Sinners and History

Last year Ryan Coogler’s Sinners took the world by storm for its interesting plot, amazing acting, soundtrack, and world the movie is set in. It immediately became one of my favourite movies and this period drama set in an African-American community in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 took immense care to represent the time period in which it is set. Well, except for the vampires. It is Black History Month here in the UK and being October it is the Month of Horror. Sinners is a perfect vehicle to look at history. As I will be talking about key plot points in the movie this post will contain multiple spoilers.

Vampires

Vampires led by the Irish vampire Remmick are the main antagonists of Sinners, and for the most part they are representative of how we imagine vampires in the media. They burn in sunlight, drink blood, need to be invited in, and are weak to garlic and silver. Sinners does change up some of the vampire lore. Largely influenced by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, media has created the concept of the ‘head vampire’, a progenitor or powerful vampire that can control other vampires. Sinners portrays the head vampire Remmick as leading a quasi-hive mind. When bitten Remmick has access to the memories of those he turned – speaking in Mandarin and revealing knowledge of the Ku Klux Klan based on those he turned – and those turned can likewise access his memories. This led to one of the most iconic scenes in the movie when Remmick led a traditional Irish folk dance for a congregation consisting of Deep South African-Americans, two Klansmen, and one Chinese man. This idea feeds into one of the themes of the movie itself – American ‘melting pot’ against the identity of minorities. The ability of ‘Preacher Boy’ Sammie to transcend time and space with his music attracted Remmick who wanted to reconnect with his lost past and promises the black community a world without racism, Jim Crow, or exclusion. However, this comes at the expense of them losing the ability to be themselves; their identity is subsumed into Remmick’s community. Late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century discourse of America being a ‘melting pot’ expected migrants to abandon their identity and become ‘American’. Instead of being African-American, Chinese, Choctaw, or Irish they had to be ‘American’, and communities that kept their culture were treated with distrust or, for Native Americans, genocide. We will expand on this idea later.

The characters are fully aware of what vampires are, which thankfully means that Sinners avoids the trope of going in depth of what vampires are, as by 1932 vampires were well known in the English-speaking world. A decade earlier Germany produced one of the first film adaptations of Dracula with Nosferatu, and in 1933 Universal’s famous Dracula starring Bela Lugosi would be released. However, what is unique about Sinners is that the lead vampire, Remmick, is Irish. Cultures across the world have developed stories of blood-sucking nocturnal demons independently – before consistent street lighting was available the dark was genuinely scary and dangerous, and blood keeps us alive. Ireland also had several tales of blood-sucking revenants such as Abhartach, a lord who rose from the dead and demanded blood from his town. There have been unconfirmed stories that Abhartach inspired a later Irish author – Bram Stoker. However, ‘vampires’ as we understand them emerged in popular culture largely from the popularisation of eastern European tales from Poland, Serbia, and Romania. Somewhat like we discussed with American culture and the melting pot, these ideas of vampires saw local blood-sucking creatures subsumed into the title of ‘vampire’. Abhartach became a vampire and another tale by an Irish writer brought together several ideas creating the modern vampire.

Music and Stories

Perhaps the most important part of Sinners is the importance of music and stories to identity. We see it in the very first lines of the movie:

There are legends of people… born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past… and the future. In Ancient Ireland, they were called Fili. In Choctaw land, they call them Firekeepers. And in West Africa, they’re called griots. This gift can bring healing to their communities but it also attracts evil.

Sinners plays around with music regularly featuring blues, soul, jazz, Southern gospel, and Irish folk throughout. It reflects how integral music is to culture and identity, and how history is told through these means. For most of history identity and community has been passed on via oral stories, even in societies with written sources it is only within the last century that the majority of the population were literate. Sammie’s ability to play so well allowed him to pierce the veil between time and space which attracts Remmick. The vampire, isolated from his family and heritage, sought out Sammie to use his ability to reconnect to the vampire’s past. Meanwhile, it also created one of the best scenes in the movie. As Sammie plays the blues his music pierces through time connecting the blues of the 1930s to hip-hop of the 1990s and to West African dances from centuries ago. As Grace and Bo Chow enter the scene their histories are brought into the dance with Beijing opera performers re-enacting Journey to the West are seen. Sinners demonstrates how people have managed to keep their culture alive, and, in the case of African-Americans, Choctaw, Chinese, and Irish depicted in the movie, survive colonialism, genocide, and forced migration.

A Mississippi juke joint

Sinners further depicts the competing musical trends in 1930s African-American communities – the Church against the juke joint. While this was not a binary – plenty of African-Americans would go to church on Sunday and in the evening enjoy jazz and the blues – they represent how African-Americans used music to create their own space in Jim Crow. Since the end of slavery the church served as a way to connect the community together and forge that sense of community. It is for that reason why so many churches were targeted by white supremacists when they wanted to attack the black community. It is also for that reason that much of the civil rights movement, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, came from black churches – Martin Luther King, after all, was a reverand. As Brendan Payne has argued, during the rise of Prohibition white wet politicians reached out to the black church as potential allies, as the evangelical roots of the dry movement was deeply tied to white supremacists. A minor antagonist of Sinners is Sammie’s father Jebediah who tries to keep Sammie out of the juke joint and in the church. While abusive, Jebediah genuinely believed that the gospel music of the church would protect his son and community. The church was the centre of the community and a way to protect the community – it was their own space away from a white supremacist society and was a safe space. This is why gospel music is so uplifting, it was, and is, an expression of joy. In the words of Elijah Ward:

Anyone who has seen a great gospel show in a black church will feel the shock of recognition, not only at the power of the performer to move and speak for her audience, but at the way the truth and soulfulness is supported by broad, self-conscious theater. Working for a public that still has its roots in the world where Rainey held court, gospel stars continue to surround themselves with the flashing lights and rolling bass drums, and the gaudy array of gold and diamonds, which a more urbane performer might consider “cheap.”

