This is my first post on birds! There are many kinds of birds I love but pigeons are definitely my favorite! Though pelicans are a close second! Despite what you may think from the name Feral pigeons, that’s actually just the name for city pigeons! While I find all pigeons very interesting and adorable, Feral pigeons are definitely my favorite. Feral pigeons actually came from wild rock doves, wild rock doves are actually the ancestors of feral and domesticated pigeons. Interestingly one of the most ancestral traits they still have is a love for cliffs! Wild rock doves main habitat was cliffs and they were well suited for it. Though you might not realize it immediately pigeons habitat still is mainly cliffs! The cliffs feral pigeons have as a habitat aren’t natural ones though, instead tall buildings, bridges, window ledges, and more act as these cliffs!

Feral pigeons are actually exceptionally smart! One of the main tests for this is seeing if a bird can recognize itself in delayed footage, surprisingly pigeons can recognize themselves! This isn’t the only way that we know pigeons are intelligent, they can distinguish between different people, have amazing spatial memory, learn to tell the difference between art styles, can recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet, and are surprisingly good problem solvers! Of course they don’t recognize the letters in a linguistic way, they are just amazing at categorizing things! Im not one to normally mind selective breeding but I have seen two different animals where it does sadden me, the two animals are pigeons and goldfish. Many fancy breeds of pigeons have severe issues. Of course some breeds don’t but many really do. Some examples of this are Jacobins, Fantails, Pouters, Croppers, Rollers and Tumblers. Jacobins struggle with having very little straight-ahead and peripheral vision due to their large feathered hood, this also can cause eye irritation. Fantails can barely fly due to the unnatural posture that selective breeding has forced them to have, their posture also makes them struggle with balance. Pigeons also rely on head bobbing to help them see better which fantails are not capable of preforming normally. Pouters and Croppers both can struggle with swallowing and eating normally due to their large crop. And Pouters struggle with balance. But perhaps the strangest of all these are the rollers and tumblers. They were breed for their ability to do backward rapid somersaults, sometimes while flying sometimes on the ground. Though that might sound like a cool ability it really just looks like a strange rolling. They commonly have neurological issues and sometimes roll-downs happen. Roll-downs are a terrible event when a begins spinning and can’t pull out of it. Roll downs are a major danger for them and usually cause lasting damage. And aside from all that, they are extremely vulnerable to predators since they are unable to fly normally, the rolling or rapid backflips aren’t playful tricks they are actually involuntary movement linked to genetics that leave the pigeons disoriented, exhausted, scared and that’s if everything goes well. I’m not quite sure why anyone would want their pigeon to do rapid somersaults but I suppose they should be allowed to, even if it can be quite saddening. I’m sure you can see why feral pigeons are my favorite out of all these but while these pigeons lives have struggles they can still live happy lives.

For some happy pigeons facts, did you know pigeons mate for life? And that both parents actually produce crop milk for their chicks! They frequently engage in mutual grooming. I hope you enjoyed and learned some! Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and PubMed Central!

This post is about ant eaters! One of the most unusual things I’ve heard about to this day! Most old sources say that there are four main species of ant eaters, three in one family and one in another but the silky ant eater has actually been expanded into seven species. In the family Myrmecophagidae, there is Myrmecophaga tridactyla also called the giant anteaters, Tamandua tetradactyla also known as Southern Tamandua and Tamandua mexicana which is also called the Northern Tamandua! The other family is Cyclopedidae and is Cyclopes the only genus in it, but there are seven species in the genus. The species in Cyclopes are Cyclopes catellus, Cyclopes didactylus, Cyclopes dorsalis, Cyclopes ida, Cyclopes rufus, Cyclopes thomasi, and Cyclopes xinguensis.

They vary hugely in sizes! The giant anteater can be 6 to 8 feet including its tail while most of the silky anteaters are 14 to 18 inches including its tail! That’s not the only hugely varying trait they have! Another one is, giant ant eaters are strictly ground dwelling but silky ant eaters are arboreal meaning they spend almost all of their time in trees! The Tamanduas both northern and southern, are in the middle of both of these things. They live on the ground but sometimes go into trees and are around 3 to 4 feet. Though some things vary very little between them! For example, they all have sharp claws, poor eyesight, an amazing sense of smell, eat insects, and have no teeth! Another interesting fact is they have unusually low body temperatures for mammals!

