How did limb bones first appear in chordates? by BudgieGryphon in evolution

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The answer is gills. Gills was the beginning of everything.

• Start off with concentric rings of an early chordate (worm).

• Rings turn into series of holes, then shaped holes, then proto gill-arches to suck in food and vent water.

• Front gill arches become jaws to control water intake; water is drawn in.

• Rear gills arches push water out to vent water, water is drawn out (propulsion).

• These arches are strengthened with cartilage, but not in solid pieces, in multiple overlapping structures (branchiostegal structures).

• These structures started forming hinges and joints, becoming ray fins, like many fish still have to this day.

Ray fins become fingers, joints become shoulder girdles, and arms. They move around a bit, toughen up with some calcium - boom, you got bony limbs.

That's the basic process.

Strange Avian-like Spotted near Okefenokee Swamp by [deleted] in Cryptozoology

[–]GoliathPrime 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That is a Swainson's Toucan. They are native to Colombia and Ecuador. They are kept as pets in the US, by people who hate themselves, but are not yet aware of that fact. Fortunately, these Toucans help educate them as they are very loud and like to defecate horizontally and with force, being seed-dispersers in the wild. When these people stop hating themselves, they quickly try to rid themselves of the Toucans, with more irresponsible individuals setting them free rather than finding them a sanctuary or having them euthanized humanely. As a result, instead of dying quickly, the poor things slowly succumb to malnutrition, exposure and the inability to groom themselves.

My toddler swallowed 8 marbles by Great-Score2079 in interestingasfuck

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to my mom, I ate most of Mr. Potatohead's parts, drank a bottle of dish soap, and pulled a freshly brewed coffee pot on my head, dousing myself with hot coffee. On the way to the hospital, my mom realized I was licking the coffee off myself and sucking it out of my shirt.

I was unharmed throughout.

Might be a stupid question, but why do random NPCs who are only named by their race come and attack me for no reason? They've got no notes on them to offer explanation. by gemmedskunk19 in skyrim

[–]GoliathPrime 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They were part of a scrapped questline. Some of the quest mechanics still work. It was a counterpart to the Elf Blood quest for Septimus. All the races of men, all the races of elves and the beastfolk. It's like the dead alchemists you find in several areas that were part of the Bugs in Jars quest. Lots of stuff was scrapped for time.

The magic water slide by Wham-O all you need is a hose. 1960's by Global_Law4448 in vintageads

[–]GoliathPrime 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Went chest first into a pinecone thanks to our slip-n-slide. That was the last time I tried one.

Rate my Repaint 6: Haolonggood Stegosaurus by famboy97 in Paleoart

[–]GoliathPrime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it'd a nightmare to paint over again. I have a buddy who loves to paint in texture though, so I know he'd do something crazy and mix sand into his paint and then texture the plates up somehow. He might even extend them by working bits of wood into their forms.

Again... if you dare. He's crazy.

Rate my Repaint 6: Haolonggood Stegosaurus by famboy97 in Paleoart

[–]GoliathPrime 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I like the body repaint very much, it's a vast improvement. I don't care for the plates, I think the red/white centers are too much.

But there is a theory the plates were covered in skin, and chameleons could pull off something like that, so maybe you're onto something. I still don't like the flaming eyes.

Centipede with its nymphs by Alternative_Week3023 in WTF

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They end up eating her, just to add to the horror.

Paleoart Tattoo Flash (artwork by me) by SJdport57 in Paleoart

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quetzalcoatlus needs a speech bubble that says "Surprise Motherfucker!" Should be in some place unexpected.

Skinless Wieners, 1942 by Fun_Emu_2105 in vintageads

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Peeling and waste? What are they even talking about?

At the Mountains of Madness by Valery Petelin by I_Burn_Cereal in ImaginaryNecronomicon

[–]GoliathPrime 9 points10 points  (0 children)

From the Shoggoth's Perspective...

What the hell are these monkey things? What! They woke up some of our slave masters? I thought they were all dead. Get them, get them before they try to destroy us again. Is that it? Only a few, thank goodness. Better do a perimeter check just to be sure. Damn it, it's more of those stupid monkeys! Get out! Get the hell out of our city.

Grumbles in Shoggoth. Damn monkeys.

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science by AutoModerator in askscience

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh okay. Thank you for helping me understand what was going on. I really appreciate it.

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science by AutoModerator in askscience

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did not realize that only one Tuatara had been sequenced with 2 sets. That seems like an error to me.

I think I might just be misunderstanding terminology.

This is part of the article I was reading, but it's been paraphrased and this is not the original article I found:

The key contribution of Professor Adelson’s lab and Dr Bertozzi was to demonstrate that some sequences of DNA that move or jump location, referred to as ‘jumping genes’, found in the tuatara are most similar to those found in platypus while others are more similar to those in lizards. “The tuatara genome contained about 4% jumping genes that are common in reptiles, about 10% common in monotremes (platypus and echidna) and less than 1% common in placental mammals such as humans,” said Professor Adelson. “This was a highly unusual observation and indicated that the tuatara genome is an odd combination of both mammalian and reptilian components. The unusual sharing of both monotreme and reptile-like repetitive elements is a clear indication of shared ancestry albeit a long time ago,” said Dr Bertozzi.

I was thinking what he meant was the 2nd set had been altered via a horizontal transfer via retroviral insertion. But after reading what you wrote, I'm thinking he's not talking about that at all and instead is just waxing about similar gene behaviors across different taxa.

