Bones are interesting because you can sometimes read the patterns of wear and growth like reading a book.
I got a couple of stray cat skulls, and this guy has a pretty interesting story to him.
(via wolfforce58205)
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Hydro-dipped deer skull. Want to learn this yourself? Stay tuned!
Some of my canids and their canines, showing the process of losing baby teeth. Top: Juvenile fox (I know they’re not canines, but they are canids) with sharp baby teeth.
Next: A puppy with the sharp baby teeth, and the bigger adult tooth just starting to peek in over it. You can see the same thing happening with the nearest incisor.
Third: Older puppy with adult tooth growing on top of baby canine. Double canines! You can also see the next incisor coming in with the baby incisor on top. The root was almost completely dissolved.
Bottom: Adult Dog with adult teeth
I’m honestly not sure. I, personally, am on the line of “should they?” because I don’t want the species to be hunted to extinction again. If I remember right, scientists are very close to cloning the Woolly Mammoth. @strangebiology might have more information on that than I would, though.
I love de-extinction talk. This is actually quite a common article that I see, about cloning mammoths. To answer some questions:
1. They did succeed in bringing back an extinct subspecies of Spanish Ibex, for a few minutes, with the Bucardo.
2. Cloning dogs and cats is very much a thing and getting cheaper.
3. “Should we bring extinct animals back from the dead?” is also something that I see very often in science writing.
4. About 5 months ago, many news organizations started reporting that we’d have mammoths in 2 years. We totally will not, that is far and away not enough time, it’s barely enough time to gestate a pachyderm.Read more: My cloning tag, my interview with George Church about mammoth cloning, and National Geographic’s entire portal on de-extinction :)
As for “should we?”, it depends on what species.
There is no place for mammoths to go today. They weren’t just hunted mercilessly by humans, the habitat they depended on doesn’t even exist anymore. If we cloned mammoths, they would have to live in zoos (and zoos already get tons of flack for “pointless” animals out of a conservation standpoint, like fun color morphs, or hybrids), or fenced in “mammoth reserves”.
The thylacine on the other hand, still belongs in Australia. They died out on the mainland because of competition with dingoes a few thousand years ago, then in Tasmania because the Australian government propagandized the public that the thylacine was killing livestock. (It was pretty insane how governments handled eco systems in the past - less than a hundred years ago, they released all sorts of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish they thought would make a cool addition to the landscape, with no thought to the possible consequences, and park rangers in the US made it their job to kill every wolf they could find.)
But what animal could be the mother of a thylacine? With the mammoth it’s pretty obvious, their closest relative, the Asian elephant. (Many don’t know this, but the Asian elephant “is” a mammoth. They’re more closely related to mammoths than to African elephants. I guess if they had huge, curved tusks, we would actually call them mammoths.)
Could a tasmanian devil give birth to thylacine pups? I don’t know. I guess we need marsupial experts to answer on that.
Place for Mammoths to go: Pleistocene Park. The Siberian Tundra is very open and ready for mammoths. In my interview with George Church, when I asked him why we should clone mammoths, one of the reasons he gave was so that they could compact the carbon sequestered in the Tundra at Pleistocene Park. When I interviewed one of the creators of the Park, they said they would be happy to host mammoths, but they can make do just as well with other large animals like bison.
Thylacine cloning: Cloning the Thylacine by Allen Greer is, I think, a fascinating deep dive into a scientist’s doomed attempt to clone a Thylacine. (My classmates hated this article because it’s sort of just an information dump vs. crafted, but I love it). Anyway yes, they cite the Tasmanian Devil as a potential surrogate to thylacine pups, but they have noooo idea if that would work.
I’m honestly not sure. I, personally, am on the line of “should they?” because I don’t want the species to be hunted to extinction again. If I remember right, scientists are very close to cloning the Woolly Mammoth. @strangebiology might have more information on that than I would, though.
I love de-extinction talk. This is actually quite a common article that I see, about cloning mammoths. To answer some questions:
1. They did succeed in bringing back an extinct subspecies of Spanish Ibex, for a few minutes, with the Bucardo.
2. Cloning dogs and cats is very much a thing and getting cheaper.
3. “Should we bring extinct animals back from the dead?” is also something that I see very often in science writing.