Ward, Escaping the Delta, 43

The crux of the movie surrounds the new juke joint opened by Sammie’s cousins Smoke and Stack, effortlessly played by my Hollywood crush Michael B. Jordan, newly returned Chicago. Juke joints were, at times, impromptu venues where the black community in the Deep South could play music, gamble, drink, and party. Sometimes these joints received black and white patrons – one in the Mississippi Delta accepted white patrons in the early evening and black patrons later. It as the character Delta Slim says in the movie: See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don’t like the people who make it. The blues emerged from the oral histories and resistance we have already discussed. West African stories of tricksters became the lyrics of the earliest blues songs as a way to resist Jim Crow and white supremacist violence. Blues itself was part of a heritage of communal singing that can be traced directly back to West African singing traditions. Singing in plantations as a group while working was a way to build community in resistance to the crushing horror of slavery, and from there African-American music genres emerged. Migration after slavery allowed northern music trends to travel south bringing the music of Harlem and Chicago to the Deep South where it blended with local musical genres. This movement between North and South allowed the emergence of blues and jazz creating a symbiotic heritage. We see this reflected in Sinners. Smoke and Stack return home from Chicago bringing a specifically northern style to the southern juke joint, and at the end an elderly Sammie is played by Buddy Guy. A blues musician from Louisiana he moved north to Chicago bringing the southern musical flare to the north.

Race and Community

Mary and Stack

Sinners features several characters who did not fit the black and white binary that the Jim Crow South presented itself. First, there is Mary, played by Hailee Steinfeld. Mary is mixed race and is described as an ‘octoroon’, meaning that she had one black grandparent. Mixed-race people undermined the strict binary that Jim Crow aimed to create, hence the ‘one drop’ law which stated that if someone had just ‘one drop’ of African-American blood they were legally ‘black’. However, on the ground things were more complicated. Mixed-race people with lighter skin could theoretically ‘pass’ as white and evade the worst aspects of Jim Crow, but at the cost of either buying into the logic of Jim Crow, or by alienating themselves from family. Women in particular were at risk from increased violence if found communicating with their black relatives if their skin was light enough to be considered ‘passing’. Kathryn Schumaker found that in court records from Natchez, Mississippi white men who married black women would face far fewer restrictions compared to if a white woman married a black man, or had his baby. As Schumaker argues, patriarchy and the supremacy of men over women trumped white supremacist fears of miscegenation. This is represented in Sinners. Stack pushed Mary away to protect her from the white community – as she was passing the whites would just see a white woman with a black man.

Jim Crow viewed America to either be black or white, and alongside mixed-race people there were also other minorities. Jim Crow simply did not know what to do with Native Americans, Mexicans, and Asians. While some states, like Texas, enacted ‘Juan Crow’ laws against Mexicans or, like California, campaigned to exclude Asian migrants, in the Mississippi Delta they were not present enough in large numbers for white supremacists to understand where they fit. Grace and Bo Chow represent the little known Mississippi Chinese community. Chinese communities began being brought to the Deep South by plantation owners as a way to supplant black labour following Emancipation in the 1870s. As plantations found a way to legally enslave African-Americans many Chinese moved on or settled to open their own businesses. Chinese-Americans did not fully fit into the racial dynamic that Jim Crow created. They faced discrimination because they were not white, but they were not black. This resulted in Chinese stores opening that would actually serve African-Americans, often on credit due to the economic constrictions placed on many rural African-Americans. This is why the Chows had two stores in Sinners – one to serve African-Americans and one for whites. As Shaolu Yu has argued, Delta Chinese faced racial discrimination from whites, such as being barred from owning homes in the white part of town, but their own desire to retain their culture meant marrying African-Americans was openly discouraged. The Delta Chinese sat in an unusual position where they were considered both ‘close to white’ and ‘close to black’.

Irish, Whiteness and Americanness

Returning to Remmick his character offers a unique metaphor for migration and Irish oppression, and also the assimilation to the American idea. Remmick represents how an oppressed people can become the oppressor. Remmick says that he remembers the Christianization of Ireland as when Sammie says the Lord’s prayer he says:

Long ago… the men who stole my father’s land forced these words upon us. I hated those men, but the words still bring me comfort. Those men lied to themselves and lied to us. They told stories of a God above and a Devil below. And lies of a dominion of man over beast and Earth. We are earth and beast, and god. We are woman and man. We are connected, you and I – to everything.

