#Fall In Archaea

[mihunni]

I used to watch Courtney and Mike's old old bands play whenever they would pull through town. I'd take shitty photos because I was just so excited to be there. now they're Grammy nominated and I feel so proud 🥹

[ritzcuit]

felt crazy abt the classification of life Cus i was reading smth, and it was like "eukaryotes, like maize and humans" and i probably would have reacted normally if i thought of like a stalk, like a growing plant, but i thought abt like a cob of corn on the ground. next to a human. and an arrow thats like...these two things are similar forms of life..this cob and this guy.

then i got into whether like fruits or Detached Parts of plants are alive and etc but i got bored cus the answer was as expected "never ask me to define the boundary of life again so help me god"

[peacefulpianist]

I'm not saying that we're all descended from asgardians... but I'm also not saying we're not

This gem of information came up in one of my uni lectures this week and there was no way I couldn't share this with people here!

(Eukaryotes are the kingdom humans fall under, admittedly as well as all other plants and animals but I'm taking it)

and a bonus:

The location that they found the asgard archaea organisms in is called Loki's castle!

@lokisgoodgirl @lokischambermaid @acidcasualties @liminalpebble @mischief2sarawr @gruftiela @vanicahgg @kats72 @anukulee @onlymischief99 @mrsbarnes32557038 @huntress-artemiss @emberocrpblog @superficialdomina @kmc1989 @buttercupcookies-blog

p.s apologies for the lack of writing or even interaction in general on here at the moment, life is really lifing, but hopefully I'll be getting the chance to catch up soon! 🥰

[everlastiingiimmortals]

i need so bad to touch upon ratio as an ecologist because!!!! gestures wildly at him!!!!! he studies and specializes in behavioral evolution (and microbiology a la archaea metabolism but that is cell biology and i know next to nothing but the basics)!!! nesting behaviors, ratio???? all your little bird facts?????? WHO studies that if they're not an absolute nerd, an absolute weirdo about animals????????? ill tell you right now the answer is no one.

and i love this because ecology and behavioral biology are such holistic sciences. field studies and observation are so crucial from studying natural behaviors to identifying new species. numbers alone will not tell you much of anything at all and i am only a baby in this field so far but imagine all the places he's been to, the days spent waking before dawn to catch a sighting of a crepuscular animal, the hours standing in a bog collecting samples (which in any other context he would HATE) to check the health of the habitat, the countless fossils and specimens observed within museums and other collections and the sheer amount of genetic data, the ancestral state of a distant common ancestor reconstructed from what can best be described as a tally of distinct characters traits, whether the ancestor was most similar to one animal or another and how and when in the evolutionary history those traits evolved.

think of the amount of time spent agonizing over what falls down to sheer luck, because sighting a creature and capturing it for tagging are such tough feats and sometimes never happen even in the most optimal of conditions. think of the headaches nursed over screens of data as programs run through assembling phylogenetic trees, a field that is in all honesty such a messy science because of how many puzzle pieces are missing. think of his "i'll be the one to find it," his "i'll discover another piece of the puzzle," his solace in these moments being that hope for the next discovery and the excitement over seeing something new.

...and think about his students and his research assistants who are lucky enough to accompany him on these trips, who get a first class ticket to how hard ratio works alone, who receive his care because he insists they rest while he stays up to get just one more sighting, one more recording. think about that sparkle in his eye that they alone get to see when they find something exciting and promising, and how he keeps his own thrill contained but allows them to celebrate a moment before pulling them back to the task at hand. think about them and how its these moments where he truly earns their admiration and respect on a personal level. think about his character story and how deeply his former assistant Margaret cares for him and is loyal to him. i think his research and the trips associated with them were a major catalyst in that regard, no matter if its for ecology or engineering a weapon or for medicine or something else... he works so hard for it all. he loves SO much and is so deeply loved by his students because of it.

[khanhannahlewis]

Violence and death and flame.

A trio of Blakist mechs approaches Khan Hannah Lewis through the streets of Coen city. The sleek, black and red form factor of her Marauder stalks between buildings, a predator in search of her prey.

No more mercy, no more Archaeas. These warriors resist her jaws with everything they can. Not enough.

A light, a stinger, jumps out at Hannah. Foolish. It dies to an alpha through the torso. Little more than smoldering scrap by the time it hits the ground.

The scrap grinds beneath the feet of her mech. Blood is on her hands and it is a glorious feeling.

A white Guillotine steps out in front of Hannah and opens fire. Armor melts and breaks and spalls. She returns fire.