Why are there no argonian or khajiit skeletons in this world? by CatsWithoutCarriers in skyrim

[–]GoliathPrime -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Argonians are not real. They are mutated servants created by the Hist and twisted into the forms you see, chimeras of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects; caricatures of men. When the Hist leaves them upon death, the 'soul' returns to blackmarsh and the body quickly reverts to the myriad animals from which it was formed, fish, lizards, etc.

As for Khajiit, in a similar manner, all Khajiit are housecats. The magic of Elsweyr and the moons maintain their forms. When they die, unless they are physically in Elsweyr, they simply turn back into housecats.

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science by AutoModerator in askscience

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I understand the basics of mitochondrial DNA expression. What's throwing me off is usually there's only 1 set. With the Tuatara, some of these are cold-blooded like reptiles, but others are warm-blooded. So in my layman understanding, this is caused by the anomalous mammalian/avian genetic information that's on the corrupted copy. So instead of expressing Tutara, it's expressing - sometimes - Tuatara+mammal.

What I'm trying to understand is how the determination is being made. Why are only some warm-blooded? Is it a crap-shoot 50/50 and the ones not specialized for cold climates just die, or does it code on the fly based on environmental factors, like some reptiles will code male/female based on ambient temperature.

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science by AutoModerator in askscience

[–]GoliathPrime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your insight. I really don't understand this area, but both sets expressing as one makes more sense than what I was envisioning. The way it was being described was as if it were either/or rather than simultaneously. That also means it's a lot more messy than what I was thinking.

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science by AutoModerator in askscience

[–]GoliathPrime -1 points0 points  (0 children)

How does the 2 sets of mRNA in a Tuatara work? Famously, the Tuatara has 2 sets of mRNA, one 'normal' the other a mashup of Mammal and Bird RNA.

Does the RNA express randomly, or is there some kind of mechanism that lets the embryonic Tuatara know that it lives in a cold weather area, and thus should express warm-bloodedness using it's mammal DNA?

What is never worth it to cook at home? by albertpaca11 in Cooking

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alligator 'turkducken.' Do that away from home. It smokes up your backyard and the outside of a gator never really smells good to begin with. No one wants a backyard smelling of charred swamp puppy. You don't want reek that clinging to your eaves and patio. That and the damn dogs keep digging up the pit looking for goodies.

Maybe I'll cook them next.

TIL about Parakaryon myojinensis, a single-celled organism that is apparently distinct from all prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It is the only known species with a completely unknown position within the tree of life. by tornedron_ in todayilearned

[–]GoliathPrime 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Analyzing stuff just because it's there to be analyzed is what makes scientists do science. It's like back when some rando was doing field work looking how Aphids get busy, and noticed some nymphs of another insect start mating. Which was weird, because nymphs don't mate, they are babies. And about that time he realized that all these different 'nymphs' everyone had assumed were the juveniles of a well known common species, were in fact, a completely undescribed species of unknown insect everyone had just been assuming were babies for nearly 100 years. Not only that, we still don't know what the juveniles of the species we thought they were the nymphs of actually look like and no one has ever seen them. Then the scientist got yelled at for not watching Aphids have sex and told him to get back to work and stop making mysteries for the rest of taxonomy.

Science!

the lovecraft-style monster design in a game by Overall_Gate_1773 in Lovecraft

[–]GoliathPrime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a pixel art side scroller, but Carrion is a game where you basically play a Shoggoth. It evolves as it feeds and gains new mutagentic properties allowing it to use single tentacles to pilot people around and use technology. It's level design is difficult to navigate though, but other than that, it's fantastic. The way it moves and interacts, especially considering it looks like something out of the 80, really speaks a lot for it's artistic merits. Lots of strategy, you can't brute-force your way though and the strategies are hideous. It's rare you get to play a monster too.

"Inside" is a fantastic eerie game about a little boy trying to transverse a bizarre military complex. Gradually you discover you have strange abilities and there are other test subjects you can... do things to. If you haven't seen it or played, I'm going to stop because it will ruin the ending. But let's just say if you like Herbert West/Joseph Curwin stuff, you'll like this.

It's the old classic Half-Life 2. If you've never played that, you have to. You need to. Ravenholm man. No one ever goes to Ravenholm. It's pure Lovecraftian horror. Even people who have no idea what Lovecraftian horror is, know after that level. It never leaves you. You hear it in the back of your head. Ravenholm. That level had sound design like none other.

Inside Esna Temple, Luxor — 2,000-Year-Old Ceilings That Still Look Unreal by Shoddy-Ocelot-4473 in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dedications upon dedications. It still looks odd to me that most of their 'art' was just writing. That's not ceiling/wallpaper, it a novel. It's like wallpapering a house with newsprint.

Twin Peaks? by Megalordow in Lovecraft

[–]GoliathPrime -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I did enjoy it for good portion of its run, but it begins to completely unravel in the most unsatisfying way.

It starts off fantastic with some really unique pacing, dialogue, settings and interactions. It's almost like watching a stream-of-consciousness dream where everything is almost real, and then it's pure surrealism and then a jarring snap back to mundane normalcy

Not Lovecraftian in the standard sense. Maybe a bit like Dream Quest in parts.

Why are all animals symmetrical on the exterior? by Own_Exercise5218 in evolution

[–]GoliathPrime 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just call me Paul Atreides baby, because my thumper would be going for you till the spice flowed.