There is some debate among fans if this was actually in reference to the English colonization of Ireland with the ‘forced these words upon us‘ being English instead of the Lord’s prayer. In an interview Remmick’s actor Jack O’Connell mentioned that Remmick was 600 to 700 years old meaning this date was likely sometime in the mid-1100s when Henry II used Ireland’s apparent lack of Christian orthodoxy to invade. Since then the Irish was oppressed and faced genocide by a new landed class that, from the 1500s would see Protestants expel Catholics from their land. Thanks to generations of English, later British, exploitation an Irish diaspora emerged, especially from the 1840s when British policies led to the infamous Potato Famine. One million Irish starved to death and another million left thanks to the British-caused famine. Upon arriving in Protestant America many Irish continued to face discrimination as anti-Catholicism caused violence against Irish communities. This would continue through the next century with the second Klan expanding their targets to also include Catholics. As late as the 1960s people were debating John F. Kennedy’s loyalties as he took the presidency. For many Protestant Americans the Irish were not white, an idea shared by Protestants back in England. Remmick famously has his vampires dance to him singing Rocky Road to Dublin – a song how a poor Irishman from a rural community goes to Dublin where he is robbed and then to Liverpool where he is attacked for being Irish. Remmick’s story, like the African-Americans and Choctaw, was one of being beaten down by hegemonic white supremacist powers.

The Irish-American community, however, did not remain the oppressed. Irish migrants used the Civil War and their enlistment into the Union Army to prove their ‘Americanness’ and began buying into the racial capitalist system of the US. As Noel Ignatiev argued, by proving that they could oppress black and indigenous communities the Irish began shifting to the ‘whiteness’. We can see this in regards to Joe Biden and the Irish government. While Ireland does have a racism issue the Irish government has shown solidarity with Palestine during Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, being one of the only European nations to walk out of genocider-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu’s United Nations speech. Meanwhile, Joe Biden, who prides himself on having Irish ancestry, actively supported Israel’s genocide. The long history of Ireland’s oppression meant that, despite domestic racism, Ireland showed solidarity with Palestine, whereas Irish-American shift into becoming white Americans meant that a self-proclaimed Irish president aided and abetted genocide. Remmick represents the shift. As mentioned above, his anti-racism rhetoric means the black community is subsumed into his identity, an identity where he actively hid his Irish accent through most of the movie. Remmick, the abused migrant who was displaced by settler colonialism, did not reject racial supremacy but embraced it. This is also where the Choctaw come in. The Choctaw Nation famously sent money to Ireland during the Famine, which Ireland reciprocated during Covid, and this Irish vampire is hunted down by Choctaw where he seeks refuge with Klansmen.

Racial Violence

Sinners is set during Jim Crow Mississippi and does not shy away from showing the horrors of racism that black communities faced. Smoke and Stack buy the juke joint from Hogwood who turns out to be the local leader of the KKK, and his nephew and niece-in-law are KKK members who become the first to be turned by Remmick. Hogwood’s lie that ‘Klan don’t exist no more‘ was not entirely incorrect in real life. During the 1920s the second KKK was a widespread political force exceeding over 3 million members at its peak in 1925/26, but just a few years later it was collapsing. Overt violence, financial incompetence, and several rape scandals had dinted the popularity of the Klan, and the Depression sapping everyone’s funds led to the Klan shrinking to just a few thousand. That did not mean that Klan or racial violence had stopped. Lynchings still terrorised black communities and the Klan in Camp Hill, Alabama in 1931 murdered a labour organiser who was trying to organise 200 black sharecroppers. The Klan’s attempt to burn down the juke joint, only to be met by a furious Smoke armed to the teeth with World War I weaponry, was incredibly common. They were a terror group that aimed to put fear in the hearts of the black community.

Sinners shows another form of racial violence other than the lynchings and Klan terror that still impacts many African-Americans – economic racism. The character Cornbread is a sharecropper, it is implied that the plantation Sammie lives on is a sharecropping plantation, and we see a chain gang early on. During Reconstruction the white planter class were looking for a way to suppress the now free black population, and a loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment allowed them to do this. Forced labour without pay is perfectly legal in the United States if someone has been found guilty of a crime, so white law enforcement used vague charges of ‘vagrancy’ to re-enslave African-Americans. Alongside this was sharecropping. This, at times, was effectively a form of peonage where poor farmers rented land from landowners, and in return the farmers would give the landowner a percentage of the crop. However, high interest rates and payment in company scrip, in the movie this is when the elderly patron pays using a button, turned many sharecroppers into peons. By 1930 there were 1.3 million sharecroppers, most of whom were poor whites, but black sharecroppers were in worse conditions and higher levels of debt. This was restoring the plantation system under the guise of the law. In Mississippi sharecropping was only abolished in the 1990s, but the use of slave labour in the form of prison labour is still perfectly legal in the US.

Hoodoo

There is so much more that I could write about Sinners, but one last thing I want to write about today is Hoodoo. Throughout Sinners the character Annie practices Hoodoo which gave her insight into what Remmick effectively saving the characters from certain doom. Hoodoo, sometimes referred to a rootwork and conjuring, is an African-American spirituality which emerged from the encounter between West African religion, Native American herblore, and European folk remedies. Key to Hoodoo is the oral tradition of herbal healing and remedies, as well as belief in spirits and conversing with the other side. For many practicioners Hoodoo is not distinct from Christianity, the power of protection comes from God, although Hoodoo is not accepted by certain churches. Annie further describes the vampires as ‘haints’, a concept from Hoodoo of a spirit or witch that exhausts a victim until they die. Hoodoo further reflects the theme that goes through Sinners. It was born from oppression and colonialism. African beliefs were brought to the US thanks to slavery, and these believes mixed with the belief of poor Europeans and displaced Native Americans creating a syncretic belief that offered agency to Africans. Especially women. Women, like Annie, found a niche with Hoodoo giving them an important role in resistance to oppression.

