RESOURCES FOR POSES

I think we have to issue a formal apology as a fandom unit to steel wool for blaming them for security breach being bad. holy fuck

perhaps some will disagree, but i think the world got worse when we changed the colour of the night

I am completely and utterly normal about rivers, creeks, lakes, forests, ponds, hills, mountains, and other natural landscapes (lying)

While digging a lake on our land, my family found the bones of an ancient Irish elk!!

Tagging @avephelis so they can see where the rabbit hole they shoved me down led.

So things we should consider when trying to figure out what type of Spiny Softshell our boy is, are:

Size

Shell

Markings

I’m throwing this map in here for funsies as well. It shows the range of the different type of spiny softshells.

Can’t properly factor this in tho because we don’t know if Draxum travelled to find the turtles or just like picked them out of his backyard or something. He could have sent the goyles out to get them for all we know. Regardless I find the map interesting.

Now in terms of size Donnie is canonically shorter than Leo, but taller than Mikey. Some of these Spiny Softshells end up huge. Size is honestly a weird thing to be able to measure because we only see teen Donnie. We don’t know how big he ended up being, so I’m not really sure how to factor this into what species I think he is. (Imagine F!Donnie is taller than F!Raph and like still leaner than F!Leo but also buff. Just needed to throw that out there, gotta work on my F! Designs anyway)

Now his shell.

As you can see it tends to follow the shape of his spine. It tends to be flatter than his brothers & he can lay on his back comfortably. It also bends much easier than his brothers. Even with his battle shell on it doesn’t stick out from his back much. I can’t tell if the bulge near his shoulders that is sometimes there is his actual shell or if he’s slouching (cuz man’s got terrible posture). It also follows the shape of his body as opposed to being more circle. It just barely peeks around his body if seen without his battle shell directly in front of him. Whereas Raph, Mikey, & Leo you can clearly see their shell from the front.

Markings. Now we aren’t going to count his purple markings persay, but if the irl turtle has anything on its arms I’m gonna count it.

Alright so I’m going to rate each turtle 1-5 on each of the above criteria based solely on these photos. (Only including the Gulf coast Spiny & the Eastern Spiny)

Size: (assuming that Donatello’s size relative to his brothers doesn’t change w age)

Uh… about even actually. So 4 points for each ig.

Shell:

The gulf coast spiny has the closer cross section shape sometimes? while the Eastern is slightly closer due to it not being a “circle”. But then there’s the slouch to account for…

I’m going to give the Gulf coast 2 & the Eastern 3

Markings:

Looking at the baby photos the baby Eastern spiny is almost identical to Donnie. But looking at the adults the Gulf coast is closer.

But seeing as Donnie is a teenage turtle I’m going to give the Gulf coast 2 points & the Eastern 4.

Tallying up the points, the Gulf Coast spiny has a total of 8 points while the Eastern has 11

So in conclusion I don’t think the artists put this much thought into it but imao Donnie most closely resembles a baby Apalone Spinifera- or Eastern Spiny Softshell.

[Apalone Spinifera Aspera- Gulf Coast Spiny Softshell]

[Apalone Spinifera- Easter Spiny Softshell]

more hair on women. more hair when you draw women. no more dinky lil armpit tufts. no more itty bitty baby hairs on the calves and nothing else. more hair on women. more thigh hair, more bush hair that sprawls out from mound, more ass hair and chest hair and back hair and arm hair and foot and hand hair. more high femmes with thick dark body hair in cocktail dresses and stilettos. more skater girls with unshaved legs. more summer 'fits with hair showing where the shorts dont cover. more women in swimsuits without them being entirely hairless. more pcos pattern hair and "male" pattern hair and chin hair and neck hair and mustache and unibrow and beard and sideburns. but most off all. more hair on all your women and not just on your stereotypical token trans woman or woman of colour.

perhaps some will disagree, but i think the world got worse when we changed the colour of the night

in australia if a girl goes to the bathroom and comes back with a seemingly random fact then you know exactly what time of the month it is

It's frustrating that so many people buy pet inverts without doing any kind of research about their care beforehand and they end up with a totally inappropriate habitat, diet, and/or general care.

Bugs are animals! If you're going to keep them, please learn about them from multiple sources before buying them. Reddit subs are an especially good source. Avoid pet store care sheets, as they are often deeply wrong.

Also depending on the species, initial setup can cost quite a bit, relatively speaking! If you can't afford an appropriate habitat, then you can't afford to keep the animal as a pet. It's not okay to give them an inappropriate or bare-bones setup because that's all you can afford. Save up and do it right from the get-go.

There's a lot of bad information out there on invert and exotic care, and we're always learning more. It's okay if you did do research, but you were given bad advice. Just be open to new and better information and make the necessary changes.

Thanks for coming to my rant :)