Living the Sci Life

rhamphotheca:

Did You Know That Today is World Pangolin Day?

Last year tens-of-thousands of elephants and hundreds of rhinos were butchered to feed the growing appetite of the illegal wildlife trade. This black market, largely centered in East Asia, also devoured tigers, sharks, leopards, turtles, snakes, and hundreds of other animals. Estimated at $19 billion annually, the booming trade has periodically captured global media attention, even receiving a high-profile speech by U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, last year. But the biggest mammal victim of the wildlife trade is not elephants, rhinos, or tigers, but an animal that receives little notice and even less press: the pangolin. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, you’re not alone…

(Read more at MongaBay)

Not a thing to add here.

I might need to actually track down this paper, looks kewl.

ulaulaman:

The embryos of a sloth, armadillo, and pangolin, by On the structure and development of the skull in the mammalia (1874) by William Kitchen Parker via Prosopopea

Not a xenarthran, but I just can’t help giving it a reblog. Get those ants!

tumbletower:

A pangolin.

Obligate xenarthran reblog. 

1) Pangolin at top, not included in the group anymore.

2) Sloth at bottom appears to be holding guitar. Has this been attempted in real life? If no, why not?

biomedicalephemera:

Cuvier Day

Pangolin, Armadillo, Sloth lovin’ on a branch, Armadillo

Baron Cuvier described and analyzed a massive fossil found in Paraguay. By analyzing the skull and structure of the bones, Cuvier determined that not only was this an extinct animal, it was a giant sloth. This was one of the first species he used to demonstrate extinction.