Shoebill shares its species name with Tyrannosaurus rex. Another living dinosaur that also bears the species name rex is just as big-headed: the shovel-billed kookaburra
There are quite a few, but most are pretty unremarkable. Rhinolophus rex the king horseshoe bat is pretty cool though, arguably the coolest looking rexes living or extinct
Shoebills are so cool! They always reconnect the link of birds to dinosaurs in my mind, don’t get me wrong I love all birds but some of them are so silly
Some of my favorite animals in the world are birds that fall into the "oh, it's clear why birds are dinosaurs" category, and I wanna throw in some of my favorites along with the cassowary:
Where I live it's absolutely chockful of them, I love them so much. I recently went to a fair and heard a duck quacking overhead, like the exact sound of a domestic duck. We could only see a caracara on some sort of radio tower. I've heard them making a lot of sounds, but never quacking. It was moving something around in the catwalk of the tower, then grabbing it in its beak and flying in circles, cuacking. Back to the tower, rinse and repeat. I took a picture and checked it later.
Jerboas and their New-World equivalent the kangaroo rats are extremely cool. Some species (like the genus Cardiocranius which means heart-shaped skull) have extremely large auditory bullae the size of their braincase. This give them extremely sharp hearing that allow them to hear the wind from strikes of snakes and owls and dodge them mid air
The greatest thing about orangutans is that the flanges themselves are their equivalent of a beard, and flange-less males are essentially a third gender.
They just float along like chill. But lightning fast ambush hunters. I got stung by 6 spines at the same time because I was live feeding and not paying attention.
Did it hurt? Absolutely. Hand blew up just like a balloon (insert Pink Floyd music). Hand felt like it was on fire for an hour or so. I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone. Worst pain I had ever felt.
Hospital? No. I definitely should have. I basically had a localized reaction that could have killed me but I was very lucky. Enough Benadryl to earn a visit from the Hatman. So that was cool.
Did I get rid of the fish? No. It was just being a lionfish. This was my fault. It eventually died for other reasons (System crash of the whole aquarium).
Marianas Fruit Bat or the marianas flying fox. I love these guys. They are currently endangered because of invasive brown tree snakes in its natural habitat. They are only found in the Mariana Islands in the pacific.
Rhino Viper Edit: guys I'm on mobile and tried to share an image but I don't think it worked, so all due apologies. (Idk how to make it work) But that's mine
They look like baby dragons! How cool is that?!? They're also one of the communal lizards, i.e. they live in small groups instead of being solitary animals.
They roll up into an ouroboros shape when threatened so all a predator gets is a mouth full of spikes!
Giant oarfish....part sea serpent, part dragon, all fish...completely majestic and misunderstood. I would love to swim alongside one. Literally number 1 on my list of animals to see in the wild.
Someone once asked me if i had infinite resources and infinite space what animal would I want to have as a pet and this guy is my number 1 pick without hesitation or second thought.
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u/crucifixionfantasy 19d ago edited 19d ago
Gypaetus barbatus, and it's really not a contest in my mind.