#obscure fossils

[obscurefossils]

Welcome to Obscure Fossil Animals!

Hi! This blog is dedicated to posting about the much lesser-known extinct animals from eras long gone that I think deserve as much love as the creatures everybody knows about.

Due to the nature of these animals, publicly available fossils and research may be pretty hard to dig up (or even access at all!), and I am also in college, so posts may be a bit slow sometimes. I’m trying my best!! If you ever think you would be able to contribute access to research or something like that, feel free to let me know :)

I have a long, long list of animals that I choose from to make posts about. This is most often through a spinner wheel for random selection, but sometimes not. Just expect lots of variety! All posts are tagged with the animals' taxonomy (genus, family, order, etc) to make searching easier.

Feel free to drop into the ask box to suggest some of your favorite obscure fossil creatures (or just to talk) and I'll add them to my list :) (this does not mean your request will be fulfilled next).

This blog is run solely by @raingerr <3

All drawings on this blog are free to use with proper credit.

Submission details and guidelines under the cut !

Want to submit an animal? Here’s how to make sure it’s “obscure”!

- What does its Wikipedia page look like? I’ve found that most obscure animals have very sparse wiki pages, if they have one at all.

- When was the last time you heard someone mention this creature, both inside and outside scientific/paleontology spheres?

- Does it have any depictions in popular media? Genera like Tyrannosaurus are everywhere in movies, TV, video games, etc. Typically, media producers like to use creatures that are popular and “cool” to general audiences, so obscure animals are pretty unlikely to be found in media! As a side note, expect a good amount of non-avian dinosaurs to not fall under the category of "obscure". Nowadays, even most newly-described dinosaurs get a good amount of attention!

- Has anybody drawn skeletals or paleoart? Unsurprisingly, most obscure animals I come across have little to no artwork done of them outside of occasionally their original publication.

Not all of these criteria have to be met, or even any of them at all! These are just some things I consider before adding an animal to my list to make sure they aren’t well-known. So if you’re considering requesting a creature, keep these in mind!

[raingerr]

lowkey glad i put off my next obscure fossils post for a long time because apparently htere was new material found of this genus (+ new species erected) in like march ! how fun

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 20: Ichnite 🦖

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Ichnite (n.)

a fossilized footprint or track of an animal

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I was a bit concerned about how this one was going to go—I picked this word mostly because I like dinosaurs & how it kinda sounds like “ignite,” not because I knew what to do with it artistically. 😅

But! I think it turned out pretty neat! 😃

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk a bit more about my general thoughts/process. ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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Today's evening post time brought to you by: "I put this word on the prompt list mostly because I like dinosaurs and (not unlike my reasoning for Day 2) I'm amused that it sounds kind of like 'ignite,' not because I actually had any ideas of what to do with it artistically."

And also like...one of the previous days—I can't remember which one and I don't have time to go back and read every description to figure it out—this is one word I think may have benefitted more from my usual mini-magnet approach that the mandala one...But, then again, maybe not. I'm less sure than I was for that previous day, but I do think I'd still maybe like to eventually revisit this one with the magnets and see what they can do with it.

In any case, my biggest worry when I sat down to get started was that I could really only think of 2 distinct images for "trace fossils" like this word describes. And to be clear, that is a little bit of a "my bad" on this one—Technically, the definition is supposed to cover more than just footprint/track fossils specifically and somehow I glossed over that when I put the definition list together; It can also cover things like fossilized burrows or like, fossilized vegetation prints, etc.

I mention that because I tried not to stray too far from footprints and tracks because that was all I covered in the definition, but the two distinct I alluded to a moment ago were: 3-toed dinosaur prints and what I now know are called ammonite fossil imprints—Kind of like the classic swirly-fossil shape you might be familiar with if you've played an Animal Crossing game. [Animal Crossing isn't the only way I'm personally familiar with fossils like that; Somehow they just got buried in the general "fossils and dinosaur things" folder in my brain, Animal Crossing just seemed like an easy reference other people might understand.]

Ammonites are technically, usually ichnites—at least as far as I know, and I'm not a palentologist—but as far as I understand, I don't see why the impression left behind by an ammonite couldn't be considered one. It would be a "trace" of the creature, after all.

Either way, whether ammonites—or imprints they left behind—have anything to do with ichnites or not, I went ahead with the idea anyway because the swirl shape works so well with some "more traditional" mandala techniques, and otherwise I would've been pretty lacking in those here. And I don't know if you Sparklers were able to gather or not, but over the last few mandalas I've noticed how I sorted drifted away from more typical mandala motifs and ideas, and I want to try and drift back towards them.

But I still did my best to make more "proper" ichnites the focus. Obviously, that started with the nice big 3-toed...They're probably not actually to-scale for this, but we'll call them T-rex prints because that's definitely the dinosaur I was thinking of for them. Those served as my starting point that I build the either rest of the mandala around.

You'll notice I fit some human-ish prints inside of the T-rex prints. They're only human-ish because it was a little too cramped for me to get 5 full toes in there and I didn't want to size my brush down to do it at that stage. That said, it's worth noting I hadn't even considered this word might call for barefoot prints when I made the decision to go for shoe prints instead back on Day 15, but I'm definitely thanking past-me for that decision now!

I don't think I necessarily would have had too much of a problem of today and Day 15 feeling too similar if I had still gone with barefoot prints at that time, just because of all the other differences, but it does make me feel better knowing they have that one extra degree of separation between them.

That said, I did still want to re-use the idea of having some footprints "walk around" the mandala because I just think it's a cute one. But to aide the separation even further, I ended up going with something more like—if the chart I found via Google is to be believed and my doodle version retains any integrity to the proper shape—Velociraptor prints. If they don't really look like velociraptor prints, we'll just call them prehistoric bird prints and be done with it. 😆

Although, kind of ironically I think they came out looking a bit like flying bird silhouettes, which I had considered using somewhere on Day 15 but ultimately decided against. [Now I'm thinking that was maybe another good call to help keep this one separate that past-me wasn't even thinking about!]

But before I put the 'raptor prints in, I spent a lot more time trying to fill more of the space with the ammonite-esque swirls I mentioned before. I definitely spent way longer on those than anything else because getting the base swirls just right proved for more difficult that I anticipated—even more so for the ones towards the edge rather than the ones towards the center.

And then I maybe went a bit overboard trying to make the swirls towards the outer edge a little more interesting. In hindsight, I may have overdone them a bit, but after I spent so long on them I very much did not have it in me to go back and try to figure out how to "un-over-do" them. So they are what they are. 🤷‍♀️

I did however also decide to fill some space and accent a bit with one other kind of more proper trace fossil—My very simple approximation if what I think were snake trails that I kept seeing pop up in my search for ichnite references. I saw at least a few that really did look look that lines-with-V's-down-the-center that I drew along the outer edge and just a bit in the center.

They also ended up kinda going along with some of the more decorative lines around those outer swirls, which was nice.

Oh, and the line that weaves between the 'rapot prints was both a last-might attempt to just fill more space and also I think is a nice nod to the cracks and crevices I personally associate fossil imagery with.

