Skip to main content

Index (By Taxonomy)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killer Whale

KILLER WHALE ( Orcinus orca ) Image adapted from Wikipedia Original image by Robert Pittman This one is going to be a little more biased than usual because the killer whale was my favourite animal up until I was six and some asshole kid at school told me they were "stupid", crushing my self-esteem and love of Free Willy  in one fell swoop. After that, my favourite animal for a long time was grey wolves, the killer whales of the land. But, deep down, I still harbour  a special place in my heart for these big glorified dolphins. Appearance Killer whales are known for their distinctive and cool black and white look. Nobody says it, but in a lot of ways they really rock the goth aesthetic. Orcas from different parts of the world can be differentiated by their colour pattern, and humans can recognize individuals within groups by their unique markings. That's pretty neat! They're also big fucking animals. For some reason, probably because most people's exper
Post a Comment
Read more

Pointy-Nosed Blue Chimaera

POINTY-NOSED BLUE CHIMAERA ( Hydrolagus trolli ) Image modified from Wikipedia. Original image copyright Citron. Since it is Halloween month, I'm going to write about chimaeras, AKA "ghost sharks", so-called because they look really pale and creepy. There's not really anything else seasonally appropriate about them but whatever, ghost sharks. They're also sometimes called "ratfish", and individual species often have stupid common names like "rabbit fish" or "elephant fish". Nevermind that. Ghost sharks. OOOOOOoooOOOoooOOOOOO. Since one of the common names for "pointy-nosed blue chimaera" is apparently the much more frightening "abyssal ghostshark", that's what I'll be calling them for the rest of this review. Appearance Chimaeras are named after a monster in Greek mythology that was half lion, half goat, half dragon, and 150% badass. Apparently whoever named these things (Linnaeus, I guess?) thought they lo
Post a Comment
Read more

Little Red Kaluta

LITTLE RED KALUTA ( Dasykaluta rosamondae ) Original image by Marie Lochman These weird little critters were brought to my attention by my friend Jen Mawhinney of Fredericton a few years ago and have been rattling around in my brain (figuratively) ever since. I think they're pretty neat, but does my completely arbitrary rating system agree? Appearance Kalutas are unassuming mammals that look like adorable fuzzy little mice. They are not mice, but they're soft and fluffy with big eyes and pointy little snoots and whiskers and oh my god I can't even stand looking at them they're too cute. They fit in the palm of your hand and you could probably put one in your pocket and carry it around and give it little things to eat from time to time. Whoever gave them their common name (and their Latin name, which I'll talk about at length later) seemed to think that they're red but I would call them a staunch brown. So, you know, that's bullshit. Points:  0.5/
Post a Comment
Read more