The world burns beneath her feet and a thick black rain splashes against her armored glass. A flash of blue and black and gold. Helios no more, York burns again. Towering flames engulf the buildings that still stand, and much of the city is rubble, standing on an empty burned plain. The mountains are hidden by the smoke.

A Star Adder mech stands before her, a Blood Asp in yellow and blue. Her weapons find its cockpit and burn out the pilot before she can realize that it's a friend. She cannot remember his name so she pushes on. 

A locust, in colors matching hers lies under an underpass, its pilot having been torn out and spread across the road by an Elemental. She knows this one, but cannot remember her name again. Blood on the blooddrop gemstone of her collar.

The Guillotine dies and she finds her mirror image.

A Marauder in white blue and black. It stands before her, mirroring her movements. The smoke of a month of bombings hangs low overhead, and York dies again.

Her right arm vanishes from the readout. Where did it go? The torso mount of the enemy vanishes into the smoky ruins of Hannah’s childhood.

She closes and with a chop, blood mixes with the black paint of her Marauder's arm and the white Marauder falls to the street of Coen City, on Helios.

Hannah blinks. She must have not gotten enough sleep last night.

The radar shows two more inbound. Hannah revels in the bloodshed.

[iturbide]

I.S.'s thought process regarding this years Halloween banner: Alright, so we have both Corrins, Naga, and Nils as the Tempest Trial Hero, we still need one more person for the banner.

I.S. Employee: We could have Adult Tiki given we have Naga.

I.S.: No that wouldn't work. Oh! We'll just have Duma and Mila being the duo unit. You know, the two that went against Naga and burned down Thabes and forever soured Dragon and human relations? The two Naga proceeded to fight for 9 days and won before exiling them out of Archaea? What could possibly go wrong?

I just want Naga and Adult Tiki to talk and spend time as mother and daughter. Why is this too much to ask from you I.S.?

I...really don't see where you're coming from.

It's fine to want a banner where both Naga and Tiki feature. It's fine to want a duo unit. But bemoaning the fact that this banner does have Naga but not Tiki -- when we already have a young Tiki Halloween unit and Brave Tiki came out less then two months ago -- feels like hating on it just because they're not pandering to your specific set of wants. I also notice that for all your complains about how this will go great, you're not highlighting the fact that Duma and Mila's falling out split the continent of Valentia and led to its own brutal conflict between human factions, yet they're the Duo Hero on this banner.

Personally, I like the choices. I think M!Corrin looks adorable, I'm loving the new F!Corrin artist choice, I find it interesting that Naga has an alt now, and the fact that Duma and Mila have apparently reconciled for the holiday is delightful to me. I'm happy to see them together -- and I really don't find it that much of a stretch to think that maybe Naga is also able to reconcile with them, or at least put aside their differences to enjoy the festival together in ways they haven't done for thousands of years. They were all friends once, and all broke apart in tragic fashion; I'm hopeful and would like to see them be friends once again.

Look. I'm gonna be honest with you here, dude, it's increasingly sounding like you're looking for things to complain about rather than trying to have fun and enjoy stuff. And it's fine if you want to do that, but please stop trying to drag me into it, because I really would rather find the fun in things instead of hating on them.

[sanjaylodh]

The journey of living life is love step by step

The journey of living life is love step by step

So there is also the sound of footsteps

Friends, do you know that we are born with viruses and bacteria in our lives?

do you know this friends

Some viruses and bacteria make us sick and cause death.

If some viruses and bacteria are not with us, we might not be able to survive.

This virus bacteria takes away both love and pain in our lives.

There are some viruses and bacteria due to which we also feel strength.

Due to which virus bacteria do we feel strength?

Lactobacillus bacteria, which produce lactic acid to help with digestion. And though some microbes make us sick and even kill us, in the long run they have a shared interest in our survival.

The Good that Viruses Do | Harvard Medicine Magazine

Harvard Medicine Magazine

https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu › articles › good-viru...

The surprising and beneficial contributions that viruses bring to life.

Experimenting with Shigella cultured from the ill, microbiologist Félix d’Hérelle uncovered a difference between samples from patients who survived and those who succumbed. In survivors, an entity too small to be seen through his microscope was killing the bacteria. He called the attackers bacteriophages, or bacteria eaters.

