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Pink Cockatoos (Cacatua leadbeateri), family Cacatuidae, order Psittaciformes, Western Australia

AKA Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo or Leadbeater’s Cockatoo

photograph by Kristen Bell

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I know that some British people take umbrage at Americans calling the Great British Bake Off relaxing, but it's just because GBBO is such a different kind of stressful from American baking shows.

American baking shows will be called something like "Cupcake Knife Fight", there's horror movie lighting everywhere and dramatic stings every 5 seconds. All of the contestants are shit talking each other and fist fighting over the one single deep fryer provided by production. It will show the judges all whispering to each other at their super villain table overlooking the whole kitchen, and one will be like, "Oh my god. Everyone look at Brenda right now. She's straight tanking it." And it will cut to Brenda, who is running around covered in flour and crying and also bleeding for some reason. Then you get a clip from an interview with one of the contestants, and they're like, "I really need to win this. Without this award money, I'm gonna need to close my restaurant, sell my dad, and live out of my car. AGAIN." Then the giant digital doomsday clock overhead lets out a horrid klaxon, the judges tell half of them that their cupcakes taste disgusting, and one of them gets eliminated and sent to walk down the dramatically-lit shame hallway never to be seen again.

Meanwhile GBBO is in a lovely, brightly colored tent, there are delightful and friendly hosts/jesters there to keep everyone entertained, and all of the B Roll is of like... a bumblebee going into a flower, or a lamb running in a field. And yes, there will be moments where someone will mess up their timing or something, and they'll be looking at their bake through the oven door like, "oh gosh I don't think this will rise in time!" Then they stand up to find Paul Hollywood directly behind them ominously. His creepy whitewalker eyes will glow white, and he'll say something like "the 12th of June. 2035. Drowning." And his eyes will go back to normal and he'll walk away. Then the baker gives a playful grimace to the camera and says "that didnt sound great, did it?". Cut to a sweet looking older woman sipping tea on a stool and she says "oo I do hope that Prue enjoys the taste of my sugary, sticky baps!". Then, at the end, someone gets a gold star for doing good, and the loser of the episode gets in the middle of a giant group hug. You see all of them at the end of the series at a giant carnival with their families and the post credits informs you that all of the contestants have become a Partridge Family-style traveling band and stayed friends forever.

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Funky little guys

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Atolla vanhoeffeni

Image source: https://e360.yale.edu/features/a-scientist-reveals-the-bioluminescent-magic-of-the-deep-sea-world

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44 years ago today

Juju is the fourth studio album by the English gothic punk rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on this date in 1981 and includes the singles "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".

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Burmese Flapshell (Lissemys scutata) hatchling, family Trionychidae, found in a garden in Letpandan, Myanmar

Photograph by Kyawphyo Thu

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the mediterranean jellyfish, cotylorhiza tuberculata; a species of jellyfish under the phylum of cnidaria

fun fact! it is also known as the fried egg jellyfish (not to be confused with the phacellophora camtschatica) 🍳

it can reach up to 40cm (16in) in diameter

its sting has little to no effect, but may cause allergies to some people

they have been studied for their cytotoxicity in regards to breast cancer cells

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Today’s jelly is Gonionemus vertens, commonly known as the clinging jellyfish.

Image source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51951967

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Round 3 - Actinopterygii - Cypriniformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Order: Cypriniformes

Common Name: no common name for the whole order

Families: 23 - Gyrinocheilidae (“algae eaters”), Catostomidae (“suckers”), Botiidae (“pointface loaches”), Vaillantellidae (“long-fin loaches”), Cobitidae (“true loaches”), Barbuccidae (“scooter loaches”), Gastromyzontidae (“hillstream loaches”), Serpenticobitidae (“serpent loaches”), Balitoridae (also “hillstream loaches”), Ellopostomatidae (“square-head loaches”), Nemacheilidae (“stone loaches”), Paedocyprididae (“tiny carps”), Psilorhynchidae (“mountain carps”), Cyprinidae (“carps”, “minnows”, “barbs”, and “barbels”), Sundadanionidae (“tiny danios”), Danionidae (“troutbarbs”, “rasborines”, “danionines”, and “flying barbs”), Leptobarbidae (“cigar barbs”), Xenocyprididae (“East Asian minnows” or “sharpbellies”), Tincidae (“Tench”), Acheilognathidae (“bitterlings”), Gobionidae (“freshwater gudgeons”), Tanichthyidae (“mountain minnows”), and Leuciscidae (“true minnows”)

Anatomy: thick body; one dorsal fin; lack teeth in the mouth, but have convergent structures called pharyngeal teeth in the throat, which grind against a chewing pad on the base of the skull; most are equipped with barbels to help them locate food at night or in murky conditions

Diet: algae, plankton, plants, insects, snails, worms, small fish

Habitat/Range: Worldwide; most species are strictly freshwater, but some are found in brackish water, and at least one species is found in saltwater, though brackish and marine species swim upstream into rivers to spawn

Evolved in: Late Cretaceous

Propaganda under the cut:

The Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) can reach an age of up to 127 years, making it the oldest known freshwater teleost fish.

