#xiphactinus reads

[xiphactinusfish]

Fave Reads of June 2025:

[hero-of-the-wolf]

Hi Emmie!

If you’re in the mood, I’d totally appreciate some random animal facts! (I really love hearing/reading facts about animals )

If you’re not in the mood, I totally understand that. Please don’t feel pressured. I hope you’ll feel better soon and I keep praying for you! 🙏

Xiphactinus was a large predatory fish from the Cretaceous period!! one famous fossil specimen (4.2 meters long) was discovered with a nearly perfectly preserved fish (1.9 meters long) inside it’s stomach— the xiphactinus died soon after, probably from its prey struggling from within 🫢

Penguins were actually named after the great auk!! it filled a similar niche as the famous bird in the northern hemisphere (before they were all hunted to extinction 💔), so when Western Science discovered that penguins also existed, they were named after the auk’s scientific name Pinguinus impennis!!

Salamanders can regrow lost limbs and organs, including parts of their brains!!!

Horses are out here literally walking around on a single toe!! their feet are so weird when you actually think about it, like look at this—

The arctic tern makes the longest known migration, flying a staggering 44,000 miles a year, from the arctic to the antarctic and back again!!!

Pigeons use natural landmarks to navigate :)

Argentavis was estimated to have had a 5-6m wingspan!!

Oilbirds can echolocate!! Their vocalizations are easier to hear than bats’, too!! but they don’t use their echolocation to hunt, since they eat fruit :)

[statecryptids]

WAKINYAN and UNKTEHI- SOUTH DAKOTA

In every culture, in every era, humans have always been fascinated by monsters. We love to sit around the fire- or listen to the radio, or read a book, or play a video game- immersing ourselves in tales of dragons, gorgons, yokai, trolls, asuras, tokoloshe, and even stranger beings that lurk in the unseen corners of our world. The phenomena of cryptids is just the newest iteration of this fascination, though our modern age has added a scientific veneer onto these hidden monsters.

With that being said, I wanted to expand this list of state cryptids out beyond the European American legends to include mysterious beasts form other cultures of the North American continent.

Thunder beings and their rivals, the horned water serpents, are prominent in the legends of many Native American peoples, and are known under many names. Among the Lakota Sioux and other Native peoples of the American prairies, the Thunder Beings are known as Wakinyan, and the horned serpents called Unktehi. The Wakinyan often manifest as great birds to do battle with the serpents, smiting them with lightning and driving them into the Earth. Some legends say that the bones of both combatants can be found all over the American West, particularly in the prairies of Midwest and in the Badlands of South Dakota.

These bones are said to have great wakan, spiritual power similar to the Algonquian concept of manitou. People sometimes gather bones from Unktehi for medicine bundles. And there are stories of evil sorcerers using shards of horned serpent bones to “sting” or curse others.

In the late 1800s, European-American paleontologists such as Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope came to the West in search of fossils. Guided by Native stories, they collected many of the monstrous bones and identified those of the Wakinyan as pterosaurs. Unktehi bones found on the grasslands were discovered to be from aquatic reptilian mosasaurs, while the bones from in badlands belonged to extinct mammals.

Why, one must wonder though, are the bones of marine animals found in the middle of the prairies? The answer lies in the late Cretaceous period when a long, shallow Interior Sea ran through North America, dividing the continent into the landmasses of Laurentia in the West, and Appalachia in the East. Mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and giant carnivorous fish such as Xiphactinus hunted these waters, while pterosaurs soured above the waves, and dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and duck-billed hadrosaurs roamed the shores. Over millions of years, plate tectonics pushed up the floor of the Interior sea, leaving the bones of its prehistoric inhabitants entombed on dry land.

It's important to note that the cryptid commonly called a "Thunderbird" by many European Americans is distinct from the Wakinyan. While the former was definitely inspired by the legends of Native peoples, it tends to be thought of as a natural- if unusual- animal such as a giant bird or even a pterosaur. The Wakinyan, however, is a spiritual being that can take many forms. I've talked about the other type of Thunderbird- and an imfamous phantom photograph of one that everyone remembers, but no one can find- in a previous post.