There was kind of a trade-off in that this was one of the mandalas where I spent a lot of time on the lines, because this was probably the simplest color scheme so far. I just smashed browns and tans like the color of both fossils and the dirt/rock their buried in together and tried to get the contrast to enhance the footprint ichnites in a reasonable way.

I did have a little trouble getting the amount of brightness just right like I did yesterday, but yesterday's was still worse in that regard.

Ultimately, I think I was right to be worried about how this one turned out...However, this is one of the ones that ended up surprising me with the results. 😊 It turned out much stronger than I was expecting even though here are things I'm second-guessing like you more or less heard me mention (and other ones I'd rather not call specific attention to).

This one is also probably helped a bit by the fact that I wasn't in quite the frenzy to finish it that I was yesterday's. 😅

That said, I think I covered everything I wanted to and I've still got to get to cross-posting...And I have no clue what song I'm going to pick for the Instagram post, which will definitely slow me down. 🙃 So I'll leave off here while we all ponder the footprints of the past and hope for a tomorrow that turns out at least as well as these did. 😉

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See the Prompt List

Artwork © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

I'm so sorry for this.

Grossaspis is a very obscure genus, it is only mentioned in the literature a few times and there are very few images of material or reconstructions of it. The original description is a very old German paper without any figures. I base my reconstruction on a drawing found in the Handbook of Paleoichthyology Volume 2- Placodermi, where it has a single paragraph. The rest I patched up with relatives like Bothriolepis (for the mouth structure for example)

Grossaspis would like you to know that you hurt its feelings.

[joonisstrange]

Finished an Icon

Commissions are open!

[starrycassi]

Fluff jayvik hcs because why the fuck not.

Jayce is the in-universe equivalent to Latino. This is not a headcanon I'm Chris Lane himself.

Outside of their hex work, Viktor is quite fond of biology. He appreciates learning about evolution and how many different life forms deal with the same problems but face it in different ways. He is that one bug lover in every campus. Particularly fond of butterflies. He's got a few pinned down on his wall. Jayce finds it sort of creepy but keeps quiet.

Jayce is a geology nerd. He started getting into it while searching for a mineral that could resemble the first "stone" given to him by the mage when he was about 12. This was his very first theory: the arcane is actually stored in rocks and can be extracted like gold or such. It was clearly wrong but left him with a vast knowledge of just rocks. He has a million little chips around his bedroom. He fears the day he has to move because they're all heavy as fuck when combined.

Jayce is actually really athletic. But, like, for health benefits. He does appreciate his own body and WILL flex it if given the opportunity, but it's not the main reason why he exercises/works out (yes I know the forge bla bla I'm talking when he finally becomes a scientist guys). He wants to live a long life to take care of his mom, and knows that a good physique would make that easier.

Jayce ends up annoying Viktor into agreeing to do some low-impact stretches with him when they spend more than 24 hours just sitting around in the lab. And I'm talking VERY low impact. Wrist stretches, shoulder openers, some neck looseners. He's actually really patient and caring when they do this, and Viktor has definitely fallen a little bit more in love with each muscle movement.

Expanding on that: after 48 hours of work he Will Get The Zoomies. This ends up in Viktor, sitting peacefully, counting down the pushup reps Jayce is doing. He needs to get rid of all that energy and Viktor is more than happy to help. Especially when Jayce eventually starts taking out his shirt to do his little routines.

Jayce likes psychology and general health. He is really in tune with his own emotions in the show, okay? This man is reading self help books in his spare time. A lot of time the theory doesn't actually make it to his heart but at least he understands it. Viktor finds the chemistry side of psychology interesting, but is not that interested in the rest of it. Basically psychology vs psychiatrist ig.

They're both dinosaur nerds. Jayce is a big fan of their diets/possible mating rituals while Viktor is obsessed with fossils and evolution. Jayce likes flying specimens more, while Viktor is partial to the marine ones.

Viktor's one and only loved physical activity is swimming. Takes the weight off his leg and spine for a second. One of the few "luxuries" he owns is a decently sized bathtub with all the proper accommodations to get in and out without help.

Viktor is a snake person. They're easy to care for (if you just follow the right steps), easy to transport, don't require that much physical effort, will not wreck his house while he's gone, et cetera. Of course he doesn't have a twelve feet venomous one. Probably more of a cornsnake/Rosy boa guy. Which also means that the first time Jayce visits his apartment, the man almost dies in five consecutive heart attacks.

Jayce would definitely love a golden retriever I'm sorry he truly is the living bisexual boy stereotype. Physical affection, a good excuse to go outside for a run, force him to keep a routine. I actually think he would never own one on his own because he knows his schedule is way too fucked up for a pet, but Ximena does have one to keep her company and he loves it. I can only see this man with either a cat that comes to his balcony every night or some obscure brand of bird.

Jayce is amazing at cooking, but incredibly messy and takes his sweet time with it. He had time to learn from his mom and sees cooking as an act of love that should be appreciated. Viktor is really fast and efficient, but can end up with tasteless stuff. Grew up with hastily stolen ingredients and half a bottle of kitchen oil in Zaun. Food is fuel kind of mentality.

The only person who Viktor accepts constant help from is Jayce, and this is because he knows that Jayce is Just Like That. There was one or two big fights about it at first, but, with times, he's learned that Jayce is doing this out of the wish to show love and not out of pity or concern. Jayce is well aware that Viktor can adjust his own brace and has no problem with fixing his own tie, but he loves loves loves being useful.

This evolves in Viktor trying to reciprocate the gestures. Keeping Jayce's foundation on his bag (there is no way Mr. Charisma doesn't cover his eye bags every time they need to be in public) and learning how to properly apply makeup for him. He keeps an extra pair of earphones after finding out that Jayce is actually just as easily overstimulated as him. Remembers his coffee order, straightens out his collar, refills his stapler and clip drawer.

They are PARTNERS okay? I need the little domestic signals. No big "I love you's" but daily "I got you that cinnamon latte monstrosity you call a beverage" or "You forgot them? Don't worry. I have emergency pain pills in my wallet. Yes, the ones you take. No, it's technically not stalking if you leave the receipts laying around."

They both really enjoy videogames. Viktor likes noir/detective ones and Jayce is a fan of anything that includes racing. They seldom play the same game at the same time, more often just keeping the other company while doing their own thing.

They can both sew. Pretty similar to the cooking one. Jayce learnt for pleasure, Viktor out of necessity.

Have seen the other sob silently over failed equations and burnt metals so many times that they both have perfected the routine by now. Viktor likes to be given space and Jayce needs someone to come calm him down. Which is hell, because Jayce hates leaving Viktor alone. He feels useless. And Viktor heats having to do the whole consolation thing. He feels inadequate. But that's what the other needs, so they try.

When really stressed, Jayce has been known for having psychosomatic thermal issues. Viktor has had to throw blanket after blanker over him because he will Not Move if his body gets too cold, which in return makes him panic, which makes him even colder.

Both fuckin hate winter. It always finds them with So Many Extra Sweaters in the lab. Viktor carries an extra scarf around. Just in case. Jayce's PTSD gets triggered, while Viktor's body just reacts horribly to the cold. Some days they just wrap themselves up against one another and try to guard off the cold.

