Could Someone Help me Identify This Strange Beastie? I've Never Seen Anything Like it, Nor Have I Ever Heard of Something Like it. All I Know is That it's An Arthropod Due to It's Mouth Parts, And That it Looks Like a Cambrian Reject.
this show is a real forgotten 90s gem. The Simpsons x The Flintstones, but anthropomorphic Jim Henson puppet dinosaurs with an ingenious blend of black humor & social commentary. definitely not meant for kids, despite the marketing then. this particular scene is so darkly funny
look, lemme get this out of the way: no, we ain't talking about your namby-pamby, sour gummy, collagen synthesized gelatinous CRAP. this is the GOOD stuff, the stuff they were making BEFORE they knew how to make that other stuff.
and, whether you choose to accept it or not, it all starts here, on the shores of what used to be virginia's third-largest creosoting facility. thanks to the high levels of environmental toxicity, as well as the lukewarm waters of the gulf stream, our good friend the gummy worm has plenty of food, fuel, and environmental stress to acquire the rich fruity flavor that gummy worm aficionados know and love.
between the months of may and october, gummy worm hunters will scour these lifeless, barren shores for glimpses of the rare delicacy, the mid-atlantic gummy worm. within a given day, a single gummy worm hunter may extract anywhere from 50 to 120 gummy worms, depending on the quality of harvest and the position of the planets— however, it's not unheard of for exceptional gummy worm dowsers to haul in upwards of 500 gummy worms in a single day! and, at a price of 5 to 15 dollars a pop (depending, of course, on girth and volume), just one day of hunting can net upwards of 7,500 dollars!
once harvested, the gummy worms are taken to a local processing plant, where they are slaughtered, dried, treated, and portioned. a single kilogram of artisan worms typically requires about 5 to 8 girthy worms to produce!
finally, the prepared gummy worms are shipped off to store shelves, where they will be enjoyed as a sweet and slightly-fishy delicacy by kids and kidults alike.
(from ig @ leciramlipaopao)
the fateful interaction took place yesterday evening at approximately 23:55 Bugtopian Standard Time. though this event marks the first ever recorded instance of communication with other-worldly lifeforms, most scientific bodies have decided to disregard the "close encounter," as the aliens were deemed "too repulsive" for magazine covers.
for those with a strong stomach, an abridged transcript of the conversation has been provided below.
> ...
> GREETINGS, INFERIOR ARTHROPODS. WE ARE THE CRABTOPIANS, DENIZENS OF THE SYSTEM ORBITING WHAT YOUR PEOPLE CALL "KEPLER 67-C."
> MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO, WE WERE HUNGLE EARTH DWELLERS, JUST LIKE YOU, WHEN OUR ANCESTORS WERE PLUCKED FROM THE SURFACE BY SOME YET-UNKNOWN FORCE, AND TRANSPORTED TO THE WORLD WE NOW CALL HOME.
> SINCE THEN, WE HAVE EVOLVED RAPIDLY, EVEN OUTPACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORE SOPHISTICATED PRIMATES WHICH CALL YOUR PLANET HOME. AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION FOR THE PLACE WE ONCE CALLED HOME, WE WISH TO IMPART YOU WITH A GIFT BASKET, FILLED WITH VARIOUS SOAPS AND SKIN PRODUCTS.
> NOW, TELL US. TO WHOM SHOULD WE ADDRESS THIS GIFT.
> ...
> UHH... DID YOU GET THAT.
> (some chattering in the background)
> WHAT. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH. EVERY SPACE-FARING CIVILIZATION POSSESSES AT LEAST A FUNCTIONAL COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH.
> ...
> VERY WELL. WE SHALL WAIT UNTIL YOUR PEOPLE HAVE FETCHED A LICENSED TRANSLATOR. ONLY THEN SHALL OUR EXCHANGE COMMENCE.
> (end of transmission.)
Vultures eat anthrax, botulism, rabies, and cholera for breakfast.
Their stomach acid is among the most corrosive in the animal kingdom, with a pH around 1, low enough to dissolve the bones, hide, and pathogens of dead animals that would kill almost anything else.
A vulture eating a diseased carcass isn't a vector for disease, it's a terminus. The disease chain ends in the vulture's gut, and that's pretty hardcore.
When vulture populations crashed in India in the 1990s, rotting livestock carcasses sat where vultures used to clean them.
Feral dogs and rats took over the cleanup, both of which actually do spread rabies. Researchers later linked the vulture collapse to roughly 500,000 deaths in India over the following decade.
The same collapse is now underway in sub-Saharan Africa. Six of eleven African vulture species are threatened with extinction, primarily from poisoned poaching baits.
The animals nobody finds cute are doing more public health work than most of the species we actively protect.