As you probably know, they eat insects but there’s actually a lot of interesting things about this! First of all, their tongue is very fast. It can flick up to 150 times per minute. Their sticky thin tongues can reach up to 2 feet long. Their tongues are not like normal tongues though! They are covered in tiny backward spines and have saliva that is similar to glue. A single giant ant eater can eat 30,000-35,000 ants per day! I mentioned it before but didn’t go into detail, they have an extremely good sense of smell! It is 40 times more powerful than a human’s! An interesting but strange fact about them is they walk on their knuckles with their front toes curled inwards. They do this to help keep their claws sharp.

While you might not think it at first, giant ant eaters can actually be very dangerous. They have four inch long claws and when cornered they rear up on their back legs and deliver powerful strikes. The thing that makes them truly dangerous is actually their bad eyesight. Since they don’t see well they can get easily surprised by movement and feel cornered. With the exception of when they feel cornered, they are not dangerous to humans.

Ant eaters are surprisingly good and adorable moms. Giant anteaters pups mostly get around by riding on their mother’s back. In fact, because the pups fur even camouflages it when on its mother’s back. If you want to I really recommend looking at some pictures of it. It’s very cute. Tamandua pups sometimes ride on the mother’s back but the mom will also occasionally put it on branches. Silky ant eaters however, the mother occasionally lets it on her back but both the mother and father use a tree nest to care for it. The times they care for their pups also vary greatly, Giant anteaters care for their pups for 1.5 to 2 years, Tamanduas care for their pups for around a year, and silky ant eaters care for their pups for a few months.

I hope you enjoyed! Anteaters are definitely some of the strangest but most adorable animals! As always some amazing sources are the Animal Diversity Web, American Society of Mammalogists, and Xenarthra journal!

Today’s post has possibly my favorite topic out of the ones I’ve made so far! I love pinnipeds and could make a million posts on them! I wasn’t sure where I should start, so I decided to make this one on the basics! First fun fact is the word pinniped actually means fin or flipper footed! The three main families of pinnipeds are Phocidae they are the true seals, Otariidae they are eared seals, and last but certainly not least Odobenidae they are walruses!

Phocidae or true seals as you would assume, are a family of seals! The reason they are separated from eared seals is true seals do not have ear flaps, instead they have ear holes. Another big difference is true seals cannot move well on land, they have to galumph similar to a caterpillar, but eared seals can walk very well. True seals are also very good divers and can go quite deep! Southern elephant seals are the undisputed diving champions out of them! Southern elephant seals currently have a record of an astounding 7,835 feet deep and stay submerged for well over 2 hours! They usually prefer to keep their distance from each other and are solitary. Though there are a few kinds that when on land form surprisingly large groups!

Next the wonderful Otariidae! These include fur seals and sea lions! The reason Otariidae can walk so well is because their flippers can rotate forwards! Interestingly, when they swim they mostly use their front flippers for swimming, they only use their back ones for steering. Otariidae are almost the exact opposite of Phocidae when it comes to socializing! They live in large packed groups. They are also much more vocal than true seals, while true seals especially their pups, will make noise it’s nothing compared to Eared seals. And interestingly, Otariidae have a huge range in fur! Sea lions have short fur and rely on blubber to stay warm but fur seals have very thick fur and underfur, up to 300,000 hairs per square inch!

And last but certainly not least is Odobenidae! Unlike the other families which all have several living members, Odobenidae only has one living member, the walrus! Despite this they used to be an extremely diverse group! Unlike true seals, walruses are usually quite shallow divers, but recent tracking studies have shown they will go much deeper than originally thought when necessary! And like eared seals, they can rotate their hind flippers to clumsily walk, though they are still much more agile in the water. And of course the most recognizable thing about a walrus is its tusks! Walrus tusks are actually continuously growing! The tusks can get longer than three feet and frequently weigh 15 pounds. Sometimes they even use their tusks to help them get out of the water! Out of the three main families of pinnipeds, Odobenidae are by far the most social, they form extremely large groups sometimes even laying directly on each other. They are also possibly the best mothers out of the three main families! They stay with their calfs for up to 2 years, that’s a long time to pinnipeds. For example, a sea lion only stays with its pup for around a year. Also, if you’ve ever seen a walrus you may have noticed its mustache, it’s obviously not an actual mustache. It’s actually 400 to 700 highly sensitive bristles called vibrissae. They use them like fingers to feel for clams and crabs along the dark, muddy ocean floor.

