Hey, yall! I am so exceedingly excited for Tuesday… it’s getting harder to wait everyday lol. Naturally, I have 3 facilities planned out so far! Here’s a faux site for my first zoo, Pearly Zoo, based in central Mississippi! Come visit!
This was an impromptu piece inspired by two papers I recently read (Cherel & Duhamel, 2004; Cherel, 2020) about how important squid are in the diet of the Southern Sleepers. I expected to see plenty of the usual small to large species like the Dana Octo-squid, but what REALLY caught my attention was the presence of plentiful COLOSSAL and GIANT squid remains—including mature adults! Naturally, my brain immediately went: "ok... but HOW are these slow-moving sharks actually dealing with squid this massive?! Are they ambushing them? Catching the weaker ones? Scavenging? Maybe a combination?"
Either way, the thought of a huge southern sleeper shark encountering a the largest living invertebrate in the dark depths of the Southern Ocean was way too cool not to draw. Man, what I would pay to actually see an interaction like this IRL!!
Also, fun facttt: When stressed, the Colossal Squid's chromatophores expand and it turns a brilliant red! Didn't know that!! Def expected them to turn pale or something.
Here's a selection of Asiatic species from the Pleistocene epoch! Tell me your favorite in the comments!
...
i. Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis — a very large cousin of the Gharial, this crocodilian could reach more than 20 ft in length and easily surpass ~1000 lbs. Its fitting generic name comes from the Japanese mythological goddess Toyotama-hime, who is said to have been able to transform into a giant dragon or crocodile!
ii. Alligator munensis - this medium-sized alligator had an unusually broad, blunt snout used for crushing its prey.
iii. Chinese Paddlefish - one of the largest freshwater fish ever, this giant species lived in the Yangtze River and has been recorded surpassing 20’ in length! It had a comically long snout fitted with tiny sensory receptors for detecting prey.
iv. Megalochelys atlas - one of the largest tortoises ever with carapace lengths occasionally surpassing 6’ and weights of possibly more than 1 ton! There was a thick, forked projection at the front of the lower carapace that males might have used in battles with other males.
v. Woolly Mammoth - do I even need to say anything? Iconic.
vi. Tapirus augustus - the largest tapir ever, possibly surpassing 1000 lbs in weight. They were primarily browsers, dining on leaves, fruits, twigs and shoots.
vii. Postschizotherium chardini - a bizarre, giant… uh, hyrax… cousin?
viii. Elasmotherium sibiricum - the largest of the true rhinos, standing up to 8’ at the shoulder and more than 4 tons.
ix. Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle — among the largest living freshwater turtles with a ~3’ long carapace, There are only two known individuals left in the world.
x. Oriensarctos watasei - do the sea lion.
xi. Palaeoloxodon namadicus - potentially the largest proboscidean and land mammal ever, with males possible standing ~15-16 ft. tall at the shoulder and weighing more than 14 tons. It fed on grasses, shrubs, leaves and other plant matter.
xii. Nomascus imperialis — a gibbon formerly placed in its own cool genus, Junzi.
xiii. Sivatherium giganteum — a giant Indian cousin of giraffes and okapis, Sivatherium had a pair of large, moose- or deer-like ossicones atop the head. Its generic name comes from the Hindu deity, Shiva.
xiv. “Mammut borsoni” — another contender for largest proboscidean, this mastodont had extremely long, nearly 17 ft long slightly curved tusks. Fully grown bulls of this species could reach up to ~17 tons and stand up to ~13 ft at the shoulder.
xv. Baiji - an river dolphin that is an icon of extinction.
xvi. Manis palaeojavanica — an absolutely gigantic pangolin.
xvii. Gigantopithecus blacki - the largest known primate. It’s only known from a partial jaw and teeth and fed on tubers, fruit, bamboo shoots and other browse.
xviii. Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis - a very wide-ranging rhino that possibly reached more than 3 tons. Their closest living relative is the sumatran rhino. They were primarily browsing herbivores.
⭑ BONUS ⭑
Siamese Tigerfish Datnioides pulcher
Helmeted Hornbill Rhinoplax vigil
Giant Panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca
(+ bonus Shepherd’s Beaked Whale!)
Do you like calamari? Because I do. But there are other creatures out there that love it more than we do! These four deep-sea whales dine almost exclusively on squid, and all of them are pretty secretive and elusive! From largest to smallest:
- Northern Bottlenose Whale, a gargantuan creature up to 36’ in length and ~8+ tons heavy from the North Atlantic. The males’ skulls support a giant, rounded head (it gets more squareish with age) that they use to headbutt each other for access to females. Their diet generally consists of more than 50% squid, supplemented by fish, sharks, rays and other small creatures.
