right.

In 1987, there were 27 California Condors in the world, all captive.

In 2024, there were 566.

369 of them fly free.

That happened within my lifetime, and I'm not even 40 yet.

When you lose hope, think of our stories we're telling you. Recount them to yourself like a prayer. That's what I do.

There are 369 California Condors flying free in the sky right now.

There is no more acid rain.

There is an ozone.

There are wild tigers.

There are still birds on Lord Howe Island.

There are 369 California Condors flying free.

bethanythebogwitch

The human evolutionary lineage

A lot of people misunderstand evolution. Evolution works by incrementally adding on new changes to existing gene pools through natural selection. A common misconception is that when a new organism evolves, it stops being what its ancestors were. This isn't the case. Instead, each new clade that evolves is the sum of its ancestors adaptations plus a new adaptation (and sometimes that new adaptation is the loss of an older adaptation). Clades are categories of life that are distinct from each other and when new features appear, scientists can name a new clade that is the sum of all previous clades plus the new feature. The Linnean taxonomy sustem with the ranks Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species is an older system of showing how clades nest and branch that isn't used by taxonomists anymore because 7 categories is not anywhere near enough to fully classify how many clades an organism is in. By following the evolution of clades an organism belongs to, you can see the different steps of its development into what it is now. I want to do that to humans. This isn't a 100% comprehensive list of clades or a comprehensive overview of human evolution.

You are in the clade Eukaryota because your cells have a membrane-bound nucleus that stores the DNA.

You are an Ophisthokont because the most basal form of you cells have a single flagella that pushes the cell forward. Many of your cells no longer fit this trait, but the sperm cell, one of the most basal cells, still retains this feature.

You are in the clade Holozoa because your cells cannot produce their own food.

You are in the clade Choanozoa because you are made of multiple cells with different functions working together.

You are an animal (The clade name is either called Animalia or Metazoa depending on who you ask) because you have an internal digestive cavity and must digest other living or recently living organisms to survive.

You are in the clade Eumetazoa (true animals) because your cells are organized into tissues and germ layers.

You are in the clade Bilateria because you are bilaterally symmetrical during embryonic development (and afterwards too, except for a few features).

You are in the clade Nephrozoa because your digestive tract starts with a mouth on one end and ends with an anus on the other end. Be glad you don't have to poop put of the same hole you use to eat.

You are a Duterostome because when you are an embryo, the first opening to form become the anus, when then opens a cavity through the embryo and out the other side to form the mouth. This means that once upon a time, you were nothing but a disembodied asshole.

You are a Chordate because you have a spinal nerve cord that runs down the back and (at least during embryo development) a notochord, pharyngeal slits, and a tail that emerges after the anus.

You are in the clade Olfactores because you have nostrils.

You are a Craniate because you have a brain enclosed in a skull.

You are a vertebrate because your spinal cord is enclosed in a skeletal sheathe that is divided into vertebrae.

You are a Gnathostome because you have a hinged jaw. These jaws started out as modified gill arches.

You are in the clade Osteichthyes (bony fish) because your skeleton is made of bone.

You are in the clade Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) because you have muscular limbs supported by bones and lungs.

You are in the clade Rhipidistia because you have two symmetrical lungs.

You are a Tetrapodomorph because your shoulder articulates in a ball and socket joint.

You are a member of the clade Elpistostegalia because you have a shoulder girdle and do not have a dorsal fin.

You are in the clade Stegocephalia because your limbs have wrists and end in digits instead of fins, and because your spine is connected to your pelvis.

You are a Tetrapod because you have four limbs and skeleton adaptations that let you live on land permanently.

You are a Reptiliomorph because of the number of joints in your fingers and toes and because, barring accident or mutation, you have five digits per limb. You also have waterproof skin. Reptiliomorph means reptile-shaped, but you are not a reptile. The Reptiliomorphs predate true reptiles, which are on a different lineage than you.

You are an Amniote because you reproduce internally with a phallus (giving or receiving) instead of a female releasing eggs and the male then fertilizing them. The egg you came from was also encased in a sac of amniotic fluid.

You are a Synapsid because your ancestors had a single pair of holes in the skull called temporal fenestra. Humans no longer have this hole, but you can still feel the outline of where it was on the sides of your head. The Sauropsids, which would eventually include reptiles, are the sisters of the Synapsids.

You are a Eupelycosaur because your teeth are not all the same size.

You are a Sphenaconodont because your jaw can move side to side and forward and back instead of just opening and closing like a door. This grants you the ability to chew.

You are a Therapsid because you have the ability to shiver to warm up your body.

