Real-Life Weirdness

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That would be a very weird scene to get stuck in on an alien world. The horrific monsters start skittering around in strange herky jerky motions, suddenly displaying bright flaps and imagery. OH NOES! You stumbled into a xenomorph mating lek.

(It took quite a while to re-find that term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lek_mating )

Imagine an intelligent species with an instinctive lek. Imagine the stadiums! Imagine the body modifications!

[Anders]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Imagine an intelligent species with an instinctive lek. Imagine the stadiums! Imagine the body modifications!

I don't know if it's instinctive, but there's a reason clubs are also called "meat markets".

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Anders

I don't know if it's instinctive, but there's a reason clubs are also called "meat markets".

There's a lot of good argument that dancing and singing in humans may have started as territorial/status displays, as in other primates. I don't know about bonobos, but chimpanzee males do dramatic "thunder dance" displays with a lot of hooting and hollering, and all the gibbons sing.

Territorial/status displays are fitness displays, and fitness is healthy, healthy is sexy. But we also extensively use both singing and dancing as social grooming tools - group territorial displays. So it's serving three or four purposes at once.

Which is typical of evolved traits that get further elaborated on by big human brains.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Anders

Shake a leg shake your head, Shake a leg wake the dead, Shake a leg get stuck in, Shake a leg shake a leg

Trigger warning: Spiders

As far as spiders go, that one is really cute.

However, I note that it's located in Australia, which raises the question, "Exactly how deadly is it?"

[Flyndaran]

Peacock spiders are around 5 millimeters long and not dangerous to humans at all. Australia does have possums compared to the American opossums which are aggressive and mean.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

around 5 millimeters long and not dangerous to humans at all.

Do note the two listed traits are not necessarily related. After all, small creatures can have surprisingly nasty toxins that 'work' even in modest doses.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Peacock spiders are around 5 millimeters long and not dangerous to humans at all. Australia does have possums compared to the American opossums which are aggressive and mean.

Possums are also cuter! But having two possums having a fight on your corrugated metal roof at 1 AM is just as horrendous as having two opossums having a fight on your corrugated metal roof at 1 AM. The sounds they make when merely squabbling are horrifying, and of course it's claws on metal *wince*.

[Flyndaran]

My post makes sense to both of yours.
Yesterday I had to face an enormous wasp that wandered in from the heat. Relatively small but venomous and loud.
Small and not deadly does not mean safe or not bothersome, I fully agree.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

My post makes sense to both of yours.
Yesterday I had to face an enormous wasp that wandered in from the heat. Relatively small but venomous and loud.
Small and not deadly does not mean safe or not bothersome, I fully agree.

In Belgium and possibly most of Western Europe, I believe wasp are currently the deadliest (to human, counting number of death by year) wild animal.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

In Belgium and possibly most of Western Europe, I believe wasp are currently the deadliest (to human, counting number of death by year) wild animal.

Allergies I assume, because I thought that only Asian giant hornets can kill people that aren't allergic or stung literally thousands of times.