SOURCES

Fossil Legends of the First Americans by Adrienne Mayor

Lakota Belief and Ritual by James R. Walker, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Elain A. Jahner

A legend of the Unktehi from the National Park Service website

Information on the "horned serpent" from Native-Language.org

[noddytheornithopod]

Top six subjects you know nothing about

(From here) 

Okay, this is an interesting one. I’ll define this as stuff that sounds interesting but have little to no knowledge on, just so we’re all clear, and not something like a subject I’m not into but know enough about.

Music composition - love seeing how music is written but I know nothing about it. IDK if it’s something I’d want to do, but it would be great to see how everything works.

Leftist theory - my attention span can’t be bothered to read the theory of so many old dead people, even if I’d like to. I know basics, but if we’re encouraged to read it obviously there’s gotta be more to it I still don’t know lol.

Non-Western history - I would love to learn more about less recent history outside Western society. Like, the whole world is way bigger than just Western society, and it would be great to know more than just scattered facts. Like, before the 20th century and ESPECIALLY pre-colonial times, my knowledge gets spottier the further back you go.

Non-English media - again, something I’d like to know more about but have little knowledge on. I originally put down non-Western, but like even European stuff I don’t have as much familiarity with. Seeing animation from Eastern Bloc Europe for example was fascinating (”The Hand” is a great short film, if you like Steven Universe you’ll definitely see how it’s an influence), and of course my fascination with Danganronpa makes me curious to know more non-Anglo stuff, Japanese, Asian or otherwise. Of course I only know English so it would have to be translated media for me, but still seeing stuff beyond that is something I’d love to do one day.

Modern birds - for tetrapods, I find it weird how birds caught my attention the least unless they really stood out, which is ironic given they’re, y’know, the only living dinosaurs. Like, there ARE some groups I have some knowledge about, but it’s usually because there’s something exceptional or unusual about them (eg intelligence in corvids, ratites and how they’re more basal, a couple island birds, etc). It’s a shame, because there’s thousands of species, I think at least twice as many as mammals last I heard. For some weird reason, it’s easier to read about neornithines when they’re extinct though (though again it’s usually because it’s a more exceptional group or species).

Fish - I’m gonna pull another one of these and say that like birds, even if there are a few standout fish I know about, there’s so much diversity in species yet I know very little. Of course, “fish” is pretty much just a term for any non-tetrapod vertebrate, but the point still stands, there’s so many groups I know nothing about yet seem fascinating nonetheless. I know a bit more about sharks and sarcopterygians (and of course any standout extinct groups and species, eg placoderms, Xiphactinus, Rhizodonts, etc), but even there there’s pretty big gaps in my knowledge. Anyway, you’re lucky I only thought of these last two otherwise this whole list would be animal groups. :P

[myth-lord]

MY PERSONAL TOP 10 PREHISTORIC CREATURES

Dinosaurs have always inspired me, they were among my first love and hobby and as a 5 year old child I discovered many of them in one of my father’s old Dinosaurs books.

While most of the children of my age only talked about the same boring dinosaurs (looking at you Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus) over and over again, I always tried to sneak in more obscure dinosaurs during the conversation, and every time they mentioned Triceratops I would drop in Pachyrhinosaurus or Styracosaurus, and every time they mentioned Rex I threw in some Dilophosaurus, Daspletosaurus and Carnotaurus, Stegosaurus would be countered with Kentrosaurus and Wuerhosaurus.

While my love for Prehistoric creatures has faded over time, I still take much inspiration from them in my more recent and newer hobbies such as Mythology creatures and many cryptids are taken straight from my dinosaurs books.

But now for my 10 favorite Prehistoric Creatures of all time:

10) Phororhacos = Probably my favorite birds of all times, so nasty  and dangerous looking, must have been a hell back then for the horses that weren’t bigger than dogs back in the days!

09) Helicoprion = While most people get a boner when they hear the name Megalodon, I find that oversized shark to be somewhat dull, as it just looks like a big White Shark, Helicoprion was a bizarre, almost alien shark that live many million years before the biggest shark of all time, Megalodon, and it looks a million times as cool with the strange saw-like lower jaw.

08) Pachycephalosaurus / Stygimoloch = Head-Charging dinosaurs (the entire family-line) have always inspired me since I was a child, they look very fierce and nasty for a herbivore dinosaur, pretty much like Therizinosaurus. Stygimoloch looks even cooler with those sharp horns around it’s skull.  

