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Let’s Make a Unicorn
When it comes to making mythical beasts based on real ones, the horse is a popular candidate. It’s easy to see why. They’re seen as swift, strong, graceful, and essential for the livelihoods of many cultures. Thus, horses have made a natural starting point for tales of larger-than-life creatures for countless generations. It’s perhaps inevitable…
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Hybrid Monsters: Chimeras in Taxonomy
In the days before evolutionary theory and modern taxonomy, people were already describing species and their relationships. This helped with identifying and grouping useful or dangerous plants and animals. Early taxonomy was largely focused on broad observations. Scholars often placed species into groups like trees, fish and even invertebrates. But these scholars were still figuring…
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Cousins and Clades (and Dragons): Taxonomy in Fantasy
Let’s start our journey into fantastical science by talking a little bit about the study of taxonomy, and how it fits into the world of fantasy. If you remember anything from biology class, you probably remember a few things about classic taxonomy. You know, that upside-down pyramid of species that are more and more closely…