At the Prehistoric Planet watch party last night, someone made a really interesting point: if a maniraptoran dinosaur had survived to the present day, we'd almost certainly think of them as the bird equivalent to monotreme mammals. They wouldn't be seen as a different group - they'd be 'those weird birds with the teeth and tails who can't fly'. The same way you'd never classify a platypus or an echidna as anything but a mammal - just a rather peculiar one with a bunch of strange primitive traits - our definition of bird would just be a bit wider.
In fact, the common ancestor of dromaeosaurs and birds lived more recently than the common ancestor of monotremes and other mammals!
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We’d all like the rest of your butterfly facts, please.
I have SO MANY; I'm not even sure how to share them all.
Butterflies and moths are not taxonomic or cladistic groups; they're colloquial terms to refer to lepidoptera (the taxonomic order butterflies and moths belong to) that have different characteristics and behaviors. That said:
Moths tend to be nocturnal
Moths tend to have fuzzy bodies, butterflies are sleek
Moths tend to have fuzzy antennae, butterflies just have straight plain ones
The additional fuzz on months allows them to sense what's around them, which is helpful because they're not seeing as much because they're nocturnal
Moths tend to build chrysalises with silk but also leaves and mud, etc. These are known as cocoons. Butterflies only use silk and don't have cocoons (either are known as chrysalis)
The Atlas Moth has the biggest wingspan of any lepidoptera
The Atlas Moth usually emerges from its cocoon without a mouth. It can only breed and die
The Atlas Moth caterpillar lives for months. It's generally in the cocoon for months! But it only lives as an adult moth for a few days (because it can't even eat!)
Inside their chrysalises, caterpillars don't just grow wings and longer legs. They liquify completely and reform.
Caterpillars have six legs called "true legs" that mirror the six legs butterflies have. Then they have additional nubs farther down their bodies that help them move around.
Butterflies taste with their feet. If they land on you, they're tasting you!
Butterflies can only eat liquid. They primarily eat nectar and juice from fruit. Rotten fruit is easier for them because rotten fruit is juicy.
The butterfly mouth is called a proboscis. It curls up when not in use and uncurls when the butterfly eats. It's like a straw.
The word "proboscis" can sometimes refer (as a joke!) to nose, but butterflies can't smell with their proboscis. They smell with their antennae!
Like many insects, butterflies have faceted eyes. But unlike the movies, they probably don't see the same image over and over, because their vision isn't refined enough for that. What faceted eyes allow them to see are big patches of color, which is useful considering they eat fruit and flowers. If you want a butterfly to land on you, wear something colorful.
Butterflies don't have lungs. Like most insects, they breathe through holes in their bodies called spiracles.
Incidentally, this is why insects are so small. If they were giant, these holes would have to be bigger or there would have to be many more of them, and that would mean their exoskeleton was not stable!
Oh, yeah, butterflies do not have bones. Like all insects, they have an exoskeleton.
Butterflies do not have blood. Like all insects, they had a fluid that moves most nutrients through their bodies. It's called hemalymph. It carries hormones, nutrients, and waste. It's blue!
Male butterflies tend to be smaller and more colorful than female butterflies. This is the same style of sexual dimorphism present in most insects. Also in birds!
Male monarch butterflies have distinctive dark spots on the lower wings that female monarch butterflies don't have. The spots are scent glands that help them attract mates.
Most butterflies migrate. Like birds.
Monarch butterflies in North America east of the Rocky Mountains have one of the most impressive migration patterns of any animal. They may travel up to 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico, but what is most spectacular about it is that almost all of them end up in just a few spots relatively close together on some mountain peaks in Central Mexico. The monarchs are so dense that you can't see the trees.
Butterflies are great for studying evolutionary adaptations in coloration and appearance because they are so striking. Camouflage is the adaptation present when an animal blends in with its surroundings. Mimicry is the adaptation that makes an animal look like a different animal.
The owl butterfly is a great example of mimicry because it has two big owl eyes on its wings. The Atlas moth wing tips look like snake heads.
"Batesian mimicry" is named after Henry Walter Bates, who studied mimicry in butterflies. Batesian mimicry means that one species who is harmless looks like another species that is not harmless. Mullerian mimicry is when several species that are harmful all look like each other, so the warning to predators is stronger. Butterflies have great examples of both types of mimicry.
Monarch butterflies and viceroy butterflies were once thought to exhibit Batesian mimicry, because it was thought that vicroys weren't toxic, but it turns out both butterflies are poisonous and so the species have evolved to mimic each other in an example of Mullerian mimicry.
Monarch butterflies are poisonous because the milkweed caterpillars eat is poisonous
The best way to attract butterflies is to grow native plants.
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Hello what is the dish at the end of rat chef movie called
I'm so glad you asked
It's what my family called "vegetable tian", while the internet calls it "Provence tian". A tian is a large and shallow clay dish from the south of France, and it's the name for dishes cooked slowly in a low oven (traditionnally, in a bread oven after the initial high heat was used for bread).
It's exactly like the Ratatouille dish : you slice colorful round vegetables (eggplants, zucchinis, onions, tomatoes), you cook them for hours, and you get tender, caramelized, confit vegetables. My grandmother put a paste of bread crumbs-garlic-parsley paste on top for texture... So easy, absolutely amazing, and absolutely not a ratatouille.
A ratatouille is cubed vegetables sauteed separately on stove top then brought together to finish cooking. It's the same "summer" vegetables : eggplants, zucchinis, onions, tomatoes, and peppers which are essential, (and not included in tian). Also very good, can be served hot or cold, completely different from the Ratatouille dish.
There's so many people on tiktok making "the ratatouille from Ratatouille" and it's not! it's not! it's a tian with a fancy pepper sauce!!
Objectively it doesn't matter, recipes evolve when they're adopted in other cultures, and French people can't complain (you won't believe what we call tabouleh). But still!
Apparently the recipe in the movie is confit byaldi by Michel Guérard/Thomas Keller and Keller suggested it to the movie team as his gastronomic reinterpretation of ratatouille. The way my reinterpretation of spaghetti and meatballs would be using flat, very large spaghetti and instead of forming balls I would layer the meat mixture with the tomato sauce and lasagnas I'm describing lasagnas. A completely different dish that already exists.
Thank you for attending this conference, I will now be taking questions.
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