I Got Asked By A Super Nice Dude To Make A Tutorial On How I Do Duck Beaks And Faces In Perspective (not

Whaler Sharks

15% off on all my prints this weekend on esty. Sharkgazing is one of them:

https://etsy.me/3i3WAxR

AAAAAAAAAA COSMONAUT THYLACINUS CYNOCEPHALUS!?????!?!?!?!💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Thylacine space adventure in my bedroom tonight! Sesame took little Fennel and Dill to the ‘moon’

Fennel (she/her, with tag) and Dill (he/him, no tag)

Two little thylacines by Paradise Ark, bought online and arrived in October 2022. Both originally had some oddly-constructed hind legs that seemed half joined together - Dill has been modified to have more ‘normal’ shaped legs. Their facial expressions are naturally so different!

Colorata Goblin Shark

From La Ballena y los animales del mar, illustrated by Gabriele Pozzi, 1985.

Beautiful!!!!!

Long time no tumblr!

Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby (Petrogale xanthropus) - 

Adapted for life on the dry, rocky outcrops of Southern Australia and South New Wales, this small, tri-colored wallaby only stands about 2 feet tall.  Their long tails and large, gripping feet make them excellent at jumping and maneuvering their rocky homes.

These little marsupials used to run the hills of Australia.  But due to pelt hunting and overpopulation of foxes and goats, they have been pushed to the southern regions of Australia.  A large part of their population is in protected and private land.  However since wallabies and kangaroos have the ability to freeze pregnancy, they can always be carrying young.  They also have food that is harder to reach for other grazers, so their numbers are hovering.  Currently, they are listed as vulnerable. 

Photos: (top) (bottom left) (bottom right)

Wild Stingrays making sounds beneath the waves

Stingrays: no longer the silent residents of the sea! 

Our new Journal of Ecology paper provides the first evidence of not one but TWO species of #stingray actively producing sounds 🔊 

https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3812 

We present 3 examples of sound production by wild stingrays - one of an adult mangrove whipray (Urogymnus granulatus) in #Indonesia by #scuba diver Philip Christoff, a juvenile mangrove whipray at #MagneticIsland in the #GreatBarrierReef by biologist and photographer Javier Delgado Esteban, and an adult cowtail stingray (Pastinachus ater) at #HeronIsland the Great Barrier Reef by marine biologist and photographer Johnny Gaskell.

The sounds are characterised by short, sharp ‘clicks’ and likely serve as a warning or defence signal. Both species often form large groups, so it may alert others to potential danger, suggesting a role in intraspecific communication! The mechanism is still unclear 🤔 but it appears they are produced through rapid movement of the jaw or head and spiracles behind the eye. 

 Almost 990 species of bony #fish have been shown to actively produce sounds, but until now #elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, and skates) have been considered silent. We show that this is a misconception, and more #research into this ability is needed! Turns out we have much to learn about life beneath the waves… 

 Given these observations were captured opportunistically by different people, we expect more to come to light in these and possibly by other species. If you’ve seen something similar, please get in touch! 

 The paper is fairly short and you don’t need specialist skills to understand most of it, so do take a read & let us know what you think 👍. 

The early view pre-typesetting version is up now here:

https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3812 

(all versions will be open access and free to read)