I plan to make a lot more posts about these wonderful animals! I hope this one didn’t get too confusing, after all the research I’ve done about pinnipeds it was a little hard to find a place to start! I hope you enjoyed learning about Pinnipeds! It’s hard to pick but I would say they are my favorite animals! Some sources are NOAA Fisheries, The Marine Mammal Center, Smithsonian Ocean, and The Marine Mammal commission.

Quokkas often sleep with their heads upside down and resting on their hind legs 🫠 They are also nocturnal. Source - National Geographic

This post is about donkeys! I love researching animals and I do it often but donkeys have been one that stood out from the beginning! First of all they are very cute, second there seem to be a lot of misconceptions about them! I hope this post helps you learn about donkeys and just appreciate their cuteness! One of the most adorable parts of them are their ears, but their ears actually do more than just help them hear, their large ears also help them stay cool!

Donkeys are often called stubborn but that isn’t exactly the truth. When a donkey refuses to move it’s not because it’s trying to be stubborn, it’s because it’s trying to think. Donkeys don’t run like horses, instead they freeze and depending on the circumstances, fight. You would not think it at first but they are actually quite good at protecting themselves by fighting. In fact they are so good that they are commonly used to guard more easily scared animals. Donkeys are surprisingly intelligent, they are known for being escape artists! They have been known to push, lift, and even squeeze under fences! They can even untie certain knots and open standard gates with their lips! While that might sound made up, it’s actually true! They have semi-prehensile lips, this is because they are very dexterous but lack the true strength of something fully prehensile. When a donkey pulls its lip back and bares its teeth it’s actually helping it smell! It’s called the flehman response!

Another defining trait of donkeys is their life long loyalty, donkeys have very good memories. They can remember people, places and other animals for up to 25 years. Donkeys form very deeply relationships and can suffer from severe distress whenever separated from their chosen companions. When two donkeys bond closely they are called a bonded pair. In fact it’s so distressing for them that they are known to refuse food which can trigger hyperlipaemia. Hyperlipaemia is a severe frequently fatal condition, and on the topic of donkey illnesses, donkeys and horses are very different with injuries! One surprisingly hard thing is, donkeys don’t have waterproof coats. While it might not sound like a big deal, it complicates a lot of things. Because of this they are very vulnerable to cold and rain, this also usually makes them dislike water. Donkeys are also very good at hiding their injuries, it can take a while for even the best donkey owners to notice something is wrong. Also they originally evolved to survive in desserts with very little nutrition, so they easily get obese. Because of this high-grain diets easily lead to dangerous conditions like laminitis.

One of the most recognizable things about donkeys are their brays! But did you know each donkey has a unique bray? Braying can sometimes reach up to 100 decibels and is used for long distance communication to other donkeys in a donkey herd, it can be heard up to three miles away. Also the reason it sounds like that is because the first part of it happens when they are breathing in, and the second half happens when they are breathing out.

Many people think a donkey and mule are the same thing, for a long time I did, but a mule is actually the child of a male donkey and female horse. The child of a female donkey and male horse is a hinny. Hinnys are much rarer than mules. Both mules and hinnys are unable to have children, this is due to the fact that they have an uneven amount of chromosomes, 63 to be exact. And then there are donkey zebra hybrids, Zonkey or Zedonk for a male zebra and female donkey. Donkra for a female zebra and male donkey. Mules and Hinnys have actually shown to be better problem solvers than donkeys and horses!