4. About 5 months ago, many news organizations started reporting that we’d have mammoths in 2 years. We totally will not, that is far and away not enough time, it’s barely enough time to gestate a pachyderm.
Read more: My cloning tag, my interview with George Church about mammoth cloning, and National Geographic’s entire portal on de-extinction :)
EDIT: SOLD OUT at this time! I’ll work on contacting people who commented and getting them shipped out on Monday July 17. Then maybe in the future I’ll do a similar package, but I’m personally out of books. You can buy them here any time though, and the publisher ships to most countries!
Hi all! I’m selling Semi-Mystery Skull Packs!
Price: $35 (+$8 Shipping) US Only at this time
Included in each box:
-One deer or sheep skull
-One Strange Biology Book (sample)
-One mystery item (such as a fossil or a domestic bird feather, but every one is different)
Sourcing: Sheep skulls are from a butcher, deer skulls are from hunter dumps. I didn’t pay anyone for these but I put a lot of time into collecting, transporting, and cleaning them. (I bought one of the hunters a meal at Wendy’s)
How to buy: Just comment “Interested” on this post or DM me and I’ll reach out to you for your address/Paypal once I get 10 people interested. Thank you for supporting Strange Biology!
China built a solar farm with a panda shape but the one y’all are sharing is an artist’s rendering. Here’s what it really looks like.
I painted this 10 years ago, before Vulture Culture was even a word. It’s a turkey vulture!
Hey Gang, as the kiriban nears, I’m thinking of writing a Medium-style article called “How I got 50,000 Tumblr Followers” or something like that. As usual, I thought I’d post here and see if there are any questions in particular that you’d like me to address, or if you can recommend any reading in advance.
Of course, while Medium-style articles usually have titles in the first person, the idea is that you read them to understand how you can get the same results. I don’t think I’ve seen any articles on how to get Tumblr followers, except ones that say stuff that is either super obvious or pointless (”just buy followers!!”) but I’d like to try to answer your questions if I can.
Thanks!
![Caption: “Smuggled whisky found by Prov[ince] Police. Tete Jaune, BC [British Columbia]”
The whisky was being secretly transported inside hog carcasses.](https://web-archive.nli.org.il/National_Library/im_/http://68.media.tumblr.com/5acf126cd2d193d23177bb5d168d5b71/tumblr_osjoaqftbe1sqmphzo1_500.jpg)
Caption: “Smuggled whisky found by Prov[ince] Police. Tete Jaune, BC [British Columbia]”
The whisky was being secretly transported inside hog carcasses.
Halloween 2011: Melanocetus johnsonii (Angler Fish)
While I appreciate it, I think you may have misread my post! I’m sorry for the loss of the family of the as-of-yet anonymous 66-year-old man who died at Hetch Hetchy, who I don’t personally know.
Dad and I went to Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite last Friday. Twice we had driven there and found the trail closed, so nothing would stop us from finishing the trail this time.
The first picture is O’Shaughnessy Dam, and the second shows the waterfalls that hikers typically walk over on wooden bridges. However, because of the abnormally abundant winter snowfall and absurdly high summer temperatures, the snow melted and created powerful, rushing torrents, overtaking the bridges. You can just barely see one bridge at the right side of the gif.
The first waterfall, though flooded over the bridge, was easy to cross as long as we were willing to get our legs wet and move carefully.
The second waterfall, Wapama Falls, had signs saying “Danger: Trail Closed, Entry Prohibited.” As I was carrying a nice camera and my phone, I didn’t even want to get too close to the falls, let alone risk the significant chance of death by crossing them. My dad, in blue, stopped and looked at the falls for several minutes.
Later, at the Iron Door Tavern, I asked him, “When you were looking at the falls, were you admiring the power of nature? Or were you actually thinking about crossing?” He said “I don’t know…maybe we should have tried.” He said don’t worry, the falls wouldn’t have ruined my camera, but we might have been swept into the reservoir and died.
Two days later, I saw his watch resting in a cup of rice on the kitchen counter. Two days after that, a man crossing the falls slipped and died.
Press this dog to bring her to life.