In The YA Animal Fantasy Genre Of The 00′s There Are Your Warrior Cats, Your Guardians Of Ga’hoole

I follow this lady on instagram who rescues cats, and i have been thinking about this video for literal months. behold the transformation of this wretched little beast

(x)

Thumbless Bat Skull (Furipterus horrens)

Since there weren’t many good reference photos of the thumbless bat available (a tragedy!!), I took a shot at its bizarre-looking skull. Evolution has done to many bats what man has cruelly wrought on domestic dogs- though the difference is that it actually works for the bats.

The thumbless bat, as you might imagine from looking at this skull, has a very squished-in face, with fur and skin obscuring the extreme bend above the eyes. This might aid it in echolocation by turning its head into a radar dish, similar to an owl’s. There are definitely a lot of bats that seem to have converged on the flattened-face design. But that isn’t an Official Scientist’s Opinion, just mine.

I should mention that despite their common name, thumbless bats actually DO have thumbs, just reduced ones with tiny, functionless claws. This brings up the question of how they crawl, since most bats use their thumbs like pitons while moving around on their roosts. The answer may be that they just don’t crawl that much- a creature thoroughly adapted to life in the air.

Another fun fact about thumbless bats: their nipples are located on their abdomen, rather than under their armpits like most bats. This means the babies have to orient themselves head-up on their mothers (who are hanging upside-down, of course) to nurse. But how do they do this without functional thumbs to hold on with? I have so many questions that the internet cannot answer.

Finally, please enjoy this thumbless bat art by famed naturalist Ernst Haeckel, circa 1904:

The worst people who did not learn to love, read a book, meet a neighbor, leave their hometown, study in school, appreciate art, learn an instrument, travel abroad, seek knowledge, reflect on their shortcomings, ask for forgiveness, or work on their insecurities are using a silver-spooned liar and racist bully engorged on resentments to greenlight their cruelty towards people they don't even know.

Fcuk that.

the diggers will remember this

OK SO I WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET IN THE RAIN AT 2AM AND I SAW AN ANIMAL RUNNING DOWN THE ROAD AND SO I GRABBED IT AND

IT WAS THIS

...they're the size of an average adult human's thumb. their entire body is thumb sized. ...

aaaaaaaaaaa I would be petrified. worried that even breathing too hard could injure the bat.

Eastern Small-footed bat, via

those feet arent the only thing that's small that's for sure <3

Formosan Golden Tube-Nosed Bat, photographed by Heng-Chia Chang, (source)

Redneck necromancer who uses wd40 to cast, because "If it don't move and it should, use wd40"

Juvenile White-striped freetailed bat, via

Deffo look at the source on this one, the circumstances of the rescue are wild. They have over 200 of these little guys!!!

To expand on this; RIP the hypothetical roommate/dormmate/etc. that attempts to harm/kill a bat that flies into their house/dorm/apt.

Or the landlord/neighbor/etc. that calls in an exterminator after a group of bats (maybe even a maternity colony, or possibly a over-winter hibernating group of myotines/Eptesicus fusscuss) temporarily moves into the attic space. Or maybe that individual is preparing to handle the situation themselves with DIY/COTS chemical weapons, either after calling an exterminator ("sorry, sir, but we're legally restricted from evicting a maternity colony during pup season") or already having knowledge of such legislation, knowing that no proper 'pest-control' service will do anything here, and yet still deciding to go through with the purge on their own...

I feel like Gregor grows up to be ready and willing to punch a human at all times but refuses to kill spiders or roaches.