The Indonesian Superdwarf Fish (Paedocypris progenetica) is one of smallest known species of fish in the world. The smallest mature female measured 7.9 mm (0.31 in) and the largest known individual was 10.3 mm (0.41 in).

The critically endangered Giant Barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) (image 1) is the largest species of Cyprinid, with an unconfirmed maximum length of 3 m (9.8 ft) and weight up to 300 kg (660 lb).

The Pacific Redfin (Pseudaspius brandtii) is the only Cypriniform known to inhabit salt water, and is found from the Siberian Pacific Coast through coastal Japan.

At least three loach families contain blind, troglomorphic species adapted to life in caves.

The Tench (Tinca tinca) has very small scales, which are deeply embedded in a thick skin, making it as slippery as an eel. Folklore has it that this slime cured any sick fish that rubbed against it, and from this belief arose the another common name: Doctor Fish.

The Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) is declining and even rated vulnerable in some of its native habitat, though introduced populations have become invasive in other environments worldwide, and it is considered one of the world’s most destructive invasive species.

The bitterlings of subfamily Acheilognathinae are notable for depositing their eggs in bivalve molluscs, where the young develop until able to fend for themselves.

The herbivorous Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is both cultivated for food and for aquatic weed control, and has been introduced into many areas to control undesirable aquatic vegetation. In China it is known as one of the "Four Great Domestic Fish".

The Thicktail Chub (Gila crassicauda), a type of minnow, was once the most common freshwater fish found in California. The chub was a favored food of the indigenous peoples of Clear Lake and the Central Valley, before it became heavily exploited by colonist commercial fishermen supplying the San Francisco market. Most of its habitat was also destroyed by the drainage of sloughs and marshes, dam-building, and water diversion for irrigation. The last known Thicktail Chub was caught on April 16, 1957. Just 70 years after being considered the most common freshwater fish in California, not a single living individual existed.

The critically endangered Red-tailed Black Shark (Epalzeorhynchos bicolo) (image 4) is popular in the home aquarium trade, but may in fact be extinct in its native habitat of Thailand.

Almost all domesticated fish belong to the Cypriniformes, and include the Koi (Cyprinus rubrofuscus var. koi or nishikigoi) (see gif above), Goldfish (Carassius auratus), and Zebrafish (Danio rerio), which have all been bred to display a variety of colors, patterns, fin types, and even body shapes.

The Zebrafish is one of the most important vertebrate model organisms in biological and biochemical studies, being used in many kinds of experiments. During early development, the zebrafish has a nearly transparent body, so it is ideal for studying developmental biology. It is also used for the elucidation of biochemical signaling pathways.

I have 6 Black Ruby Barbs (Pethia nigrofasciata) whomst I love with all my heart, and they turn deep purple and get the zoomies when they’re excited (usually when I feed them in the morning, when I come home from work, and after I clean the tank).

(source)

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Lang Shining (Giuseppe Castiglione, 1688-1766), Qing dynasty - via National Palace Museum

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Available for adoption on

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i love you front facing coelacanth :]

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Siphonophore ^_^ :3

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I wanna pet a hyena so bad but that would not end well for anyone.

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Round 3 - Actinopterygii - Alepocephaliformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Order: Alepocephaliformes

Common Name: “slickheads” and “tubeshoulders”

Families: 2 - Alepocephalidae (“slickheads”) and Platytroctidae (“tubeshoulders” or “searsids”)

Anatomy: reduced ossification in the skeleton as an adaptation to deep-sea life; no swim bladder; scaleless head, body has small cycloid scales; small, sharp teeth; large eyes; spineless fins; single dorsal fin; a tube above the base of pectoral fin connects to a luminous gland on the shoulder girdle; some species have bioluminescent photophores

Diet: plankton, small crustaceans, small fish, tunicates, or detritus (ingests sediment from the seafloor, filtering out microfauna such as foraminiferans)

Habitat/Range: bathypelagic layer of oceans worldwide, at 300 to 3,000 meters (1.9 miles) below the surface

Evolved in: Early Eocene

(source)

Propaganda under the cut:

The largest known Alepocephaliform is the Yokozuna Slickhead (Narcetes shonanmaruae) (see gif above), which is also the largest known completely deep-sea actinopterygiian. The Yokozuna Slickhead can grow over 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) long. The common name refers to the highest rank in sumo wrestling, Yokozuna (横綱).

Two slickheads are known from Oligocene fossils, one in the genus Bathyprion and one in the genus Carpathichthys. Today, the only Bathyprion species alive is the Fangtooth Smooth-head (Bathyprion danae). Carpathichthys appears to be closely related to the living genus Rouleina.