D’Hérelle recognized that the mysterious phages offered a way to fight bacterial infections. In 1919, he isolated phages from Salmonella bacteria that were causing a typhoid outbreak in chickens and used them to cure the birds. A few months later he thought he would risk treating a boy with a dire case of dysentery. First, however, d’Hérelle and his team drank a concoction of phages they’d isolated from another dysentery patient. When no one felt the worse for wear, they gave it to the boy.

He recovered.

Advances in microscopy later revealed what phages really are: viruses that infect bacteria and single-celled microbes known as archaea while ignoring plants and animals.

Endeavors like d’Hérelle’s have helped show humanity that viruses can provide medical and research benefits.

Do all viruses and bacteria need to live on or in another organism to survive?

They need to use another cell's structures to reproduce. This means they can't survive unless they're living inside something else (such as a person, animal, or plant). Viruses can only live for a very short time outside other living cells.

Are both viruses and bacteria curable?

For a viral illness, unfortunately there is no medicine like an antibacterial or an antiviral medicine that will speed the recovery. We really just treat the symptoms, whereas if it's a bacterial infection, that's when we use antibiotics.

Which is living bacteria or virus?

On a biological level, the main difference is that bacteria are free-living cells that can live inside or outside a body, while viruses are a non-living collection of molecules that need a host to survive.20 Apr 2020

By the way, the disease is contagious or you have to stumble and fall.

Without help from around, even life turns away.

You are with me, my friends, life becomes easier

Translate Hindi

जीवन में जीने का सफर कदम कदम प्यार होता है

तो कदम कदम आहट भी होता है

दोस्तों आपको पता है हम जिंदगियां वायरस बैक्टीरिया साथ लेकर पैदा होते है

क्या आप यह जानते हो दोस्तों

कुछ वायरस बैक्टीरिया हमें रोगी बनाकर मौत दे देते है

कुछ वायरस बैक्टीरिया अगर हमारे साथ न हो तो हम शायद जी भी नहीं पाएंगे

यह वायरस बैक्टीरिया हमारी जीवन में प्यार और आहट दोनों ही बहा जाते है

कुछ वायरस बैक्टीरिया ऐसी भी है जिसके कारण हम स्ट्रेंग्थ भी अनुभव करते है

किस वायरस बैक्टीरिया के कारण हम स्ट्रेंग्थ भी अनुभव करते है

लैक्टोबैसिलस बैक्टीरिया, जो पाचन में सहायता के लिए लैक्टिक एसिड का उत्पादन करते हैं। और यद्यपि कुछ रोगाणु हमें बीमार बनाते हैं और यहां तक कि हमें मार भी देते हैं, लंबे समय में हमारे अस्तित्व में उनकी साझा रुचि होती है।

वायरस जो अच्छा करते हैं | हार्वर्ड मेडिसिन पत्रिका

हार्वर्ड मेडिसिन पत्रिका

https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu › लेख › अच्छा-वायरस...

आश्चर्यजनक और लाभकारी योगदान जो वायरस जीवन में लाते हैं।

बीमार से संवर्धित शिगेला के साथ प्रयोग करके, सूक्ष्म जीवविज्ञानी फेलिक्स डी'हेरेले ने जीवित बचे मरीजों और दम तोड़ने वाले मरीजों के नमूनों के बीच अंतर को उजागर किया। जीवित बचे लोगों में, एक इकाई इतनी छोटी थी कि उसके माइक्रोस्कोप से देखा जाना बैक्टीरिया को मार रहा था। उन्होंने हमलावरों को बैक्टीरियोफेज या बैक्टीरिया खाने वाला कहा।

डी'हेरेले ने माना कि रहस्यमय फेज जीवाणु संक्रमण से लड़ने का एक तरीका प्रदान करते हैं। 1919 में, उन्होंने साल्मोनेला बैक्टीरिया से फ़ेज को अलग किया जो मुर्गियों में टाइफाइड का प्रकोप पैदा कर रहा था और पक्षियों को ठीक करने के लिए उनका उपयोग किया। कुछ महीनों बाद उसने सोचा कि वह पेचिश की गंभीर बीमारी से पीड़ित एक लड़के का इलाज करने का जोखिम उठाएगा। हालाँकि, सबसे पहले, डी'हेरेले और उनकी टीम ने पेचिश के एक अन्य रोगी से अलग किए गए फेज का मिश्रण पिया। जब किसी को पहनने से ज्यादा खराब नहीं लगा तो उन्होंने इसे लड़के को दे दिया।

वह ठीक हो गया.

