Henry Jones Thaddeus (1859-1929) "The Wounded Poacher" Oil on canvas Realism Located in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

If you ever wondered what the best living vertebrate is, it’s the alligator gar in my totally not biased 100% scientifically backed opinion. They are just a flawless creature. Nothing wrong with them. Good tooth to snoot ratio, they have a winning smile.

They and other monster fish absolutely should NOT be in the hands of most private keepers at all and I do NOT support morph breeding of them because of that, but pretty fishy cute :c

EXTINCTION - THE ENDLING

EXTINCTION is a fantasy / horror story about things that end. You can get it here as part of the Shortbox Comics Fair!

The Extinction PDF is screen-reader accessible.

Till Death Do Us Part ❤️

Day 2376: The ranchers head west towards the coast. They take a break in the outskirts of a small town, overrun not by zombies but by feral plants and animals.

The one thing I like about spring is the bright flowers contrast against the dreary grey everything else.

I'm finally done

The 3.74 meter reticulated python is finally finished, I am extremely proud, I feel like a peacock

There were probably more than a thousand pieces and I still have a 2.5 meter burmese degreasing and two other snakes in the freezer waiting to be cleaned and articulated

Alaska moose, I think. By Brendon Gould.

zorayas rya ryas

Super cool nature-made opossum mummy / skeleton. Mummified on one side, exposed skeleton on the other.

Get it HERE in my Etsy shop!

Turkey Vulture, part of nature’s clean-up crew

Wolf taxidermy & skeleton (Canadian Museum of Nature), 29.08.23

Daily fish fact #749

Silver spinyfin!

This fish has hardly a reason to be sad: it has the largest amount of rod opsin genes of any vertebrate! An opsin is a protein that is activated when it comes in contact with a certain wavelength of light, they are used in photoreceptor cells and allow us and other animals to see. To revise, two of the most significant types of photoreceptor cells in the eyes of a vertebrate are cones, which allow us to see in colour, and rods, which function in low light and allow us to see in the dark.

For the longest time, it was thought that vertebrates in general have just one type of rod opsin with one gene producing it (most do), but the silver spinyfin, a deep sea fish, is fascinating in that it has 38 genes for rod opsin! It can express 14 of those genes, and this selection of different rod opsins allows the silver spinyfin to see wavelengths between 445 and 520 nanometers, which encompasses much of blue light! In a strange twist, the silver spinyfin can see colour using its rod cells, likely to spot bioluminescence in the deep and dark ocean.

e f f i g y

Dante passed away today. He was struggling with some growths that we were treating, but he was old. I am heartbroken. He was our first baby, our first step into an amazing life of reptile keeping. I am forever grateful to him for bringing me 11 years of laughs with his strong food response but terrible aim. His warning rattles if i messed with his enclosure while he had food. Him chilling on my desk as I read or watched movies. His ungraceful flops off the couch. the time he yeeted out of my sisters hands in her van. I am thankful for all the joy he brought me by bringing me in to the reptile hobby, getting to watch him grow from a tiny pencil sized baby into a gorgeous adult. I love him so, so much. Im going to miss him dearly.

siamese twins in animals