small-custard-science

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Milky Way over French Alp Hoodoos : Real castles aren’t this old. And the background galaxy is even older. Looking a bit like an alien castle, the pictured rock spires are called hoodoos and are likely millions of years old. Rare, but found around the world, hoodoos form when dense rocks slow the erosion of softer rock underneath. The pictured hoodoos survive in the French Alps and are named Demoiselles Coiffées – which translates to English as “Ladies with Hairdos”. The background galaxy is part of the central disk of our own Milky Way galaxy and contains stars that are typically billions of years old. The photogenic Cygnus sky region – rich in dusty dark clouds and red glowing nebulas – appears just above and behind the hoodoos. The featured image was taken in two stages: the foreground was captured during the evening blue hour, while the background was acquired from the same location later that night. via NASA

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i love being unsupervised cause then i can do things like this and cocaine 

Unsupervised 3D reconstruction of small rocks from a single 2D image

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omg love this

Opalized fossils!

Definitely! The following are opalized fossils from Lightning Ridge, N.S.W, Australia, all of which are part of the collection of the Australian Opal Center. Clockwise from top left: A freshwater snail, a plesiosaur tooth, a crocodile tooth, a pine cone and a pelvic bone from an ornithopod!

[ photo source ]

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u rock <3

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origin story of sprite cranberry 

welcome to the cambrian flavor explosion babey 

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dunkleosteus about to make me act up 😳

Dunkleosteus by Jaime A. Headden (Qilong). One thing that most people forget is that the “armour” of placoderms is actually their skull, in life being covered by flesh. It begs the question of whereas they had lips or not, like modern predatory fish.

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ayo who took this photo of me

Just a meme

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omg yk what, this reminds me sm of a sculpture i made in middle school with a bunch of fallen autumnal leaves in the shape of a flame and v creatively titled “Fire” ;;

The morning sun this week makes some trees near my house look like they’re burning… this lovely light only lasts a few minutes and every morning I come sit nearby expectantly like I’m waiting for a fireworks show to start.

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Oh no not iron

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100?

so i still don’t completely understand tumblr, but today i hit 100 followers? which i honestly have no idea if that’s like a milestone or if it’s just a sad number bc everyone has 70 million but still!! i don’t care!! i’m proud of it anyway :D 

thank you guys so much <33 and hopefully i’ll be back w a fresh post soon!

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fr tho bahahaha tiktaalik smh man 

If only pre historic fish did not grow feet and crawled to the land

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So dawn goes down to day, nothing gold can stay.

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Image credit: Fernandex V, Abdala F, Carlson KJ, Cook DC, Rubidge BS, Yates A, etl al. (2013)

hey yall ! it's been awhile but I wanna share some interesting things I saw yesterday in a video on PBS Eon's channel :) credit to them for this information + link to their full video here: https://youtu.be/T2kURaqzCdA !! please please check it out!! it's so amazing

So what you're seeing in the image above is a fossilized burrow, inside of which lies the remains of a Thrinaxodon (distant + extinct relative of mammals), as well as the body of a Broomistega (extinct amphibian). This is such an incredible find: two organisms of completely different species fossilized together in the same burrow. Really begs the question: how did they end up in there together?

There were a number of theories of how Thrinaxodon ended up fossilized with Broomistega, but the general consensus goes a little something like this:

>Setting: early Triassic period, southern Africa; KwaZulu-Natal. It is a very hot day. The sun is burning high in the sky. >Enter Thrinaxodon, sleeping in a cool underground burrow, in a state of dormancy to better bear the heat. >Enter Broomistega, injured and in pain from an accident a few weeks prior (image scans of partially healed broken ribs) >Broomistega, in search for a cool place to rest, crawls into Thrinaxodon's burrow. Thrinaxodon, in a deep torpor, does not notice the intruder >The burrow is a death trap. >There is a sudden flood. Water soon pours into the burrow, pushing both animals against the wall, killing them in the process. >Sediment washes over their dead bodies. The animals become fossilized in the burrow, pushed against each other. >Thrinaxodon and Broomistega are found like this, together, 250 million years later.

for the first time ever, small-custard assessment: gives them a 10/10.

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**please do not self-promote, edit, or delete the text on this post! thanks!**

Hi lovelies! As I’ve already hinted, I’m so excited to be announcing my first ever FAVES, in celebration of hitting 35,000 followers (thank you all so much!) This’ll be an amazing opportunity to recognize some of my mutuals and discover new and incredible blogs! Here’s how to enter:

must reblog this post (likes are only for bookmarking)

1 reblog = 1 entry. You can reblog as many times as you’d like, but please do not spam your followers!

must be following me @maplemachiato

must not self-promote or delete credits

When I’m satisfied with the number of notes, I’ll be going through each blog and selecting my favorites! I’m not sure how many blogs I’ll be choosing yet, but rewards for my winners include:

a spot on my favorites page for the rest of the year! 

QUEUES, SO MANY FREE QUEUES, I’m talking like 1000+ 

a follow back (if I’m not already)

some uploads reblogs

an invite to a tumblr network (if you’d like)!

a new friend (if you want!) 

feature in my announcement post!

If you have any questions about this, feel free to send me a message, good luck to all who are entering and please don’t let this flop! 

Photo Credit: banner photo // banner creator

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image credit: Fossilera (mako shark tooth) and George Karbus Photography (mako shark black and white)

Q: How old do ya'll think sharks are? A: Prof. Custard would accept either "425 million years old", "lived from upper Silurian to recent", "older than trees", "older than dinos", "yes", or "um not really sure"

The interesting thing about sharks is that their skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone. There's actually a name for these cartilaginous fishes: the class Chondrichthyes. Think sharks, rays, chimaeras. Quick note: There's acc a class for fish with skeletons made of bone as well - Osteichthyes, or more simply, bony fish. Also ayy we mammals - and also reptiles, amphibians, and birds - inherited our lungs from bony fish so we gotta thank them for that uwu

aNYwaY

Sharks have tough skin covered w dermal teeth (aka hard lil structures on the skin covered w enamel, making them similar to teeth) and breathe through 5-7 pairs of gills. They've got teeth embedded in their gums rather than attached to the jaw, and replace them constantly through their lives. The shape of the tooth is pretty dependent on the shark's diet: sharks that eat primarily things w shells/hard outer layers (e.g. mollusks or crustaceons) have denser and flatter teeth used to crush, which needle-like teeth are used to feed on fish. Some sharks even have biofluresence (swell shark and chain catshark) which is so amazing and cool jajaja

small-custard assessment: 9.1/10. psa: so many living sharks are either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species due to commercial and recreational fishing. they are often v misunderstood as well so pls,, be kind and remind others to be kind to these bbys, don't bother them if you are lucky enough to see one, stay away, and it is extremely unlikely that they will hurt you.

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what if ..

what if we hugged in a field at the foot of a mountain and looked wholesomely at the camera ? 

Watson & Kiko | @wat.ki