माइक्रोस्कोपी में प्रगति से बाद में पता चला कि फेज वास्तव में क्या हैं: वायरस जो पौधों और जानवरों की अनदेखी करते हुए बैक्टीरिया और आर्किया नामक एकल-कोशिका वाले रोगाणुओं को संक्रमित करते हैं।

डी'हेरेल जैसे प्रयासों ने मानवता को यह दिखाने में मदद की है कि वायरस चिकित्सा और अनुसंधान लाभ प्रदान कर सकते हैं।

क्या सभी वायरस और बैक्टीरिया को जीवित रहने के लिए किसी अन्य जीव पर या उसमें रहना आवश्यक है?

उन्हें पुनरुत्पादन के लिए अन्य कोशिका की संरचनाओं का उपयोग करने की आवश्यकता होती है। इसका मतलब यह है कि वे तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकते जब तक कि वे किसी और चीज़ (जैसे कि कोई व्यक्ति, जानवर या पौधे) के अंदर न रह रहे हों। वायरस अन्य जीवित कोशिकाओं के बाहर बहुत कम समय तक ही जीवित रह सकते हैं।

क्या वायरस और बैक्टीरिया दोनों का इलाज संभव है?

वायरल बीमारी के लिए, दुर्भाग्यवश, जीवाणुरोधी या एंटीवायरल दवा जैसी कोई दवा नहीं है जो ठीक होने में तेजी ला सके। हम वास्तव में केवल लक्षणों का इलाज करते हैं, जबकि यदि यह एक जीवाणु संक्रमण है, तो हम एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं का उपयोग करते हैं।

जीवित जीवाणु या विषाणु कौन सा है?

जैविक स्तर पर, मुख्य अंतर यह है कि बैक्टीरिया मुक्त-जीवित कोशिकाएं हैं जो शरीर के अंदर या बाहर रह सकते हैं, जबकि वायरस अणुओं का एक निर्जीव संग्रह है जिन्हें जीवित रहने के लिए एक मेजबान की आवश्यकता होती है। 20 अप्रैल 2020

वैसे रोग संक्रामक है या ठोकर से गिर जाना है

आसपास की सहायता वगैर जिंदगी भी मुह मोड़ लेता है

तुम साथ हो ओ दोस्तों जीना आसान हो जाता है

[grunerrenewable]

Biogas Plants: A Sustainable Solution for Energy Needs

Introduction

Biogas plants are a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to produce energy from organic waste. Biogas is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, which can be used to generate electricity, heat, and cook. Bio gas plants are particularly well-suited for rural areas, where there is often a large amount of organic waste available and access to electricity is limited.

How do biogas plants work?

Bio gas plants work by breaking down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. This process is called anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is carried out by a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.

The first step in the anaerobic digestion process is the hydrolysis of complex organic compounds, such as carbohydrates and proteins, into simpler compounds, such as sugars and amino acids. This step is carried out by acid-forming bacteria.

The second step in the anaerobic digestion process is the acetogenesis of sugars and amino acids into volatile fatty acids (VFAs). This step is carried out by acetogenic bacteria.

The third step in the anaerobic digestion process is the methanogenesis of VFAs into methane and carbon dioxide. This step is carried out by methanogenic archaea.

Benefits of bio gas plants

There are a number of benefits to using bio gas plants, including:

Environmental benefits: Bio gas plants can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfills.

Economic benefits: Bio gas plants can provide a source of renewable energy for rural communities and create jobs.

Social benefits: Bio gas plants can improve the health and well-being of people in rural communities by providing access to clean energy and reducing the risk of water pollution.

Types of bio gas plants

There are a variety of different types of bio gas plants, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the most common types of bio gas plants include:

Fixed-dome bio gas plants: Fixed-dome bio gas plants are the simplest type of biogas plant. They are made of a concrete or brick digester with a fixed dome.

Floating-drum bio gas plants: Floating-drum bio gas plants are more complex than fixed-dome biogas plants, but they are more efficient. They have a floating drum that rises and falls as the amount of biogas in the digester changes.

Continuous-feed bio gas plants: Continuous-feed bio gas plants are designed to be fed with organic waste on a continuous basis. They are more complex and expensive than other types of biogas plants, but they are more efficient and can produce more biogas.

Gruner Renewable: A leader in bio gas plant technology

Gruner Renewable is a leading provider of bio gas plant technology. We offer a wide range of products and services to help you design, build, and operate a bio gas plant, including:

Bio gas plant design and engineering

Bio gas plant equipment

Bio gas plant installation and commissioning

Bio gas plant operation and maintenance support

We also offer a variety of financing options to help you get your bio gas plant project off the ground.

