Here’s a tweet from Asia Murphy, sent by Matthew Cobb, who loves “find the. . .” photos. Matthew adds that Asia is doing a Ph.D. on the mammals of Madagascar. Matthew tells us NOT to go looking for the answer on Asia’s Twitter feed, as that would spoil the fun.
For this #FosaFriday, I'm going to have y'all #FindTheFosa. pic.twitter.com/pMgtyAs95S
— asia murphy, fuck ICE (postdocing) (@am_anatiala) February 10, 2017
If you want to know what a fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) looks like, here’s one. They are carnivorous mammals in the family Eupleridae, which contains only 10 species, all endemic to Madagascar.
And here’s the enlarge photo. Can you spot this creature? Answer at 1 pm Chicago time:
Very difficult but do not want to spoil the search of others by saying.
Never heard of Eupleridae before. Dug out my old Mammalogy textbook. Fossa used to be classified as a viverrid. Jeez, I’m getting old.
Failed to find the fossa. Probably. I see a couple suspect objects that probably are not the fossa, but we’ll see.
I’m pretty sure I spotted it, and it was pretty easy (providing I’m right about what I saw).
I might see it. Not sure.
I think I found it. A hint is that the viewer should think of thirds.
I was thinking left…
At first I thought it said fossil. I imagine a fossil fossa would be even harder to find. I have no idea where it is, so I’ll just grab a full lungful of breath and hold it ’till all is revealed.
A beautiful creature sure enough.
There is a fossil fossa. The giant fossa Cryptoprocta spelea which is I suppose technically a subfossil, as it seems to have gone extinct circa AD 1000 around the same time as Malagasy hippos. The animal persists in some Madagascan languages and folklore and of course in cryptozoological fancy.
Gone extinct around 1000 AD? Shortly after Madagascar was colonised by humans, I presume…
And did the giant ‘Elephant bird’ not disappear around the same time?