Bibliography:

• Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, (Warner Bros.: 2025)
• Kristofer Allerfeldt, The Ku Klux Klan: An American History, (Cheltenham: The History Press, 2024)
• Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2010)
• Paul Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988)
• Stephen A. Berrey, The Jim Crow Routine: Everyday Performances of Race, Civil Rights, and Segregation in Mississippi, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
• Kinitra Brooks, ‘Haints, Hollers, and Hoodoo’, Southern Cultures, 29:4, (2023), 2-7
• Pete Daniel, The Shadow of Slavery: Peonage in the South, 1901-1969, (London: Oxford University Press, 1973)
• Khalil Greene, ‘Everything You Missed in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners—COMPLETE Historical Reference Guide’, History Can’t Hide, (16/03/2026), [Accessed 02/10/2026]
• Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018)
• Katrina Hazzard-Donald, Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013)
• Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, (New York, NY: Routledge, 1995)
• Serap Ayșe Kayatekin, ‘Credit and Its Legal Context in Sharecropping Relations in Postbellum Mississippi Delta: From Ownership to Controlling of Laboring Bodies’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 57:2, (2025), 157-175
• Brendan J.J. Payne, Gin, Jesus, & Jim Crow: Prohibition and the Transformation of Racial and Religious Politics in the South, (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2022)
• Robert Seto Quan, Lotus Among the Magnolias: The Mississippi Chinese, (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1982)
• Kathryn Schumaker, ‘“Unlawful Intimacy”: Mixed-Race Families, Miscegenation Law, and the Legal Culture of Progressive Era Mississippi’, Law and History Review, 41, (2023), 773-794
• Rachel Stuart, ‘Sinners: How Real Stories of Irish and Choctaw Oppression Inform the Film’, The Conversation, (29/04/2025), [Accessed 04/10/2026]
• Aisling Walsh, ‘Sinners sinks its teeth into Irish settler colonialism’, Red Pepper, (03/03/2026), [Accessed 07/10/2026]
• Elijah Ward, Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, (New York, NY: Amistad, 2004)
• Amy West, ‘Sinners‘ Michael B Jordan says he would be “up for” doing a prequel about his characters’ adventures in Chicago – but Ryan Coogler prefers a little mystery’, Games Radar, (17/04/2025), [Accessed 05/10/2026]
• Shaolu Yu, ‘Placing Racial Triangulation, Triangulating Place and Race: Chinese Grocery Stores in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow Era’, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112:1, (2022), 97-122

Zoopedia: Ghost-Faced Bat

It is our first Zoopedia post for 2026’s Month of Horror, and to mark the occasion we are looking at when you mix a bat with a ghost. This is the ghost-faced bat, or Peter’s ghost-faced bat, from the Americas which, quite frankly, has a face that only a mother could love.

Taxonomy and Evolution

The ghost-faced bat has the scientific name Mormoops megalophylla, and it shares this genus with one other species, the Antillean ghost-face bat. The Antillean species is smaller than the species we are looking at today. There was a third species simply called the giant ghost-faced bat that went extinct around 70,000 years ago, and it was much larger than the ghost-faced bat. They belong to a family called Mormoopidae which consists of other species of bats known for having faces like they have had a skillet to it. These are small echolocating bats whose messed up faces act as radar dishes as they fly through the night.

Biology and Behaviour

Ghost-faced bats are medium-sized bats reaching around 6.7 cm in length and weights between 13 and 19 grams. For a bat they are on the larger size, but they are generally quite small. Then there is their face which combines a bulldog with the Ferengi from Star Trek. This is due to them having short skulls with a flattened face, but also having a steep forehead and protruding lower jaw as well as with curved ears. They have brown bodies which they will moult every year producing a new layer of fur for the new seasons.

Why do ghost-faced bats have such strange looking faces? Simple, echolocation. Like many other species of bat they have a heavily specialised organ in their skull which emit calls that reflect off of surfaces. These waves are then reflected back at the bat which their scrunched up face can pick-up like an aerial dish. This gives them an ability to fly through the night as clearly as we can see during the day. These calls are just 50 kHz lasting just 4 milliseconds, but they are so sensitive the bats can pick up the calls.

Mostly due to where they live we have do not have much information about how ghost-faced bats reproduce. They need deep limestone caves for roosting which has made it difficult to properly observe them in the wild. A paper published as recently as 2025 managed to track reproduction in this species and found they breed sometime between October and December with birth taking place in early summer with lactation ending by the end of summer. Sensitive to the cold the newborns are born deeper in the cave which means it is harder to observe them. Ghost-faced bats seem to have just one baby at a time.

Distribution and Habitat

The ghost-faced bat is found in forests where they have access to plenty of insects, although they roost in caves and abandoned mines. They prefer limestone and deep caves, especially when breeding as it helps keep the babies warm. Ghost-faced bats prefer warmer climates, around 40 degrees Celsius, and their metabolism collapses when temperatures get cold. They are found as far north as southern Texas, with a lot being found in Big Bend, through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and then into northern Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and very northern Peru.

