Are the animals that inhabit whale falls restricted to feeding and living on whale carcasses or will they also use the carcasses of other large animals like mola mola or large sharks?
In order to answer this question in all its complexity, I must first explain the three major stages of a whale fall community, as there are absolute boatloads of species that take advantage of them. And as with all good science, everybody and their dog is publishing papers arguing furiously on which species are where, for how long, and if they can be found anywhere else.
SO LET’S GET RIGHT TO IT THEN
The first stage of a whale fall is likely exactly what you’d expect - the mobile scavenger stage; hagfish, sharks, crustaceans, etc. Species that cruise around the hadal depths of the ocean looking for dead stuff that they can eat and/or expel horrifying amounts of deadly mucus onto (looking at you, mixinids). Whatever you’re in to, really.
There is zero contention on if these dudes have been found on other large cases of food falls - they’ve been documented on other falls such as on mobulid rays, whale sharks, Mola mola, etc. They eat the good meaty stuff, so any animal body that falls to the bottom of the ocean will quickly and easily be “colonized” by these dudes. It’s hypothesized that they can actually hear the sound of a large body hitting the sea floor up to several hundred metres away, (on top of the more normal “death smell coming from over here”) which is just about the most terrifying/amazing thing I’ve heard all day.
The second stage is the enrichment opportunist stage; Osedax and other polychaete worms, gastropods, more crustaceans - a more “sessile” stage of organisms coming to chow down on what’s left. These are the species that take advantage of the bones and all the delicious, delicious particles that melted off the skeleton and into the surrounding sand. Delightful
The third and final stage of a whale fall is the sulphophilic stage; Osedax is even more abundant, there are loads of anaerobic bacterial mats, crustaceans, and mollusks - the whole shebang. This stage has so much anaerobic, anoxic, and sulphuric action going on that it actually closely resembles the community that surrounds hydrothermal vents, which is actually quite ridiculous.
So as with all of my long-ass answers here, enjoy this explanation that likely did nothing but clarify points you didn’t actually want to know, and further muddy the ones you did. You’re welcome.
BONUS: A super gorgeous video showing the whole process. Look at it. Wow
So in 1983, a civilian airplane was shot down because it violated Russian airspace at a time when it was very, very unwise to do so. They didn’t know they were violating Russian airspace. The Russian military didn’t know it was a civilian plane.
Since people often ask “Alright, well this is fantasy! Why can’t we have boob shapes in plate armor?!“ I decided to make a post about it. My frustration has nothing to do with historical inaccuracy and I’m all for imagination and freedom– but I’d like to (very quickly) illustrate this for you:
I purposely over-emphasized the shape of the two spheres in the armor so you can really think about this.
Look at the shape of the blue cups and the green line, think about the form of that on some beautiful ornate plate armor. A female warrior is charging into battle. In the midst of this, she trips! Or is pushed over, or takes a blow to the chest! So long as the force is on the front of her torso it really doesn’t matter for the conclusion:
She feels a sharp pain in her chest and hears the cracking of bone! Oh no, what’s gone wrong? Well she doesn’t have time to think about that, because she is now dead.
Her sternum just fractured, take another look at that green line, that’s where all of the pressure from any front impact is going to go because of the shape of the two blue cups made for her breasts. The rest of the armor slides around your body, but because of the two cups for breasts that are often made in fantasy female armors, the pressure point is directly on the sternum. The breasts are not going to stop the force of you falling onto them, and because of that the metal is going to push in and bash you in the sternum.
What does a fractured sternum do? Why it goes right into your heart and lungs of course.
(that was the sound of all of my followers inhaling a sharp breath between closed teeth at once)
Here are three great solutions to the problem:
GREAT EXAMPLE OF FANTASY TORSO ARMOR THAT IS FEMININE BUT FUNCTIONAL:
It is usually possible to bind the breasts when fighting if they really are far too large to fit into regular looking armor (there’s padding anyway), but most women can actually fit into a similarly sized male counterpart’s armor quite easily. Even if that’s the case, the armor can be made to have a curve to it without putting all of the pressure in one area, which was actually a style of armor for quite some time as shown here:
And don’t even get me started on the dreaded “Cleavage Window”
The “Cleavage Window” defeats the purpose of having any armor on your torso because it means you’re just going to be leaving open the vital organs the rest of the armor is trying to protect.
If people are going to protect themselves and not have much torso protection, invest in some blocking lessons, because the best defense is to not get hit at all. There are also advantages to not having plate armor, and plate armor was often really expensive anyway.