Conclusion

Bio gas plant are a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to produce energy from organic waste. Gruner Renewable can help you to design, build, and operate a bio gas plant to meet your specific needs.

Contact Gruner Renewable today to learn more about How to Setup a bio gas plant.

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate position: OaklandU_Michigan.MicrobialPangenomics

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Graduate position: OaklandU_Michigan.MicrobialPangenomics > Date: 10 May 2023 at 05:41:21 BST > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > The Battistuzzi Lab is looking for a PhD or MS student to join her research > group in Fall 2023. The position is fully funded (stipend + tuition waiver). > > We focus on the evolution of microbial organisms, primarily Bacteria and > Archaea. Using comparative genomics, we seek to reconstruct the early > timeline of life's evolution, understand speciation mechanisms, and > identify genomic evolutionary patterns over long evolutionary timescales. > > The graduate student who will be joining the lab will work on a project > focusing on the pangenomics of microbes. This is a large-scale project > whose primary focus is to explore the use of pangenomics to reconstruct the > timeline of early life. We are a fully computational research group thus > prior experience in bioinformatics research or coursework is preferred. > Knowledge of evolutionary processes is required. > > The Blab is in the Department of Biological Sciences at Oakland University > (OU), Michigan (USA). Oakland is a high research intensive institution (R2) > with a strong extramurally funded research program in the sciences. OU is > located in Rochester (MI), a welcoming suburban area approximately 45 > minutes north of Detroit. OU is a lively community with opportunities to > live on and off-campus, strong local community connections, and many > opportunities for collaborations within the Biology department and with > other units on campus (e.g., Chemistry, Bioengineering, Center for Data > Science and Big Data Analytics). > > To apply, please send your CV or resume, unofficial transcripts, and a > brief (~1 page) statement of interest to battistu@oakland.edu by June 11, > 2023. > > For additional information please contact Dr. Fabia Battistuzzi at > battistu@oakland.edu. > > > Fabia U. Battistuzzi, Ph.D. > CAS Interim Associate Dean > Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences > Affiliated Faculty, Department of Bioengineering > Oakland University > battistu@oakland.edu > 248-370-2148 > > > > battistu@oakland.edu > > (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to > golding@mcmaster.ca

[jobrxiv]

PhD student in Environmental Engineering, Microbiology and Bioengineering San Diego State University Application Deadline: 2022-12-10 The Environmental Biotechnology Lab at San Diego State University has an opening for a PhD student, starting Fall 2023. This student will work on elucidating interactions between Bacteria and Archaea ... See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/san-diego-state-university-27778-phd-student-in-environmental-engineering-microbiology-and-bioengineering/?feed_id=29192 #ScienceJobs #hiring #research

[summoner94]

here’s  what I got on now I am pretty obsessed with the FIA and Afterimage EP disks tbh, but of course AAL disk is excellent listen as well.

[springcatalyst]

could you PLEASE tell us more about giant tube worms

I would love literally nothing more

Essentially these guys

(Riftia pachyptila specifically) are fucked up for a variety of reasons.  They live pretty much directly in the stream of superheated water coming out of hydrothermal vents in the deep sea, an environment that is not only hostile because of the super fucking hot water, but also the high concentrations of sulfides (toxic shit) in said water, and also there’s no goddamn light, so no algae or other photosynths that kick off the food chain in most of the ocean.  Even most deep-sea fishes are connected to the surface, they eat shit that falls down, whale falls, marine snow, or they eat other fish that migrate to and from the surface (depending on how deep we’re talking).  Nothing should be able to live here, except maybe the odd extremist bacteria (or archaea).  

But they do so, that theory’s out.

The most pressing of reasons why they’re fucked up, though, is that they don’t have a mouth, or a gut, so they can’t really... Eat.  They weren’t the first mouthless, gutless worms to be found, but the others were all small enough that they pretty much just figured they diffused nutrients in through their not-quite-skin, but these bitches are huge, and the surface-area-to-volume-ratio (every bio professor I’ve ever had is obsessed with surface-area-to-volume-ratio) was too large for that to be feasible.

Noooow I get to talk about the trophosomes. 

So the trophosome is a big fuckin organ that takes up most of the length of the worm.  It’s kinda spongy, real lobular, and obviously important.  They exist in other worms, but were thought to feed the gonads during gamete development.  But they found something in these guys’ that kind of negated that theory.  