Viktor has some auditory hallucinations. Very rarely. Mostly of Rio. He doesn't want to talk about it. So he doesn't. Jayce notices, but knows better than to go poke and prode at Viktor's feelings. It doesn't usually end well.

Are both amazing at chess. Have threatened to kill each other over it. Had to take out the board from the lab after the sixth consecutive tie.

(Mel is actually the only other person in the building who can easily, quickly and steadily beat them, including when they work together. Even Heimerdinger gets thrown a few curves here and there)

Jayce Can Not stand it when Viktor is disrespected, but never steps in. He knows Viktor will defend himself and will only get in the middle of it if it gets physical. The one time he tried Viktor's cane met his shins about five times in a row. It was a "small warning about limits."

Jayce avoids ordering junk food when they work for hours, for both of their health. He also doesn't want to sacrifice taste, so he buys from two/three exclusive places that can meet their nutritional + palatial needs. Viktor can, will and has eaten only pizza for about three days straight.

Had he never been... well, the man of progress, Jayce would've turned into either a bioengineer or surgeon. I have no idea on how to explain this but I need u to believe me please (I'm just a healthcare student with severe delusions)

Jayce's mom makes a big deal of his birthday. Viktor denies being jealous. It doesn't work. Next year, Ximena also makes a big deal of his special day.

Viktor is currently unaware of his exact date of birth. He picked one based on analysis and what his mother could recount but has never known the exact number

They get married and live happily ever after idc idc

Addition 1: Both are Well Aware of the law (Jayce's little sister is a cop + Viktor just like reading everything). Can both hold their own in a legal conversation. They just choose to ignore it. Have a vast knowledge of legal technicalities and use them only to bend said laws. The more they learn, the worse they get. Basically those guys who read the rulebook only to find loopholes on it.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report. “The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.” Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice. The industry has known for decades about these existential challenges, but obscured that information in its marketing campaigns, the report shows. The research draws on previous investigations as well as newly revealed internal documents illustrating the extent of this decades-long campaign. Industry insiders over the past several decades have variously referred to plastic recycling as “uneconomical”, said it “cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution”, and said it “cannot go on indefinitely”, the revelations show. The authors say the evidence demonstrates that oil and petrochemical companies, as well as their trade associations, may have broken laws designed to protect the public from misleading marketing and pollution.

[arcsin27]

RUPERT MY BOY RUPERT

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Happy 200th birthday to Megalosaurus bucklandii!!!

On the 20th of February, 1824, English palaeontologist William Buckland announced a discovery at a meeting of the Geological Society of London. The fossil jawbone, several vertebrae, pelvis and limb elements he presented that day belonged to a creature unlike anything seen before: a gigantic, land-living carnivore to which he gave the name Megalosaurus, the "Great Reptile".

This announcement, including an official published description of the fossil remains, was the first of three named species that in 1842 would be collected together by Richard Owen into the group Dinosauria. This makes Megalosaurus, revealed to the world on this day 200 years ago, the first Mesozoic dinosaur to be scientifically named!

Over the years Megalosaurus has been through some ups and downs, from being the most famous dinosaurian predator to being a wastebasket taxon that basically every scrappy theropod fossil was assigned to, to slightly fading into obscurity as more spectacular finds take the spotlight. But through it all the legacy it holds as the dinosaur that kicked off this whole wild 200 year train will always be unique.

So congrats to Megalosaurus on 200 years of being a truly Great Reptile!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Circular battery self-sufficiency

I'm coming to DEFCON! On FRIDAY (Aug 9), I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On SATURDAY (Aug 10), I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

If we are going to survive the climate emergency, we will have to electrify – that is, transition from burning fossil fuels to collecting, storing, transmitting and using renewable energy generated by e.g. the tides, the wind, and (especially) the Sun.

Electrification is a big project, but it's not an insurmountable one. Planning and executing an electric future is like eating the elephant: we do it one step at a time. This is characteristic of big engineering projects, which explains why so many people find it hard to imagine pulling this off.

As a layperson, you are far more likely to be exposed to a work of popular science than you are a work of popular engineering. Pop science is great, but its role is to familiarize you with theory, not practice. Popular engineering is a minuscule and obscure genre, which is a pity, because it's one of my favorites.

Weathering the climate emergency is going to require a lot of politics, to be sure, but it's also going to require a lot of engineering, which is why I'm grateful for the nascent but vital (and growing) field of popular engineering. Not to mention, the practitioners of popular engineering tend to be a lot of fun, like the hosts of the Well That's Your Problem podcast, a superb long-form leftist podcast about engineering disasters (with slides!):

https://www.youtube.com/@welltheresyourproblempodca1465

If you want to get started on popular engineering and the climate, your first stop should be the "Without the Hot Air" series, which tackles sustainable energy, materials, transportation and food as engineering problems. You'll never think about climate the same way again:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/06/methane-diet/#3kg-per-day

Then there's Saul Griffith's 2021 book Electrify, which is basically a roadmap for carrying out the electrification of America and the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

Griffith's book is inspiring and visionary, but to really get a sense of how fantastic an electrified world can be, it's gotta be Deb Chachra's How Infrastructure Works:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

Chachra is a material scientist who teaches at Olin College, and her book is a hymn to the historical and philosophical underpinnings of infrastructure, but more than anything, it's a popular engineering book about what is possible. For example, if we want to give every person on Earth the energy budget of a Canadian (like an American, but colder), we would only have to capture 0.4% of the solar energy that reaches the Earth's surface.

Now, this is a gigantic task, but it's a tractable one. Resolving it will require a very careful – and massive – marshaling of materials, particularly copper, but also a large number of conflict minerals and rare earths. It's gonna be hard.

But it's not impossible, let alone inconceivable. Indeed, Chachra's biggest contribution in this book is to make a compelling case for reconceiving our relationship to energy and materials. As a species, we have always treated energy as scarce, trying to wring every erg and therm that we can out of our energy sources. Meanwhile, we've treated materials as abundant, digging them up or chopping them down, using them briefly, then tossing them on a midden or burying them in a pit.

Chachra argues that this is precisely backwards. Our planet gets a fresh supply of energy twice a day, with sunrise (solar) and moonrise (tides). On the other hand, we've only got one Earth's worth of materials, supplemented very sporadically when a meteor survives entry into our atmosphere. Mining asteroids, the Moon and other planets is a losing proposition for the long foreseeable future:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

The promise of marshaling a very large amount of materials is that it will deliver effectively limitless, clean energy. This project will take a lot of time and its benefits will primarily accrue to people who come after its builders, which is why it is infrastructure. As Chachra says, infrastructure is inherently altruistic, a gift to our neighbors and our descendants. If all you want is a place to stick your own poop, you don't need to build a citywide sanitation system.

What's more, we can trade energy for materials. Manufacturing goods so that they gracefully decompose back into the material stream at the end of their lives is energy intensive. Harvesting materials from badly designed goods is also energy intensive. But if once we build out the renewables grid (which will take a lot of materials), we will have all the energy we need (to preserve and re-use our materials).

Our species' historical approach to materials is not (ahem) carved in stone. It is contingent. It has changed. It can change again. It needs to change, because the way we extract materials today is both unjust and unsustainable.