I’d also like to add that boob bulges direct blows straight to the sternum as well, rather than making them glance to either side. Good post.
but how else can you sexualize the women if you don’t give them armored boob pods!!!!
Also, breastplates are shaped to redirect the tip of a sword or spear to the side. Boobplates would redirect the weapon right into the middle of the woman’s chest.
This topic pops up (or the subjects of the topic pop out) every now and again. Something to remember is that it’s easier for an illustrator on a deadline (check comics costumes) to start with a basic nude then add enough “not-naked-honestly” colours and patterns to make it fit for print.
That’s (IMO) the technical reason for boob-plates, chainmail bikinis and all the rest, but then come the excuses and justifications about “lightness”, “mobility” and “distraction”. I’ve said before that Red Sonja could strip to the buff and any opponent who knew her reputation would still pay more attention to her sword that all the flesh on show. Naked T&A aren’t as dangerous as naked steel.
And why is it always boob-plates? Why not bum-plates? There’s actual historical precedent for those…
Here’s another commentary on boob-plates; here’s yet another; and here’s a rebuttal to that one from someone who knows rather less than he thinks he does. Some of his original post made sense, but his reply to a comment destroyed his credibility in 17 words:
“And yes a mace, morning star or hammer would cause some damage but it wont kill you”.
Facepalm. Headdesk. Of course they bloody well would! Why else were they carried in battle? As flyswatters or back-scratchers?
They’d do it without going through the armour, too. They’d crush and dent the plate, they’d ruin the joint articulation and the wearer’s mobility, they’d transmit impact shock into tissue and organs, bones and joints…
Look up “blunt force trauma”, “concussion”, “coup-contrecoup injury”, “internal haemorrhage”, “depressed skull fracture” and indeed any number of other fractures, and all the many other ways in which apparently-well-protected human beings can come to harm. If that can be the result of accident, think about deliberate assault with a weapon designed to negate the protection and wielded by someone trained to use it to best effect.
A man in full plate harness getting seriously done over by a percussion weapon, like the mace, morning-star or hammer dismissed so lightly, would suffer injuries similar to a car crash. But in this crash, the “other car” would be taking deliberate aim at the places where impact would do most harm, and that full plate harness would be proper armour meant for battlefield use to avert injury if possible, not some Vegas showgirl “look at the boobies” nonsense. It might help.
Or it might not.
One well-placed blow of his mace, hammer, whatever, against the back of your gauntlet hasn’t damaged the steel, but the impact shock though the metacarpal bones has made you drop your sword. It hurts like hell and distracts you enough that you don’t avoid the next one, delivered low against your knee. Again the armour holds, but its joint and that of the leg within snap sideways in a direction it was never meant to go. Cartilage rips, your kneecap pops loose, ligaments tear free of bone, the leg buckles and you crash to the ground. You wrench up your visor to yell “Quarter!”, but his next blow is already on its way as you sprawl. It starts high above his head and ends against your helmet. The helmet’s as well made as everything else you’re wearing, it doesn’t shatter or split, but its metal crushes so much that the dent caves in your skull. If you’re lucky, if you’re unaware of what’s about to happen, the lights will just go out. Otherwise the last thing you ever see, coming down hard and fast, is one of these…
There are two broad categories of things that kill trauma patients. No, I’m not talking about violent penetrating injury, falls, car crashes, or any other specific mechanisms. I am referring to the end events (on a macro scale) that take their lives.
These two basic killers are: hemorrhage and brain injury. The vast majority of the time, a dying trauma patient has either suffered a catastrophic brain injury, or has ongoing and uncontrolled bleeding.
Here’s the law:
Your trauma patient is bleeding to death until you prove otherwise.
Bottom line: Since there is little we can do above and beyond the basics in the ED for severe brain injury, your focus must be on hemorrhage. There are lots of things we can do about that, and the majority involve an operating room. Always assume that there is a source of hemorrhage somewhere, and it just hasn’t shown itself yet. There can be no rest until you prove that the source does not exist. And hopefully, you do that very, very quickly.
I’m an apprentice tattoo artist. An artist who owns a few shops invited me to their team.
I’ve got a long way to go. I’m still learning basic shading techniques. Working with a tattoo pen adds depth to the traditional flat plane I’m used to working on.
One is never too old to learn a new skill.
At times I feel like a complete newb.
So, here is a meme that I love. I’m sharing it for everyone who is learning something new.
chequerootlurks