Sulfur!

That’s what those little yellow dots are: pure, crystalized sulfur.  This is a cross section of a Riftia pachyptila trophosome, taken from a presentation given by the lady I’m about to talk about.  (It’s on youtube here, if you wanna watch 20 minutes of worm talk like I did)

They still didn’t know what the trophosome did, so they theorized that it could have acted like a filter, because hydrogen sulfide in particular is toxic to most life forms, and there’s a lot of it here. 

That’s where...

She comes in!  Her name is Colleen Cavanaugh, and she was an undergrad at Harvard at the time of the initial research, and she heard about the worms, the trophosomes, the sulfur.  And SHE basically knew what the fuck was going on from when she listened to the original researcher (Meredith Jones, of the Smithsonian Institute) talk about it, so she convinced some people to get her a hunk of worm.  As you do.  

After studying said hunk of worm for a while she basically said ‘yeah, I was right, get fucked, check it out:’  The worms house chemosynthetic endosymbiotic bacteria in their trophosomes, bringing stuff in through the plume, (the red bit at the top, functions kind of like a lung or a gill) that looks like this:  

And basically that’s what makes these guys so funky, they not only have endosymbionts, which exist in other worms we know of now, but weren’t aware of at the time, but theirs are also chemosynths: they oxidize/metabolize hydrogen sulfide as an energy source.  The pure sulfur in the trophosome was the waste product.  (chemosynthesis generally looks like this: 

though i’ve seen some slight variations of the formula.  This one is from Pearson education.)

The bacteria get oxygen and hydrogen sulfide from the worm breathing it in, CO2 from the waste of the worm’s own cellular respiration, and are osmotically protected, basically they have a safe home inside their worm pal.  The worm, then, is protected from the toxicity of H2S, because the bacteria are turning it into pure sulfur which is NOT toxic, and they feed off of the food the bacteria make for themselves (and the worms).  

So like goddamn how can you NOT love giant tube worms.  

[hylianengineer]

If anyone's looking for an excuse to watch Fantastic Fungi, aka the documentary about Paul Stamets the real life mycologist with a Star Trek character based off of him, I can confirm it's very cool.

Although as a person with an interest in microbiology, I think I now need another documentary similar to this one but about (other?) microbes. I want to know about the bacteria and archaea! This one also made me want to scream "tell me more about nutrient cycling!" because I have an obsession (I do soil science) and there were really only the barest mentions of how fungi are involved in it. The way Stamets talks about fungi and nutrient cycling is very flipping cool but also it's a documentary and they don't have the time / audience to get into the nitty gritty details I am craving. If anyone has recommendations about where to learn about this stuff please send it my way, otherwise I'm just gonna fall down a Wikipedia and/or research paper rabbit hole and hope it leads somewhere interesting.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Cutting Down to the Bone

In your world, what eats dragon bones?

This is a serious question. One of the gruesome but fascinating discoveries about undersea life in recent years has been the question of, what exactly happens to whale carcasses? Sure, sharks and other opportunistic surface life get their share, but the remnants of the carcasses do, eventually, sink. All the way down.

The deep ocean is notoriously dark, cold, and poor in food sources. It’s like a desert; if a desert were under enough water pressure to squish you like a bony grape. Creatures at depth tend to be slow-moving, fragile, and able to subsist on not much at all for long periods of time.

And then, like manna out of the far-above sky, down falls Huge Amounts of Food. Marine biologists even coined a term for it; “whalefall”. Bones, carcass bits, everything - all of it is potential food to the abyss.

Somehow, critters find it. Hagfish, of course, scavenging away, but also crabs, odder fish, squids and relatives; just about anything alive finds its way to the booty eventually. A whalefall can last a long time, with a whole colony of organisms sprouting up around it, just as they do around black smokers with their sulfur-eating archaea food source. Even the spermaceti and other hard-to-crack fats will get eaten, by bacteria that in surface waters are often found nibbling oil spills.

So apply this to fantastic worlds, whether fantasy or SF. If you have natural megafauna (for varying degrees of natural), eventually a specimen will die, and then there will be creatures adapted to eat it. I’d think this would be particularly critical when you deal with super-tough beasties like leviathans and dragons. Something has to be able to get through the skin, even if they do it by waiting until an eye or some other orifice decays enough to let them in. Something has to be able to decay that skin. Something has to be able to break down ultra-strong bones, nervous systems of wires or magic, the Ultimate Acid stomach.

That could be a very scary Something, if you think about it.

