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Obscure Taxa; For interesting or obscure organisms you'd like to share.
Topic Started: Dec 14 2016, 09:46 PM (48,950 Views)
LittleLazyLass
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Honestly I don't see how people find those things remotely cute. They're ugly and kind of creepy.

Plus it's bloody Japan do they not have enough cute stuff to gush over?
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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trex841
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It's the lowland, small eared Mogwai
F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs
A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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IIGSY
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Palaeoisopus is a species of Devonian pycnogonid with enlarged forelimbs. It is officially on of my new favorite animals.
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
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Datura
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I'd like to point out this... thing, whatever it might be.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleodictyon_nodosum

Even the identity of what is producing this is unknown.

Also, Godzillus.

https://www.uc.edu/news/nr.aspx?id=15649
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IIGSY
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Plecentonema gigantissma is the worlds largest nematode. Lives in the placenta of sperm whales. It is 8 meters in length.
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Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
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IIGSY
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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Spirorbis is a genus of polychaete annelid worm with a coiled shell. What spec potential does this have?
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
IIGSY
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https://www.phrygane.tk/early-cretaceous/geroptera.html

I don't necessarily know if it's on topic, but I had nowhere better to put it.
Projects
Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates
Last one crawling: The last arthropod

ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess)

Potential ideas-
Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized.
Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal.
Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents.

Quotes


Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups


In honor of the greatest clade of all time


More pictures


Other cool things


All African countries can fit into Brazil
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Sayornis
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Insect Illuminati Get Shrekt
Mar 21 2017, 08:18 PM
Plecentonema gigantissma is the worlds largest nematode. Lives in the placenta of sperm whales. It is 8 meters in length.
I'm reminded of this wonderful quote from Nathan Cobb, a nematode biologist:
Quote:
 
In short, if all the matter in the universe except the nematodes were swept away, our world would still be dimly recognizable, and if, as disembodied spirits, we could then investigate it, we should find its mountains, hills, vales, rivers, lakes, and oceans represented by a film of nematodes. The location of towns would be decipherable, since for every massing of human beings there would be a corresponding massing of certain nematodes. Trees would still stand in ghostly rows representing our streets and highways. The location of the various plants and animals would still be decipherable, and, had we sufficient knowledge, in many cases even their species could be determined by an examination of their erstwhile nematode parasites.


A couple other interesting species I have recently learned about:

Mummy berry fungus. It infects blueberry plants and forms simulacra of flowers on the leaves-- with ultraviolet patterns and sugary nectar just like real blueberry flowers-- to attract bees that then carry its spores into the real flowers. Once infected, the flower develops into a "mummy berry."

The White-Rumped Swiftlet is an Australian swift with an unusual method of raising young: it lays a single egg and waits for the juvenile to develop feathers, then lays another egg and has the first baby incubate it! As explained in this paper, this is an adaptation to a short season when sufficient food is available.
Quote:
 

The food supply at Chillagoe does not last long enough for swiftlets to raise two single-chick broods, but it does last long enough for a unique strategy to have been developed which allows them to raise two chicks without producing a two-chick brood. This strategy involves the
femal laying the second egg after the first chick is fully feathered so that the first chick completes most of the incubation of the egg. The second egg hatches after the first chick fledges. The timing of laying the second egg leaves both parents free to forage for one chick only and allows them to raise two chicks in the shortened breeding (rainy) season that is characteristic of the savannah.
Edited by Sayornis, Mar 26 2017, 06:59 PM.
The Library is open. (Now under new management!)
Dr Nitwhite
Aug 19 2016, 07:42 PM
As I said before, the Library is like spec crack.
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Mr.Scruth
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Don't forget Perissodus microlepis, the scale eating cichlid!

Appearance


They use their exterior teeth to rasp scales off larger cichlids, while their pharyngeal jaws enable them to still eat a variety of foods in emergencies.

What is interesting is that research suggests different morphs feed on different sides of the body as adults, and that the mouthparts are adapted specifically to feed on this one side. This avoids competitions between individuals, as well as allowing for a more specialized feeding method. The juveniles, meanwhile, can feed off either side, and using their small size to be inconspicuous to the hosts.

Example Of feeding Specialization
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Excellent addition, MrScruth!
~ The Age of Forests ~
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LittleLazyLass
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They talked about it on the Rift Valley Lakes episode of Mutant Planet:
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Yiqi15
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Here's one of the more obscure dinosaurs I've discovered dicking around on the internet: Arkansaurus fridayi of 112,000,000 BCE. It's the only species of dinosaur discovered in Arkansas, and we only have a single foot to go on. In fact, the name of it is only informal; it has no scientific name whatsoever. Most depictions (i've seen) of it are as an ornithomimid. While little is still known about it, apparently this year it was passed as Arkansas' state dinosaur (yes, those are real things).

EDIT: as of 2018, Arkansaurus is now recognised as an official genus. The paper which described it has shown it one of the more basal species of the ornithomimids (or at least in comparsion with asiatic species), as indicated by its third metatarsal, with it being more thinner.

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http://www.geology.ar.gov/pdf/pamphlets/dino.pdf
http://5newsonline.com/2017/02/16/ark-legislature-passes-bill-declaring-arkansaurus-fridayi-the-state-dinsoaur/
https://web.archive.org/web/20080505140613/http://users.aristotle.net:80/~russjohn/monsters/ms6.htmld
Edited by Yiqi15, Mar 21 2018, 04:00 PM.
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LittleLazyLass
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Gotta say, haven't heard of that one. Theropod database lists it as Tyrannoraptora indet., is there actually any evidence it was an ornithomimosaur?
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Yiqi15
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Little
Apr 2 2017, 08:55 AM
Gotta say, haven't heard of that one. Theropod database lists it as Tyrannoraptora indet., is there actually any evidence it was an ornithomimosaur?
I believe that the evidence is the anatomy of the foot's similarities to other members such as the equally obscure Nedcolbertia.
Current/Completed Projects
- After the Holocene: Your run-of-the-mill future evolution project.
- A History of the Odessa Rhinoceros: What happens when you ship 28 southern white rhinoceri to Texas and try and farm them? Quite a lot, actually.

Future Projects
- XenoSphere: The greatest zoo in the galaxy.
- The Curious Case of the Woolly Giraffe: A case study of an eocene relic.
- Untittled Asylum Studios-Based Project: The truth behind all the CGI schlock
- Riggslandia V.II: A World 150 million years in the making

Potential Projects
- Klowns: The biology and culture of a creepy-yet-fascinating being

My Zoochat and Fadom Accounts
- Zoochat
- Fandom
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LittleLazyLass
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That foot is better preserved than I expected, I see how it's classified with relative certainty.
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
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