If giraffes were predators they would look both hilarious and terrifying while sneaking up on their prey
I’m afraid you’ve missed the predatory giraffes by about 66 million years mate.
These guys are Azhdarchid pterosaurs, and they were some of the strangest reptiles to ever exist. They were perfectly capable of flight, but their physiology suggests that they may have spent a significant portion of their lives hunting on the ground.
The largest of them could reach over 5 metres tall while standing, and had a 10-metre wingspan. They varied greatly in body type, from the tall, spindly forms of Quetzalcoatlus and Arambourgiania (images 4 and 1-2 respectively) to the heavy brute strength of Hatzegopteryz, a species that may have used its head to bludgeon its prey (images 2 and 3).
There has never been another flying animal before or since to have reached such incredible sizes, nor any predator so intimidatingly tall. Well, not any that we know of yet.
All of these illustrations are by Mark Witton, a palaeontologist and artist who specialises in pterosaurs. This is his blog about palaeontology and the science of reconstructing extinct species. You can find out more about each of these images here, here and here.
I need to talk about the fact that Bucky’s still got his right hand 100% free and could be punching Spider Man into next Tuesday already. But he still stood frozen, looking shocked as all fucks and lemme tell you right now that that was not because someone’s managed to block his metal fist because lbr the metal arm was never unstoppable before, especially when super-enhanced/-equipped people are involved – so basically he doesn’t take that punch cus he’s actually just now able to hear the other guy’s voice and it clicks that this is just a fucking k i d
Hello! 🐸 Because dinner! If you are a White’s Tree Frog, everything that moves is dinner until proven otherwise (sometimes several checks are needed!)
Attack-of-the-Determined-Voigt does not hurt, but it is rather squishy and sometimes comes with free slobber! 🐸
Frogs don’t have the best eyesight, and their impulse to strike is triggered by movement, especially in larger frogs with bigger mouths. If something is moving and it isn’t Scary, it’s food! Except when it’s too big to fit in their mouths, but even then it’s still worth a try. Or five tries.
Welp, I’m in a different timezone and I just realized how late it is here, I’m gonna go to bed.
Good afternoon, evening, and night for those of you in assorted other timezones.
I often see foxes referred to as “catdogs” on Tumblr, but I wonder if folks realise how true that really is.
There’s a phenomenon called convergent evolution that occurs when two taxonomically unrelated species exploit the same ecological niche. The features that are needed to best take advantage of a given niche are pretty much the same everywhere you go; thus, over time, those species will become anatomically and behaviourally similar, even though they’re completely unrelated.
And foxes? Foxes are what you get when an ecosystem has no native small felines, so a canine species evolves to take advantage of the ecological niche that would have been exploited by a small feline, if one existed.
In other words, a fox is literally what you get when a dog tries to cat.
So, in a way…
#omg #I knew I had a huge reason for loving foxs #other than #you know #loving fox
on a similar note, hyenas are what happens when there are no dogs so felines fill that niche, Hyenas particularly spotted hyenas are wolfcats
This isn’t meaningless play, this is what foxes do when they hear rodents under deep snow or leaf litter. They can bury themselves up to half their body length in loose snow, and have a good chance at grabbing the rodent in the bargain.
here’s a hot take: giftwrap is dumb, 95% of the time you can just hand someone the thing and accomplish the same task. Society has conditioned us to love wrapping shit up for no reason, probably by gift wrap industry people.
Counterpoint: monkey instinct says uncovering secret bounty from colorful shell good as fuck
Counterpoint: wrap rectangular thing up really tight all nice straight edges smooth surface fold in everything fits secure with tape feel good, feel very good, feels nice
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 