Have you ever wondered what a loggerhead turtle's esophagus looks like?
March 9, 2016 10:06 AM Subscribe
Well wonder no more.
"That's so awesome"
"That's so awesome"
I had not wondered, and I was apparently correct in not wondering.
Advice: DO NOT CLICK on the the rest of the instagram feed. It's more loggerhead innards.
posted by jeather at 10:13 AM on March 9, 2016
Advice: DO NOT CLICK on the the rest of the instagram feed. It's more loggerhead innards.
posted by jeather at 10:13 AM on March 9, 2016
It's full of spikes!!
posted by Pendragon at 10:13 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Pendragon at 10:13 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Have you ever wondered what a loggerhead turtle's esophagus looks like?
pretty much constantly, yeah
posted by beerperson at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2016 [15 favorites]
pretty much constantly, yeah
posted by beerperson at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2016 [15 favorites]
That's really cool! I hadn't wondered, but I'm glad I know!
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:17 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:17 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than I've dreamed of in my biology. What hath evolution wrought?!
posted by kozad at 10:18 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by kozad at 10:18 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I don't need ghosts, vampires, witches and goblins to scare me - just the 100% natural things I haven't seen yet are nightmare fuel enough, apparently.
posted by Mooski at 10:20 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mooski at 10:20 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh lawdy it's a video. If there isn't a word for fascinating+horrifying, there should be.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 10:20 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 10:20 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow- Gamera is really neat!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:22 AM on March 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:22 AM on March 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
I'm not sure what I'd say about an inverted monster throat ejecting its sixth dead amphipod but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be oh yayyy
posted by theodolite at 10:26 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 10:26 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Well, um, that's not what I thought it'd look like, that's for sure. Makes sense though! I wonder if other sea creatures have similar interiors, or how they deal with ingesting water.
posted by Fig at 10:35 AM on March 9, 2016
posted by Fig at 10:35 AM on March 9, 2016
[content warning: deceased animals]
So my wife used to work where I work, at a major veterinary teaching hospital. She was a veterinary technician (nurse) in the Emergency department, and worked all kinds of weird hours, as you might expect in an ER. One of the more unpleasant jobs for an ER tech at this particular facility is bringing deceased patients who are receiving an autopsy (generally called a necropsy in vet med, FWIW) down to the morgue for temporary storage. At night, this requires walking down almost a quarter mile of dark, empty, silent medical facility hallways until you open the heavy door to the morgue and must fish about for the light switch. Even under the best circumstances, an eerie and spooky experience. One night she turned on the lights to be confronted by a large percentage of what was once, apparently, some sort of whale, but not in anything like its original configuration, if you know what I mean. After recovering from the shock, she snapped a few cellphone pictures, as she knew no one would believe her story. I really wish I had never seen those pictures. They made this turtle look like something out of a children's book.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:39 AM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
So my wife used to work where I work, at a major veterinary teaching hospital. She was a veterinary technician (nurse) in the Emergency department, and worked all kinds of weird hours, as you might expect in an ER. One of the more unpleasant jobs for an ER tech at this particular facility is bringing deceased patients who are receiving an autopsy (generally called a necropsy in vet med, FWIW) down to the morgue for temporary storage. At night, this requires walking down almost a quarter mile of dark, empty, silent medical facility hallways until you open the heavy door to the morgue and must fish about for the light switch. Even under the best circumstances, an eerie and spooky experience. One night she turned on the lights to be confronted by a large percentage of what was once, apparently, some sort of whale, but not in anything like its original configuration, if you know what I mean. After recovering from the shock, she snapped a few cellphone pictures, as she knew no one would believe her story. I really wish I had never seen those pictures. They made this turtle look like something out of a children's book.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:39 AM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
No thanks, I'll stay over here in the peace and safety of a new dark age.
posted by The Tensor at 10:44 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by The Tensor at 10:44 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Jeez they just reused the texture file for a camel's mouth, did they think we wouldn't notice? Pretty weak, nature
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:48 AM on March 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:48 AM on March 9, 2016 [10 favorites]
Definitely the best of the web. Great find!
posted by Going To Maine at 10:50 AM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:50 AM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Since they have no teeth and one of their main food sources is jellyfish, this makes sense. That esophagus looks like a pretty good jellyfish trap.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 10:52 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 10:52 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's just spikes all the way down
posted by hal9k at 11:04 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by hal9k at 11:04 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
how did we get here
posted by Hermione Granger at 11:14 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Hermione Granger at 11:14 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
If you want further discussion of the innards of large seafaring turtles, may I recommend this episode of the documentary series Inside Nature's Giants? It focuses on leatherbacks rather than loggerheads, but the esophagus is similar in both species in order to get the jellyfish down.
