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Defector


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Sabrina Imbler

Creaturefector

Bone-Eating Worms Apparently Also Freaks For Teeth

Stockton Rush, OceanGates chief executive, spoke at a press conference said during a press conference next to the Cyclops 1, a five-person sub that is different from the one used in the Titanic expedition

Science

What Is Extreme Tourism For?

A bleeped and blooped photo of a 2,200 year old bird nest

Zillowing Out

A 2,200-Year-Old Poop Donut In Which We Can Raise Our Hatchlings

When A Turtle Is A Taxi For Shrimp

Giri Nathan

Laura Wagner

Photo of Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho in a bright purple sweater.

Let Yam Yam Host ‘Survivor’

A pod of killer whales on the move in the Pacific Ocean.

How To Sink A Yacht (If You’re An Orca)

a Greenland shark swims away from the camera

This Barnacle Went Where No Other Barnacles Dared Go (Inside A Greenland Shark’s Cloaca)

A close-up of a clay model from Mesopotamia that dates back to 1800 BCE, depicting a nude couple kissing and copulating.

When Was The First Sexy Kiss?

Quick, Everyone Play Dead!

A model of a brown grain weevil resting on a grain.

Going Against The Grain Weevils

A photo of the now deceased last female Yangtze giant softshell turtle

The Last Female Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle Is Dead

What If I Told You Sperm Could Be Balls?

A prehistoric tully monster, looks like a squid with stalked eyes and a jointed trunk with a toothy pincer mouth at the end.

The Mystery Of The Tully Monster Will Never Be Solved

A dung-rolling weevil in the genus Tentegia props up a piece of marsupial dung

Rookie Dung-Roller Is Learning On The Job

Two firefighters attempt to free a red squirrel, whose head is stuck inside a manhole cover

History Repeats: Red Squirrel Gets STUCK In Manhole Cover In Germany, Just Four Years After Similar Squirrel’s Manhole Stranding

a photo of a coprolite (fossil poop) with bite marks taken out of it

Behold An Ancient Fish’s Moment Of Sheer Regret

Associate US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court, dressed in black robes.

Politics

Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Sponsor Owns Some Weird Nazi Stuff

two gloved hands holding a mummified brown squirrel in the shape of a perfect sphere

What’s Inside The Fur Sphere?

A series of holes in the mud of the deep seafloor

One Creator Of Mysterious Seafloor Holes Is Revealed, But Other Remains At Large

Close up of the face of a white male Beluga whale in aquarium.

What Was She Thinking? An Investigation

A Sumatran orangutan swings on a rope at the safari park and zoo in Jantho, Aceh province on October 10, 2021. (Photo by CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP) (Photo by CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Apes Spin On Vines To Get High Because They Haven’t Discovered Whippits

A diagram showing how much shorter the extinct fish Dunkleosteus was to a great white shark, with a weenie human for comparison.

More Like Chunkleosteus

A droplet of pee being ejected from the behind of an insect called a sharpshooter

Pee Pee Pew Pew!

Hedgehog adult sitting amongst autumn leaves and Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria

Thorvald, World’s Oldest European Hedgehog, Was Killed By Dog At Age 16

A photo of a new species of voiceless frog, pictured here sitting on a leaf with hands politely clasped together. The frog is golden green with some silvery-gold mottling.