Hey, y'all! I made these today! I release them into the world to support the cause! They're sized for 8.5x11 printer paper. Take 'em. Print 'em. Post 'em EVERYWHERE.
pretty fucked-up that this is what inspired the gamedevs to make among us
So are you going to tell us about the giant hyperpredatory sperm whales or do I have to go google some nightmares myself?
we’re all familiar with the Sperm Whale of our modern seas, largest of the Toothed Whales! it’s also completely specialized for eating squid and squid ONLY, a comfort to anyone who’s ever managed to get just a bit too close to those enormous razor jaws.
but this was very much not always the case! the earlier members of the Sperm Whale lineage were much less… discerning.
early Sperm Whales all resembled our friendly modern swimming school bus to some degree, but the main difference was in the jaws- early Sperm Whales like Acrophyseter and Zygophyseter all had wide, powerful jaws with ENORMOUS teeth suitable for snacking on fish, dolphins, aquatic sloths, and pretty much anything else they could fit down their enormous gullets, kind of like a modern Orca.
and from 12 to 7 million years ago, these things RULED the seas. Megalodon who?
but the greatest of these was Livyatan Melvillei, which was the size of our modern Sperm Whale.
reaching up to 60 feet long and weighing well over 60 tons, it this thing was a Sea Monster in every sense of the word.
it is so BONKERS huge that they named it after the Hebrew name for the Biblical Leviathan (and also Herman Melville, who would have gotten a real kick out of it). I cannot overstate how unsafe it would be to share an ocean with this thing. Moby Dick would have been an entirely different book if it was still around.
so what does a 60-feet hyperpredatory whale eat?
*Groucho Marx voice* WHY, ANYTHING IT WANTS.
(but mostly other whales.)
Livyatan spent most of its time cruising around looking for delicious smaller whales to shove into that nightmare maw up there, a lifestyle choice we call macroraptorial. though in a pinch, anything else would also do.
(basically, if you were a mid-sized baleen whale in the paleozoic seas you were just SHIT out of luck, between Megalodon and this thing.)
Livyatan may have died out as little as 5 million years ago, meaning it might even have been around to make the early ancestors of Orcas regret their life choices! (Livyatan is the only animal that could possibly make an Orca regret anything, but God, at what cost)
but die out they did, and that’s probably a good thing for us. why don’t we all just take a moment to really appreciate our modern hyperspecialized Sperm Whales, especially the part where they don’t eat us!
(via File Photo)
This is what happens when white guys listen to Indian music
It's okay guys! Freddy's just nervous
this is the biggest damn 10yo i’ve ever seen. the hell are they putting in school lunches nowadays.
God, this. I worked in a highschool during my last semester at college, and taught while using a cane because I needed a mobility aid. I started counting students who would innapropriately ask about my disability. The most common phrase was just "what is wrong with you?" I'm not kidding when I say at least 20 highschoolers, many who are in my classes and I've never met before, asked me this question or something similarly worded. While it's a great oppurtunity for me to educate students on what NOT to say to someone with a disability, the fact of the matter is that its rude and condescending. Teach your kids about disabilities so that we dont have to for you.
Able bodied parents I'm begging you to teach your kids about disabled people. Not just because they could become disabled themselves one day but also because even if they don't, they have a very real chance of being rude to us if you don't teach them.
Yes, kids just say shit. They have no filter. That doesn't make it any less humiliating when your child sits near me on the bus and incessantly grills me on why I have a stick when I'm not old. Or laughs at us for things our disability causes. It doesn't take away the hurt when they bully a disabled classmate. For a large part these things could be avoided if you just taught your kids to respect us. It's really not that hard.
Matt, 22, history graduate program, they/them. Nonbinary, physically disabled, and autistic. Why am I here
262 posts