snailtongue:

gallusrostromegalus:

goddamnshinyrock:

every so often I remember that whales molt

I’m not sure why I feel this way, but imo this is the most cursed marine mammal fact I have ever heard

THAT’S RIGHT AND THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME SO I CAN INFLICT THIS ON EVERYONE AT 1AM!

Mammals normally shed their skin in small flakes all the time when their skin cells die off, but because whales are living in the ocean -AKA, Bacteria Stew- flaking off like that would cause microabrasions (really tiny cuts) that would mean the whale is continually fighting off infections.  So, when a whale needs to replace it’s dead skin cells, it preps it’s new skin underneath, then sheds all it’s dead skin cells at once, like a lizard:

but not having hands makes it hard to remove this gross film, so molting brings many whales clsoe to shore where they can roll around on rocky/sandy coastal seabeds to scratch it off.  Here’s a bunch of Beluga coming in for a mass scratch:

And THIS is what a chunk of Sperm Whale Molt looks like, floating in the water before it’s devoured by pelagic microfauna, because you take what calories you can get in the open ocean:

Nature is Amazing!

dragon-master-daniel:

Bean has some beautiful pattern

onenicebugperday:

I love damselflies too! I highly recommend the Dragons and Damsels documentary hosted by everyone’s favorite grandpa, David Attenborough. It’s so rare to find documentaries on one type of bug rather than just overviews of a bunch and it was super interesting and informative. It’s available on Curiosity Stream which is only $2.99 a month and they have a bunch of other good bug content if you just wanna watch all that then cancel.

I would also check out my damselfly tag for some pics of nice pals!

The ebony jewelwing is a fav species just because it doesn’t really look like most others! Some other favs:

Orange-tailed marsh dart by bronzecky

Stream glory by wshxtd

Small red damselflies by makrofotografin 

:)))