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Defector

Animals

Creaturefector

Science

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


Sabrina Imbler

This photo illustration created on December 11, 2023 shows emojis on a smartphone screen in Washington, DC. Too many cats, not enough crustaceans: The current emoji catalog doesn't accurately represent the breadth of biodiversity seen in nature -- and that hurts conservation efforts, according to scientists. An analysis published on December 11, 2023 in the journal iScience found that while animals are well represented by the current emoji catalog, plants, fungi, and microorganisms get short shrift. (Photo by)

⚖️🌏➖🐻‍❄️🐻🐼🔀🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲🪲⁉️

at the Extinction: Not the End of the World exhibition at The Natural History Museum on February 5, 2013 in London, England. More than 99 percent of species that once roamed the planet are now extinct. Organisers of the exhibition hope to show that a diverse range of plants and animals survived. 80 Museum specimens are on display from February 8-8, September 2013.

What Kind Of Future Does De-Extinction Promise?

A brown male golden rocket frog carrying an enormous tadpole on his back

As A Father Of Tadpoles

LAKE FOREST, CA - JULY 16: Dr. Scott Weldy of the Orange County Bird of Prey Center holds a Cooper"u2019s hawk just prior to releasing it near Lake Forest on Thursday, July 16, 2020. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Birdfector

North American Birds Will No Longer Be Named After People

A close-up of three leg-like appendages of a green caterpillar with orange and black spots

The Great Defector Leg Quiz

An orange caterpillar with five distinctive eyeposts and a some tinier legs by the head

When The Legs Are A Lie

A Timema douglasi stick insect on a Douglas fir

Asexual Insect Accused Of Having Sex!

A still of a swimming colony of worms that resembles a jellyfish moving around a glass beaker

Mysterious Jellyfish Actually 1,020 Worms Who Want To Be Poop

A side-view of a rove beetle with a swollen body that resembles a termite.

How Do You Do, Fellow Termites?

A photo of a beautiful tortoise beetle adult, with a gold and brown shell ringed with blue.

These Baby Beetle Backpacks Are Made Of Poop

An Animorphs-like grid showing how bite marks in the deep-sea overlay perfectly with a rattail mouth

Maker Of Mysterious Horseshoes On The Seafloor Finally Revealed

Tourists snorkel next to a whale shark, the largest fish in the world in the Gulf of California, in a protected area, as part of a whale shark watching tour at Bahía de La Paz

Sharks’ Best PR Team Might Be Working Too Hard

Two wild Przewalski's horses nuzzle each other in a field.

The Real Horse-Wives Of Hortobágy Aren’t Here To Hurt Feelings, But They Will Stirrup Trouble

An alligator is seen near the 14th green during the first round of the Valspar Championship on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Florida

Teen Gators Are Getting Into Golf

A very cute hadal snailfish that is blue and chunky and appears to be smiling

A Unified Theory Of Deep-Sea Fish Aesthetics; Or, The Deeper You Go The Cuter They Get

3D models of a parrotfish and trumpetfish are pulled on a line across a sandy reef.

Trumpetfish Are Champions Of Hide And Sneak

A reconstruction of the ancient enormous whale Perucetus colossus

Why He Look Like That?

A photo of a limbless amphibian called a caecilian

Never Go In Against A Caecilian When Death Is On The Line

a magpie nest in a tree. the nest is built from a bunch of anti-bird spikes, which are long spiky needles attached to strips.

There’s No Such Thing As Hostile Architecture When You’re A Bird

Artistic reconstruction of Megasiphon thylakos, a benthic organism that lived directly on the seafloor. The tunicate looks like two ghostly cylinders sitting on the seafloor

Sea Squirts Started From The Bottom, Now They’re Here

A deep-sea octopus spreads out its arms on the seafloor

Maker Of Mysterious Octagons On The Seafloor Finally Revealed

Present-day katydids of the genus Arethaea, pictured here, have the same internal structures as those seen in the fossil.

They Found An Old Bug Ball

Dominant male orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with large cheek flaps pointing his finger at his face, Borneo, Indonesia.