07) Andrewsarchus = The biggest predatory land mammal of all time is the awesome looking Andrewsarchus, related to modern whales these bizarre carnivores have the most fearsome maws of the entire animal kindom!

06) Tanystropheus = Since the moment I saw a picture of a group of Tanystropheus fishing from the cliffs in some old Dinosaur-based book I was hooked on them! These bizarre creatures have such insane long necks that the creature may break records with it.

05) Gorgonopsid = Like I said in my earlier post today, Gorgonopsid are cool Mammalian-reptilians from the Permian age. I also love other Mammalian-reptilians such as Dimetrodon. While Smilodon and other Sabretooth Cats also share those fangs, I’m still more a fan of the Gorgonopsid.

04) Baryonyx = My all time favorite carnivorous dinosaur, that look has always intrigued me, having the crocodilian maw and the big claws with which it probably fished for prey. I also LOVE that name for some reason. ARK: Survival Evolved made me fall in love with these dinosaurs even more. I’d also like to give a shoutout to Spinosaurus and Suchomimus, which are related to the Baryonyx, and also very awesome.

03) Thylacoleo = My favorite Mammal of all time, while they look like strange big prehistoric cats they are actually carnivorous marsupials. They lived in trees and could probably climb like champions, dropping on giant kangaroo’s and wombats that also lived in that same age in Australia. There is a chance that these bizarre creatures have the most powerful bite of all creatures ever existed, especially for their size.  

02) Dunkleosteus = How can you not like this prehistoric monster fish? Their armored maws and heads, their sheer size, their awesome appearance coming straight out of some demonic nightmare. Everything about these Carbonian Fish I love! While I’m kinda glad these nightmarish fish are extinct, it would have been cool to see what they would have looked like in the wild.

01) Therizinosaurus = My all time favorite Dinosaur is a bizarre herbivore with claws which put Freddy Kruger to shame. One of the last dinosaurs left alive, they would probably have little to fear from predators of that time such as Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus. I wished they would use them in Jurassic Park already!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dilophosaurus – Loved it FAR before Jurassic Park turned it into a small spitting creature.

Carnotaurus – That name, that look, so much scarier than Overusedosaurus Rex.

Shantungosaurus – Far bigger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, this duckbilled dinosaur must have been a force to be reckoned with.

Dimorphodon – Small but probably deadly! I could see these small pterosaurs work like some small flying piranha’s.

Quetzalcoatlus – The world’s biggest flying creature ever to roam the skies, and a cool name taken from an Aztec God.

Titanoboa – Worlds biggest found snake, and I used to like snakes!

Xiphactinus – That is one ugly motherf*cker fish! But very cool and big!

Rhizodus – An ancient monstrous fish that could also walk/crawl on land, the most terrifying fresh-water fish ever to have lived probably.

Arthropleura – Giant centipedes? Yes please!

Eurypterid – These giant Sea Scorpions from ancient times have always impressed me with their looks and sizes!

Megatherium – Hard to realize that modern Sloths are descendants of these awesome titans! No offense modern sloths, I love you too!

Doedicurus – Armadillo’s the size of small cars.

Megaloceros – The coolest and largest of stags, with magnificent, mystifying, titanic antlers.

Indricotherium – Earth biggest land-mammal ever! Named after a Mythological creature, the giant Russian Unicorn Indrik. When young I always thought these were giant relatives of horses, but they are actually giant Rhinocerosses. 

Daeodon – Called the pigs from hell for good reason, these ugly, evil-looking horrors probably have haunted many other prehistoric beasts nightmares.

Basilosaurus – The most badass of whales, and also the most evil looking one!

Procoptodon – Kangaroo’s more than 3 meters high, I kinda wished they would still have been alive today!

Kaprosuchus - Awesome high-legged land-based crocodilians! 

And I also really love the entire Ankylosaurus-Family-Line, from Nodosaurus, to polacanthus and from Saichania to Ankylosaurus itself. 

P.S: The pictures of both Basilosaurus and Phororhacos are from the first Dinosaurs book I’ve ever read. 

[xiphactinusfish]

Fave reads of May 2025