The horrific nature of material extraction under capitalism – and its geopolitics (e.g. "We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.") – has many made comrades in the climate fight skeptical (or worse, cynical) about a clean energy transition. They do the back-of-the-envelope math about the material budget for electrification, mentally convert that to the number of wildlife preserves, low-income communities, unspoiled habitat and indigenous lands that we would destroy in the process of gathering those materials, and conclude that the whole thing is a farce.

That analysis is important, but it's incomplete. Yes, marshaling all those materials in the way that we do today would be catastrophic. But the point of a climate transition is that we will transition our approach to our planet, our energy, and our materials. That transition can and should challenge all the assumptions underpinning electrification doomerism.

Take the material bill itself: the assumption that a transition will require a linearly scaled quantity of materials includes the assumption that cleantech won't find substantial efficiencies in its material usage. Thankfully, that's a very bad assumption! Cleantech is just getting started. It's at the stage where we're still uncovering massive improvements to production (unlike fossil fuel technology, whose available efficiencies have been discovered and exploited, so that progress is glacial and negligible).

Take copper: electrification requires a lot of copper. But the amount of copper needed for each part of the cleantech revolution is declining faster than the demand for cleantech is rising. Just one example: between the first and second iteration of the Rivian electric vehicle, designers figured out how to remove 1.6 miles of copper wire from each vehicle:

https://insideevs.com/news/722265/rivian-r1s-r1t-wiring/

That's just one iteration and one technology! And yeah, EVs are only peripheral to a cleantech transition; for one thing, geometry hates cars. We're going to have to build a lot of mass transit, and we're going to be realizing these efficiencies with every generation of train, bus, and tram:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible

We have just lived through a massive surge in electrification, with unimaginable quantities of new renewables coming online and a stunning replacement of conventional vehicles with EVs, and throughout that surge, demand for copper remained flat:

https://www.chemanalyst.com/NewsAndDeals/NewsDetails/copper-wire-price-remains-stable-amidst-surplus-supply-and-expanding-mining-25416#:~:text=Global%20Copper%20wire%20Price%20Remains%20Stable%20Amidst%20Surplus%20Supply%20and%20Expanding%20Mining%20Activities

This isn't to say that cleantech is a solved problem. There are many political aspects to cleantech that remain pernicious, like the fact that so many of the cleantech offerings on the market are built around extractive financial arrangements (like lease-back rooftop solar) and "smart" appliances (like heat pumps and induction tops) that require enshittification-ready apps:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps

There's a quiet struggle going on between cleantech efficiencies and the finance sector's predation, from lease-back to apps to the carbon-credit scam, but many of those conflicts are cashing out in favor of a sustainable future and it doesn't help our cause to ignore those: we should be cheering them on!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/12/s-curve/#anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-eventually-stops

Take "innovation." Silicon Valley's string of pump-and-dump nonsense – cryptocurrency, NFTs, metaverse, web3, and now AI – have made "innovation" into a dirty word. As the AI bubble bursts, the very idea of innovation is turning into a punchline:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/burst-damage/

But cleantech is excitingly, wonderfully innovative. The contrast between the fake innovation of Silicon Valley and the real – and vital – innovation of cleantech couldn't be starker, or more inspiring:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/30/posiwid/#social-cost-of-carbon

Like the "battery problem." Whenever the renewables future is raised, there's always a doomer insisting that batteries are an unsolved – and unsolvable – problem, and without massive batteries, there's no sense in trying, because the public won't accept brownouts when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing.

Sometimes, these people are shilling boondoggles like nuclear power (reminder: this is Hiroshima Day):

https://theconversation.com/dutton-wants-australia-to-join-the-nuclear-renaissance-but-this-dream-has-failed-before-209584

Other times, they're just trying to foreclose on the conversation about a renewables transition altogether. But sometimes, these doubts are raised by comrades who really do want a transition and have serious questions about power storage.

If you're one of those people, I have some very good news: battery tech is taking off. Some of that takes the form of wild and cool new approaches. In Finland, a Scottish company is converting a disused copper mine into a gravity battery. During the day, excess renewables hoist a platform piled with tons of rock up a 530m shaft. At night, the platform lowers slowly, driving a turbine and releasing its potential energy. This is incredibly efficient, has a tiny (and sustainable) bill of materials, and it's highly replicable. The world has sufficient abandoned mine-shafts to store 70TWh of power – that's the daily energy budget for the entire planet. What's more, every mine shaft has a beefy connection to the power grid, because you can't run a mine without a lot of power:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/02/06/this-disused-mine-in-finland-is-being-turned-into-a-gravity-battery-to-store-renewable-ene

Gravity batteries are great for utility-scale storage, but we also need a lot of batteries for things that we can't keep plugged into the wall, like vehicles, personal electronics, etc. There's great news on that score, too! "The Battery Mineral Loop" is a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute that describes the path to "circular battery self-sufficiency":

https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2024/07/the_battery_mineral_loop_report_July.pdf

The big idea: rather than digging up new minerals to make batteries, we can recycle minerals from dead batteries to make new ones. Remember, energy can be traded for materials: we can expend more energy on designs that are optimized to decompose back into their component materials, or we can expend more energy extracting materials from designs that aren't optimized for recycling.

Both things are already happening. From the executive summary:

The chemistry of batteries is rapidly improving: over the past decade, we've reduced per-using demand for lithium, nickle and cobalt by 60-140%, and most lithium batteries are being recycled, not landfilled.

Within a decade, we'll hit peak mineral demand for batteries. By the mid-2030s, the amount of new "virgin minerals" needed to meet our battery demand will stop growing and start declining.

By 2050, we could attain net zero mineral demand for batteries: that is, we could meet all our energy storage needs without digging up any more minerals.

We are on a path to a "one-off" extraction effort. We can already build batteries that work for 10-15 years and whose materials can be recycled with 90-94% efficiency.

The total quantity of minerals we need to extract to permanently satisfy the world's energy storage needs is about 125m tons.

This last point is the one that caught my eye. Extracting 125m tons of anything is a tall order, and depending on how it's done, it could wreak a terrible toll on people and the places they live.

But one question I learned to ask from Tim Harford and BBC More Or Less is "is that a big number?" 125m tons sure feels like a large number, but it is one seventeenth of the amount of fossil fuels we dig up every year just for road transport. In other words, we're talking about spending the next thirty years carefully, sustainably, humanely extracting about 5.8% of the materials we currently pump and dig every year for our cars. Do that, and we satisfy our battery needs more-or-less forever.

This is a big engineering project. We've done those before. Crisscrossing the world with roads, supplying billions of fossil-fuel vehicles, building the infrastructure for refueling them, pumping billions of gallons of oil – all of that was done in living memory. As Robin Sloan wrote:

Did people say, at the dawn of the automobile: are you kidding me? This technology will require a ubiquitous network of refueling stations, one or two at every major intersection … even if there WAS that much gas in the world, how would you move it around at that scale? If everybody buys a car, you’ll need to build highways, HUGE ones — you’ll need to dig up cities! Madness!

https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/room-for-everybody/

That big project cost trillions and required bending the productive capacity of many nations to its completion. It produced a ghastly geopolitics that elevated petrostates – a hole in the ground, surrounded by guns – to kingmakers whose autocrats can knock the world on its ass at will.

