Jake Buehler

Season 2 Episode 18 - Frame 993 out of 2685

Season 2 Episode 18 - Frame 993 out of 2685

‘Things keep evolving into anteaters.’ Odd animals arose at least 12 separate times Findings speak to the dramatic impact ants and termites can have on mammalian evolution

Crab-like creatures are famed for having evolved five times in evolutionary history. But anteaters have evolved at least 12 times--in half the evolutionary span. Cool story by @jakebuehler.bsky.social for @science.org

The Cells That Breathe Two Ways | Quanta Magazine In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able to do: It breathes oxygen and sulfur at the same time.

Take a deep breath. You’re using oxygen to free molecular energy from the food you eat. But not all organisms on the planet live or breathe this way. @jakebuehler.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/the-cells-th...

Sort of an intentionally confused chicken vs egg situation.

Who knew a fish could express "What the fuck was that?" with such ease.

"We are ruled by fathers who have never changed diapers" is becoming my go-to description of the present crisis.

6 Things You Can Do to Secure Your Phone as You Reenter the Country After Traveling In some instances, government agents can search your digital devices legally after an international trip

So sad that my former colleague Ed Baig had to write this story for AARP.

6 Things You Can Do to Secure Your Phone as You Reenter the Country After Traveling.
In some instances, government agents can search your digital devices legally after an international trip
www.aarp.org/travel/trave...

Medical Journals Get Letters From DOJ At least three journals received letters from a U.S. Attorney asking about 'competing viewpoints'

"When a US Attorney wields the power of his office to target medical journals because of their content and editorial processes, he isn't doing his job, let alone upholding his constitutional oath,"[…] "He's abusing his authority to try to chill protected speech." www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...

A fair point!

a crowd of people sitting in a room with the words she doesn 't even go here ALT: a crowd of people sitting in a room with the words she doesn 't even go here

Gray wolves to dire “wolves”:

‘I Messed Up At Work Again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff

‘I Messed Up At Work Again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff

im not texting my friends about BOMBING YEMEN

The mystery of how iguanas crossed the Pacific Ocean may be solved The iguanas' 8,000-kilometer trip — one-fifth of the Earth’s circumference — is the longest made by a flightless land vertebrate.

Iguanas may have arrived in Fiji via ultra long accidental cruises. by @jakebuehler.bsky.social

I love this esp because in @restingdinoface.bsky.social 's new book she talked about OTHER species who may have made this sort of a journey. www.sciencenews.org/article/igua...

This is Arya.

She has maple syrup eyes and is, of course, a very good girl.

Chart shows partisans are increasingly divided over whether misinformation, harassment and civility are major problems on Twitter.

Partisan views of Twitter (X) – have shifted, with Republican users’ views of the site growing more positive and those of Democratic users becoming more negative.

The share of Republican users who said the site is bad for American democracy fell from 60% in 2021 to 21% in 2023.

A road sign that says DO NOT LET MOOSE

YOU FOOLS. YOU LET MOOSE.

Thank you!

Awesome! Can you add me please?

Huge-Jawed 'Terminator Pigs' Unfairly Painted as Predators, Researchers Say Ancient entelodonts are routinely portrayed as brutal carnivores, but they probably kept to the same menu as today's pigs and peccaries.

Entelodonts also probably weren’t that “hellish”, diet-wise. This story of mine from 2023 details research suggesting the undoubtedly intimidating animals probably just dined on veggies mixed with scavenging. Not true pigs, but they ate like them. No predatory pork here.

gizmodo.com/terminator-p...

Finally, here’s the snout of an entelodont (Archaeotherium). Entelodonts are sometimes called “hell pigs” for their immense, buffalo-like proportions and wide jaws full of sharp teeth. But these were actually close relatives of early hippos and whales.

Ok last marine mammal I swear: Wimahl chinookensis, a relative of dolphins dating back about 18 million years. The fossil was found along the banks of the Washington side of the mouth of the great Columbia River.

More marine mammals. Here’s Allodesmus, an extinct sea lion-like pinniped that was really athletic, nearly half a ton in life, and honestly a little horrifying? These guys lived along North Pacific coastlines roughly 10 to 15 million years ago.

Another fossil marine mammal unearthed in Clallam County: Sitsqwayk cornishorum, an early baleen whale.

This incredible beast hails from the Twin River Quarry (Pysht Formation) even closer to home for me. Clallam County and the Olympic Peninsula has been great for paleo marine mammal finds.

So every time I walk along the cold, stark beaches of Olympic National Park, it’s hard not to think about the supremely weird not-bear not-seal ambling around sea stacks and outcrops at low tide.

K. clallamensis was maybe the size of a really big dog, and likely wandered the foggy, drippy beaches looking for shelled mollusks to pry from rocks and crush with their incredibly powerful jaws and teeth. It was first described from Clallam Bay, not far from where I live and explore the outdoors.

This one’s fun for me: Kolponomos clallamensis, the “otter bear”. It was an incredibly strange marine mammal from the coastlines of the Pacific Northwest during the Miocene. Neither otter or bear, Kolponomos’ appears to be a stem-pinniped, an odd, lost branch at the base of the seal et al lineage.

This is Axestemys, a softshell turtle from around the same warm time period. Some species could reach sizes quite a bit larger than modern softshells. Check out the shape of the carapace with all that bone reduction. Similar to modern softshells, which have shuriken-like carapaces.