You are a Eutherapsid because your body is sustained at a temperature warmer than your environment.

You are a Neotherpasid because your legs are held under your body instead of being splayed out to the sides and because you have a spine the moved better forward and back instead of side to side.

You are a Theriodont because you have differentiated types of teeth including canine teeth in the front of your jaw. You also have a chamber in your nose for mucous membranes and 7 vertebrae in your neck.

You are a Eutheriodont because you have a secondary palate in your mouth that separates it from the nasal cavity. This means you can chew and breathe at the same time.

You are a Cynodont because your mandible is all one bone instead of multiple bones. The other bones that used to be part of the jaw are tiny remnants at the back. These bones would eventually evolve into the inner ear bones many clades later. You also have a heel on the back of your feet.

You are an Epicynodont because the teeth in the side of your jaw are differentiated into multiple types instead of all being the same shape.

You are a Eucynodont because you also do not have a parietal eye and because you do not have abdominal ribs, which allows for the presence of a diaphragm.

You are in the clade Prozostrodontia because your molars have two roots and are coated in enamel.

You are a Mammaliamoform because you were born toothless and grow only two sets of teeth in your life: baby teeth and adult teeth. Mammaliaform means "mammal-shaped" but they aren't mammals yet. There are still a few traits that need to evolve before true mammals showed up on the scene.

You are in the clade Mammalia because of the way your jaw articulated with the rest of the skull.

You are a Theriomorph because you have external ears instead of just holes in the sides of your head. The ancestors of the Monotreme and Platypus would have branched off somewhere around here because they don't have external ears.

You are a Trechnothere because of modifications in the elbow, scapula, and heel that help you move better.

You are a Cladothere because your ear canal goes through a coil instead of being a straight line.

You are in the clade Zatheria because you have nipples. Prior to theis, mammals had to sweat milk out of their pores for their young to lap up. Platypus and Echidnas still do this.

You are in the clade Tribosphenida because you or someone you know has a vagina and anus that are separate holes instead of being combined into a cloaca. Platypus and Echidnas still have a cloaca.

You are a Therian because you were born live instead of in an egg. Placental mammals and marsupials diverge at this point.

You are Eutherian because you were attached to a placenta while in utero.

You are a Placentalian because you do not have an epipubic bone. This allos babies to be born larger and more developed. You would think this would be the clade where placentas appear, but nope.

You are in the clade Boreoeutheria because you or someone you know has external testicles enclosed in a scrotum.

You are a Euarchontoglire. This clade has been established based on genetic rather than morphology. It divides into two groups: the Euarchontids and the Glires. You are on the Euarchontid side. The Glire side includes rodents.

You are a Primatomorph because you have adaptations like binocular vision and better balance that allow for life in the trees. These adaptations evolved independently in multiple lineages, a phenomenon called convergent evolution.

You are a primate because your eye sockets are fully enclosed by bone and you have opposable thumbs.

You are a Haplorrhine because your nose is dry rather than kept wet with mucus like a dog's.

You are in the clade Anthropoidea, sometimes called Simiiformes, because you do not have sensory whiskers but you do have color vision, breasts on the pectoral muscles, and you or someone you know has a naked penis that is not retracted into a sheathe. This is the clade for monkeys. Despite what you may have heard, you are a monkey.

You are in the clade Catarrhini, old world monkeys, because your nostrils face down instead of sideways, flat fingernails instead of claws, and tails that are diminished or gone all together.

You are in the clade Hominoidea, apes, because you have no tail and your shoulders can do a full rotation.

You are in the clade Hominidae, great apes, because you have fingerprints and the same structure you your eyes and ears as the other great apes.

You are a Hominine because you walk upright on the ground instead of knuckle-walking.

You are in the genus Homo, a human, because you have a large skull cavity allowing for a large brain that grants the ability to create complex languages, tools, and philosophy. Other human species include Home erectus (which may be our ancestors), Homo floresiensis (who only got about half as tall as we do as the result of island dwarfism), and Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals, a cousin species to us which was closely related to us to allow for interbreeding. The majority of people alive today who are of European descent have some Neanderthal DNA in them).

Finally, you are in the species Homo sapiens, who originated in sub-Saharan Africa and spread throughout Eurasia in multiple successive waves of migration (some of which went back into Africa), before spreading out to the Americas and Oceania. Some populations interbred with other human species like the Neanderthals and Denisovans and even though those lineages are extinct, their DNA lives on in their modern human descendants. We have the most developed prefrontal cortexes of any ape, allowing for a greater degree of creativity and innovation that likely allowed us to out-compete all the other human species and innovate technology and philosophy to a greater degree than any human species.