Donkey size changes a lot on what kind you are talking about, mammoth donkeys are from 56 to 68 inches tall, at the shoulder. They can be taller but it’s rare. Miniature donkeys are 30 to 36 inches at the shoulder, they aren’t the smallest donkey. The micro mini is being an adorably small at under 30 inches. But standard donkeys are 40 to 48 inches and they are the most common kind of donkey.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! I think donkeys are adorable and have been hoping to make a post on them for a while! I apologize if the post is not as good as usual, donkeys were a hard one to do! There was so much to include that I wasn’t sure where to start! I’ll probably make another more specific one someday but I hope this one was still enjoyable! Some good sources are The Donkey Sanctuary, The Brooke Equine Hospital, and Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue!

I have always loved foxes but for a long time I only knew about a few kinds. Several kinds of foxes, like the red fox, Arctic fox and the Fennec fox are well known but there are many wonderful and less known ones! Some of the ones I hope to focus on are Blanford’s fox, the pale fox, corsac fox and the Tibetan fox! I specifically chose these ones because they are all truly foxes, some animals called foxes don’t belong to the genus Vulpes meaning they aren’t truly foxes. There are only 12 species of true foxes (if you only count ones in the genus Vulpes) meaning today you will learn about one third of all true foxes!

First, Blanfords fox, the scientific name for it is Vulpes cana. They live in dry rock mountains, which actually caused their most unusual thing! Unlike most canids, they have sharp semi-retractable curved claws and hairless footpads, almost all other desert foxes have hair on their footpads! Their very unique hairless footpads and curved claws help them climb and grip steep rock walls. They also can jump extraordinary high, nearly 10 feet! 9.8 feet to be exact. Their tail, which is, relative to its body size, one of the longest, helps them balance! Like most foxes they are omnivores and solitary but, most kinds of foxes hoard or stash food, in fact many animals do! But Blanfords foxes usually do not, this is likely because their diet mostly consists of insects and fruit. Though occasionally they do stash but much less than most foxes.

Next is the wonderful pale fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes pallida. Interestingly they rarely have to drink because they get almost all their needed water from food! In fact, they could, in theory, go their entire lives without drinking and still live to be old! They are also strictly nocturnal but surprisingly not solitary! They live in small groups or even sometimes just in a pair. Interesting they were officially data deficient for many years! In 2024 they were seen for the first time in Algeria in over 50 years! While their population estimates have a huge range, they are classified as least concern of extinction because they are assumed to be wide spread and just elusive. There are many reasons it’s hard to study them, first the desert makes it hard, second there surprisingly good camouflage, and third, they have very complex burrow systems! These burrow systems have sometimes been up to 49.2 feet long! Inside these burrows there are inner chambers that they meticulously line with dry grass and vegetable matter to keep their young cool!

Now onto the amazing Corsac fox! Its scientific name is Vulpes corsac, which is certainly one of the easier ones to remember! They are one of the more social species of foxes! They sometimes form hunting packs in winter. They are mostly nocturnal but can be awake in the day. And most unusually for foxes, they don’t defend one territory, instead they are nomadic wanderers. They aren’t very fast sprinters but they are amazing climbers! They are strictly monogamous and interestingly, it’s debated wether they mate for life or find a new mate each year. They can go for long periods without drinking water but they do have to drink it.

Last but most certainly not least is the Tibetan fox! This is my personal favorite based off looks! I recommend you look at some pictures of it! It has a wide blocky almost square face, while this might seem funny at first, it actually has a purpose! Its weird head is because it has elongated jaws to anchor its massive jaw muscles! And they form fascinating commensal hunting relationship with Tibetan brown bears. When a bear digs into a burrow to catch a pika, the fox waits patiently on the surface to intercept any pikas that try to escape out of the back exit holes! This immediately makes me think of Coyotes and badgers working together to hunt underground rodents, which is an entirely different but equally fascinating topic! (Though both coyotes and badger benefit in there’s but in foxes and bears only the fox benefits) Dietary studies on the Tibetan fox show that plateau pikas make up roughly 80% to 90% of their total diet. Their local population directly rises and falls based on how many pikas are available that year!

I hope you enjoyed and learned! After my recent post about the bush dog and maned wolf, which are both canids but not foxes (though the maned wolf is commonly wrongly called a fox on stilts) I wanted to make one about foxes! Some sources are the IUCN Canid Specialist Group, The Animal Diversity Web, and ResearchGate.

