68) Sheltopusik (Pallas’s glass lizard) is a legless lizard that looks like a snake but unlike a snake it can blink!

67) Selenium-accumulating plants grow on soils rich in selenium (indicator plants) and contain toxic levels of it

Chuck Schumer: “unlike you, Hegseth can afford steak!”

66) Peanuts produce the fruit called a legume but unlike others it doesn’t split open but relies on bacterial breakdown

65) Baby echidna is called a puggle and it’s adorable

64) Platypus is the only venomous mammal

There is a spice called mace. NOT the same as spray mace

63) Mace (spice) and nutmeg come from the fruit of the same plant (nutmeg is the seed, mace is aril)

Really appreciated and enjoyed this. Liberation from diagnosis, not denial of diagnosis

62) Cleaner fish is another familiar mutualism. Interestingly it’s usually not the large client fish who “cheat”—they don’t harm the cleaners; but the cleaners do sometimes steal a little bite of the client’s nutritious slime (all fish are covered in it, it’s a protective layer)

61) Fruit of the mustard family is called a silique

60) Another fun mutualism: ants and bullthorn acacia. Ants protect the tree from herbivores and competitors; acacia provides ants with housing (in its thorns), nectaries, and specialized baby food (protein-rich Beltian bodies growing at the tips of the leaves)

Alright, I’m home now so here’s the Norm update. Yesterday at 4pm, I got a text from a family I’ve been helping who had a loved one abducted a couple of days after Renée Good’s murder. This was the family that Norm Nation kept from being evicted (and you delivered). ICE had released their loved one.

59) Spotted lanternfly is a tree-hopper, the group of insects that leave behind sugary honeydew. They are invasive and can damage plants; otoh the honeydew turned out to be a surprising source of sugar for honeybees so now we have lanternfly honey

58) Vampire bats have a mutual aid system: bats who were unsuccessful hunting often ask others for help (regurgitated blood)

57) Yucca moths are obligatory mutualists with yucca—they pollinate the flowers and in exchange lay their eggs in them so that developing larvae can eat some of the seeds. But not all of them—yucca can selectively abort flowers with too many eggs, preventing the moth from overexploiting its partner

Adorable!

56) Myxomatosis is a viral disease native to the American rabbits, who only experience a mild illness, but is quite deadly in European rabbits. It also makes an effective agent of biological control and was intentionally introduced in Australia

55) Pikas look like fat mice but are actually lagomorphs (like rabbits and hares)

54) Some dragonflies migrate from Canada and the US to Mexico

53) Pigeons, flamingoes and penguins are among the birds who produce “crop milk” — high fat secretions made by both males and females to feed their young

Boxing drills with 5 lb dumbbells and jumping rope is definitely something!

52) House sparrows are not brood parasites but will absolutely kill bluebird chicks and build their own nest over their bones

Ooh that reminds me!

My issue is my friends being legislated and fag-bashed out of existence, not whether the President committed some sort of border-trespassing natsec no-no.

51) Tuna and bees can generate metabolic heat, making them partially warmblooded

50) Phytoplankton blooms in the Atlantic are associated with inputs of iron, brought by wind from the Sahara desert

49) Blubber of marine mammals is very high in vitamin C

48) Cats are uniquely vulnerable to many plant compounds (like lilies) because they are such strict carnivores, they lost the ability to metabolize even basic plant compounds

47) Mexican whiptail lizards do not have males. Yes they all are lesbians.