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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

Enter Our Raffle To Win A Visit And Home-Cooked Meal From Drew Magary

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tip jar sweepstakes


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

A model of a brown grain weevil resting on a grain.

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Creaturefector

Going Against The Grain Weevils

A photo of the now deceased last female Yangtze giant softshell turtle

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The Last Female Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle Is Dead

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What If I Told You Sperm Could Be Balls?

A prehistoric tully monster, looks like a squid with stalked eyes and a jointed trunk with a toothy pincer mouth at the end.

Tullimonstrum gregarium, known as the Tully Monster.

The Mystery Of The Tully Monster Will Never Be Solved

A dung-rolling weevil in the genus Tentegia props up a piece of marsupial dung

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Rookie Dung-Roller Is Learning On The Job

Two firefighters attempt to free a red squirrel, whose head is stuck inside a manhole cover

Feuerwehrmänner haben den Gullydeckel angehoben und befreien das Eichhörnchen

History Repeats: Red Squirrel Gets STUCK In Manhole Cover In Germany, Just Four Years After Similar Squirrel’s Manhole Stranding

a photo of a coprolite (fossil poop) with bite marks taken out of it

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Behold An Ancient Fish’s Moment Of Sheer Regret

Associate US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court, dressed in black robes.

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Politics

Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Sponsor Owns Some Weird Nazi Stuff

two gloved hands holding a mummified brown squirrel in the shape of a perfect sphere

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What’s Inside The Fur Sphere?

A series of holes in the mud of the deep seafloor

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One Creator Of Mysterious Seafloor Holes Is Revealed, But Other Remains At Large

Close up of the face of a white male Beluga whale in aquarium.

What Was She Thinking? An Investigation

A Sumatran orangutan swings on a rope at the safari park and zoo in Jantho, Aceh province on October 10, 2021. (Photo by CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP) (Photo by CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP via Getty Images)

INDONESIA-ANIMAL-ZOO

Apes Spin On Vines To Get High Because They Haven’t Discovered Whippits

A diagram showing how much shorter the extinct fish Dunkleosteus was to a great white shark, with a weenie human for comparison.

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More Like Chunkleosteus

A droplet of pee being ejected from the behind of an insect called a sharpshooter

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Pee Pee Pew Pew!

Hedgehog adult sitting amongst autumn leaves and Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria

Hedgehog and toadstool

Thorvald, World’s Oldest European Hedgehog, Was Killed By Dog At Age 16

A photo of a new species of voiceless frog, pictured here sitting on a leaf with hands politely clasped together. The frog is golden green with some silvery-gold mottling.

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A Quest For A Beautiful Toad Instead Discovers A Silent Frog

A naked mole rat queen stands inside a transparent tunnel.

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Meet Pittsburgh’s Extraordinary Naked Mole-Rat Queens

A chimpanzee beckoning with an outstretched hand.

Chimpanzee, (Pan troglodytes troglodytes)

Let Me Hold Your Hand While I Eat Bugs Out Of Your Hair

A mother killer whale and her small son (soon to be big)

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Large Adult Orca Sons Are A Terrible Burden On Their Poor Mothers

A closely packed colony of Apis dorsata giant honeybees

Animal India

Whoopsies! Fossil From The Dawn Of Life Actually Just Bees

A domestic pigeon that has been dyed pink with hair dye.

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Justice For Flamingo, Who Did Not Consent To Being Dyed Pink

An extremely fluffy gray cat called the Pallas Cat snarling at the camera

Agrunia not so happy…

World’s Crankiest Cat Found On World’s Tallest Mountain

A woman encourages her child to look at the mummy of young boy during a preview of the 'Ancient lives, new discoveries' exhibition at the British Museum in Central London on May 20, 2014.

BRITAIN-MUSEUM-MUMMIES-EXHIBITION

Arts And Culture

How To Respect A Mummy

A paleoart illustration of the pterosaur Balaenognathus maeuseri, showing a creature with a long bill that tapers to a flat end, lots of tiny verticle teeth, and a red beady eye staring out from an orange and blue face.

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Now That’s What I Call Teeth!

A Sloane's viperfish, a deep-sea fish with iridescent scales and very big teeth