Diet and Predators

Like many bats that use echolocation the ghost-faced bat is insectivorous. This means that their diet mainly consists of insects, especially moths. Their echolocation helps these bats detect flying insects and catch them while flying, never having to ever come close to the ground. It is hard to catch a bat so the ghost-faced bat has few predators with their main predators being owls, hawks, and other bats, such as spectral bats.

Conservation and Threats

The last time that the IUCN Red List would assess the ghost-faced bat was in 2016 giving them a rating of ‘Least Concern’, but with a warning that their numbers were decreasing. Deforestation and the loss of roosting sites through mining or land development has reduced the safe spaces where they can reproduce. The populations in Ecuador may even be at risk of entirely vanishing if actions are not taken.

Bibliography:

• ‘Peter’s ghost-faced bat’, Bat Conservation International, [Accessed 02/10/2026]
• M. Alejandra Camacho, Veronica Leiva-D, Ricardo López-Wilchis and Santiago F. Burneo, ‘Genetic diversity of the ghost-faced bat Mormoops megalophylla Peters, 1864 (Chiroptera: Mormoopidae) in Ecuador; implications for its conservation’, Therya, 8:3, (2017), 223-232
• L. Davalos, J. Molinari, H. Mantilla-Meluk, C. Medina, J. Pineda and B. Rodriguez, ‘Mormoops megalophylla, Ghost-faced bat’, IUCN Red List, (09/07/2016), [Accessed 02/10/2026]
• Robert S. DeBaca and Clyde Jones, ‘The Ghost-faced bat, Mormoops megalophylla, (Chiroptera: Mormoopidae) from the Davis Mountains, Texas. (General Notes)’, The Texas Journal of Science, 54:1, (2002)
• Gihovani Ademir Samano‐Barbosa, Ixchel Rojas‐Martínez, Sergio Leonardo Porto-Ramírez, Fernando Salgado‐Mejia, Ahiezer Rodríguez‐Tobón, Arturo Salame‐Méndez, Edith Arenas‐Ríos, Luis Manuel Guevara‐Chumacero and Ricardo López‐Wilchis, ‘Morphological and Histological Variations of the Reproductive Organs During the Annual Cycle in a Neotropical Bat: Peters’ Ghost‐Faced Bat Mormoops megalophylla (Chiroptera: Mormoopidae)’, Journal of Morphology, 286, (2025), e70066
• Matthew Steinway, ‘Mormoops megalophylla (ghost-faced bat)’, Animal Diversity Web, (17/02/2000), [Accessed 01/10/2026]
• Marianne Taylor, Bats: An Illustrated Guide to all Species, (London: Ivy Press, 2019)

Paleo Profiles: Megarachne

It is finally October 2026 so it is our annual Month of Horror, and to start off we are looking at an extinct animal that would have been terrifying to our modern eyes. This was the Megarachne, long thought to be a giant spider. However, since its initial discovery we have found that Megarachne was not in fact a spider, but something else entirely…

Discovery and Fossils

Megarachne in Walking with Monsters under the name ‘Mesothelae’

The first fossil belonging to Megarachne was described in 1980 from a fossil site in Argentina by Argentinian palaeontologist Mario Hünicken. The holotype was not complete but Hünicken recognised it was a very large arthropod. This made sense as the fossil site dated to the Carboniferous, a time of increased humidity and oxygen percentage in the atmosphere which allowed arthropods to grow to large sizes. At the time it was believed that this newly described arthropod was a giant spider, perhaps the largest in history, so Hünicken gave it the name Megarachne servinei meaning ‘Servine’s Giant Spider’. Servine was a fossil collector who found the fossil, and ‘Giant Spider’ as it was the largest known spider. For the next 25 years it would be known as a giant spider and would, sort of, be featured in the BBC documentary Walking with Monsters. This specimen was soon locked in a bank vault leaving only copies for palaeontologists to look at. Then, in the early-2000s, another specimen was found which completely changed how we understand Megarachne. In a 2005 paper written by Paul Selden, Jose Corronca, and Hünicken it was found that Megarachne was not a spider at all, but was a member of a group called eurypterids.

Taxonomy and Evolution

Instead of being a giant spider we now know that Megarachne was a eurypterid, better known as ‘sea scorpions’. Despite their name eurypterids were not related to scorpions and were not even arachnids. However, they were somewhat related belonging to a different branch of a group called chelicerata which includes modern arachnids and horseshoe crabs. Unlike the arachnids, the eurypterids never ventured onto land, but they did for a long time dominate the waters. Yes waters. Much like the ‘scorpion’ part of their name the ‘sea’ part is inaccurate as eurypterids did move into freshwater, and the last few species were freshwater. Megarachne belonged to one of these later families, called Mycteropidae, that evolved a very different lifestyle to some of the more famous eurypterids, like Pterygotus. A 2010 paper has suggested that Megarachne was part of a growth stage alongside Mycterops and Woodwardopterus, both of which were used to help reconstruct Megarachne, so if that is the case Megarachne would be declared invalid. For now, Megarachne is classified as its own genus and is not synonymous with the other eurypterids.

