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TIME TO #GUESSTHESKULL 
A weekly twitter game where I show you a #skull and you guess the animal and together we learn a thing!
Although this week's animal is basically an alien
this extinct animal has living relatives that shouldn't be too foreign to you!
#SciComm
A weekly twitter game where I show you a #skull and you guess the animal and together we learn a thing!
Although this week's animal is basically an alien
this extinct animal has living relatives that shouldn'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.
#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
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
but this ain't your mama'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 's awesome art & read
Most of you said #sloth
but this ain't your mama'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 's awesome art & read
Thank you to @AmsonEli for providing the pics from (Mcdonald & Muzon 2002) and suggesting this mystery!
Get mad at him not me!
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
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!
https://bit.ly/39Tuhso
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'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't want light bones.. and that's what they found.
DENSE BONES! (Amson et al. 2014)
DENSE BONES! (Amson et al. 2014)
Aquatic sloths didn'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's skull walls are thick, spaces partly filled with dense bone! (Amson et al 2018)
I hope ya'll learned about a weird animal
the AQUATIC SLOTH and their even weirder DENSE skeletons!
Join us next week and make sure to #GuessTheSkull!
the AQUATIC SLOTH and their even weirder DENSE skeletons!
Join us next week and make sure to #GuessTheSkull!
