50 species of lizard and one species of snake reproduce through parthenogenesis (that’s the fancy word for producing offspring as a female without having sex).
Except.
Whiptails are stimulation ovulators. That is to say, they can’t ovulate without having sex.
So not only do they are give birth through immaculate conception, they’re ALL LESBIANS.
There are two kinds of parthenogenesis seen in reptiles. That used by whiptails and the other all female species is true cloning – the egg contains the female’s full genetic material).
Other species including komodo dragons use another form of parthenogenesis where they actually fertilize themselves, with a haploid polar body used instead of a sperm. Because of the way reptile sex chromosomes work, this form of parthenogenesis can produce males as well as females – however, the females produced have weird sex chromosomes and can only lay other females. It’s used as a backup reproductive strategy if they can’t find a mate. This works because in reptiles, unlike mammals, its the males that have two sex chromosomes the same (ZZ) and the females different (ZW). Females produced by parthenogenesis are WW – and that’s what happened to the whiptails. They lost the Z chromosome and now are all WWs.
my sad ass is the first person to make a gallows humor joke but i’m also seriously plagued by the idea that we ignore legitimate cries for help wrapped thinly in humor by just saying “same” instead of crawling out of our caverns and asking wait are you okay and what’s worse is that for every person that who was joking about that “same” there’s another who feels it deeply, who is actually relating to this cry for help, who will also be ignored when they reblog it, and so on, down the line infinitely as we make acts of desperation and vulnerability part of a romanticized culture where depression is a punchline instead of a concern….. i lie awake thinking of every person who has tagged one of my jokes with a casual “lmao me”, their faceless personalities swimming before me: are we ignoring people we could save. isnt the worst part when people ignore it, after all, when you’re standing with friends but you suddenly realize you’re apart from them, when you look down at your hands and feel unreal, untethered, like you could say “i’m going to kill myself” and their heads would tilt back to expose throats, to unravel laughter instead of no, no, stay on this earth
i haven’t slept a lot recently i’m sorry but god i hope you never relate to the sad parts of me i hope one day you wake up and nothing about me is funny
oh my god these two capercaillie cocks are fighting each other and then this golden eagle just lands on one of them and stands there waiting for him to die, and the other capercaillie just keeps fighting. you can see the eagle watching him like “buddy…. buddy i am in the middle of killing a guy.” and then they slap each other a bit and the eagle the whole time is just staring at him like
and then the dude just… does not stop interrupting this murder, so the eagle has to let go of Slowly Dying Capercaillie #1 to kill this second dude, and then there’s two dead cocks and 1 very confused eagle
OKAY WE NEED A LINK FOR THIS.
it’s Wild North on netflix, episode 2, 25 minutes in. i also found it on youtube (its the only video where an eagle fights two capercaillie cocks so its that one) but its better quality on the show with noise etc.
Ok since Godzilla is feeding from the Earth’s core’s radiations (so he doesn’t need to pray on living animals except maybe mutos n shit) AND that he uses echolocation wich means he is an acoustic creature, he can take free time to take care and communicate with other creatures right? LIKE WHALES MAYBE? Imagine humpback whales rubbing on his skin, orcas bow riding in front of him, or Godzilla diving with sperm whales and Cuvier’s beaked whales, or, my favorite, putting back big stranded whales in the water. Why not?
TIL the Dung Beetle is the only known insect that uses the Milky Way as a reference to move in a straight line despite not being able to see individual stars. Scientists initially thought they were using the moon, however they still moved in a straight line on moonless nights.
I fucking hate space, I hate the universe, I hate science and I hate when shit like this happens. how in the fuck does a wholr species of fucking insects know to look up at the sky at all let alone actually follow the direction of a whole fucking galaxy. why the shit was I even born. why do I exist. this pisses me the fuck off. I wish I was dead
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 