Biology

Reconstruction by Nobu Tamura

For an arthropod Megarachne was large. Based on the two specimens that we have Megarachne reached lengths of around 54 centimetres (21 inches) which would have made them the largest known spider, but among eurypterids they are far from the largest. In contrast, the largest eurypterid Jaekelopterus reached over 2.5 metres in length! What allowed palaeontologists to realise that Megarachne was a eurypterid and not a spider was due to some notable parts of the body that are more commonly found with aquatic arthropods instead of spiders. The end of the body also had several segments called ‘tergites’ which were adapted for moving in the water. The 2005 classification compared the body to that of another eurypterid called Woodwardopterus which the authors used as a basis to create their reconstruction. Megarachne was reconstructed with four pairs of appendages, although the final pair has not been preserved in either specimens. These appendages were at the front of the body and away from the telson, the end segment of arthropods, avoiding the legs getting caught as it propelled itself through the water.

These appendages give us a good clue into the lifestyle of Megarachne. At the end of the appendages were blade-like structures which were not offensive structures. Megarachne, and for that matter its relatives, lacked the spikes and claws of earlier eurypterids meaning they were not active predators. Instead, Megarachne would swim or crawl along the floor wafting its appendages through the silt and mud capturing small invertebrates with these structures. They still had a good eyesight despite not using their eyes to hunt. Compound eyes on top of the head would be able to detect and spot threats such as large fish, including freshwater sharks, and amphibians.

When and Where

Megarachne is known from one formation, the Bajo de Véliz Formation in northwest Argentina. This formation dates to the latest part of the Carboniferous period, dating between 303.7 and 298.9 million years ago. Unlike many of the other known eurypterids the Megarachne was a freshwater eurypterid, not a marine one. Megarachne actually lived in a floodplain or swamps, moving from deeper to shallower water as the seasonal rains came and went.

Paleoecology

Instead of the terrifying giant spider depicted in Walking with Monsters, which had to be edited last minute to acknowledge the new paper, Megarachne was a freshwater animal that moved through swamp waters. We do not have much other aquatic life from the Bajo de Véliz Formation, but there was certainly vibrant life on the land with many species of insects and genuine spiders being found. Megarachne lived at a time of great changes during the Carboniferous. Compared to the early-Carboniferous where the climate was warm and wet, the end of the Carboniferous when Megarachne lived was becoming colder and drier. Quite possibly this is what resulted in the eventual extinction of Megarachne as cooling temperatures changed its habitat too much.

Bibliography:

• ‘Bajo de Veliz (CORD collection): Kasimovian – Gzhelian, Argentina’, PBDB.org, [Accessed 02/10/2026]
• ‘Episode 2: Reptile’s Beginnings’, directed by Chloe Leland, (BBC Studios: 2005)
• Riley Black, ‘Megarachne, the giant spider that wasn’t’, National Geographic, (20/12/2010), [Accessed 29/09/2026]
• Benjamin Gutierrez, ‘Megarachne‘, Prehistoric-Wildlife, (27/08/2012), [Accessed 01/10/2026]
• James C. Lamsdell, Linda Lagebro, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Graham E. Budd and Pierre Gueriau, ‘Stylonurine eurypterids from the Strud locality (Upper Devonian, Belgium): new insights into the ecology of freshwater sea scorpions’, Geological Magazine, 156:10, (2019), 1708-1714
• James C. Lamsdell, Simon J. Braddy and O. Erik Tetlie, ‘The systematics and phylogeny of the Stylonurina (Arthropoda: Chelicerata: Eurypterida)’, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 8:1, (2010), 49-61
• PBS Eons, ‘When Giant Scorpions Swarmed the Seas’, YouTube.com, (03/04/2019), [28/09/2026]
• Paul A. Selden, Jose A. Corronca and Mario A. Hünicken, ‘The true identity of the supposed giant fossil spider Megarachne‘, Biology Letters, 1, (2005), 44-48
• Ben G Thomas, ‘When Earth Was Ruled by Arachnids’, YouTube.com, (20/10/2024), [Accessed 30/09/2026]

Zoopedia: Tequila splitfin

Under the shadow of the Tequila volcano in Jalisco, Mexico there is a small pool near a village called Teuchitlán. In this pool a tiny species of fish can be found and is named after the volcano – the Tequila splitfin. This tiny fish is one of Mexico’s unique species of fish that evolved in the isolated lakes which has also meant they are at risk of extinction through the smallest of changes to their environment.

Taxonomy and Evolution

The Tequila splitfin, also called the Tequila fish, was discovered and named by science as recently as 1998. They have the scientific name Zoogoneticus tequila, named after the volcano, and they share their genus with two other species of fish. Zoogoneticus belongs to an order of fish called the Cyprinodontiformes, which is a bit of a mouthful but this order is commonly called the killifish after one of the notable families belonging to this order. Specifically, Tequila splitfins belong to a family called Goodeidae which consists of around 50 species of fish. These fish are unique to specific lakes, streams, and isolated bodies of water and evolved due to this isolation. As the common ancestor was caught in these bodies of water millennia ago in Mexico and the western US they genetically diverged to adapt to whatever body of water they now lived in.