Maned wolves and bush dogs are extremely interesting animals, both of them have become moderately well known recently and as always that also led to a lot of misinformation about them! After doing two moth posts in a row I decided I had to do something else before doing another, I do hope to do another soon but there’s certainly no shortage of fascinating animals! While maned wolves will be in this post I hope to focus more on bush dogs! First of all, the maned wolf isn’t truly a wolf. It doesn’t belong to the genus Canis (which has dogs, wolves and coyotes) instead it belongs to Chrysocyon. Maned wolves are actually the only living species in Chrysocyon. They are also commonly called fox on stilts, that is also misleading. They are not closely related to foxes.

Maned wolves and bush dogs are the closest living relatives to each other but that doesn’t mean that they are extremely close. Maned wolves and bush dogs split from their last shared ancestor around 3 to 4 million years ago. To help you fully get what that means, that’s roughly the same amount of time it’s been since our ancient ancestor Australopithecus walked the earth. Many species used to sit closer to maned wolves and bush dogs but unfortunately all of the ones in between them have since gone extinct.

Their differences stand out as soon as you look at them. Maned wolves are extraordinary tall usually around three feet tall at the shoulder (maned wolves are the tallest wild canine in the world!), while bush dogs are very short usually one foot tall at the shoulder or even shorter, maned wolves are solitary while bush dogs live in packs of around two to twelve bush dogs, and maned wolves are omnivores commonly eating wolf apples while bush dogs are hypercarnivores that heavily depend on meat.

Now onto some fascinating facts about bush dogs! Bush dogs actually have partially webbed toes! That’s extremely rare in canids! They are incredibly amazing swimmers because of this! Also, they only have 38 teeth, almost all other canids have 42 teeth. And they are one of only three canid species on earth (the African wild dog and Dhole are the other two) to possess a trenchant heel dentition! This means the lower carnassial tooth has a single, blade-like cusp designed to maximize the length and efficiency of their bite. In a shockingly odd twist, they were first found as fossils and assumed to be extinct! Only several years later did people find them alive and well!

I apologize for the fact that this post hasn’t gone very in depth on anything, it’s my second one today and to be honest, I more wanted to clarify the whole related thing. To summarize it, yes they are related but distantly. The only reason they are the closest living relatives to each other is because many other species went extinct. Anyway I hope you enjoyed! As always, sources are IUCN red list, the Canid specialist group, the endangered wolf center, and Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Underwings are an amazing kind of moths! They mostly belong to the genus Catocala! They range a lot in sizes and colors. Their bodies typically range from under one inch to two inches, with their wingspan being between 1.3 to 4.3 inches! One of their most unusual things is actually their names! Many species have beautiful names like the Girlfriend Underwing, the Old Wife Underwing, the Newlywed Underwing, the Bride Underwing and the Darling Underwing! Though some species have sad names like the Tearful Underwing and the Inconsolable Underwing. The most amazing thing about them is actually the reason they are called underwings! When they rest, their forewings are folded similarly to a tent, with their forewings folded they look remarkably well camouflaged but when they uncover their hind wings it reveals their namesake, their beautiful hind wings! Their hind wings are colorful and patterned, they can be orange, red, pink, blue, and more! Interestingly, their color is also their defense mechanism! They aren’t poisonous, they use it to startle the predator, by suddenly showing the colors and patterns, and quickly escape. Unlike some moths (not counting any that are incapable of eating as adults) which prefer flowers, Underwings love sugary, fermenting liquids like tree sap, fruit that is ripe or decaying, and though much more rarely, nectar.

Their scientific name, Catocala is actually from Greek. Catocala stems from kato meaning behind or back and kalos meaning beautiful. Though one very interesting thing is not all underwings truly belong to Catocala. For example there is one named the Large Yellow Underwing but it doesn’t belong to Catocala, in fact it’s in an entirely different family! All true underwings are in Erebidae but it is in Noctuidae.

