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Book review - 𝘞π˜ͺ𝘭π˜₯𝘭π˜ͺ𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘡𝘩𝘦 π˜—π˜­π˜’π˜―π˜¦π˜΅ 𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘒𝘩𝘒, or possibly the most plausible astrobiology SpecEvo project ever created

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Cover of the book, copyright Gert van Dijk. As I've written in my Blogger profile, I love reading, but this usually concerns scientific articles, books, blogs, and anything in between, while I have very little time to devote to narrative works. The closest thing are works of Speculative Evolution, that subgenre of science fiction (usually, but not always, hard science fiction) devoted to the exploration of hypothetical evolutionary scenarios, which can take place in any time or place, but classically involve the future of planet Earth, alternative timelines, or other planets. The banner of the Furaha site , as of Thursday, March 5, 2026, featuring a brontorusp ( Brontocrambis brucus ). Snaiad , another SpecEvo project with a similar premise, and relevant to Furaha, also features. Copyright Gert van Dijk. Among the most relevant SpecEvo projects of the last kind, Furaha deserves special mention: the project, created by Gert van Dijk, is not exactly new to the scene, starting its lif...
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Dorsal shields and octoploidy: extraordinary Pacman frogs

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I was finally able to see some live South American horned frogs or Pacman frogs (Ceratophryidae), albeit captive specimens at Napoli Exotic . This is my favourite group of frogs and there's lots of cool stuff to say about them. A montage of some captive ceratophryids: top left a Budgett's frog ( Lepidobatrachus laevis ), top right an albino Cranwell's horned frog ( Ceratophrys cranwelli ), bottom a young specimen of Surinam horned frog ( Ceratophrys cornuta ) from two different angles. The group comprises three extant genera: Lepidobatrachus (three extant species), Ceratophrys (eight extant species), and Chacophrys , solely represented by the Chaco horned frog ( C. pierottii ) (e.g. Faivovich et al. 2014; GΓ³mez and Turazzini 2021; Barcelos et al. 2022; O'Shea and Maddock 2024; van der Kamp and Ortega-Andrade 2024). These South American frogs are usually large (females of the largest species, the Brazilian horned frog C. aurita , can measure 178 mm SVL), with large sku...
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The swordfish dolphins no one told you about

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Here's a group I wish was better known: these are “𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘩π˜ͺ𝘯𝘰π˜₯𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩π˜ͺ𝘴” 𝘴𝘒𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘡π˜ͺ𝘯𝘢𝘴 (skull) and 𝘑π˜ͺ𝘱𝘩π˜ͺ𝘰π˜₯𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘒𝘣𝘦𝘭π˜ͺ (rostrum), members of the longirostrine “swordfish” dolphins (Eurhinodelphinidae) from the Miocene of Lecce, Italy, displayed at the Museum of Paleontology of Naples (the label says "Rhabdosteidae", but this name is now considered problematic, see Fordyce and de Muizon, 2001). Many different odontocete lineages converged on a longirostrine, swordfish-like morphology, especially during the Miocene, but eurhinodelphinids were particularly swordfish-like, having a mandible that was much shorter than the rostrum. Approximately one-third of this long rostrum was formed by the premaxilla, which in at least some genera (including 𝘑π˜ͺ𝘱𝘩π˜ͺ𝘰π˜₯𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘩π˜ͺ𝘴) had an elongated edentulous termination (McCurry and Pyenson 2019; Tosetto et al. 2023). Two competing ideas have been formulated to explain the function of this hyperelongate...
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The paradoxical European mouflon

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A trophy specimen of European mouflon displayed at the Zoological Museum of Naples. This particular specimen was Spanish. European mouflon are a very interesting group of wild sheep of controversial origin, taxonomic position and conservation management. Their "original" range is to be found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Corsica and Sardinia, where they were brought by humans from Asia around 8500 years BCE, following a pre-domestication phase (but see below) (CastellΓ³ et al. 2016; Barbato et al. 2022; Garel et al. 2022; KΓ‘rpΓ‘ti & NΓ‘hlik 2023). Because of this, many authors have regarded the Cyprus and Tyrrhenian mouflons as subspecies of the domestic sheep, as Ovis aries ophion and O. a. musimon , respectively (e.g. CastellΓ³ et al. 2016). The same specimen as above, from a different angle. However, there is a possibility that the Cyprus mouflon dispersed naturally on the island given lower sea levels at the time, while the domestication that happened in Corsic...
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The remarkable noses of dik-diks

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I'm fascinated by weird and flamboyant nasal structures, so here's a dik-dik, a recent addition to the Zoological Museum of Naples The dik-dik displayed at the Zoological Museum of Naples. Specifically, this is a Damara dik-dik, often treated as a subspecies of the Kirk's dik-dik (as Madoqua kirkii damarensis ), and thus labeled as such here, but elevated to full species level by some authors (as Madoqua damarensis ) (see for example CastellΓ³ er al. 2016). Dik-diks are quite small antelopes with a series of adaptations to desert environments, the most characteristic of which is their elongated snout: the enlarged nasal cavity, which features a moist, black mucosa, allows increased air flow through the nostrils, cooling the blood directed to the brain via evaporative cooling, while also minimizing water loss. Brain overheating is thus avoided, as the brain is made cooler than the core body temperature (CastellΓ³ et al. 2016; Blank & Li 2022). Gunther's dik-diks ( Mado...
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Nope, this is NOT Dilophosaurus

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The large double-crested theropod dinosaur displayed at the Museo delle Scienze (MUSE).   Surely this is Dilophosaurus right!? Surprise, it's not. Nope, the mounted skeleton you see in the photo, a cast displayed at the Museo delle Scienze (MUSE), is not actually Dilophosaurus wetherilli . What you're actually seeing here is instead another early theropod dinosaur, the Chinese  Sinosaurus triassicus.  Despite the name, Sinosaurus is from the Early Jurassic, and it's an early example of large theropod dinosaur: it's been recently estimated at around 5-6 m long and more than 800 kg in weight (Liang et al. 2024). Other than S. triassicus , a second species, S. sinensis , is usually ascribed to the genus (see Zhang et al. 2023 and references therein).  Another view of the same mounted skeleton, from a slightly different angle. Note the somewhat surprisingly thin skull. As you can see from the photos, Sinosaurus had a relatively delicate skull construction with a pair ...
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The many fangs of camels

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The skeleton of a dromedary at the Zoological Museum of Naples...what's up with all those fangs!? Camelids are extremely interesting and puzzling creatures, with a long list of peculiarities both in their soft and hard anatomy, including those allowing life in deserts. Today I want to talk a bit about skeletal oddities mainly, exemplified here by the skeleton of a dromedary ( Camelus dromedarius , see above photo) and the skull of a wild camel ( Camelus ferus , see below), both displayed at the Zoological Museum of Naples. UPDATE: note that according to Pietro Martini, who is cited below, the museum's labels may be wrong here: the skeleton should be that of a Bactrian camel, the skull that of a dromedary. The aforementioned wild camel skull (note that I'm following Jemmett et al. (2022) here in restricting the common name "Bactrian camel" to the domestic form Camelus bactrianus alone). You may notice the presence of multiple fangs in both the upper and lower dent...
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