This, of course, hides a fair bit of complexity.
Synapsida
A random wander through the world of mammals
Sunday 21 July 2024
Drought and the Mother Rhino
Sunday 14 July 2024
Antelopine Antelopes: The Giraffe-Gazelles
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Gerenuk |
They also look slightly odd, and very distinctive.
The better-known of the two is the gerenuk (Litocranius walleri). The name comes from the Somali word for the animal, but it is more commonly known as the "giraffe-gazelle" in many European languages, and it's easy to see why. It is, of course, much smaller than a giraffe, with males having a shoulder height of around 100 cm (39 inches). The colour is also different, a relatively uniform reddish-brown over the back, with a paler shade in the flanks, neck, and limbs, and stark white underparts. There are also white markings on the face, around the eyes. Only the male has horns, which rise almost vertically out of the skull before curving back in an S-shape.
Sunday 7 July 2024
Giant Kangaroos: Were They Utterly Hop-less?
Sunday 30 June 2024
Cubs in the Snow
Sunday 23 June 2024
Bats in the Daytime
Consider: the great majority of bats eat insects and, sure there are plenty of insects around at night. But there's hardly a shortage during the day, either. Swallows, robins, and thrushes are all flying vertebrates that eat insects, and you see plenty of those around during the day. While for fruit bats and other herbivorous species, it's quite obviously not going to make a difference. If birds are perfectly happy flying around during the day, why not bats? It's not even as if there are only a small number of bat species that happen to occupy some narrow niche; there are well over a thousand of them.
Sunday 16 June 2024
Antelopine Antelopes: Blackbuck and Springbok
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Blackbuck |
Sunday 9 June 2024
Oligocene (Pt 9): Rise of the Dogs
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Sunkahetanka |