- Sato’s Beaked Whale, or the Karasu (raven in Japanese), is a very reclusive, large-sized species found in the N Pacific that can reach around 23’. They are also very social, often observed in groups of 5+!
- Stejneger’s Beaked Whale is a medium-sized BW that is also found in the North Pacific and is best known for its “saber” tusks, some of the largest in its family, in which the males use to fight each other for mating rights - possibly controlling a small harem of females. Measuring up to ~19’ and at more than a ton or two, these guys feed primarily on squid, especially glass and gonate species.
- and our lil guy, the Dwarf Sperm Whale, another rare species that is found in tropical and temperate waters across the globe. They are up to around 6-9’ long and typically weigh less than 700 lbs, a far cry from their 50 ft, 50 ton Cachalot cousins. They have “false gills” which kinda mimics a shark, as well as a secret sac near their butts that allows them to excrete a reddish fluid when startled or stressed!! These guys particularly love cockeyed squid!
The mo' I want, the mo' I desperately NEED it!!
Some time in December, I had a dream of a cerrado-type ecosystem set in Late Pleistocene Bolivia. Julio Lacerda has been one of my favorite artists since the pandemic, and I had to get his expertise for my vision!
Set 21 KYA, it features a group of Eremotherium laurillardi moving about at dawn to begin their day of eating. On the flip side, a Notiomastodon platensis bull duo is also roaming and foraging! Other fauna include Blue-throated Macaws (which are endemic to Bolivia today), a Southern three-banded armadillo, Toco Toucan, a Giant Anteater and a dispersed flock of Hyacinth Macaws foraging on the ground!
Julio is definitely one of the GOAT’s.
You know how orcas, pilot whales and co. are called
"blackfish"? Well for black beaked whales, I'm proposing "blackbeaks"!! 👀
Sato's Beaked Whale (Berardius minimus), aka the Karasu (Japanese for "raven"). This species lives in the N Pacific and is considerably smaller than its congeners.
Stejneger's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri) is the second-largest Mesoplodon species, reaching up to ~19 ft and weighing some 1-2+ tons. They are also called "saber-tooth whales", referring to their enlarged mandibular tusks that males use to fight each other (hence the scars) for female access.
Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens) is what I like to nickname the "dolphin of the family" because they are very acrobatic - frequently breaching and spinning and all the things. Also because, unlike other beaked whales, their diet is comprised almost entirely of fish, with the occasional calamari.
Hubbs' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon carlhubbsi) is another N Pacific species. The males are dark grey or black with a contrasting white "beanie" and tend to be very heavily scarred from fights.
Gray's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi) is a circumpolar species that even ventures as far south as Antarctica. They have a long beak and are one of the larger species of its genus, measuring 14-18 ft and weighing ~1-2 tons.
Ginkgo-toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) is named for its large, ginkgo leaf-shaped teeth; however, only the tips of the teeth erupt from the jaws. Males are tend to lack scars because the teeth are too small to make contact. Wonder how they compete for females? They are also usually covered in white cookiecutter shark wounds.
Deraniyagala's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hotaula) is an Indo-Pacific species and is very rare.
Andrews' Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bowdoini) is a circumpolar species that has never been seen alive in the wild before.
Hector's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon hectori) is one of the smallest BW species. It is also one of the least known. Most depcitions of males are based on Perrin's Beaked Whales, as the two were thought to be the same species. However, in 2002, a stranded male revealed the true colors of this whale - dark grey to black with a white beak and extensive scarring.
It represents the earliest record for Berardius and closest related to Sato's BW within the genus. It was around a similar size to it as well, if not a little smaller - around 18-23 ft or so. I wonder if it is a direct ancestor of either of the two Northern Hemisphere species?
It surely lived similar to its living, deep-diving cousins, diving to crushing depths to suck up small fish and squid! Here, I depicted them foraging on rattails (Bathygadidae) and lanternfish.
Today, I wanted to reward myself for studying hard all day for my finals, so I picked up a stylus, charged up that iPad and decided to draw a male and female ***Dagonodum mojnum***, a species of beaked whale from Denmark that lived more than 7 million years ago!
They are a basal beaked whale species. They had an extremely long, narrow "beak" (rostrum) lined with around 48 and 58 functional teeth in its upper and lower jaws, respectively, more comparable to a dolphin than most modern BW's. They also had two pairs of apical teeth (=tusks) at the tip of the lower jaw, possibly only in males; the teeth were found to be visibly worn, indicating they were probably using them for intraspecific combat - most likely male-male competition for female access. The rest of the teeth enabled them to efficiently catch slippery fish and squid.
They are suggested to have been a coastal species rather than a deep-sea specialist like its living relatives. They lived alongside the **Megalodon**, which definitely would've found them to be a nice snack.
