TIME TO #GUESSTHESKULL https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💀" title="Skull" aria-label="Emoji: Skull">

A weekly twitter game where I show you a #skull and you guess the animal and together we learn a thing!

Although this week& #39;s animal is basically an alienhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👽" title="Extraterrestrial alien" aria-label="Emoji: Extraterrestrial alien"> this extinct animal has living relatives that shouldn& #39;t be too foreign to you!

#SciComm

I’m so proud of all y’all that I’ll give you a DOUBLE hint for #GuessTheSkull !!

#1 Where the eye goes on the skull, also this animals is #quarantine moood.

Hint #2 is scale!

This animals is BIGK.

Hope you are enjoying this game and keeping your head above water!

#GuessTheSkull

Did you #GuessTheSkull?

Most of you said #sloth https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="White heavy check mark" aria-label="Emoji: White heavy check mark"> but this ain& #39;t your mama& #39;s sloth, its not from the trees, nor is it on the ground it is an..

AQUATIC SLOTH (Thalassocnus natans)

Wtf is an aquatic sloth you say.. well take a look at @OliverDemuth & #39;s awesome art & read https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Down pointing backhand index" aria-label="Emoji: Down pointing backhand index">

Thank you to @AmsonEli for providing the pics from (Mcdonald & Muzon 2002) and suggesting this mystery!

Get mad at him not me!

Sloths today are a few tree-dwelling species of (relatively) small size, restricted to central Latin America. BUTT their extinct relatives were hella diverse, including an elephant-sized “ground sloth” Megatherium.

Giant sloths are the reason we have avocados!
https://bit.ly/39Tuhso ">https://bit.ly/39Tuhso&q...
Giant sloths, and other megafauna ate whole avocados and spread seeds via poop all over South America. It was a good deal likely resulting in avocados being fatty and large-pitted, to attract huge sloths!

Okay enough about ground sloths let get into these aquatic sloths.. how& #39;d they know they were aquatic anyways?!

Well #osteology to the rescue bones record all types of life history because they can serve many functions. In this case buoyancy control if you are trying to sink you don& #39;t want light bones.. and that& #39;s what they found.

DENSE BONES! (Amson et al. 2014)

Aquatic sloths didn& #39;t only have dense ribs & limbs but they were literally thick skulled! Their terrestrial relatives had thin-walled skulls which enclosed many empty spaces. The aquatic sloth& #39;s skull walls are thick, spaces partly filled with dense bone! (Amson et al 2018)

I hope ya& #39;ll learned about a weird animal
the AQUATIC SLOTH and their even weirder DENSE skeletons!

Join us next week and make sure to #GuessTheSkull!