A Thing I Love To Do Is Telling Prepper Dudes That One Of My Disaster Readiness Skills Is Making Stuffed

A thing I love to do is telling prepper dudes that one of my disaster readiness skills is making stuffed animals. They never get it. Like, my dude, when things get very bad and we're all sharing overcrowded shelters, you're gonna want the power to comfort children. Trust me.

Pachycereus weberi (via columnar-cacti.org)

Hello. You asked for an infodump so here it comes :) sharks!

Sharks are cartilaginous fish related to skates and rays. They don't have bones but cartilage, that is on our nose and ears, and it's lighter and more flexible which is why sharks are fast swimmers. Unlike bony fish, they don't have a swim bladder but a very large oil-rich liver, that controls buoyancy. There are over 500 different species of sharks. Not all of them are active predators. Some of them lay on the ocean floor and 3 shark species are filter-feeders and eat plankton: whale shark, basking shark and megamouth shark. Sharks live pretty much in every ocean and some live in rivers and some like bull shark live in both salt and fresh waters. 2 shark species also eat seagrass and seaweed: bonnethead shark and whale shark. Bonnethead shark eats besides seagrass small marine animals meaning it's omnivorous. Sharks have different teeth depending on their diet: sharks that eat large sea mammals like great white shark have triangular serrated teeth, sharks that eat fish and cephalopods like shortfin mako shark have needle-like teeth, sharks that eat clams and crustaceans like zebra shark have dense flattened teeth and plankton-eating sharks also have teeth, but they are only 1mm long and unfunctional. sharks existed before dinosaurs, trees and rings of Saturn. Besides 5 basic senses they also have 2 extra senses: on their snout they have tiny jelly-filled spores ampullae of Lorenzini, that sense electric impulses from living creatures, and on their side they have lateral line that senses water pressure changes. There are some myths about sharks that are false. For example, sharks CAN get cancer. Though it's rare because unlike humans, shark's immune cells are formed in spleen and thymus and are released earlier into bloodstream and that's why sharks react faster to cancer and other illnesses. Sharks aren't dumb by the way. You don't survive for millions of years as top predator without intelligence. Sharks have a good memory and they learn from their mistakes and are effective hunters. Sharks, that hunt actively, have a bigger brain-to-body ratio than filter-feeding and bottom-dwelling sharks. Sharks get babies or pups in 3 ways: they either lay egg cases, give live birth or egg cases develop inside the mother shark and hatch there. Sharks don't take care of their pups, but they see lots of effort to give birth in safe areas where pups can live their first years away from predators. Some egg-laying sharks also hide their egg cases into safe from predators. Sharks do have predators like bigger sharks and orcas. Some sea lions are also known for hunting sharks. Sharks are an important keystone species. They keep fish populations healthy and in check. Without sharks the marine ecosystem would fall down. Sharks rarely attack humans. They don't even like human meat and prefer fatty sea animals. The 3 most aggressive sharks are great white shark, tiger shark and bull shark although so called "docile" sharks like nurse shark and zebra shark can also bite if someone annoys them or they feel threatened. Touching sharks unnecessarily damages the mucus layer on their skin, that protects from parasites and diseases. Talking about skin, sharks have teeth-like scales dermal denticles, that are like shark teeth. They even have their own bloodstream and pulpa. Dermal denticles protect sharks and help them to swim faster. The fastest shark is shortfin Mako shark and it swims about 48-74km/h. Different sharks have different types of dermal denticles depending on their lifestyles. Sharks aren't smooth in all directions. they feel smooth when you move hand from shark's head to caudal fin. From caudal fin to head the skin feels like sandpaper and sometimes it's so rough it can even cut human skin. sharks live in every ocean depth. some deep sea sharks are Greenland shark, megamouth, frilled shark, sixgill shark and goblin shark.

Tell me if you want specific infodump about specific shark species :)

OMG, sharks are so cool!!! Wow, they have been around for so long, sharks are fricking warriors. That they dont take care of the pups but rather make sure they end up in a safe place is really cool. Thats so much interesting info thank u for sharing it!!! :D i have a question if u want, whats the shark that lives at the deepest point of the ocean, and do they look weird since sea creatures that live really deep often looks weird, do they look weird too or still normal?

i learned that there's a Japanese beetle that when eaten by a frog will haul ass through its digestive system and escape out the back end unscathed (x)

Take a break, this cute tardigrade needs time to cross your dash: