Therizinosaurs were some of of the most unique theropod dinosaurs. It’s only in the last few decades that we’ve started to understand much about them, and they’re still somewhat enigmatic even today.
1950s
The first known therizinosaur fossil discovery was Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, found in Southern Mongolia during the late 1940s and described and named in the mid-1950s based on a few fragments that included some unusually large and elongated claws.
These remains were interpreted as belonging to a giant turtle-like reptile that used its scythe-like claws to harvest aquatic plants – inspiring both parts of its scientific name, with Therizinosaurus meaning “reaper lizard” and cheloniformis meaning “turtle-shaped”.
1990s
The turtle interpretation began to be questioned during the 1970s, and the discovery of some slightly better (but still fragmentary) specimens reclassified Therizinosaurus as an unusual theropod dinosaur.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s fossils of another group of dinosaurs known as “segnosaurs” were also starting to be discovered, with a confusing mixture of anatomical features that seemed to link them to multiple different dinosaur lineages. As a result opinions about their evolutionary relationships varied during the 1980s, sometimes considering them to be theropods, sometimes late-surviving “relic” prosauropods, and sometimes a whole new major lineage of rare and weird saurischians.
Similarities between segnosaurs and the known material of Therizinosaurus were soon noted, and the discovery of the fairly complete Alxasaurus in the early 1990s confirmed that they were all part of the same group of bizarre herbivorous theropods – and the name “segnosaurs” was dropped in favor of “therizinosaurs”, since older names usually get priority in taxonomy.
Reconstructions of Therizinosaurus during this time tended to look rather weird and awkward. As with the majority of dinosaurs during this period it was depicted as entirely scaly and reptilian, and was often shown with a stiff hunched downcurving neck and an oddly tiny-looking tail.
Further discoveries during the 1990s finally began to clarify therizinosaurs’ evolutionary affinities, eventually placing them as an early branch of bird-like maniraptoran theropods, closely related to both oviraptorosaurs and the alvarezsaurs – and in 1999 the discovery of the small early therizinosaur Beipiaosaurus helped to confirm this relationship, revealing impressions of an extensive coat of filamentous feathers and longer stiffer quill-like structures.
2020s
Over the next couple of decades more and more therizinosaur fossils were found in both Asia and North America, and details about these dinosaurs’ appearance, biology, and ecology gradually became better understood. While there’s still a lot we don’t know about them, we do now at least have some fairly complete examples like Nothronychus, fossilized therizinosaur footprints, more feathers, an idea of Beipiaosaurus’ coloration (it was brown!), and even eggs and potential colonial nesting sites.
And while Therizinosaurus itself is still only represented by fragmentary and incomplete material, we now have a much better idea of what it was probably like. It lived in what is now the Gobi Desert during the Late Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago, and would have been both the largest known therizinosaur and the largest known maniraptoran dinosaur, estimated to have been as much as 10m long (33’) based on the proportions of its relatives.
It would have had a tiny head with a toothless beak at the front of its jaws, a long neck, and a wide bulky “pot-bellied” body housing its huge plant-fermenting gut. With its especially large body size it probably wasn’t as extensively feathered as its smaller relatives, but it may have still been sparsely fuzzy across parts of its body.
Unlike most other theropods it walked on all four toes of its feet, with the dewclaw enlarged into an extra weight-bearing digit. Recent analysis of footprints has also suggested that the larger therizinosaurs like Therizinosaurus may actually have been plantigrade, walking with their feet completely flat on the ground. This might turn out to just be an artifact of how the tracks were preserved, but therizinosaurs are certainly already weird enough that it could be a plausible interpretation.
But Therizinosaurus’ most distinctive feature was its hands, with extremely long narrow claws each at least 50cm long (1'8"). Unlike the strongly curved claws seen in other therizinosaurs, these ones were fairly straight for most of their length, only curving more sharply towards their tips.
While in the past these claws have been proposed as being weapons or digging adaptations, they were actually relatively delicate and were probably mainly used for pulling clumps of vegetation closer in a convergently similar manner to the later mammalian chalicotheres and ground sloths.
Therizinosaurus would have been a heavy slow-moving animal, and probably spent a lot of time sitting on its haunches supported by its especially robust hip bones while it browsed on large amounts of vegetation. It likely relied on its pure bulk and intimidation to deter potential predators, possibly even making aggressive displays with its claws when threatened – essentially it may have been a giant goose-sloth.
the thing about microbiology when you’re NOT working in human health is that you have to make peace with the fact that a big chunk of bacteria out there were first identified, described, sequenced, and named from the human microbiome. like, specifically named in reference to where it is found on the body. even if it exists plentifully elsewhere.
and this makes sense okay but it’s mildly weird when you’re doing literally anything other than human medicine and you’ve gotta be like, “Hello! We found the bacteria Sciencename comesfromvagina growing in our fish stocks. We promise nobody dunked their cooch in the water. It’s totally natural. Anyway, we discovered that it helps the fish grow, so we’re going to give them more pussy bacteria.”
OK THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL EVERYONE FUCKING REPEAT AFTER ME. THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL DO WHEN YOU WATCH MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL THIS YEAR:
You will navigate to the page on disney plus (and it has to be here. Unless someone has actually uploaded the REAL movie anywhere else you cannot get it elsewhere)
BUT YOU WILL NOT HIT PLAY. You won’t do it. Because it’s NOT THE REAL VERSION OF THE FILM AND DISNEY IS FUCKING LYING TO YOU AS IT ALWAYS DOES
You will scroll down HERE. To EXTRAS instead. You MUST GO HERE. This is non -negotiable
THEN YOU WILL SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE EXTRAS AND YOU WILL THEN HIT PLAY ON THIS BAD BOY: THE FULL LENGTH VERSION
And you will watch it. And you will thank me for having been so blind and led astray by that stupid fucking mouse. You’re welcome.
ok children gather ‘round because all of these kindof have the same answer and I am way too passionate about this subject and the history behind it that I physically cannot remain silent about it
So if you were a 90’s kid like me, you grew up with this film on VHS. if you were also like me, then you probably remember it very differently from how it was released recently both in blu-ray and on streamer formats and probably were freaking out thinking this was some kind of mandela effect for years: and THIS IS BECAUSE. THERE IS A CRUCIAL SCENE MISSING. AND LITERALLY I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. THE TWO MINUTES CUT KINDOF CHANGE THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF THE WHOLE MOVIE??? and allow me to explain why.
That video above it the Deleted Song “When Love is Gone” was ONLY EVER featured on the VHS release of The Muppet Christmas Carol that came out through the 90’s. Why? because initially, some uppity disney executive market tested it and went “kids are gonna get antsy with that and not like it” so they cut it then for the theatrical release, but then Brian Henson (director, son of JIM) somehow managed to get it into the VHS cut of the film. Kinda went rogue about it if memory serves. Now, as a child, this was kindof… a huge part of the movie for me? like I remember listening to it and crying a bit as a kid because this one song is just… so emotional? like seriously. other than the fact that it’s being sung by Meredith Braun (who at one point played Eponine in Les Mis, and you gotta have some SERIOUS pipes to do that) AND Michael Cain, and it’s a love song in a way, like it’s very clear that she still cares for Ebenezer but she recognizes that her love for him is different than his love for her and she has to leave him, meanwhile THE MAN IS BEHIND HER CRYING AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN SEE HIM AND CLEARLY IT’S THE BIGGEST REGRET HE HAS And honestly? That’s a HUGE part of what made it stand out for me as a child. Like. The muppets themselves were all fun and good but then you have this song for a second… and it really feels true to the dickensian spirit guiding the whole film, and it’s what’s made it to me the most true to form adaptation of his yet. It’s phenomenal. And this dumbass disney exec said “it’s too adult emotional for the kids” (an argument that always has and will always continue to be completely fucking stupid).
So then what happened? why didn’t they put it in the DVD and Blu Ray releases that have come out throughout the years? Well, literally DISNEY LOST THE FOOTAGE. APPARENTLY. so when they went to restore it and reformat it for those releases AND THEN SUBSEQUENTLY for the streamer release, it was literally missing. and Brian Henson has been asking them to look for YEARS. FINALLY they found it back in 2020, and then only last year did they upload the fully restored version that you see me ranting and raving about.
“But Egg”, you ask, “why does this matter? What does this small 2 minute sequence change about this movie SO MUCH that it merits a huge ass post about it that is making people confused?”
Because let me tell you friends. Belle does not seem very significant and kindof pointless to flashback to without that song. It’s like ok. she’s there. She tells Ebenezer she’s breaking up with him. and then… THE MUPPETS CRY ABOUT IT??? and that’s it. That’s all you get. you don’t get any of the sense of how deeply this affected this guy- the LITERAL PROTAGONIST THAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT. And it’s all because, again, say it with me folks: the dipshit disney executive said “It’s Too Emotional For Children”.
Not ONLY that. But THIS SONG IS LITERALLY THE REPRISE THEY SING AT THE END OF THE FILM. WHICH. LET ME TELL YOU. IT’S FUCKING WEIRD FOR THAT TO LITERALLY COME OUT OF NOWHERE COMPLETELY LEFT FIELD AS A NEW SONG AT THE END. Like it makes no sense. ok sappy sentimental “the love we found” all right. BUT REMEMBER. THE ORIGINAL LYRIC IS “LOVE IS GONE”. IT’S SYMMETRY. IT’S POETRY. IT’S FUCKING VITAL. An the movie is good as it is but literally trust me this makes it infinitely better when you see it as a whole. Please. Just trust me on this. Thank you and goodnight.
The Mouse… lost something that would make It money? WTF. (eyeroll)
(Disclosure: I have taken the Mouse’s money and in return for it did good work that I’m still pleased with, in a universe I’d loved since childhood; so, as we say around here, “sorry, Not Sorry.” Yet all the people I was working with at Disney in the late 80s were well aware of the Rodent’s more greedy-and-grasping qualities. “They didn’t get so rich by overpaying their writers,” was one theme that made the rounds a lot.)
Anyway; I can’t imagine this movie without that song. The pain is necessary for the full joy later. Seek out the full version if you can.
ETA for European viewers (and maybe others, who knows): On Disney+, the “Extras” page for “The Muppet Christmas Carol” now explicitly offers both the excised song (as a standalone) and the version with the excised song.
just a friendly reminder that you don’t deserve pain. sometimes we think we deserve to be hurt and sad, but that’s not true. there is no reason to hold on to our pain or justify it. we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves. we are worth healing.
Once my boyfriend told me: “You’re not a burden. A burden is something you’re forced to carry against your will. I freely choose to be a part of your life and that means you aren’t a burden to me.” I’m passing it on in case some of you need to be reminded of that.
You know who you are and I fucking love you okay. I would kill god with you because it means I get to help you.
we should globally ban the introduction of more powerful computer hardware for 10-20 years, not as an AI safety thing (though we could frame it as that), but to force programmers to optimize their shit better
I reblogged this like 9 times kinda jokingly, but software should be able to run on older and less powerful hardware, and consume less power on newer hardware. Like, this is a real problem imo
Google ran(barely ran but whatever) on my god damn wii. I HATE THE TECH INDUSTRY!!! everything is just getting more and more bloated and unoptimized for the sake of features I don’t even use. fucking stop adding shit and make the stuff you have actually god damn work
-Mentions weight loss, exercise, nutrition, mental wellness, before any physical examination/testing
-interrupts you
-tries to rush the appointment
-laughs at you
-says you’re too young
-Touches you without warning or asking for consent (common with older male doctors unfortunately, but is becoming less common)
-accuses you of self dxing/mentions dr. Google
-mentions anything about powering through the pain
Do not be afraid to drop a doctor/caregiver and see a new one. Doctor shopping is a term made by ableds who believe every doctor is perfect. Your health is precious and you should only trust those you’re comfortable with to take care of it. Do not feel bad about offending the doctor. They do not care. They won’t harass you or question you (if they do then that’s..probably illegal). I know its hard with some insurances or lesser served areas so don’t feel bad if you can’t, but if you have the option to do so do not be afraid.
Extra tip: Most doctors will behave themselves if you bring an advocate. Even just having a friend sit quietly will help.
Bro, you ok? Bro, humans aren’t separate from the ecosystems around us. We’re a part of them, bro. Bro, we’re never going to have absolutely zero effect on ecosystems, because we live here, bro. Bro, I never said it had to be a bad effect. We don’t have to immediately be perfect either, bro, sometimes doing what you can is what you can, and its way better than nothing. Bro what do you mean humans are a plague. You’re starting to sound a bit like an ecofascist, bro… Bro?
