InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/04/2024Some older interpretations suggest that its calyx was filled with gas and it floated along, dredging its arms along the seafloor, but this is likely untrue, as summarized below in this blogpost by Christopher Taylor - coo.fieldofscience.com/2010/02/crin... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/04/2024The ammonites, or at least the coiled ones, should have eight arms and two long hooked tentacles, similar to those found in squid. These ammonites also spew ink when threatened, something that has been questioned in recent years, as seen in Klug and Lehmann, 2015 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/04/2024Starting off with the ammonites - they have an operculum, which we know they did not have based on fossil evidence and phylogeny. This is an old idea, based on the aptychus, as discussed below 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 24/04/2024Its anatomy is quite poor, as shown in the image below, and its behavior is very inaccurate. Anomalocaris would not be capable of processing hard prey - unable to manipulate it with its front appendages, nor eat it with its mouth cone. It instead was a suction feeder, hunting soft-bodied prey 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 16/04/2024I've had the privilege in participating in a speculative evolution project as of late and my entries have spun off into their own little thing too. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 16/04/2024Prehistoric Planet is also in the pipeline. I'm also going to share snippets of a personal Prehistoric Planet-related project I've been working on and discuss the science behind those 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 16/04/2024Also been working on sketches and art pieces for some big threads, hopefully of use to paleoartists, but these are a bit far away 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 16/04/2024And many, many more topic that I intend to cover in the very near future 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 16/04/2024I've got a few threads that are maybe halfway done that I'm slowly working on completing, those are the priority at the moment 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 12/04/2024Caster gave an immensely detail breakdown, comparing and reinterpreting every little detail to be sure. He also further proved that the Paramphibius deposits were marine, and that the tracks were incredibly similar to those of mating/competing horseshoe crabs 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 12/04/2024The tracks certainly looked shockingly like those of a vertebrate, but that's because tracks from the "pusher legs" became heavily distorted, while other traces were too delicate to be preserved, or simply misinterpreted based on the previous misconception 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 12/04/2024Happy #FossilFriday! These are the tracks of a waddling, maybe bipedal amphibian. The tracks were clearly a monumental discovery for our understanding of how fish came onto land and the evolution of terrestrial locomotion... ...except none of that is actually the case 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 12/04/2024Thirteen miles south of Marienville, PA, on the side of a dirt road sat a bizarre fossil, to bediscovered by Mike Kosanki over the weekend of November 19th 1948. Mike made casts and sent them to the Carnegie Museum where his brother, James Kosanki, was a preparator. 130
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 10/04/2024Small ammendment/update to yesterday's thread, here are the actual images of the arrow squid interacting with a shark bsky.app/profile/inve... 000
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 09/04/2024Research published in October of 2023 suggests predatory interactions between deep sea squid, potentially even the giant squid, and great white sharks around Guadalupe Island, Mexico. 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Happy #FossilFriday! This is MPEF-PV 3137, a titanosaur egg from Cretaceous Patagonia. This egg is quite special as there are eight wasp cocoons inside (known as MPEF-IC 517-524) 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Furthermore, Venomoth is cute and serviceable as an early game bug design. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Looking at the code of the games themselves, Venomoth's index number is very far removed from Caterpie. Caterpie's line is all right next to each other. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Butterfree has much more in common with Caterpie than Venomoth does. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024These are partially due to hardware restrictions, forcing designs to be simplified or modified in order to fit in a 56x56 sprite. This design simplification is even evident in Venomoth itself, spots on the back of its wings were removed. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024These are all just very clear design trends; stylistic choices that are repeated in multiple designs. This is evident elsewhere in Kanto - multiple simple bodyplans are reused repeatedly. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Weedle also has a similar nose/mouth to Butterfree. Bugs with "horns" are also pretty commonplace - look at Yanma and Scizor, for example. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024Butterfree and Venonat do share a lot of features, but many Bug types, especially in the first two generations have similar features. Paras and Ledyba have similar eyes to Venomoth, while Ledian generally has a similar bodyplan to Butterfree. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 05/04/2024 Were Venomoth and Butterfree really swapped during the development of Pokémon Red and Green? I’d argue no; this theory relies on very shaky evidence that at times completely ignores the context of Red and Green’s development. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 29/03/2024It appears that these ammonites died but did not immediately lose all buoyancy, instead slowly losing it and sinking, being propelled forward simultaneously. The shells may have also rotated as they came into contact with the seafloor Art by James McKay 194
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 29/03/2024tests such as rolling a model ammonite shell across sediment have confirmed the identity of these track makers. Both images here are from "Trace Fossil Analysis" 120
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 29/03/2024Happy #FossilFriday! This is MCFO 0492, a very interesting fossil, also known as the “zombie track”. This 8.5 meter long specimen, recovered near Solnhofen, Germany is the dragging trail of a dying Subplanites ammonite, a form of mortichnium 186
