Earth Zoology, Wednesday

[livingartifact]

"It may surprise some of you — or, I suppose, all of you, or quite possibly none of you, it's hard to tell with such a small class size. . . . Allow me to start over." Jenkins rubbed his forehead. "I'm afraid I've had quite a long weekend and only just made it back to the island. A word to the wise: never fuss around with an ancient Egyptian obelisk. They are quite literally nothing but trouble. Anyway. Where was I? Ah yes: human beings, as they evolved on Earth, are animals. Humans belong to the kingdom Animalia, along with every other creature that we are studying in this class. This has historically been a bit of a difficult concept for humans to swallow and continues to be the subject of some small amount of debate to this day, but primarily only by those who believe that sharing a common ancestor with less existentially minded beings somehow diminishes all that human beings have accomplished." Jenkins sighed. "Now, I mention this fact as we are today going to meet one of the other animals in the 'primate' order of the animal kingdom, and thus, a distant cousin to modern humanity. There are certainly closer cousins we might examine at a later date, but I thought you might enjoy meeting something smaller and more personable, first."

Jenkins brought out his globe, showing the students a large island off the southern coast of Africa. "Our subject for today hails exclusively from the island of Madagascar. And — I beg of you. If any of you has seen the infernal animated films, please refrain from making any jokes about liking to 'move it, move it'." He may have already gotten those from a certain irascible thief after casually mentioning his classroom plans over the weekend. "Students, I present to you: the lemur."

He lifted an animal crate onto the central table and opened the front, allowing a trio of variously patterned, cat-sized monkey like things climb out and explore.

"Specifically, we have the ruffed lemur — that would be this dramatic looking fellow over here — the largest currently extant species of lemur; the Madame Berthe's mouse lemur — this little creature here — who is not only the smallest lemur, but in fact the smallest primate currently known; and the ring-tailed lemur, who is arguably the most famous of all the lemur species, living or dead. These three gentlemen are from an educational program, and thus quite used to social interaction with humans — or human-shaped creatures — though I suspect our mouse lemur friend may decide to take a nap rather than interact much. Note, if you will, the presence of rather human-like hands, including opposable thumbs. While not all primates have thumbs, they are considered something of a trademark of the order, as well as comparatively large, complex brains."

He pulled out a box filled with fruits, flowers, and leaves from plants native to Madagascar, and offered it to the students. "You may feed them, if you wish. They're frugivorous, meaning they prefer to snack on nectars and fruits. And, honestly, who can blame them? Those of us who care to eat at all, anyway."

Comments

Sign in

[livingartifact]

Like an animal (or, you know, a mineral)

Re: Sign in

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot

Listen to the lecture

[livingartifact]

It's slightly more meandering than usual this week. That happened when you'd spent your class planning time primarily contending with a magical artifact devoted to Sobek.

Oogle the animal

[livingartifact]

This week, it's really quite possibly oogling you right back.

Re: Oogle the animal

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was gravitating toward that mouse lemur. Since the other ones were very nearly her size, granted that was mostly because of the tail, she actually felt a little more comfortable around the little guy. Her oogling time was going to be spent trying to bribe it over to say hello with a small offering of fruit.

Talk to Jenkins

[livingartifact]

He's examining one of the flowers, pondering whether or not he wanted to wear another fresh boutonniere this week. At least, until the ring-tailed fellow snatched it back from him to have as a snack, anyway.

OOC

[livingartifact]

You know, there's something about having to stop and let firefighters pass while evacuating for a late night fire alarm that really brings home the reality of modern communal living.

(I'm fine, someone just set the stove on fire in a truly spectacular fashion a few floors below me. I'm just not used to seeing that much evidence of an actual fire when responding to a fire alarm.)

Re: OOC

[era_two_triangle]

We've been evacuated from our apartment building twice in as many weeks, so I feel you, there. Both times, I had to round up three cats while my roomie was at work. RIP me.

Re: OOC

[livingartifact]

Yeeeeeeee. I have enough trouble rousting my one from under literally everything in the apartment that has an "under" to it.

Re: OOC

[era_two_triangle]

I might have basically thrown a sofa across the room to get to my dumbass calico. But at least she's a pudgy dumbass calico, so the other two couldn't fit behind it with her.