Bro, there are cultures that lived in ways that didn’t harm their ecosystems for thousands of years. Bro, even the west only started viewing itself as separate from nature with the rise of Christianity. Bro, the land you live on has had humans for countless millennia longer than it’s had capitalism… The planet isn’t dying its being murdered bro…
The Most Progressive President In History, on the genocide of Palestinians: “They’re animals. They’re animals. […] They’re a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated.”
*sees a cop wounded by his car* omg!!! *rushes to the car and picks up the dispatch radio* OMG hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!~~ ^-^
a, like no.
im gonna like respond appropriately and handle the situation effectively.
i’d put the radio microphone in my mouth and make loud kazoo noises
So this cop tried to draw his gun on what he himself described as “some kids jumping around in a parking garage.” and while doing so, shot himself in the leg, then just fucking died right there. As far as anyone can tell, the kids he was trying to shoot just left as this idiot bled to death beside his cruiser lmao
Side note: the department eventually ruled it a suicide, but the general public consensus that that’s pretty much the best way they could rule it for their own image when “He accidentally shot himself in the leg after turning off his body cam and trying to murder children, then just bled to death next to his car” makes them look horrible on so many levels.
astarion having ultra shredded abs is admissible if boring because he’s a mentally ill ken doll gymrat on peds, wyll having muscles is logical because he has a sword and shit even though his arms are stupidly thin and he would not be on a low body fat % like that (75kg wtf?). gale though? who does nothing besides cast spells and try to hump your leg? him and halsin can only be saved by this mod
the way this game insists on using their one same shredded asf body model for absolutely every human man gets completely preposterous sometimes because wtf is this
Oh, no that one makes sense. Elminster is canonically shredded, he had levels in fighter in older editions where multiclassing was more prominent. It was often noted in debates over which iconic D&D wizard would win in a fight that Elminster’s best hopes for victory versus the likes of Raistlin or Mordenkainen was to create an anti magic zone and just hit them because he actually had a positive strength score.
“Average wizard is actually muscular under the robes” factoid is due to statistical error. Average wizard needs help to move the couch. Elminster, who took levels in fighter and wins wizard duels with his fists, is an outlier and should not have been counted.
i’m seeing a lot of new ppl join tumblr who aren’t making any spontaneous semi pathetic, oversharing personal textposts whatsoever and i just want to say you’re doing it all wrong… this is not like instagram like meant to be some shiny highlight reel used to make u look good its supposed to be an incriminatingly revealing dark intimate look into your life & inner psyche while simultaneously no one knows who u are or gives a fuck… anyway hope this helps some of u get on the right track
*sees a cop wounded by his car* omg!!! *rushes to the car and picks up the dispatch radio* OMG hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!~~ ^-^
a, like no.
im gonna like respond appropriately and handle the situation effectively.
i’d put the radio microphone in my mouth and make loud kazoo noises
So this cop tried to draw his gun on what he himself described as “some kids jumping around in a parking garage.” and while doing so, shot himself in the leg, then just fucking died right there. As far as anyone can tell, the kids he was trying to shoot just left as this idiot bled to death beside his cruiser lmao
Side note: the department eventually ruled it a suicide, but the general public consensus that that’s pretty much the best way they could rule it for their own image when “He accidentally shot himself in the leg after turning off his body cam and trying to murder children, then just bled to death next to his car” makes them look horrible on so many levels.
Because your most important survival skill is to rely on others and ask others for help. Don’t let capitalism beat this out of you. You were not born alone and you will not survive alone.
It’s not just time zones and leap seconds. SI seconds on Earth are slower because of relativity, so there are time standards for space stuff (TCB, TGC) that use faster SI seconds than UTC/Unix time. T2 - T1 = [God doesn’t know and the Devil isn’t telling.]
is terrorism about resisting oppression? is terrorism about demanding your birthright to live safely and peacefully in your homeland? is terrorism about hating the killers of your family, your friends and your people?
accusations of terrorism are often weaponized against those fighting for liberation and sovereignty and dignity. the french settlers called the algerians terrorists. the indian government calls the kashmiris terrorists. the pakistani army calls pashtun activists terrorists. the turkish government calls the kurds terrorists. apartheid south africa called nelson mandela a terrorist. americans called the vietcong and the black panthers terrorists. the israelis call the palestinians terrorists. all oppressive regimes are connected. all oppressed people are connected. injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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