And some character in your world should think about it. Big critters are often dangerous to humans, through sheer mass if nothing else, and you’d want to investigate any tool at hand to take them down. Especially if your world has mind-control, or anything that might madden an otherwise normal creature into an unstoppable juggernaut bent on sating its cravings for human flesh.

...Or, for your average red dragon, Tuesday.

This would be of particular interest to necromancers, for one thing. What good are undead hordes if there’s something out there that chews up bones like toothpicks?

...Huh. Maybe the ultimate anti-necromancer weapons would be trained wolverines?

Give your adventurers plenty of stuff to kill. But think about what happens after!

[featherwurm]

Kingdom

Card Divination

Developed by Pearl A. Hodges

All divination systems seek to find knowledge and order out of chaos and randomness. The fundamentally random nature of a card draw is able to be used to shape understanding if placed in a context of meaning by the person who draws it. Tarot is the most popular and well known card divination system but there are others, and Kingdom seeks to define itself among them with its biological basis and easily approachable form and meaning. There is no more chaos than attempting to categorize all life on earth, and that randomness is used to give meaning to the card draw. By focusing on the breadth of life on this planet and its myriad of forms, we can see how small humans are as a single species of animal are among many wild and variable creatures which outnumber us in population and also in diversity. This universal view looks to take the emotions, history, and thoughts of a singular individual and allow them to divine their own meaning from colorful illustrations of various animals, plants, and fungi.

Kingdom is a card divination system based on the Phyla of all multi-cellular life on earth (Animals, Plants, and Fungi), presented with a single indicative species on each card. Bacteria, Archaea, Chromista, and Protista are brought together into a single 'joker' type card, indicative of their complex, diverse, and alien nature. As the debate remains as to whether or not viri are or are not 'alive' in any meaningful sense, they are excluded here.

Each card features an indicative species for the phylum, but one should consider how varied each phylum is. All vertebrates, for example, are here represented by the Blue Whale, the largest animal to have ever lived, and yet the phylum includes all mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. The representative species has been chosen either for its ubiquitous nature among the phylum, its exemplary and indicative characteristics, or its aesthetic and memorable visual appeal unique to the phylum. Exact species names are given in this accompanying material. Please note that sizes given are approximate, and the illustrations, while aiming for accuracy, are not meant as fully detailed scientific diagrams.

One can divine from a standard deck of playing cards alone, but more color and imagery makes for more layers of meaning. A suggested list of interpretation is included here, although those using this set are welcome to interpret their own meaning. Kingdom is meant to be an accessible form of divination, and while the creator endeavors to make professionally printed sets of cards available, a reading can be done with a home printed or derived version of the material provided. The creator of Kingdom has allowed for non-commercial self-printing in an effort to share and spread this divination system.

As a small aside, this deck also serves as a simple memorization/flash card tool for the phyla of multi-cellular life. It can be appreciated as a simple means to understand the incredible diversity of life on earth and a jumping off point for further study. Although this should be taken with a grain of salt – taxonomy is an ever changing thing as new discoveries change how we view the many branches on the tree of life, and while this set is as current as possible as of the year 2020, the way in which life is categorized is always subject to change as our knowledge increases.

Kingdom is based on the seven kingdom model proposed by Ruggiero et al.in 2015.

Kingdom features 57 cards, falling into three Kingdoms of life – 34 Animal, 14 Plant, 8 Fungi cards, and 1 Other card (grouping together the four other Kingdoms as something of a Joker card).

[wtf-triassic]

Kuehneosaurus latus

By Tyler Young

Etymology: Kuhne’s Reptile 

First Described By: Robinson, 1962 

Classification: Biota, Archaea, Proteoarchaeota, Asgardarchaeota, Eukaryota, Neokaryota, Scotokaryota Opimoda, Podiata, Amorphea, Obazoa, Opisthokonta, Holozoa, Filozoa, Choanozoa, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Parahoxozoa, Bilateria, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Olfactores, Vertebrata, Craniata, Gnathostomata, Eugnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Rhipidistia, Tetrapodomorpha, Eotetrapodiformes, Elpistostegalia, Stegocephalia, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Sauropsida, Eureptilia, Romeriida, Diapsida, Neodiapsida, Sauria, Lepidosauromorpha?, Kuehneosauridae 

Status: Extinct 

Time and Place: Between 216 and 202 million years ago, from the end of the Norian through the Rhaetian ages of the Late Triassic

Kuehneosaurus is known from the Steinmergel Group in Luxembourg, the Cromhall Quarry in Gloucestershire, and the Panty-y-ffynnon Quarry of Wales.

