[bunjywunjy]

Anonymous asked:

Why do spiders’ legs curl up like that when they die?

bunjywunjy answered:

GREAT question- it’s because of how spiders abuse fluid pressure for locomotion!

see, unlike other arthropods, spider legs are mostly hollow. and instead of the traditional leg muscle arrangement, why, they’re just full of blood!

what few muscles ARE there act as hydraulic pumps to shove fluid around in the legs, moving them through hydraulic pressure and hydraulic pressure alone. so when the spider dies, those muscles relax and the pressure drops, leaving the legs to fold into the natural resting position of their stretchy ligaments and joints, completely unpowered.

basically, spiders are just bags of fluid that move their various rigid parts around by raising the fluid pressure in small areas to extend and contract their joints as needed, like an assembly line robot.

to spiders, humans are an unnecessarily complex bag of wet levers that shouts a lot.

and you can actually see this in practice yourself- if you happen to have an intact dead spider handy, just pick it up and give its body a gentle squeeze! right now. squeeze your dead spider right now.

the pressure your big meaty monkey hands are exerting on the spider’s body moves the fluid out of the spider’s body and back into its legs, extending them in a horrifyingly undead fashion! exactly like those air powered “jumping spider” toys you had as a kid.

you’ll never be able to unsee this now. you’re welcome.

also, if that weren’t cursed enough, this complete reliance on hydraulic pressure for movement means that spiders are actually slightly pressurized at all times. have you noticed that when you squish a spider, either through accident or furious monkey malice, it kind of just goes “pop”? yeah, that’s why.

they’re basically just tiny water balloons with legs. overall, I’d definitely say that “bag of wet levers” is the better way to go.

[bunjywunjy]

valravntheravenwolf asked:

Okay. Then I must ask: What in the name of the Holy Ocean is the Tully Monster? Like, holy-! What in Poseidon's cursed drug trip made THAT?!

good question! and unfortunately the answer, for now, is “we have no fucking idea”.

the “tully monster” is a 300-million-year-old animal known from a single fossil specimen. basically what we can tell about it is that it was soft-bodied, exhibited bilateral symmetry, and had a fun little snout thing.

<art src: Paul Mayer>

apart from that, it’s an ongoing study!

was this thing a vertebrate? really weird cephalopod? a kind of slug?? a type of animal so long gone that it has had no surviving descendent in the last quarter of a billion years????

<art src: Christian M.>

we just don’t know! but you can buy a little plushie of it, because of course you can.

here’s hoping we find more fossils of it that shed some light on the mysteries of Tully.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

There’s a big meme in a lot of our cultures that says that sex is only hot when it feels like it just happened to us and our partners; when throughout, there’s a sense of wild abandon, a lack of control, an effortlessness, or when someone is being, or feels like they’re being, taken or surrendered in some way.

Some of that meme is crap, and some of it is even bullshit of the worst possible kind: the kind that enables and excuses rape and other abuse, that presents sex or sexuality as something that is out of everyone’s control and which we all need to be afraid of, a collective vulnerability some big groups have exploited throughout history – and are still exploiting now, and boy howdy, do you know about that if you’re a young person – to socially control or oppress people.

On the other hand, some of that meme is about some of the good stuff people often want from sex that not only doesn’t hurt anyone, but is beneficial for everyone involved: an escape from the more stressful parts of life, for instance, or from negatives we might often experience or feel about our bodies or minds. An ease. A place or way to feel free or less guarded. A safe way to explore parts of ourselves we wouldn’t bring to dinner with anyone’s parents. A way to be vulnerable with someone else where we and our partners might well be giving or sharing parts of ourselves to each other we often keep just to ourselves. An adult way to play like we played in other ways as kids, where we do things on the fly, forget who we are a little bit, and get totally caught up in the play to the point where we almost forget about everything else, like what time we were supposed to be home for dinner or that we’re not, as it turns out, in an actual castle, but instead are playing inside a cardboard box.

There’s no need to get all judgy about anyone who wants to enjoy or experience spontaneity, or a feeling of surrender, freedom or abandon in their sexual life. There’s nothing that isn’t okay about enjoying those things or wanting those kinds of experiences.

The good news is that whatever good feelings we can have or enjoy from that general feeling of sex “just happening,” are things we can still have when we’re all being a lot more intentional, and when we all have real control in and of sexual experiences and interactions. We have the capacity to have sex that feels like a lot of it’s just happening in the good ways – where plenty of it feels spontaneous, and like we can let ourselves go in it, or float in it – while it’s all also what we’ve mutually, consensually and actively chosen, both at the time and in advance. We can feel out of control with something while still actually being in control, and if you don’t believe me, ask a professional skydiver, a musician or a dancer.

When Sex “Just Happened” (And How to Make It Happen Instead)

[bunjywunjy]

[bedupolker]

no lobsters are NOT monogamous, yes lobsters probably DO feel pain. Where do all these weird lobster rumors come from.

[ivaninsect]

Mantis shrimps are monogamous though and while they most certainly feel pain they sure as hell enjoy causing it a lot more.

Monogamy in stomatopods

ucmp.berkeley.edu

The Evolution of Social Monogamy and Biparental Care in Stomatopod Crustaceans

Author(s): Wright, Mary Louisa | Advisor(s): Caldwell, Roy L | Abstract: ABSTRACTThe Evolution of Social Monogamy and Biparental Care in Sto

escholarship.org

Valentine’s Day is coming and stomatopods are honing their killer spears of loving.

[ladyyatexel]

I didn’t tell you that my abusive stepmother has a really terrible autoimmune disorder that’s going to turn all of her soft tissue into something hard and I’m just super thrilled and delighted

I hope her lungs turn to bone :D

Rot, bitch

I’m Still Here

[jothelion]

it feels like a whirlwind

[ladyyatexel]

Some of the paintings to go are up on patreon. They may or may not be slightly cheaper on patreon on the logic that you have already given me a money this month if you have access to those posts. If you want them from there leave a comment or something on the post, we will figure it out

Right now it’s three posts of Star Trek, miscellaneous one-off fandom pictures, and Babylon 5

the rest of the categories of things are to follow after my organs stop trying to kill me holy fuck painkiller where are you my only friend

[ladyyatexel]

I have to make food also??????

Homophobia honestly

[ladyyatexel]

[modelsof-color]

More Mbaw by Andeea Vailetti for Lofficiel Hommes Italia Magazine Dec 2021

[ladyyatexel]

I want to make acrylic charms someday, that would be nice

also pins

I want to do all the things