A variegated three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegates) complete with a sloth moth (Cryptoses choloepi), an insect which lives almost its entire adult life in the fur of a sloth.
Sloth moth is a generic term used to refer to coprophagous moths which have evolved to exclusively inhabit the fur of sloths and to use sloth dung as a substrate for the early stages of reproduction.
Sloth moths are considered to get nutrients from the secretions of the sloths’ skin and/or the algae present on the fur as well as protection from avian predators.
Some three-toed sloths have been recorded carrying more than 120 moths in the fur of an individual sloth. Two-toed sloths are recorded as harbouring lower populations. Several different moth species may coexist on the same animal.
Thick aggregates of Bathymodiolus mussels on a cold seep site off of Nantucket. Source: NOAA
Humans aren’t the only users of fossil fuels. In many parts of the ocean, natural gas (methane) is constantly bubbling out of the sediment. These areas are known as cold seeps and are often a marker of productive fossil fuel reservoirs in the crust underneath. The name cold seep is somewhat of a misnomer…
The heart cockle (Corculum cardissa) is so named because of its heart shaped shell shape. It is native to warm equatorial waters of the Indo-Pacific. While many bivalves sit with the their ventral valve facing down, the heart cockle sits on its side, with one side of both valves facing downward. the valves have adapted to resemble wings and are flat on the bottom
I study the giant clams, bivalves which can grow over three feet long and and are willingly “infected” by a symbiotic algae which they house in an altered stomach cavity. They provide their algae partners with nitrogen, a stable environment and even funnel light in their direction, and the algae happily share the fruit of their labor in the form of sugars. Imagine…
Littoraria grazing on Spartina marsh grass. (source)
Us humans really like to talk up our skills at farming. And while it’s true that we have domesticated animals and plants to a degree not seen in other life forms, the act of nurturing and harvesting food is actually not really that special, and is broadly observed throughout the animal kingdom. Perhaps the most iconic invertebrate farmers are…
Deep Sea Valentines: Stygiomedusa and Thalassobathia pelagica
Though Stygiomedusa is huge and terrifying, Thalassobathia loves to hang out with it and swim around its bell. (No smooches have been observed in the wild, but who knows?)
This is how I feel about Joshua Trees. They and avocado trees produce fruit meant to be eaten and dispersed by giant ground sloths. Without them, the Joshua Trees’ range has shrunk by 90%.
(my own photos)
Not only they, but the entire Mojave ecosystem is still struggling to adapt since the loss of ground sloth dung. their chief fertilizer.
Many, many trees and plants in the Americas have widely-spaced, extremely long thorns that do nothing to discourage deer eating their leaves, but would’ve penetrated the fur of ground sloths and mammoths. Likewise, if you’ve observed a tree that drops baseball or softball-sized fruit which lies on the ground and rots, like Osage Oranges, which were great for playing catch at my school, chances are they were ground sloth or mammoth chow.
You can read about various orphaned plants and trees missing their megafauna in this poignant post:
Somebody told me that Venom was trying to get Anne and Eddie back together and that, Venom’s entire reason for the kiss was to “make a moment” between the two, so upon finally watching the movie I was dumb struck to notice that if Venom was in fact intending for it to be a kiss between just Anne and Eddie then why cram the entirety of their tongue down Eddie’s throat and not pull back seconds before the lips touch making it so that Anne and Eddie are kissing….
Venom goes in tongue first, like that wasn’t Anne, like dam. Humans don’t kiss like that. Venom dose pull back the face first but it’s only after the tongue has reached eddie’s stomach.
Venom even pulled Eddie up, stuck out their tongue in preparation for the kiss, all smiling and excited. I kept looking back and forth between the screen and my friend I saw it with going, “WHAT IS HAPPENING?!??! This is NOT what everyone described to me at ALL!!”
Venom made it a point to stick out their tongue and go right for it, like DAM. How deep in denial can you BE to think that wasn’t Venom going, “Anne, I need this, I NEED TO KISS EDDIE!”
Honestly the deleted scene where Venom confirms the kiss was mostly them and NOT ANNE, was only removed because the studio people are cowards.
OH AND P.S. DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON EDDIE’S REACTION!
He did NOT know it was anne, he only knew it was Venom so don’t gimme that “He’s only moaning loudly into the kiss because hes kissing anne”. How could he have known it was her?
In the last scene she was saying “run away, Venom’s trying to kill you, you’re organs are being eaten and your heart is being digested, here I’mma blast it with sound and free you!” LITERALLY the last time he saw her she was saying run away venom is trying to kill you. so there’s no way he could have known.
And thinking “He probably figured out that they teamed up to save him” that is FLIMSY, like unless there’s a deleted scene, or a MASSIVE plot hole, or Eddie is psychic how could he have guessed it was her?
Littoraria grazing on Spartina marsh grass. (source)