Physical Description: Kuehneosaurus is a true weirdo, alright - a small, lizard-like reptile, you almost can squint and pretend its normal until you notice the expanding ribs on the side of the creature - and you realize that Kuehneosaurus is not normal in the slightest. While gliding lizards are not something we’re totally unfamiliar with - the genus Draco, today, for example - Kuehneosaurus and its relatives took it to new heights by being huge. Insanely huge. Kuehneosaurus was probably around 72 centimeters long, as opposed to the modern Draco which is closer to 20 centimeters in body length. Kuehneosaurus had a large body, with long limbs and a small head, and a ridiculously long tail. However, its wings - for lack of a better word - were much smaller than those of its close relative Kuehneosuchus; instead of jutting out by up to 30 centimeters, they only went out as many as 15 centimeters from the body. As a non-Avemetatarsalian reptile, it would have been covered in scales, probably similar to those of Lepidosaurs, though that is just conjecture. 

Diet: Based on its size and other early Lepidosauromorphs of the time - and the modern gliding lizards - Kuehneosaurus was probably an insectivore, using small pointed teeth to catch insects in its mouth. 

Behavior: Because of its small wings, Kuehneosaurus would not have been able to glide. However, it would have been able to parachute down from the trees in its environment with extensive agility and control. It would have been able to descend at a 45 degree angle, going between 10 and 12 meters per second down toward the ground. It could also control the angle and pitch of the wings by moving flaps of skin attached to the back of the throat. Since it lived alongside other gliding reptiles, this made the environment of Kuehneosaurus filled with little lizard-esque reptiles falling with style all over the forest. Given its common nature, it probably lived in loose social groups; whether or not it showed more complex social behavior, including parental care, is unknown but more unlikely than not. It would have most likely been cold blooded as well, making it more sluggish than other airborne creatures of the time (ie, the flighted Ornithodirans). It’s also possible that those wings would have been colorful, and used for display, though this is somewhat conjecture. 

Ecosystem: Kuehneosaurus lived in the dense, dry forests of northern Pangea at the tail end of the Triassic period. Obviously, it took clear advantage of these forests, dropping down from tree to tree in search of food. It wasn’t alone here, to be sure - in fact, during its tenure, it shared its time with many other Triassic oddities. In Luxembourg, it shared its environment with some sharks and fish from the nearby sea - including Perleidus, Saurichthys and Rhomphaiodon - as well as freshwater lungfish like Ceratodus. Temnospondyls featured Plagiosaurus and Cyclotosaurus. Synapsids were present too, including a Morganucodont and the Therapsid Pseudotriconodon. As for other reptiles, there was the Tuatara Clevosaurus, the pterosaur Eudimorphodon, and other mystery creatures. In England, it lived with the Trilophosaurid Variodens, Clevosaurus once more as well as the other Tuataras Sigmalam Diphydontosaurus, Pelcymala and Planocephalus, as well as potential mammals, the suchian Terrestrisuchus, and potential Drepanosaurs and Pterosaurs. And in Wales, it lived alongside Diphydontosaurus and Clevosaurus again, as well as Aenigmaspina and the dinosaur Pantydraco. In short, it was surrounded by a variety of other animals - and may have even used its fancy falling to escape from pterosaurs in its forest. 

Other: What is Kuehneosaurus? For a while, it has seemed that Kuehneosaurus and its relatives were Lepidosauromorphs - relatives of modern lizards, snakes, and tuatara. This was important, because the ancient relatives of archosaurs - the Archosauromorphs - make up the vast majority of Triassic weirdos and were extremely diverse throughout the Triassic period. One could even call the Triassic the golden age of these animals. However, Lepidosauromorphs are a lot less weird - by and large - and a lot less diverse until you get to ones that are noticeably like living members (ie, there were a lot of Triassic Tuatara - but they were Tuatara, not weird offshoots). Kuehneosaurus and its gliding relatives were really the most distinctive Weird Lepidosauromorph Experiments from the period. 

And… they might be Archosauromorphs after all. Recent studies of these animals have indicated they might be Archosauromorphs, just another tally in the great list of weird little crocodile/dinosaur/pterosaur cousins. While this is preliminary, it does indicate - what the heck were Lepidosauromorphs even doing? We may never know, but the fun adventures of Kuehenosaurus remain with us. 

~ By Meig Dickson

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