Changed url back to an old one because tbh there’s not much Doctor Who on this blog anymore but my name is still River so

weird-ecologies:
“the-haiku-bot:
“emi–rose:
“generouslyandrogynousdragon:
“winneganfake:
“saxifraga-x-urbium:
“invisible-goats:
“theclockworkjules:
“knitordeath:
“alexaloraetheris:
“ haltraveler:
“ aethersea:
“ haltraveler:
“ virovac:
“...

weird-ecologies:

the-haiku-bot:

emi–rose:

generouslyandrogynousdragon:

winneganfake:

saxifraga-x-urbium:

invisible-goats:

theclockworkjules:

knitordeath:

alexaloraetheris:

haltraveler:

aethersea:

haltraveler:

virovac:

anais-ninja-bitch:

a-dinosaur-a-day:

shadybacon:

a-dinosaur-a-day:

shadybacon:

a-dinosaur-a-day:

aquaticpaleo:

harmalite:

CLADISTICS ruined my life

yall joke but this is actually a serious conundrun with cladistic-based classification

The choice is this: 

Birds are reptiles 

Or crocodilians (and probably turtles) ARENT 

That’s it, that’s the choice 

What if
Bird and reptiles are two different things
that came from the same thing

Nope 

Because you can’t group (lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians) without also including (birds) 

So if you don’t want to include birds in reptiles then you have to leave out some things we’ve called reptiles 

birds are dinosaurs though, full stop. we’ve already defined what a dinosaur is and it includes birds. but reptiles isn’t really defined so much as thrown against a wall angrily. 

But don’t turtles and alligators have more in common with modern reptiles than modern birds have in common with modern reptiles?

I’m not trying to contradict, I’m trying to understand. Mammals and reptiles have a common ancestor as well, but we do not make them the same group.

It’s not about having things in common. It’s about common ancestry, which is how we classify animals in light of extinct species, which defy trait-based classification. 

And, the common ancestor of [lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians] by definition is also the common ancestor of birds. It is NOT the common ancestor of mammals. 

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So, either we decide that Tuatara Lizards and Snakes are the only reptiles, or we include birds as reptiles. Or we just decide reptiles are no longer a thing. 

don’t throw reptiles against the wall? please? some of them are small and delicate. you could hurt them.

Basically, unless we’re maybe talking massive horizontal gene transfer, everything is still part of the group that came before it. 

You are technically a fish.

IIRC the fish thing is so frustrating that scientists have decided fish is just not real cladistic grouping at all

hey could we go back please to the bit where the closest relative of Birds is Crocodiles? bc I am alarmed

Well, technically they’re equally-closely related to crocodiles, alligators, gharials and tomistomas. As archosaurs, they’re all descended from small reptiles that looked something like this 

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The two main groups of archosaurs are the Pseudosuchia, or crocodile-line archosaurs, and the Ornithodira, or bird-line archosaurs. Both groups were massively diverse in prehistory, with the Pseudosuchia dominating most land-based niches in the Triassic, and the Ornithodira, especially the dinosaurs, doing the same during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. However, most of them have been wiped out due to the Triassic and Cretaceous mass extinctions, leaving them each with only one surviving clade: Aves, the true birds, and Crocodylia, the semiaquatic, ambush predators like crocs and gators. 

This entire post sums up everything we’re not allowed to mention in our Vertebrata classes because the last time someone started that argument they had to break up a fistfight.

I’m just hung up on the humans evolving from fish comment.

Like, we evolved from tiny tree-climbing squirrels. To the best of our knowledge.

…which evolved from tiny tree-climbing reptiles

…which evolved from amphibians

…which evolved from fish.

*runs in ten minutes late with a plucked chicken*

BEHOLD A LIZARD

you could have left the feathers on this time tbh

It was already plucked. They just STOLE IT from philosophy 101.

Every turn on this post has been a left, but somehow it hasn’t hit itself, and instead just spiralled outwards like some Ancient Greco-Roman floor design, enveloping taxonomy Tumblr in chaos.

May I recommend the book “why fish don’t exist” by Lulu Miller

May I recommend

the book “why fish don’t exist”

by Lulu Miller

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

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daughter-of-sapph0:

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I didn’t realise getting an ID would be so complicated

a-really-hot-caterpillar:

shanti-ashant-hai:

sidecharactersendupalone:

my online child describing amphibians:

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no no, theyve got a point

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Reblog for the bi rights frog

mickstart:

mistressemmedi:

mistressemmedi:

mistressemmedi:

SOMEONE’S ACTUALLY IN A FURSUIT AT MET

HELLPPPPPPP

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It’s Jared Leto 💀

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2terabyte:

you can replace all your daily tasks with 24 hours of the hyperfixation. But watch out

penicillium-pusher:

penicillium-pusher:

whenever they put Spock in all black it’s like. slut.

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whore.

peach-tia:

there’s still a week left for the funniest possible thing to happen (charles dying before the coronation) like to charge reblog to cast or whatever

transmechanicus:

Women in STEM❤️

Stabbing❤️ Tearing❤️ Eating❤️ Maiming❤️

parotcardsroxy:

hieronymus-botch:

parotcardsroxy:

the-text-party:

parotcardsroxy:

always remember gay men are the reason we dont have to pay for public bathrooms in canada

WAIT HUH??? IM CANADIAN????? WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARS ABOUT THIS UNTIL NOW??????

two gay men got arrested for fucking in a public bathroom but they argued since you had to pay for it it was a hotel and it was fine. their defence worked and we dont have to pay for bathrooms anymore

Ok guys I know we want to celebrate victories in queer history but

1. Googling “Canada gay sex pay toilets” just brings up a bunch of reblogs of this post

2. There does not seem to have been any sort of norm of public toilets in Canada charging money to use in the 20th century

3. I am neither Canadian nor a lawyer but I find it extremely hard to believe that there is any jurisdiction on earth where charging money to use a public toilet makes it legally constitute a hotel room and therefore OK to have sex in.

thats because i lied about this

theghostoflove
CREDIT