Plus it has Joy Reidenberg in it. Everything is better with enthusiastic Joy Reidenberg mucking around inside its anatomy.
Everything.
posted by sciatrix at 11:18 AM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
Plus it has Joy Reidenberg in it. Everything is better with enthusiastic Joy Reidenberg mucking around inside its anatomy.
Everything.
posted by sciatrix at 11:18 AM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
Let's just pray this doesn't become the new rickroll.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:25 AM on March 9, 2016
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:25 AM on March 9, 2016
That camel's mouth texture is not original either. It is just newborn foal hoove texture.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 11:26 AM on March 9, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 11:26 AM on March 9, 2016 [8 favorites]
That is really neat! Evolution results in some pretty cool stuff. Sometime I'll have to tell everyone how crocodilians have the most advanced circulatory system on the planet.
posted by TedW at 12:18 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by TedW at 12:18 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'll bite.
How is it that crocodilians have the most advanced circulatory system on the planet?
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:33 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
How is it that crocodilians have the most advanced circulatory system on the planet?
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:33 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Innards! It's what's for dinner.
It's not the camel's mouth that worries me, it's those fangs for teeth.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:36 PM on March 9, 2016
It's not the camel's mouth that worries me, it's those fangs for teeth.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:36 PM on March 9, 2016
"Wow, it's another one! Lookit — all these came from the esophagus!"
posted by glhaynes at 12:46 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by glhaynes at 12:46 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sometime I'll have to tell everyone how crocodilians have the most advanced circulatory system on the planet.
This is going to turn into a rant about the Illuminati, isn't it?
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:50 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is going to turn into a rant about the Illuminati, isn't it?
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:50 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Watching this video I feel truly alive. That's living. Not jet skiing in a refugee camp in Western Sahara or whatever. It's horrifying bug vids for me
posted by liliillliil at 1:01 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by liliillliil at 1:01 PM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's all the way down the turtles.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:24 PM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:24 PM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
That camel's mouth texture is not original either. It is just newborn foal hoove texture.
i sorta knew in the back of my mind that newborn foals had disgusting hooves but somehow had never actually pictured it and now i want to retch. so thank you for confirming my suspicions, i guess?
posted by burgerrr at 3:28 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
i sorta knew in the back of my mind that newborn foals had disgusting hooves but somehow had never actually pictured it and now i want to retch. so thank you for confirming my suspicions, i guess?
posted by burgerrr at 3:28 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I also would need an esophagus full of spikes to keep jellyfish down....
posted by biscotti at 4:12 PM on March 9, 2016
posted by biscotti at 4:12 PM on March 9, 2016
Marry someone who's as excited about you as the people in that audio track are about turtle esophagus.
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:24 PM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 4:24 PM on March 9, 2016 [5 favorites]
Why did I look at newborn foal feet, why.
posted by jeather at 5:36 PM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by jeather at 5:36 PM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Advice: DO NOT CLICK on the the rest of the instagram feed. It's more loggerhead innards.
Followed shortly thereafter by a "creative dating" article her mom sent her.
"Let's go watch a turtle necropsy" would be a pretty fine creative first date.
posted by kanewai at 10:30 PM on March 9, 2016
Followed shortly thereafter by a "creative dating" article her mom sent her.
"Let's go watch a turtle necropsy" would be a pretty fine creative first date.
posted by kanewai at 10:30 PM on March 9, 2016
How is it that crocodilians have the most advanced circulatory system on the planet?
For one thing, they have a four chambered heart which makes them unique among reptiles and is the layout for birds and mammals. Additionally, they are unique in having an additional valve in their heart (well, technically between the right and left aorta; the foramen of Panizza) that is thought to shunt blood away from the lungs when diving, thus saving the metabolic energy that would otherwise be wasted in sending blood to lungs that aren't being used and allowing them to stay submerged longer. A more detailed and technical explanation can be found here.
posted by TedW at 5:35 AM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
"Let's go watch a turtle necropsy" would be a pretty fine creative first date.
Speaking as one who has been on a version of that date: yes. Yes it was indeed pretty fine. (To be fair, it wasn't a first date per se. Still fun, though.)
The one where I drunk dialed my now-spouse and rambled enthusiastically on about animal genitals for two hours was probably more amusing, though.
posted by sciatrix at 8:39 AM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Speaking as one who has been on a version of that date: yes. Yes it was indeed pretty fine. (To be fair, it wasn't a first date per se. Still fun, though.)
The one where I drunk dialed my now-spouse and rambled enthusiastically on about animal genitals for two hours was probably more amusing, though.
posted by sciatrix at 8:39 AM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
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