turns people into cowboys or samurais depending on which place you’re in
That explains why cowboy movies and samurai movies are so similar.
Cowboys are Alolan form Samurai
So in Japan it’s called Kirinomitake while in Texas it’s called either Texas Star (because after releasing spores it’s unfolded into a star shape) or the Devil’s Cigar because it starts out as a long oblong mushroom but then it unfolds with an ominous hissing noise and releases a big smoky black cloud of spores.
It only grows in these two places, and people did genetic testing and a bunch of math to determine that the two populations started diverging from each other nineteen million goddamn years ago, so it’s not possible for humanity to have moved it from one place to the other. They’re at the same latitude, but 11,000 fucking kilometers apart not to mention the goddamn ocean in the way.
“this is only another illustration of the unusual and unpredictable distribution of many species of the fungi. It would be difficult indeed to account for it, and we merely accept the facts as they are.”
So apparently it’s pretty common in the mycological world to find some bullshit that can’t be explained and would probably drive men mad to look at too closely, and just sort of shrug and move on with your day.
The species is also the only example of its genus.
Your daily reminder that anyone who devotes their life to studying fungi is not to be trifled with because their brain is full of things humanity was never supposed to notice.
so turns out Lovecraft was 100% right about fungi all along?
You know, there’s another comparable taxon which, like this fungus, has famously existed for millions of years only at similar latitudes and thousands of kilometers apart in separate disjunct populations in the deciduous woodlands of the eastern US and the deciduous forest of Japan/East Asia.
Cryptobranchidae is the family of fully-aquatic giant salamanders containing only 3 species: the hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), and the Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus).
These are the largest amphibians in the world.
Like the fungus, these salamanders are very closely related to each other, but are dramatically genetically from all other salamanders, and they live in similar deciduous woodlands near climatically-mild eastern coasts at similar latitudes.
See (map by me):
As of early 2018, however, it’s been determined that the Chinese giant salamander – once considered a single species – is now composed of 5 separate cryptic species.
Check-out the similarities between the American animal and its East Asian relatives.
Like the aforementioned fungus, the Cryptobranchidae family is both very genetically unique and also ancient, and this geographic separation in their distribution is millions of years old. Extinct Cryptobranchidae remains from the Cenozoic have been retrieved from deposits in Nunavut and the Canadian Arctic, revealing their hardiness and wider prehistoric range.
Both the temperate deciduous forests of the eastern US and the temperate deciduous forests of East Asia exist in similar climates, at similar latitudes, and are geologically situated over many extensive limestone caves. It is this geologic aspect that probably influences some salamander distribution in both regions, since this limestone creates ample underground space for salamanders which appreciate a subterranean lifestyle.
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I guess it’s also appropriate to mention that there are only 2 species of alligator – not including caimans – and that the alligators are, like both the fungus and giant salamanders, resident at the same latitudes in the temperate and humid eastern US and temperate and humid East Asia and separated by thousands of kilometers.
American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) – map by me:
That’s a good question! Carnotaurus and other abelisaurs have ridiculously tiny arms:
Those two bones that look like the wrist? That’s the entire forearm.
There’s some indication that they may have been especially flexible, which could point to them being used in some sort of display or other intraspecific behaviour. It’s also quite possible that they just…didn’t really serve any function. They could just be vestigial – that is, an evolutionary “leftover” that just hasn’t had the pressure to evolve away (like kiwi wings, or whale hips).
reblog these illegal abelisaur arms while you still can. the info staff DOESN’T want you to know!
Anyone else insulted by tumblr’s official statement being like, “We’ve always had strict policies about content that’s not safe for minors, and this is just us continuing to act in that ideal we’ve always upheld” and, like, how much of a bare faced lie that is? These fuckers haven’t done shit to prune child porn or, like, the numerous fucking nazis up until this half assed, needlessly destructive measure, and they know it, and they know we know it, and yet here they are lying right to our face.
If you’re wanting to show your displeasure, don’t just tag staff or support. Take a page out of other consumer revolts and make sure your displeasure is known.
Don’t be an idiot. Do not threaten, harass or otherwise make this personal. Contact these companies, make your displeasure known, alert them that you are a customer and you will be leaving their brand across all boards unless they reverse their decision.
Be clear, be concise, be polite, but make your displeasure known.
I’ve been tagged in two posts and messaged once about the Tumblr Death Wave, so I feel I should address it. First of all, let me just say… *Mr. Game & Watch bell sound*
Second of all, while I’ve been careful to stay as close to SFW as I can, I don’t know if I’m going to survive this death wave, nor by how much. To all who follow me, please inform me of any posts that get flagged.
Additionally, I have been asked if I plan to migrate to other social media platforms. My answer is no, at least not unless I get screwed by the algorithm.
If Galeem’s laser hits my blog, then there are a couple of places you could find me.
Anyways, as far as I can tell, I have not been hurt by this yet, but I can’t be certain it’ll remain that way for long. Good luck to my followers and other blogs out there.
Monsters and Stuff 
