Oh, look, it’s everyone’s favorite disaster and his exes. You’ve all got it bad for these undead artistes, and the art is stunning. Please enjoy this collection of Interview with the Vampire fanart.
People on Tumblr come from all walks of life and all areas of expertise to grace our dashboards with paragraphs and photographs of the things they want to share with the world. Whether it’s an artist uploading their speed art, a fanfic writer posting their WIPs, a language expert expounding on the origin of a specific word, or a historian ready to lay down the secrets of Ea-nasir, the hallways of Tumblr are filled with specialists sharing their knowledge with the world. We Asked an Expert is a deep dive into those expert brains on tumblr dot com. Today, we’re talking to Dr. Mark D. Scherz (@markscherz), an expert in Herpetology. Read on for some ribbeting frog facts, including what kind of frog the viral frog bread may be based on.
In a battle for my heart, I think amphibians beat out the reptiles. There is just something incredibly good about beholding a nice plump frog.
In a battle to the death, I have to give it to the reptiles—the number of reptiles that eat amphibians far, far outstrips the number of amphibians that eat reptiles.
In terms of ecological importance, I would give it to the amphibians again, though. Okay, reptiles may keep some insects and rodents in check, but many amphibians live a dual life, starting as herbivores and graduating to carnivory after metamorphosis, and as adults they are critical for keeping mosquitos and other pest insects in check.
This doesn’t really answer your question, but did you know that tadpole arms usually develop inside the body and later burst through the body wall fully formed? I learned about this as a Master’s student many years ago, but it still blows my mind. What’s curious is that this apparently does not happen in some of the species of frogs that don’t have tadpoles—oh yeah, like a third of all frogs or something don’t have free-living tadpoles; crazy, right? They just develop forelimbs on the outside of the body like all other four-legged beasties. But this has only really been examined in a couple species, so there is just so much we don’t know about development, especially in direct-developing frogs. Like, how the hell does it just… swap from chest-burster to ‘normal’ limb development? Is that the recovery of the ancestral programming, or is it newly generated? When in frog evolution did the chest-burster mode even evolve?
You can get involved with your local herpetological societies if they exist—and they probably do, as herpetologists are everywhere. You can upload observations of animals to iNaturalist, where you can get them identified while also contributing to datasets on species distribution and annual activity used by research scientists.
You can see if there are local conservation organizations that are doing any work locally, and if you find they are not, then you can get involved to try to get them started. For example, if you notice areas of particularly frequent roadkill, talking to your local council or national or local conservation organizations can get things like rescue programs or road protectors set up. You should also make sure you travel carefully and responsibly. Carefully wash and disinfect your hiking boots, especially between locations, as you do not want to be carrying chytrid or other nasty infectious diseases across the world, where they can cause population collapses and extinctions.
Click through for Mark’s response to these absolutely wild headlines, more about his day-to-day job, his opinion on frog bread, and his favorite Tumblr.
Hello, Tumblr. June is here, and you’re all arting hard. This Tuesday would like to cordially wish you all a very good and community-fuelled Pride month. Please enjoy this roundup of delightful fanart and OC art, celebrating the beginning of this month of more gay art than usual on tumblr dot com.
(And here are some Pride art/writing challenges running this month: an identities-themed drawing challenge; a Baldur’s Gate 3 art challenge; a pride color pallette art challenge; a fandom art challenge; and finally, some Destiel pride creative prompts)
Hello to you, especially if you’re still celebrating last week’s Trans Day of Vivian. Obviously, some other cool stuff happened in the reboot of The Thousand-Year Door. But if we’re honest, the real win is Vivian’s restored trans identity.
Hello yet again! Last month we began our closed beta test of our new Communities feature, and yesterday we opened up community creation to everyone on Tumblr! You can now request to create a community and it'll be put on a waitlist (pending our approval).
So far we've gotten over 5,800 communities on the waitlist. We'll be working through that list as quickly as we can so y'all can start inviting people and testing this out with us.
If you're curious to learn more about communities, you can check out the Communities Feedback community for a sneak peek and the latest news on how things are going.
We’re excited that you’re so excited about Communities!
It’s a Hades art collection! All your favorite drapey ones, right here on your dash. Please join us in celebrating the incredibly talented artists in this fandom. They are doing us all such a solid while we anxiously await the official release and its delicious family drama.
Well, chaps, Mermay is in full swing, and we thought we’d share a little selection of its masterpieces. Who knows, maybe you, too, will feel moved to immortalize the noble merperson. Call it inspo. Call it appreciation. Whatever you do, please do feast thine eyes and enjoy.
(As is often the way with the beasties, some of these have fins, eyes, bones, and other potentially upsetting sticky-out bits. Please proceed with caution if any of this squicks you out).
Hello to all sleuths, dead or alive, demon-tormented or pixie-riddled! You’re celebrating the dead boy detectives and their friends and foes in style, and we’re so here for it.
(Spoilers ahead! Please proceed with the same caution you would perhaps employ upon approaching a ghost trapped in the here and now <3)
Hello, Dungeon Meshi fans, but perhaps a particularly special hello to Farcille fans and artists. These two have really captured your imagination in a way that has us a little bit breathless. Here’s a Farcille fanart collection for you.
(We had to be selective, but there is so much more. Please visit the #farcille fanart tag for the rest of the outpourings of genius.)
It’s Lesbian Visibility Week, an excellent time to be celebrating women who love women. Give it up for the sapphics, their muses, and the gorgeous art that honors them.
