this blog is a zoo!

I like animals

[wild-special-interests]

About Me

Hi, I’m Jessie!  Animals have been my main special interest for as long as I can remember. I initially made this blog to showcase as many different species as possible. But naturally, it ended up becoming a place for me to post about my faves. These include:

birds

bats

sharks

bears

dinosaurs

and much much MORE!

This is a secondary blog, so the url you’ll see if I follow you will be jessie-lou. You can also find me at my

🐠🦈🐋 Marine Bio Blog🐋🦈🐠

Infodumping, submissions, and requests are always welcome! 

[thagomizersshow]

So much of paleontology is "what did this beaked thing eat?" And then your best guess for years turns out to be so so so wrong.

Like Gastornis was thought to be a carnivore for decades and then carbon isotopes were like, "nah this thing was basically a giant goose honk honk".

Art by Ja Chirinos

Oviraptor was thought to be an egg eater, then much ink was spilled about whether it ate mollusks, and now it's thought to be an omnivore, but mostly a fruit/seed eater like a parrot.

Somehow this Adobe Stock image is the only art of an Oviraptor eating plants I can find. How is that?

And even birds with some teeth are getting in on these dietary mysteries.

Longipteryx was first thought to be a kingfisher-like hunter of aquatic prey, but it has since been found with seed contents in its guts, making it another surprise frugivore.

Photo by Xiaoli Wang

[livias]

[photogdenography]

Raw Bar Patrons

Olympic Gull, various victims and onlookers - Haystack Rock, OR

[reynard61]

Let's ambush mama! 😼

[dvandom]

"Why do Pallas cats always look grumpy?"

"Pallas kittens."

[waywardmartian]

The sheer roundness of this kitten must be admired.

[herpsandbirds]

Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata), family Cariamidae, order Cariamiformes, Brazil

Seriemas were once placed in the Gruiformes, but in 2014 were elevated to their own order. They are most closely related to Falconidae, Psittaciformes and Passeriformes.

They are territorial, and some people in South America use them as guard animals.

Seriemas eat a wide variety of small prey, and are known to pick up snakes with their beaks and slam them hard onto the ground repeatedly, to subdue & kill them.

photograph by Jainy Maria

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Seriemas have sickle claws on their feet just like those of Troodontids and Dromaeosaurids and Archaeopteryx!

Seriemas are the closest living relatives of the extinct Terror Birds, and are even similar in size and lifestyle to the smallest members of that group!

Seriemas are limited to two species now, but in addition to Terror Birds, had an EXTENSIVE fossil record of relatives with many species spread around the world!

Seriemas are the earliest derived members of the Australaves and helped researchers develop the hypothesis that Telluraves, the group that includes the vast majority of tree-dwelling birds, evolved from a predatory ancestor!

Seriemas are convergently very similar to the Secretarybird of Africa, which is more closely related to Ospreys, Hawks, and Eagles

[mariolanzas]

SYNAPSIDA 

Some of the animals featured in my YT video on Synapsids, many more are included there. This piece is now also available HERE for prints and more

_____

Youtube Channel

Instagram (new account)

Prints and more items of my artwork

[herpsandbirds]

Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala), family Ciconiidae, order Ciconiiformes, Vankalei Bird Sanctuary, Sri Lanka

Photograph by Chamith Chandrasekara

[jellogram]

the texture of penguin feathers

[importantpics]

[writingraccoon]

You really can't take me anywhere because I genuinely won't shut the fuck up about birds

[gaslit-dipshits]

[appalachian-werewolf]

PoweredByWho — Who's Building Data Centers in Your Backyard?

Follow the money behind America's data center boom. Track 2,300+ projects, PAC spending, and the politicians who sign off on it.

[reasonsforhope]

Reasons for hope: Lots of amazing people did a ton of work to make this fantastic, fully interactive resource available - because no matter how bleak things seem, there are millions, and millions of people doing everything they can to protect both the world and their own communities.

You can use this to view and subscribe to updates, project statuses, and for at least some of them even whole dossiers. This is an amazing resource, I highly recommend checking it out

[labete-du-gevaudan]

After the first Coelacanth specimen was discovered in east Africa (1938) after its 65 million year absence, there was a mad hunt to find a second one. Fliers like this one were posted up and down the coast in the 1940s and 1950s in search of any fish that might have been caught by a local fisherman. However, it took until 1952 for this reward to be claimed and the second Coelacanth was brought to light.

Some of the text on this reward notice reads: “Look carefully at this fish. It may bring you good fortune. Note the peculiar double tail and the fins. The only one ever saved for science was 5ft (160 cm.) long. Others bave been seen. If you have the good fortune to catch or find one DO NOT CUT OR CLEAN IT ANY WAY but get it whole at once to a cold storage or to some responsible official who can care for it, and ask him to notify Professor J. L. B. Smith of Rhodes University Grahamstown, Union of S. A., immediately by telegraph.”

[echinoderm-of-the-day]

Ophiothrix suensonii

Image source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/120560932

[cosmonautroger]

jellyfish babies

[amnhnyc]

Did you know? The Marañón poison frog (Excidobates mysteriosus) is often found in or near bromeliad flowers. The bromeliads offer shelter and provide it with water, which pools in its petals! The frog also uses bromeliads as a place to lay its eggs. Known for its unique call, which has been described as a rattle-like buzz, this species lives in a small region in northwestern Peru, where it inhabits montane forests. The roughly 1-in- (2.5-cm-) long frog is endangered and faces threats posed by habitat destruction and smuggling for the pet trade.

Photo: Danny Lawrence, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[glassshine]