By contrast, this giant engineering project is relatively modest, and it will upend that global order, yielding energy sovereignty (and its handmaiden, national resliency) to every country on Earth. Doing it well will be hard, and require that we rethink our relationship to energy and materials, but that's a bonus, not a cost. Changing how we use materials and energy will make all our lives better, it will improve the lives of the living things we share the planet with, and it will strip the monsters who currently control our energy supply of their political, economic, and electric power.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/06/with-great-power/#comes-great-responsibility

[obscurefossils]

Vishnuictis

Vishnuictis was a genus of viverrid from the Middle Miocene to Pleistocene. Its type species is V. durandi. Its other known species are V. africana, V. chinjiensis, V. hariensis, V. hasnoti, V. hinduiensis, V. plectilodous, V. salmontanus, and V. yuanmouensis. Its known specimens were found across Africa and South Asia in various formations in Kenya, China, Pakistan, and India. Vishnuictis is currently the largest member of its family.

Vishnuictis is primarily named after the Hindu deity Vishnu. The latter half of its name mean "marten" in Greek. V. africana is named after its discovery in Africa, the only Vishnuictis species to date to be found there. V. plectilodous combines "plectilo" for the complex shapes of its teeth and "odous" for tooth.

Vishnuictis is known from several fossils, including a full and a partial skull, several mandible fragments, and many teeth. Its autapomorphies include extreme height and slenderness of the skull that sets it apart from all modern viverrids.

Due to the size of its known fossils, it is thought that Vishnuictis is much larger than modern viverrids. It likely was around the size of or larger than the average modern wolf. New material from 2025 suggests that it may have also had an omnivorous diet.

Originally, V. durandi was described in 1884 as a member of Viverra before later being assigned to Vishnuictis in 1932. V. chinjiensis was also assigned to Viverra in the same 1932 paper, but was later reassigned to Vishnuictis as well. The placement of Vishnuictis within viverrids has not been well-examined, but it is thought to be most closely related to the modern Viverra.

Sources: Pilgrim 1932 (p 101-108), Werdelin 2010 (p 624), Sankhyan 2025

[lilacxquartz]

part 2 of 19 of kinktober: medical checkup

nurse kenjaku x reader

plot: something’s a little bit off about your doctor’s appointment… — themes: mildly dubious consent, f!reader, forced orgasms, sensual yapping — w.c: ~1.3k

kinktober masterlist • main masterlist • ao3

You were supposed to be getting a regular old check up, or at least that’s what you were expecting when you first walked into the doctor’s office.

However, something in the air didn’t feel quite right and then your vision soon blurred, quickly dimming your senses into sinking darkness. By the time you had finally come back around—something had changed—but what exactly?

Your eyes squinted at the harsh overhead lamps; blinding you into forced wakefulness and revealing a somewhat familiar silhouette looming over you, their features ever so slightly obscured.

“No way,” you scoffed in realisation, attempting to sit up in an attempt to strangle the guy and yet, finding that you weren’t able to do so at all due to being entirely strapped in, “what are you doing here?”

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the buzzing ambience but their arrogant demeanour could never be hidden away for too long. Stepping forward, Kenjaku revealed themselves, flashing you a beaming grin. “That obvious was I? Worry not, I’ll be sure to find out what’s really wrong with you.”

You sulked in response as you helplessly writhed around, trying again and again to free yourself from the restraints. “It’s just a yearly check up—“

“—ah, ah, ah,” they half scoffed, eyeing you up and down. “You really thought that I would allow for you to be checked up by someone else in that sort of way? Think again. Just call me doctor, or nurse, or whatever helps make it easier~”

“Never mind that… what are you even wearing?” you jabbed, finally noticing their attire. It seemed to be an old fashioned nurse’s uniform, tightly fitted over their vessel’s broad shoulders.

Kenjaku simply leaned forward, the buttons of the straining shirt threatening to pop right off and potentially blind you. Their voice was laced with endearing mockery and the hum in their tone betraying no doubt that they enjoyed teasing you, “Oh this? Don’t worry about that. I just wanted to make the whole experience more fun and dare I say… realistic? You know, I actually used to work as a doctor a couple of centuries ago, so I am technically more than qualified to check you over. The times haven’t changed that dramatically, surely?”

“Well…” you trailed off, suddenly feeling uneasy.

Kenjaku rolled their eyes, waving off your concerns with the flick of their hand. “Don’t give me that look, it’ll be fine. Trust me, why don’t you? Besides, I’m not one to shy away from a good challenge in the name of research. Together, may we both find out what’s potentially troubling you.”

Once again feeling nervous, you couldn’t help but wonder what potential horrors awaited you. “Ch-challenge…? What are you planning now, you perverted fossil?”

Snorting at your remark, they rummaged through a duffel bag they had waiting by the door. They then pulled out a ball gag before securing it over your protesting mouth, clipping some of your hair into the buckled leather straps.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” they teasingly murmured, “just a diagnosis of sorts, nothing too… invasive…”

The emphasis on the last word betrayed their attested promise, leading you to believe that they in fact were actually planning something dubious instead. You tried to tell them off some more, but your words could only come out as hopeless, muffled grunts. Such a display of desperately scolding protest only made them laugh even more, as though finding your helplessly fretting state to be amusing.

Quickly adopting a serious attitude however, they prodded and poked at your incapacitated body with clinical precision. With careful ease, they flicked and tweezed at your protruding nipples through the thin fabric of your top, causing your eyes to narrow in rising annoyance. Kenjaku paid you no mind however as they appeared to be deep in thought, scribbling away some nonsense onto an empty clipboard.

With a series of whirring hums and oohs and aahs, they swept their hands all around the your body, soon reaching just below your lower legs, testing just how responsive you were when teased at your somewhere a touch more sensitive.

“My professional diagnosis is…” they purred, trailing off his words into a grand announcement, “…that you, my dear, are stressed. The good news is that I’m selflessly going to help you release all of that tension, like a good doctor-nurse should.”

You sighed, steeling yourself for whatever that could possibly mean even though you had a good idea. “And the bad news?”

They shrugged. “That you don’t have a choice in the matter, but you knew that already, didn’t you?”

Rolling your eyes, you supposed that this was better than the time they tried to make you wear the shock collar, so perhaps this would go better.

Wasting no time, Kenjaku snaked their hand down to your heat, their warm fingers trailing around your tender skin. Despite your initial protest, your lips gasped out a rasping moan as the pleasure built. Their thumb pressed into your clit harder, producing soft whines from your quivering lips.

“Who’s the real pervert here, anyway?” they asked you, slipping two fingers into your slick hole, pumping them at a languid pace before curling them against the roof of your cunt, kneading just hard enough to push painfully against your pelvic bone.

“Y-you, clearly,” you gasped, writhing slightly under their pressuring touch. It wasn’t excruciating, but the discomfort wasn’t pleasant either.