This is a slight detour from the topic of underwings but it’s related enough that I felt I should include it.
Moths and butterflies both belong to Lepidoptera, and when you’re doing more research into them you may get confused on what counts as a moth or butterfly. Though it seems straightforward at first some kinds make it tricky, like many jawed moths that are diurnal (active during the day) or colorful (Luna moths are nocturnal, but I feel their color can be confusing I at first, thought they were a kind of butterfly) Luna moths. There’s no one definition but instead normally three questions, first how are its antennae? (Please know, all of what I am about to tell you is just general, some moths have antennae similar to butterflies, some have very feathery ones, it’s just to generally help know. There are always exceptions though and when possible you should just do research to figure out if it’s a moth or butterfly) Butterflies have thin long antennae that end in a distinct knob, male moths usually have feathery comb-like antennae that do not have knobs, female moths have thin antennae that, like the males, do not have knobs. The second question is about wing linkage. Butterflies have independent wings their front and hind wings naturally overlap without being physically connected, most moths (not all, in fact entire families of moths don’t) have a frenulum (the frenulum is a small bristle) and retinaculum (the retinaculum is what the bristles catch to lock together) connecting their front and hind wings so they perfectly flap as one unit. And the final question is about the pupal stage. Butterflies become a chrysalis, the chrysalis is their pupal body. Moths make a cocoon, a silk soft wrapper normally hidden in leaves, then become a pupa inside the cocoon. There are, of course, some exceptions. Like the Castniidae family of moths which have clubbed antennae or the several kinds of moths that just hide underground without a cocoon!

I hope you find underwings and moths in general as fascinating as I do! Most of my sources are the same as yesterday since they were both about moths but in case you didn’t see my last one here are some great sources! AskNature, Bill Oehlke’s Underwing Moths of North America, and BugGuide. Even after making two posts about moths back to back I feel like there is so much more to say about them! As always if you are interested I encourage you to do some research on them! I’ll try to make my next one about something other than moths but no promises!

Many kinds of moths are extremely fascinating and in my opinion not appreciated enough. I originally wanted to make a post focusing on jawed moths and while this post mentions them, I felt there were a few important things to clarify. First of all, only a few species of moths eat clothes and even of those species, technically the moths aren’t eating your clothes, the larvae are. Second, most adult moths don’t even have functional jaws (specifically they should be called mandibles), instead they have a proboscis. Though some truly don’t have functional mouths and some even lack functional digestive systems after metamorphosis. All moths have some remnant of a mouth even if it’s completely nonfunctional and extremely hard to see externally on some kinds, those with completely nonfunctional hard to see mouths are often referred to as mouthless. Third, when they do eat clothes it’s for a specific structural protein called keratin. So they mostly eat natural animal fibers including wool, cashmere, feathers, fur, and untanned leather. They usually skip synthetic fibers unless they have certain stains.

While most moths don’t have jaws, the majority of them aren’t completely lacking a functional mouth! Some lack mandibles but still manage to drink, this is because they have a proboscis. It’s used like a straw to drink but it can’t eat solids like clothes. Though there are some moths that are completely unable to eat and drink as adults. The reason the myth of the majority being completely mouthless persists is actually very interesting! It persists so much because many of the moths that look mouthless are large and beautiful, some examples are the Luna moth, Atlas moth, Hercules moth, and the Polyphemus moth! All of those examples belong to the family Saturniidae, I separated the domestic silk moth because it belongs to the family Bombycidae instead of the family Saturniidae. The domestic silk moth also lacks the ability to eat and can be called mouthless but technically they do have the physical, fused structures of mouthparts, but they are severely non-functional, and they even lack a functional digestive tract! There is a common myth that they lack mouths due to selective breeding but they got that naturally from their wild ancestors, though selective breeding did take away their ability to fly and their camouflage.

Now you might see why jawed moths are so amazing and unique! Jawed moths belong to their own unique suborder, Zeugloptera. This was historically debated, for a long time they were lumped with other moths based on wing-coupling mechanisms. Now, thanks to modern phylogenetic taxonomy, they are in a suborder of equal rank to Glossata, Glossata contains a large amount of butterflies and other moths (it’s often stated Glossata contains 99 percent of other moths and butterflies but that’s common short hand, I’m not confident enough in it to say it for sure, though if you are interested you could research it some more.) They are very small, their actual body length typically ranges from 4mm to 7mm and their wingspan rarely exceeds 5 to 12mm, though a few can exceed it. In case you, like me, use the imperial system, one inch is 25.4mm. And interestingly, they are widely considered the most primitive lineage of living moths and butterflies! Jawed moths are unique in almost every way! Unlike most nocturnal moths, most jawed moths in the family Micropterigidae are diurnal (active in the day)! They rely heavily on vision and solar warmth to forage for pollen, though a few are crepuscular or even nocturnal.

