All These Fucking Fools On My Dashboard Talk About How They Love Bats But Only Show Pictures Of Fruit

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:

“ come on guys we have to follow the magical trail trough the leaves !!! " 

The Stats

AURORA UPON YE

For my non-German mutuals wondering wtf is happening in the Bundesrepublik of Beer and Bread, here is an overview over the clown show so far:

Nov 6 - chancellor Olaf Scholz fires minister of finances Christian Lindner (FDP) for being an incompetent little bitch and drags him on live TV, resulting in a government crisis as the three party coalition (named Ampel aka "Traffic Light"), which is ruling the country at the moment, falls apart.

Scholz also calls for a vote of confidence on January 15th which (if lost) will lead to the Bundestag being dissolved, triggering snap elections in March. This sends everyone into a panic because the ultra right-wing AfD (with Best Of hits such as "Russia is sexy.", "We should criminalize abortions and force every woman to have more babies instead of rights." and "Deport all immigrants and traitors." and the inofficial ones such as "Why don't we just kill everyone we don't like, let's start with the queers.") has been gaining support for a while (because MAGA has no monopoly on racism, sexism, hate and overall stupidity) and no one with an ounce of empathy or a triple digit IQ likes that very much and is thus worried they might actually make it into a new coalition.

Nov 7 - minister for justice Marco Buschmann is heartbroken over the Ampel-Aus and resigns.

Volker Wissing (FDP), minister for transport, commits the funniest anime betrayal and backstabs his party in order to keep his job, leaves the FDP but gets promoted to minister of justice as a little treat. The memes skyrocket.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, minister of education and research, resigns along with Buschmann and gets replaced by Cem Özdemir (current minister for food and agriculture) because agriculture - education - at the end of the day where's the difference, right?

Federal President Steinmeier hands Christian Lindner his official participation certificate in an awkward ceremony at castle Bellevue. This is broadcast live on television so everyone can be sure that the little bitch is really leaving.

Friedrich Merz (CDU) threatens the nation with the promise that if he (Merz) becomes chancellor, he will let Lindner back into the government so they can keep fucking up the country's budget together. Bffs.

Nov 8 - after backstabbing the FDP Wissing's website gets hacked in retaliation to display FDP ads.

Meanwhile concerns are being voiced that snap elections in March might be way too early due to a lack of paper.

Robert Habeck (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), vice chancellor and minister for economic affairs and climate action, announces that he will be running for the position of chancellor with a social media post that shows him wearing a Swiftie bracelet which spells "Kanzler-Era" (chancellor-era). This sends Gundolf Siebeke from the super conservative CDU spiralling.

Nov 9 - Siebeke fires off a tweet stating that if Habeck becomes chancellor that would of course be totally the fault of women alone (who are all too emotional to make rational decisions) and Germany should "inofficially" consider revoking women's right to vote and officially implement "antiemotional" history lessons in school, earning him a massive shitstorm (completely deserved). Siebeke deletes the tweet.

Nov 10 - previous minister of justice Marco Buschmann processes his grief over the end of the traffic light coalition by composing and uploading a song to Soundcloud (feat. Gregorian chants) which is not exactly a banger but is admittedly still better than 99% of Germany's entries in the ESC these past few years.

Siebeke is still on his misogynistic bs and makes another incoherent and sexist tweet, this time yapping about queens and Christianity while trying to paint himself as the misunderstood victim.

There are sadly no more Volker Wissing memes.

Nov 12 - everyone has agreed to move the elections from March to the end of February because paper is no longer an issue, I guess? However, now everyone is unhappy because the date clashes with the carnival. No joke.

Siebeke changes the banner on his Twitter profile to read "Frauen. Wahl. Recht. Der 19. Januar 1919" / "Women. Right (to). Vote. January 19th 1919" in a pathetic attempt to show how much he actually (not) respects women while at the same time claiming in his Twitter bio that "only conservatism can secure democracy, freedom, rule of law, equality, climate and culture". No comment.

Nov 13 - 113 members of parliament have officially called for the Bundestag to open the long overdue investigation in order to finally ban the AfD.

It has been the longest week in the history of the Bundesrepublik. Everyone needs a fucking break.

To be continued

Short little video of an eastern red bat!! : ) So fluffy and cute!!

A zine i made for my art class talking about bats and all the facts i know about them!

absolutely insane shit happening on twitter

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