They tilted their head slightly off to the side, momentarily letting the sharp light hit directly at your unprepared eyes. “You anticipated it though, that’s on you—not me,” they were quick to point out, sliding a free hand over to your thigh and squeezing it in their clamping grasp. The ache was dull, arousing a pleading cry to roll off your tongue.

They smiled as they watched you squirm under the inflicted soreness before angling themselves back to blocking out the light out again. “Admit that you like this for once, why don’t you?”

The longer the words hung in the air, the harder they squeezed, causing your body to recoil in flinching complaint. Your hands sprawled over the armrests as your fingers cinched hard over the plastic.

Finally, you admitted it, giving into what they wanted, “Fine, I—I like it.”

They sucked at their teeth, pressing harder. “So reluctant. Let’s try that again.”

“I like it,” you replied with more confidence that time.

“Better,” Kenjaku praised, easing the pressure off your body. They then resumed their pleasuring motions, running skilled circles over your now swollen clit. “You’ll come for me like a good pet, won't you?”

You nodded this time with a needy blushing expression; your hair draping over your face as the sweat dampened it. With a whimpering hum, your body squirmed around despite your incapacitated state in an attempt to urge him to continue.

“I will,” you promised.

With a pleased smile, Kenjaku continued to smooth rushed circles over the bud, watching with fascinated eyes as your body (involuntarily at this point) reacted to their pleasuring touch. Your legs shook violently against the confines, the friction rubbing raw against your exposed flesh. It didn’t take too long after your promise for the anticipated rising tension to build and bloom and finally settle after reaching your peak.

In rapid, ragged spurs, your body convulsed as they finally brought you into much sought after release, letting you recover for a moment before at long, long last unstrapping you.

Still flustered and hazy, you were momentarily surprised that they weren’t just leaving you there.

Kenjaku, noticing your confusion, simply just shrugged once more. “What? I’m not going to leave you here. Besides, I have further plans with you for when we get back,” they explained, helping you stand upright, “now, come along before they figure out that we’re up to no good in here…”

[bonefall]

Glitch Warrior: Stonewing

FUNFACT turns out that Stonewing in ShadowClan actually had a beta name. He was called Stonetooth, and was going to be mates with an obscure background cat called Wasptail.

Since I'm scrounging up ShadowClan cats here I'm absolutely doing something with this. But, there's already a Stonetooth. So we're looking at a conflict rename, lads!

Before getting to the poll, here's some deets about this guy;

Based on how the timeline shakes out, they're likely to end up as the child of Spindleclaw-- another Glitch Warrior, the brown sister of Ivytail.

This would make them Blackstar's grand-nespring.

If so, they might also be siblings with Shrewfoot.

Wherever they end up on the tree, this cat will be a sibling of Stonewing. Probably a littermate.

BB!Stonewing is actually deaf from birth. It works especially well if they have a sibling, because the home signs they develop to communicate can become part of the sign language that's going to evolve after SkyClan's arrival lmao.

The two can split the roles Canon!Stonewing has occupied. (Bonus, this can also fix an error that was in ASC: Star where Stonewing was a prisoner in the camp and the island at the same time lmao)

Stone"tooth" will probably be mates with Wasptail for a while, but I don't know if kittens will result. Stonewing's kittens with Grassheart are unchanged.

I am not committed to any particular gender for this cat yet. I'm leaning towards molly or gib.

For new names, I have three thoughts;

Option 1: StoneCHAT-tooth

A bird with a song like two stones being clicked. I feel like this could be a really cute reference to the idea that Stonewing was born deaf and doesn't speak, and so Stonechat-tooth helps interpret for him.

Since Stonechat-tooth is a bit long, I might make it Chat-tooth. Or just give them the Squilf treatment with their nickname-- Stoot.

Option 2: Bonetooth

A rhyme, but also ShadowClan sense of humor at work. Stonewing is pure white with dark blue eyes, and his sibling Bonetooth would be stony-gray. Mismatching colors chosen for the kits, to confuse their enemies.

Plus, Bone is a cool prefix. I say with absolutely no bias whatsoever.

Option 3: Different Kind of Rock-tooth

There's actually lots of types of neat rocks to use here. Fossils are not uncommon, fairy coins mean that both Fairy and Coin are valid, conglomerate rocks mean that "Cobbletooth" could be a totally valid name here.

Or even just Rocktooth, of course. Simplest alternate name.

EXACT details to be hammered out, so the precise name is chosen later; which BROAD CATEGORY should this rename go into?

[aliciavance4228]

Reading Shadow Of Perseus So You Don't Have To

Okay, before starting to actually dissect this book I cannot help but notice that the author inserted these fragments in her novel:

"Oh, look at me! I just copy n' pasted some random ancient texts in my shitty retelling to prove that I did my own search and I know what I'm supposed to write about. I'm so smart y'all! 🤓"

Anyway, this book is written from the POVs of different women from the life of Perseus. First we have Danaë's POV, then Medusa’s, then Andromeda's and then Danaë’s again. *sighs*

Chapter One

Danaë has a handmaid named Korinna. Which yes, I know that it's actually a greek name and that it comes from kore, but it's kinda funny to me since here Corina is that one middle-aged woman who sits on the balcony while gossiping the entire town and spitting seeds in your head.

Danaë is currently in Larissa, giving offerings at the temple of... Apollo and Artemis?! I'm sorry, but the author does know that these two generally had separate temples, right? Right?!

Are you gonna tell me that Danaë's mother is dead or something?! Or that Acrisius wants to remarry a girl who's probably younger than his own daughter instead of expecting a grandchild from her instead?! Bitch, that man was probably so old he needed two packages of Viagra™ and a hot chick to put a finger in his ass in order to get a boner if the best he was able to do in his prime was one or two daughters.

Side Note: We're still at the second page of this retelling, by the way...

Okay, we're told that Danaë never left Argos before but would want to travel around the world because... her cool uncle told her many stories throughout time. Are you gonna tell me that you're going to turn even Proteus into a nice guy just so that your Perseus would look like the ultimate Genghis Khan with a personality disorder?! Really?! I mean, SERIOUSLY?!

After leaving the temple the two women make their way to the city. But Danae knew they had no reason to fear. No one in Argos would dare harm the daughter of Akrisios, nor one of his slaves. Alright, quick question: How do people, who lived in an era where stuff such as television, photography, posters etc. didn't exist, knew how does the princess of Argos looks like unless she traveled so oftenly that citizens got used of her face? Especially considering the fact that back then women usually had a more secluded life.

"Argos had no shortage of men hoping to marry Akrisios’s only daughter. But as each one presented himself, her father found a reason to reject them. They were too fat, too thin, too poor, too wealthy, too foolish, too clever."

Sooo... basically any average balkan father? I'm confused, is this supposed to depict him in a worse light? Anyway, Danaë is now musing about how many men her father rejected even when she found them handsome and wanted to marry them for the rest of this chapter or so.

Chapter Two

Danaë turns back to the "Golden House" (which honestly sounds like some sort of a hotel which makes this retelling even more absurd) where she finds her father and uncle complaining again.

Not gonna lie, this is the most accurate fragment from this book so far.

Danaë then joins her cousins at the table, which by the way have the exact same personality (none, that is), divided into three.

