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Defector

Animals

Creaturefector

Science

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


Sabrina Imbler

BRISTOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: A King Cobra is displayed to the public at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm on August 2, 2016 in Bristol, England. Noah's Ark Zoo Farm has teamed up with the Reptile Zone in Bristol to bring a fortnight of educational shows which allows members of the public to see some of the world's most deadliest reptiles close up. The annual event showcases some of the world's most notorious snakes behind a specially constructed presentation room. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Happy Snake Clitoris Day To All Who Celebrate

A photo of the grass mouse Akodon albiventer

These Two Grass Mice Species Look Almost Identical Except For One Small Thing (Their Wieners)

Clonal raider ants sipping ant milk from pupae.

Ants Of All Ages Enjoy Ant Milk

A lady lifts a comically small Shetland pony out of a van in Germany.

Pumuckel The 20-Inch Pony Has Other Mini-Horses Quaking In Their Hooves

Turtles Have Been Vocalizing All This Time. Why Did We Not Listen?

Barry Petchesky

Folks, We’ve Got A New Animal Friendship

A Modest Proposal: Eat Some Of Your Children, For The Antioxidants

Goldfish Gold Fish, Carassius Auratus.Carassius Auratus , Goldfish , Cyprinid , Bony Fish , Fish (Photo by BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Let Us Celebrate Bubulle, The Goldfish That Flunked

An illustration and CT scan of an aye-aye putting its extremely long flexible finger inside its nose.

How Does The Aye-Aye’s Finger Go So Deep Inside Their Nose?

A photo of the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid at night

Every Creature I Met At The Bass Pro Shops Pyramid

A photo of an enormous dead sunfish, which is a strange-looking pale fish with triangle fins, hooked to a crane with a person examining the fish

I Wish We Didn’t Know About the Heaviest Bony Fish Ever Found

on a high-altitude cliff, a mountain goat intimidates a trio of bighorn sheep

Mountain Goats Keep Winning

Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar waving a bland hello except his bottom half is long trailing jellyfish tentacles

The Machines

We Can Do So Much Better Than Legs

How Many Ants Is The Right Number Of Ants For There To Be?

A close up of the illustration of a fish barfing out a frog

Welcome To Jurassic Puke

A tiny orange frog sitting by a pool of water inside the leaf of a bromeliad plant.

Nowhere Is Safe From Our Garbage

A tiny pink snake attempting to swallow a giant centipede.

Why Do Snakes Eat Things Big Enough To Kill Them?

A general view of Trix the female the T-Rex exhibition at the Naturalis or Natural History Museum of Leiden on October 17, 2016 in Leiden, Netherlands. The skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex was excavated in 2013 in Montana, USA, by Naturalis Biodiversity Center. The fossil is part of the Naturalis collection and is more than 80% of the bone volume present. All essential and high­volume bones are in place. This places Trix in the top 3 ranking of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons in the world. In addition, all the bones are extremely well preserved. The quality of this fossil is unmatched by any other large T-Rex find in the world.

The T. Rex Species Saga, Explained

Let The Shipworms Eat Captain Cook’s Ship, It’s What Everyone Involved Deserves

Freya The Walrus Should Still Be Alive

Two brown-lipped snails, cepea nemoralis, on the concrete.

I Must Protect The Snails In My Backyard From Myself

A screenshot of a pink spaghetti worm glimpsed on the deep sea by a Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ROV

Do You Dare Twirl Your Fork In The Spaghetti Worm?

ALLEN PARK, MICHIGAN - JULY 27: Dan Campbell, head coach of the Detroit Lions during the Detroit Lions Training Camp on July 27, 2022 in Allen Park, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

What Creature Does Dan Campbell Think Would Be Great At Football?

A straight line of rectangular holes in the seafloor, with the metal parts of a remotely operated vehicle visible at the bottom of the image.

Let Me Stick My Hand Inside The Mysterious Holes On The Seafloor

A mysterious jellyfish with one long tentacle