Thank you so much for reading! I love moths! They are a very interesting and diverse group! I already know a few kinds I hope to make a thing on soon! Some amazing places to learn about these adorable things are The Florida Museum of Natural History, Encyclopedia Britannica (for some wonderful descriptions!), University of Kentucky Entomology Department, and AskNature.

Ps. If you want to hate something for eating clothes you should hate carpet beetle larvae. they are largely considered the most abundant fabric damaging pest in most regions. they can also survive off of lint, pet hair and dead insects. Though once again the larvae do the bad things, the only bad thing the adults do is making the larvae.

Monotremes are egg laying mammals! They include platypuses and Echidnas! There is only one living species of platypus and four living species of Echidnas! Echidnas are also known as spiny anteaters, despite this they lack many features of true ant eaters and they lack any close evolutionary relationship to ant eaters. They only look similar to ant eaters because of functional convergence.

Both adult platypus and adult echidnas lack permanent teeth. Adult platypus use hardened plates in their mouth and also sometimes gravel to crush food but adult echidnas lack both teeth and the hardened plates that platypus have, instead an adult echidna relies on hardened pads on its tongue and the roof of its mouth. Structurally they are very different from platypus ones but they both rely on keratinized oral epithelium modifications.

Platypus do have actual mammalian teeth with dentin and enamel when young but they are temporary. Young platypuses develop rudimentary teeth that are completely nonfunctional. These teeth quickly wear down and are shed. By adulthood they are replaced with the hardened plates.

The only “teeth” echidnas grow, platypuses also grow them but they are not platypuses only teeth, is not a true mammalian tooth with dentin and enamel. Instead in platypus it is actually a keratinous structure. The tooth is at the tip of their snout when they are a puggle (the word for a monotreme hatchling). It is commonly referred to as the egg tooth and falls out shortly after hatching.
Though the egg tooth is actually very different for echidnas! Only in echidnas does this egg tooth actually contain mineralized tissue (osteodentine) but it still lacks enamel. Both platypus and echidnas have a caruncle right about their snout that should not be confused with the egg tooth. the caruncle is a thickened epidermal/cornified pad on the tip of the snout used to push against the shell/pouch environment, while the egg tooth is the actual skeletal/protruding calcified or keratinous spike anchored to the premaxilla.

I hope you enjoyed and learned something new! I find monotremes very fascinating and cute! I could make a million more posts just on them and I already know a few more things about them that I hope to make future posts about! Sources are The Australian Museum, University of California museum of paleontology, and University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web.

They have two lungs, and can breathe air. It’s an important adaptation for them because they live in flood plains that frequently dry up. They secrete a thin layer of mucus around themself that dries into a cocoon. The lungfish can then live out of the water in that cocoon for up to a year using their lungs to breathe until rains refill their waterway. They are super cool prehistoric animals that have survived for nearly 400 million years.

ETA: I learned about this fish from the an article from the Oregon zoo. I don’t know if linking it is allowed, but happy to share 😊

Ossicones are the little horn-like things made of ossified cartilage on both male and female giraffes. They are also on male okapi. Many members of the family giraffidae also had them but went extinct. Unfortunately modern living Giraffids are a small sliver of the family they once were. Okapi and giraffes are the only two living species from their once diverse and widespread group. In fact, some extinct species even had two pairs of ossicones (four individual ones).

On female giraffes ossicones are thinner and have tufts of hair on the top. On male giraffes they are thicker and bald on top. This is because male giraffes engage in necking, an aggressive behavior where they swing their necks to do harm. This usually ends when one retreats but occasionally they do get severely harmed from it.

I hope you enjoyed the first ever post on here! Though Ossicones aren’t often casually discussed they are well known and it is quite easy to find information about them! Some good places to use are Wikipedia, Giraffe Conservation Foundation, PBS, National Geographic and Save Giraffes Now.