"Like his twin brother, Danae’s uncle had begotten no sons, and yet he did not seem to resent the fact. He doted on his three daughters as if they were the greatest gifts the gods could have bestowed."

First of all, Megapenthes is right here! Second of all, the greatest irony out there is that Acrisius DID love and care for his daughter before finding out about the prophecy, which makes her imprisonment even more tragic. Sanitizing the exact same depraved fossil who assaulted Danaë and even his own daughter in one obscure source in a so-called "Feminist" retelling should perhaps make you consider to abandon writing this book. Unfortunately we're only at chapter 2 and there are 44 more chapters that will follow. *sighs*

"Her grandmother used to say that they had quarreled even when they were in the womb, and although Danae knew she was joking it didn’t seem improbable."

Oh trust me, she was NOT joking! By the way, did you know that Danaë’s mother died when she was little? Because why would one explore the bond between a mother and a daughter when you could have her be in a good relationship with her pedo uncle? Booooooooooring!

Acrisius' chief emissary then suddenly appears, telling him that they received a message from the Oracle and has to talk to him in private. Acrisius then finds out that he won't be the one who'll have a son, but his daughter, and that said son will eventually kill him. Acrisius is not so happy y'all.

Chapter Three

Danaë is currently in her prison for two days. I'm sorry, but this is supposed to be a disturbing, hearbreaking moment and yet this is how it reads like:

Her uncle shows herself to be appalled by his brother's actions and wants to see his niece, because of fricking course! 🙄

Because sitting in a room all day is boring and she runs out of hobbies Danaë asks one of her servants to bring her a lyre to occupy herself with, which she does. This chapter ends with Danaë playing the instrument while crying because of her paranoic father.

Chapter Four

One week later Danaë receives a visit from the baker's son named Myron, which turns out to be some uncooked OC (pun intended). By the way, Myron is a stupid name to choose for someone from the Late Bronze Age (we have it too under the variant of Miron), since it literally comes from myrrh which has a greater importance in Abrahamic religions especially. Back to the plot, Myron tells Danaë that he has heard her playing the lyre and fell in love with her music so he decided to visit her, and gave her a cake as a gift before leaving, promising her it's not the first time when he'll pay her a visit.

This is the dumbest chapter so far, because what do you mean Acrisius is senile enough to let his daughter in a chamber anyone could enter in without much difficulty if the entire point of her imprisonment was to keep her a virgin so that she won't give birth to a son?! And before asking: No, that guy didn't came in through the window, because that room has no windows to begin with; he simply used the door just like any normal person. At this point I'm wondering how is Danaë supposed to be isolated if all she would have to do to escape is to open that fucking door, and those guardians are clearly not doing their job.

Chapter Five

Danaë is now waiting for the uncooked OC to come to her that night (pretty sure the accidental innuendo was actually intended). He turns back with another piece of cake, then starts to tell her about his family drama, poverty and how he intends to live Argos with a ship. Danaë is all in heat because it's the first time she's so close to a boy, and he's also quite nice and handsome too.

"friend" pretty sure this guy will soon father Perseus, so before reaching another chapter here's my advice:

Chapter Six

The uncooked OC is visiting Danaë every night. Danae realized she had never really had a friend before. A true friend. Not her cousins bound to her by blood and forced proximity, or her handmaid bound by servitude. Myron owed her no loyalty. He asked for nothing from her. Don't you guys love it when a supposedly feminist retelling has a woman having a stronger bond with a male OC than with the canonical female figures she might have actually been close to? I know!

One day Danaë receives a visit from her father, after about a month or so ever since he locked her away. Danaë then begs him to release her, telling him that as long as he rejects any suitors or makes a priestess she won't bear any children, to which he makes it clear that she could still get pregnant via seduction or rape and this is the safest possible way to avoid the prophecy, then leaves.

"And it was then that she knew his true fear. He did not fear her but her body—the life it could bring, and the death. Its permeability, its fatal fecundity. This was no new threat. He had defended against it all her life. The oracle had only made his fear greater, the stakes higher. And with that realization she knew she was lost."

Something tells me that the author was thinking "I'm a genius." while writing this and started to self-compliment herself as if she wrote Oppenheimer's "Now I am become Death." speech.

The uncooked OC visits her that night again and Danaë tells him about her conversation with her father. He then tries to comfort her, and they start to kiss and fuck.

Chapter Seven

This chapter is only three pages (not that the other would be much longer anyway), and it's basically just the uncooked OC telling Danaë that he could help her escape, and run together far from Argos. But they don't really come with any plan at all, because Danaë still hopes that her father will change his mind one day and free her anyway.

I'm sorry girl, but just because you don't believe in prophecies or in getting pregnant after the first time that doesn’t mean that your father shares the exact same beliefs as yours, nor that he will free you for asking him politely.

Chapter Eight

Danaë discovers that: "Oh well, you could ACTUALLY get pregnant after the first time!" and realizes how stupid and desperate she was all this time. Her servant is the one who observed her nauseous moods sooner and informs her father about it, and he quickly realizes that his daughter might be in fact pregnant.

But Danaë still didn't figure out that the handmaid already suspects something, so she cuts her tight with a knife and stains her rags and wool with blood so that she would believe she didn’t lose her periods. But exactly in this moment her father enters her chambers and discovers her trickery.

Friendly reminder that the original Danaë managed to keep Perseus hidden for three or four years, while this one wasn't able to hide her pregnancy in the first place.

Chapter Nine

Danaë is held captive for a while, this time in her older bedroom instead of her prison, crying about how she can no longer see her beloved uncooked OC boyfriend again until her father asks her to come with him. They travel during nighttime in a wagon for a while, before they stop nearby the sea. Acrisius then asks his men to bind his daughter and throw her in a boat, then cast the boat into the see because he is a "pious men" and would rather know his daughter killed by the waves of Poseidon than his own hands. Danaë begs for forgiveness when her pedo uncle suddenly appears:

Proteus wasn't able to save his niece, so she's tied thrown into the boat anyway.

Chapter Ten

Danaë bemoans her own fate while pregnant and tied into the boat, praying that Poseidon won't cast any storm. I'm sorry, but this chapter alone is only three or four pages, and extremely dumb for numerous reasons:

1) The chances of a pregnant woman devoided of any food to not die are very low, let aside to not lose her pregnancy. Perseus was already a baby or a small child and Danaë wasn't tied in the original myth. Not to mention the fact that here she isn't in a chest but in a boat, making her more vulnerable and exposet to any danger.

2) Danaë and Perseus weren't completely abandoned, but protected and safely carried away by Poseidon and the Nereids. But because in this shitty retelling there are no gods the fact that her and her fetus somehow survived is less credible.

3) This is the distance between Argos and Seriphos, by the way:

There's no way that trip lasted for only one day or a few hours.

That boat is eventually found by Dictys and other fishermen, who manages to safely rescue Danaë.

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Mammalia - Peramelemorphia

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

The marsupial order Peramelemorphia contains the living families Peramelidae (“bandicoots”) and Thylacomyidae (“Greater Bilby”).

