Screenshots Of Despair

screenshots of despair

Look at him go!

Robust Climbing Salamander (Bolitoglossa robusta), family Plethodontidae, Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica

Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki

It’s been a while since I drew these two. The class yesterday was really boring, so I passed time drawing in my notebook

Three things that can cure depression [biology edition]:

Holding a frog (Pelophylax sp.)

2. Holding a snail (Helix pommatia)

3. Holding a snake (Dolichophis caspius):

None of the animals were harmed in any way! Every year our university organizes these field research projects that teach students how to safely collect specimens for research, how to mark them, measure them and all the other necessary procedures imported for research. These types of field studies are very important to determine animal diversity of an area and their overall health and population size. This year, just like in previous ones, Colubrid snakes are waking up from their hibernation way earlier, probably due to global warming.

Why did Alastor disappear for 7 years:

Enjoy some high quality crack!

There you go, I hope you haven't died of cringe! I actually dreamt about this and now you have to be subjected to it as well!

Despite being named after the famous Muppet frog, Kermitops gratus here wasn't actually a frog itself. Instead it was a close relative of the common ancestor of all modern amphibians, part of a grouping of amphibian-like animals known as amphibamiform temnospondyls.

Living in what is now Texas, USA, during the mid-Permian, about 275 million years ago, Kermitops would have resembled a chunky salamander. Only its fossil skull is known, so its full body size is uncertain, but based on the proportions of related amphibamiformes it was probably around 15-20cm long (~6-8").

Although its discovery helps to fill in the very sparse fossil record of the early evolution of modern amphibians, it's also complicated matters more than expected. Previously it was thought that the characteristic skull anatomy of modern amphibians evolved in a clear sequence, but Kermitops has a unique mix of features that doesn't fit this idea – suggesting that there was a lot of convergent evolution going on in amphibamiformes at the time.

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