Biology and Behaviour

These fish are tiny. The females are larger just reaching 8 centimetres in length to the 6 centimetres of the males. Tequila splitfin have the basic fish body plan with the most iconic part of them being their tailfin which is crescent shaped. In the males the end of the tailfin is an orange or yellow coloured curved band, something that helps attracts females. Otherwise, this fish is a silver-blue colour having just a black band on their tail. Most of what we know about these fish come from studying them in captivity due to how quickly they became endangered after becoming known to science. As a result, scientists have only managed to research these fish relatively recently in their natural habitat, more on that later.

Again, we have only observed reproduction of Tequila splitfins in captivity. Unlike many other bony fish which spawn the Tequila splitfin, and for that matter their family, give birth to live young. A notched tail fin in the females, which gives the group the name ‘splitfin’, allows males to deposit sperm which is used to then fertilise the eggs. The female has one ovary in which up to 29 eggs are stored. After 65 days she will give birth to her young and from there her time as a parent comes to an end – parental care stops from here. The young are tiny and will initially rely solely on the yolk from their egg to sustain them. Like with many fish sexual maturity is more based on size than age, but Tequila splitfin will reach that size from 6 to 10 weeks of age.

Distribution and Habitat

The Tequila splitfin are currently known from one pool in near Teuchitlán that is just 4 metres in diameter. It is thought that this population is the remnant of a larger one that was found in the Ameca River that runs through the state to the capital of Guadalajara. These fish prefer warmer waters, between 20°C and 24°C, and prefer the shallower end of the waters. Their small size means that this makes them less at risk of predation from larger fish found in deeper water. The pool at Teuchitlán is only 20 cm deep and is made mostly of mud and sand.

Diet and Predators

Being so small it is hard to find good things to eat, but the Tequila splitfin do have options. They are not picky with their diet consisting of a mixture of plankton, insect larvae, and general biological detritus that comes their way. Their main predators are other, larger fish although birds and even the nymphs of dragonflies are capable of eating them.

Conservation and Threats

The Tequila splitfin are a remarkable case of rapid conservation efforts. Runoff from farming and the introduction of large invasive fish, mainly tilapia, wiped them out of the main river leaving the tiny population in Teuchitlán. Recognising that this population was at risk with only 50 adults being found in 2001. They were brought into a protective ‘Fish Ark’ ran by the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo and just in time. By 2011 no wild Tequila splitfin could be found. The Fish Ark recognised that only by working with and engaging with the local community could the reintroduction of Tequila splitfins be successful. Invasive fish were removed from a segment of the river and locals helped build a series of ponds to replicate their habitat. With a successful breeding programme in 2016 10,000 fish were released into the ponds, and a few years later 80 were released into the river on Day of the Dead. Much as Day of the Dead features the dead returning to visit their families this ‘dead’ species was returned home. In 2018 the IUCN declared Tequila splitfin to be endangered, up from being ‘Extinct in the Wild’. They are not out of the woods yet, but with local cooperation their future might be bright.

Bibliography:

• ‘Reintroducing the Tequila Splitfin’, Reverse the Red, [Accessed 25/09/2026]
• ‘Zoogoneticus tequila, Tequila splitfin’, FishBase, [Accessed 25/09/2026]
• Luis H. Escalera-Vázquez, Omar Domínguez-Domínguez, Demián Hinojosa-Garro and Luis Zambrano, ‘Changes in diet, growth and survivorship of the native Tequila Splitfin Zoogoneticus tequila in co-occurrence with the non-native Shortfin Molly Poecilia mexicana‘, Fundamental and Applied Limonology, 188:4, (2016), 341-351
• M. Koeck, ‘Zoogoneticus tequila‘, IUCN Red List, (13/04/2018), [Accessed 25/09/2026]
• Joseph Nelson, Terry Grande, and Mark Wilson, Fishes of the World, Fifth Edition, (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2016)
• John Pint, ‘How Mexico’s Celebrated Splitfin Fish were Rescued from the Brink of Extinction’, Mexico News Daily, (17/06/2026), [Accessed 25/09/2026]
• Shane Webb and Robert Rush Miller, ‘Zoogoneticus tequila, A New Goodeid Fish (Cyprinodontiformes) from the Ameca Drainage of Mexico, and a Rediagnosis of the Genus’, Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology the University of Michigan, 725, (1998)

Zoopedia: Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman

This week we are looking at the planet’s smallest species of crocodilian, but they are still quite large. The Cuvier’s dwarf caiman is a heavily armoured crocodilian whose smaller size has actually made them a pet for more experienced reptile enthusiasts, although please do not read this post hoping to be convinced on getting one. They are dangerous animals with unique care needs.

Taxonomy and Evolution

Cuvier’s dwarf caiman is named after French zoologist Georges Cuvier who was also one of the key figures behind the development of palaeontology as a science. They have the scientific name Paleosuchus palpebrosus and they share this genus with one other species, the smooth-fronted caiman. They are caimans which belong to the alligator family, and the caimans are only found in the Americas. Alligators first appear in the fossil record at the end of the Cretaceous with the caimans diverging from the alligators shortly after the Late Cretaceous extinction event as the Americas became separated from the rest of the world. The isolation of South America, in particular, allowed some caiman to become giants with the Purussaurus potentially being the largest crocodilian in history.