Peramelemorphs all tend to have a characteristic shape: a round, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. They range from the size of a rat to the size of a rabbit. They are omnivorous, feeding mainly on soil-dwelling invertebrates, as well as seeds, fruit, and fungi. They possess a well-developed sense of smell and eyes that are adapted for nocturnal habits. They are are generally solitary, with females taking care of their young.

Female peramelemorphs have a pouch that opens to the rear, to protect their young while they dig for insects and their larvae. The gestation period of peramelemorphs is the shortest among mammals, at just 12-14 days. As in other marsupials, peramelemorph joeys are born as tiny, relatively undeveloped neonates and must crawl their way from the vagina to the pouch to latch on to a teat, where they will complete the rest of their development. Peramelemorph growth is fast, with bandicoots setting off on their own and becoming sexually mature at just three months of age. Female bilbies reach sexual maturity at five months of age, and male bilbies become sexually mature at eight months. This allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season and gives peramelemorphs an unusually high reproductive rate compared to other marsupials.

Peramelemorphs originated in the Late Oligocene. Both the oldest modern bandicoot (Peramelid) and the oldest bilby (Thylacomyid) are known from Middle Miocene fossil deposits (around 15 million years old).

Propaganda under the cut:

The name bandicoot is based on the animal’s ratlike appearance. The name comes from an English corruption of an Indian word "pandi-kokku" meaning "pig-rat".

The smallest peramelemorph is the Mouse Bandicoot (Microperoryctes murina), which is 15–17.5 cm (5.9-6.9 in) long.

The Golden Bandicoot (Isoodon auratus) is especially adapted for life in hot, semi-arid environments. It has a low body temperature that is constantly changing, making it heterothermic. This allows the internal body temperature to fluctuate in response to extreme environmental temperatures without inhibiting and denaturing necessary proteins. Additionally, its low metabolic rate correlates to less heat being produced by the body, and a low thermal conductance does not allow the animal to capture and store heat well. A highly efficient panting mechanism allows for a low rate of evaporative water loss when cooling the body, conserving precious water.

The Northern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus) is one of relatively few native Australian ground-dwelling mammals that is able to survive in urbanized landscapes, due to their generalized diet and habitat requirements.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) (image 1) is the basis for the popular videogame character Crash Bandicoot, and was selected from a number of Tasmanian mammals by creators Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin for its appeal and relative obscurity.

Described in 2014, a fossil species of Miocene bandicoot found at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area was given the genus name Crash. It was given the species names bandicoot. Because paleontologists are just Like That.

Wiped out due to predation from introduced foxes and domestic cats, as well as land-clearing for farming, the Victorian subspecies of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) was declared Extinct in the Wild. Thanks to 30 years of conservation efforts, breeding the bandicoots in human care and establishing fox and cat-safe sanctuaries, the mainlaind population was changed from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered in September 2021, a first for Australian conservation!

The Giant Bandicoot (Peroryctes broadbenti) (image 3) is more than twice the weight of other bandicoots and adult males of the species can attain weights well in excess of 4 kg (8.8 lb).

Unlike bandicoots, Greater Bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) (image 2 and gif) are excellent burrowers and build extensive tunnel systems with their strong forelimbs and well-developed claws. Burrows spiral down, making it hard for predators to get in. A bilby typically makes several burrows within its home range, up to about a dozen; and moves between them, using them for shelter both from predators and the heat of the day, as they are desert-dwelling animals.

Greater Bilbies are generally solitary, however, there are some cases in which they travel in pairs. Pairs usually consist of two females as the sole caregivers of their offspring.

Greater Bilbies do not need to drink water, as they retain all the moisture they need from their food.

Because rabbits are invasive in Australia, introduced by European settlers, bilbies have been popularised as an Australian alternative to the Easter Bunny. Haigh's Chocolates in Adelaide made 950,000 chocolate “Easter Bilbies” between 1993 and 2020, with proceeds donated to the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia, which does environmental work to protect the indigenous biodiversity of Australia.

Today, only the Greater Bilby survives and is vulnerable, but the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is a recently extinct relative, having possibly survived into the 1960s. Its extinction was much “quieter” than that of the Thylacine, and was likely due to introductions of invasive predators like the domestic cat and red fox. Other “quiet extinctions” include that of the Desert Bandicoot (Perameles eremiana) which appears to have disappeared between about 1943 and 1960, and the Nullarbor Barred Bandicoot (Perameles papillon) which was last collected in 1928.

Today, many peramelemorph species are still threatened and endangered due to habitat fragmentation and introduced predators, as well as from competition with introduced rabbits. Areas designated to conserve vulnerable populations of bilbies and bandicoots have predator exclusion fences built around them, and must be heavily monitored for break-ins. In Currawinya National Park in Queensland, high-salinity flood waters damaged a predator exclusion fence, allowing feral cats to enter the sanctuary, wiping out all the bilbies in the park.

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Did you know that the lineage leading to geckos goes all the way back to the Jurassic? Geckos represent one of the oldest divergences of extant lizards, second only to the obscure Dibamids, with all other lizards (including snakes!) being more closely related to each other than to geckos. Fortunately for us, stem-geckos from the Mesozoic are well-represented in the fossil record. We likely already have one in-game, depending on your preferred taxonomic interpretation of the long-tailed lizard Schoenesmahl, which will be joined by an additional three: Ardeosaurus, Eichstaettisaurus, and Helioscopos.

Ardeosaurus is a small lizard known from the Late Jurassic of Germany. It has been found in the Altmühltal Formation, which represents the famous Solnhofen Archipelago environment, from which famous dinosaurs such as Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx hail. This would have been a tropical, insular setting, inhabited by many small reptiles such as this one. The taxonomic placement of Ardeosaurus and its nearest kin remains unsettled, with some papers placing it as a stem-skink, iguanian, or even a stem-squamate. However, it is most often recovered as a stem-gecko. Ardeosaurus is known from complete specimens and is around 20 cm long. 

Eichstaettisaurus was originally described as a species of Ardeosaurus, before being separated out later. Like Ardeosaurus, this lizard is known from the Altmühltal Formation, however, in contrast, it is also known from Early Cretaceous fossils in Italy. Both preserve similar marine lagoonal environments, suggesting comparable habitat preferences across this entire period of time. Eichstaettisaurus is generally recovered closer to extant geckos than Ardeosaurus, which likely represents a slightly older branch in gecko evolution. No specimen of this lizard preserves the entire tail, but comparisons of the larger specimen with Ardeosaurus suggests a length around 15-20 cm.  Helioscopos is an Ardeosaurid known from the other side of the world: the Morrison Formation of the western United States. It was described from a disarticulated skull near the end of 2023. The description of this taxon identified it as a stem-gecko and reinforced the identification of Ardeosaurus within this stem group as well. The presence of geckos in both Europe and North America is consistent with other shared fauna between these regions during this time. As a member of the Morrison fauna, it would have lived alongside many of the most famous dinosaurs, including Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, and Brachiosaurus. The name Helioscopos means “sun watcher,” a reference to the large pineal foramen, which likely indicates the presence of a parietal eye, a primitive light-sensing organ in the center of the skull. Assuming proportions similar to Ardeosaurus, Helioscopos was likely around 15 cm.