#wtf evolution

[jagcore]

I feel like an appendix rn… useless and presenting a permanent risk of self destruction…

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Numidotherium, oh jolly, how I love you! It is the early proboscidean ever! Don't be alarmed by it's weird look, I will break it down for you!

What you are looking at here is an early elephant relative from the Eocene of northern Africa. It is bizarrely build, with surprisingly long legs adapted for terrestrial locomotion (compared to Meoritherium for example, which was more semi-aquatic) but they are sprawling like in a dinocephalian. It's skull is very short and domed with evidence for sexual dimorphism (males having larger domes). it appears to have been a browser and was the largest land animal in the formations it was found in. The trunk was probably very short, similar to a tapir and the tusks weren't present yet.

[fangtalksdragons]

Fang [806-902-962] — Today at 00:46 Extreme lower jaw elongation in Alienacanthus: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231747 [Extreme lower jaw elongation in a placoderm reflects high disparity and modularity in early vertebrate evolution]

Apparently this little Devonian fellas has been known since the 1950s, but the original Polish scraps were interpreted as fin spines. I can see why tbh Persoally I doub this guy the WTF fish because this is definetly a WTF moment of evolution, and naturally its a fish because fish are always one of the most WTF out of all animals.

[triumphantfury]

Sometimes I get the curious urge to go outside and meet more people...

Then I remember that our species evolved into something that needs to kill other creatures and wear their skin in order to survive, and I promptly sit back down on my couch

[supersciencegeek]

On my morning walk to work

My body: hey, we're getting kind of warm here, you probably didn't need the sweater.

Me: ok well send some of that heat to the fingers and toes please

My body: nah we'll just make some underboob sweat instead.

[captaintalia]

can u hook us up? heterosexuality is a cruel joke

[zennagreenwitch]

Is it just me or is the whole “morning sickness” during pregnancy thing a massive evolutionary detour? Like, if there was a deer that couldn’t eat and slept all the time for the first third of her gestation, that deer would be wolf chow. Deer with the tendency to be that debilitated for that long would not live long enough to pass on that trait.

Is it one of those “evolutionary advantages to society” things? Do the other social primates deal with this bullshit?

On the plus side my partner feels super useful and relied-upon.

[ultranos]

Hey, what's that octopus you related Ty Lee to that one time? A small and cute one that is also super deadly? I need this for reasons and I cannot find the post where you talked about it.

Blue-ringed octopus! AKA docile, shy, small...and one of the most venomous animals on the planet.

Bonus: the venom is tetrodotoxin, meaning it kills you via severe total body paralysis.