The Public Paid For "Moderna's" Vaccine, And Now We're Going To Pay Again (and Again And Again)

‘aBiogenesis’ Reimagines the Primordial Soup Theory in a Mesmerizing Animation by Markos Kay

Therocephalians were a group of synapsids very closely related to – or possibly even ancestral to – the lineage leading to modern mammals. They were a diverse and successful group of carnivores during the latter half of the Permian, but suffered massively during the "Great Dying" mass extinction, with only a handful of representatives making it a few million years into the Triassic.

Tetracynodon darti was one of these rare Triassic therocephalian survivors, living in what is now South Africa around 251 million years ago. Only about 25cm long (~10"), it had slender limbs and strong claws that suggest it was a scratch-digger. Its long snout was lined with pointed teeth, and it was probably an active predator hunting by snapping its jaws at fast-moving prey like insects and smaller vertebrates.

Its combination of small size, burrow-digging habits, and unspecialized diet may be the reason it scraped through the Great Dying when most of its relatives didn't – but unfortunately it seems to have been a "dead clade walking", disappearing only a short way into early Triassic deposits.

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References:

Fontanarrosa, Gabriela, et al. "The manus of Tetracynodon (Therapsida: Therocephalia) provides evidence for survival strategies following the Permo-Triassic extinction." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38.4 (2018): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1491404

Sigurdsen, Trond, et al. "Reassessment of the morphology and paleobiology of the therocephalian Tetracynodon darti (Therapsida), and the phylogenetic relationships of Baurioidea." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32.5 (2012): 1113-1134. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254315180_Reassessment_of_the_Morphology_and_Paleobiology_of_the_Therocephalian_Tetracynodon_Darti_Therapsida_And_The_Phylogenetic_Relationships_of_Baurioidea

Wikipedia contributors. “Tetracynodon” Wikipedia, 21 Aug. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetracynodon

Wikipedia contributors. “Therocephalia” Wikipedia, 01 Oct. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therocephalia

Strange question for all my biologists out there, no matter what your specialisation is.

Does anyone know any good books about biology? The more accurate, the better, they can be academic essays even, it’s all good.

I’m looking for a Christmas gift for my sister, who is absolutely in love with biology, and she studies it in uni too, it’s not only a hobby.

Unfortunately, having very very little knowledge in hard sciences, I cannot determine whether a book about biology is good or not, not by looking at people’s reviews and whatnot. And… I trust people on Tumblr more.

I’ve read a few reviews of some books, but I can’t decide. Please help a poor soft-sciences-lover in need!

Plz reblog, I need to know I'm not alone in this.

Stop the ban on blood donation of gay men

i learned that there are no skeletons in the wreck of the Titanic or debris field. At depths of 3,000+ feet, seawater is undersaturated with calcium carbonate. Once animals ate the flesh of Titanic's passengers and crew, their bones dissolved (x)

Dear scientists,

Please, for the love of God, please, make your papers more understandable.

Fuck you

Sincerely,

A college student on the verge of tears

not to be positive on main but sometimes things really are ok. sometimes you really will be happy and safe and warm. sometimes you really will be giggly and blushy and full of love. sometimes the night is chilly and your home is cozy and your tea is perfectly steeped and your phone lights up with a message from someone you love. sometimes life really is quite lovely.

biologists will be like this is a very simplified diagram of a mammalian cell

chemists will be like this is a molecule