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 26/03/2024Kani is a fully arboreal species of crab, relying on phytotelms (water-filled cavities in plants) for water and food. These crabs feed on plant material and small invertebrates; natives noted that they are preyed on by owls and mongoose. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 26/03/2024Kani maranjandu is a species of gecarcinucid crab native to the rainforests of the Sahyadri mountain range in India. If you were to simply look at this crab you probably wouldn’t think it’s anything spectacular, but you’d be wrong. academic.oup.com/jcb/article/... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/03/2024The main issue with merging the two, and the reason why this merging was voted against, was the potential dubious nature of Palaega. Palaega has been suggested to be a “form genus”; a group of species with similar morphology but no confirmed phylogenetic relationship. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/03/2024Word was sent to the ICZN a few months later, and the issue was discussed for roughly three years. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/partpdf/30690 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 25/03/2024The deep sea isopods are a very charismatic and well-known bunch of crustaceans. Not everybody has an in-depth knowledge of em, but those that do call it Bathynomus and have since 1879, but that was potentially subject to change at one point. 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 23/03/2024There is a single bivalve, potentially interpreted as an encrusting suspension feeder. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 23/03/2024Ichthyosaur, thalattosuchian, long-necked plesiosaur, and pliosaur specimens were studied, many of which either had animals associated with them, or traces of animals on the bones. Evidence of urchins, nautiloids, belemnites, crinoids, and vertebrate scavengers are preserved. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 20/03/2024White sea urchins off the coast of California attacked and ate both red and purple urchins, but “when given a choice between injured purple urchins or fresh kelp, white urchins overwhelmingly chose kelp”. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 20/03/2024Their grazing apparatus, called an “Aristotle’s lantern” can grasp, pull, scrape, grind, and tear with ease, and has even been the inspiration for the claws of a Mars rover www.engadget.com/2016-05-04-s... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 20/03/2024Some in Antarctica give “live birth” as a response to uneven substrate, while others on rocky coasts are capable of surviving for hours at a time completely out of water 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 20/03/2024Studies have proven a correlation between predator reduction and kelp loss (caused by an increase in urchins). A 2018 study found that the mass mortality of the sunflower star led to “a 311% increase in medium urchins and a 30% decline in kelp densities.” royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 20/03/2024One major factor is almost certainly predation. Off the western coast of North America, for example, humans have hunted sea otters and lobsters in great quantities, while many sunflower stars have died out due to Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024These caves are threatened by invasive predators such as the black rat (Rattus rattus) and introduced spiders. A few places were sheltered, primarily thanks to climate, but as that has changed in recent decades those sanctuaries have all but disappeared completely 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024Schrankia isn’t the only moth native to the twilight zone; on undescribed species of Orthomecyna also lacks pigmentation and apparently eyes, grubs of this species have been found in the dark zone of caves. Members of Pseudoschrankia and Mestolobes wander throughout caves 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024A great diversity of troglobitic moths would be found living inside the caves themselves, likely the same ones alive today. These include two members of the genus Schrankia; S. howarthi and S. altivolans. These moths can be monochromatic, flightless, and have heavily reduced eyes 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024The ‘apapane nests in the entrance and twilight zones of roost caves and plucks moths at its leisure. When these moths emerge at night the Hawaiian Hoary Bat comes to feast, in the past the extinct Synemporion would as well. 110
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024The diversity of these trogloxene moths was likely much greater than what is currently known. Sites in Hawai‘i suggest the presence of several Peridroma species and possibly some Agrotis as well. These roosts were consistently exploited by the ʻapapane (Himatione sanguinea). 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024These swarms became restricted to high altitudes, where they were observed primarily by R.C.L. Perkins in the late 1800’s. Since these populations were only briefly observable, information is lacking, especially for islands other that Hawai’i and Maui. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_... 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 19/03/2024Four species of native moths were historically known to use lava tubes as communal daytime roosts; Hypocala velans and three species of Peridroma. This has expanded in recent years to include three species of Mestolobes. 100
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 18/03/2024Rabbeinu Tam also determined that they were kosher, even if they were born from trees, and should be prepared the same way any other bird would be. These theories were not wholeheartedly accepted everywhere - for example, Albertus Magnus criticized this idea multiple times. 101
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 18/03/2024Somewhere along the way, scholars thought that these birds, particularly the Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis), hatched, hibernated, or underwent metamorphosis within these barnacles 101
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 18/03/2024Barbaracle's design in particular may be inspired by the French name for these barnacles, "pouce-pied", which apparently translates to "thumb-foot". Barbaracle may also take inspiration from barnacle trees; part of a larger myth about migrating birds 101
InvertebratePosting @invertposting.bsky.social · 18/03/2024These Pokémon are distinctly colonial; several individuals make up a singular body, something reflected in real life goose-necked barnacles. 101