Biology and Behaviour

Cuvier’s dwarf caiman, or simply known as dwarf caiman, are the smallest species of crocodilian if we consider the Congo dwarf crocodile to be a subspecies. However, they are still large animals reaching between 1.2 and 1.5 metres (3.94 to 4.92 feet) in length. Behind that small(ish) size is some weight with them reaching between 6 and 7 kilograms. All crocodilians have bony scales on their back called osteoderms but dwarf caimans are unique as their underside and chest are also covered in these hard osteoderms. This extra armour might have evolved as a way to help protect them from predation – their armour making up for their smaller size. They are a reddish-brown in colour with some caiman being more black than brown. The babies look like small versions of the adults. They have around 80 teeth in their jaws which can pack a considerable punch for their small size, although they do not have the same bone-crunching power as their larger relatives.

Dwarf caimans are like most crocodilians where they are solitary but sociable. Unlike other crocodilians, this sociability is largely limited to only a couple of other caimans. This means they are willing to migrate over wide distances to avoid competition with other groups of caiman, especially during breeding season. Large males can get very aggressive with other dwarf caimans. They are vocal communicating through a series of groans and grunts which they do through forcing air through their nostrils. You might even see them smacking the water with their heads and jaws. When threatened or challenged they can do this to deter predators, or they will hiss and inflate their bodies to make them seem bigger. Dwarf caimans are largely nocturnal and in more exposed habitats they build burrows to hide out during the day.

Breeding season sees dwarf caimans becoming more territorial. Dominance displays very rarely become violent with them instead lifting themselves vertically in the water to show off their size. Both parents will create a nest, but depending on local conditions determines how long after hatching the mother will stay with the hatchlings. Clutches range in size from 10 to 25 eggs which the mother will stay with until they hatch after three months. Then, depending on the area, the mother can immediately abandon the hatchlings or will remain with them. A 2012 paper found that dwarf caiman mothers in the Pantanal could stay with their hatchlings for as much as 21 months! Sexual maturity is by size, not by age. Dwarf caimans become mature when they reach around a metre in length. Some wild caimans have been known to have reached up to 40 years in age!

Distribution and Habitat

Dwarf caimans are reliant on the water, but at night they can walk large distances from the water. As the dawn comes they will retreat to the closest body of water meaning some have been found in small bodies of isolated water. A 2024 paper found that this has led to dwarf caimans exhibiting large amounts of genetic diversity leading to the creation of three separate lineages. They are found in a wide range of rivers and lakes in South America including the Amazon, Orinoco, Sao Francisco, Paraguay, and Parana rivers. This means they are found in many countries including Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Some have even been found in Trinidad, castaways during storms that now call the island their home.

Diet and Predators

Dwarf caimans are carnivorous with them eating a wide range of animals including insects, crabs, shrimp, rodents, water birds, snakes, and fish. The diet of adults is overwhelmingly fish whereas babies and juveniles eat far more invertebrates. Hatchlings and juveniles can be eaten by large snakes, larger caimans, large fish, and water birds, whereas the adults are only really threatened by anacondas and jaguars.

Conservation and Threats

When last evaluated by the IUCN Red List in 2018 the Cuvier’s dwarf caiman was given a classification of ‘Least Concern’ with their population being stable. Being found over a wide area this has helped avoid significant population fragmentation, and having armoured skin across the entire body has meant they have not been hunted too much for their skin. Due to them being smaller compared to other crocodilians dwarf caimans have become a niche pet for reptile enthusiasts. However, as someone can have a caiman for a pet does not mean they should have a caiman as a pet. They are aggressive, need specialised habitation, and will need specialised veterinary care which makes them very inappropriate for everyone short of a zoo owner.

Bibliography:

• ‘Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman’, Animalia, [Accessed 19/09/2026]
• Zilca Campos, Tânia Sanaiotti, Vanílio Marques, and William E. Magnusson, ‘Geographic Variation in Clutch Size and Reproductive Season of the Dwarf Caiman, Paleosuchus palpebrosus, in Brazil’, Journal of Herpetology, 49:1, (2015), 95-98
• Z. Campos, T. Sanaiotti, F. Muniz, I. Fariasc and W.E. Magnusson, ‘Parental care in the dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus palpebrosus Cuvier, 1807 (Reptilia: Crocodilia: Alligatoridae)’, Journal of Natural History, 46:47-48, (2012), 2979-2984
• Heiry Choi, ‘Paleosuchus palpebrosus, Dwarf caiman, Cuvier’s dwarf caiman’, Animal Diversity Web, (20/11/2004), [Accessed 19/09/2026]
• Clint’s Reptiles, ‘Cuvier’s Dward Caiman, The Best Pet Crocodilian?’, YouTube.com, (16/05/2020), [Accessed 18/09/2026]
• W.E. Magnusson, Z. Campos, and F. Muniz, ‘Paleosuchus palpebrosus, Dwarf Caiman’, IUCN Red List, (30/04/2018), [Accessed 20/09/2026]
• F. L. Muniz, Z. Campos, S. M. Hernández Rangel, J. G. Martínez, B. C. Souza, B. De Thoisy, R. Botero-Arias, T. Hrbek and I. P. Farias, ‘Delimitation of evolutionary units in Cuvier’s dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Cuvier, 1807): insights from conservation of a broadly distributed species’, Conservation Genetics, 19, (2018), 599-610
• B. D. Vasconcelos, F. Camurugi, J. R. Mudrek, R. A. Brandão, and D. J. Santana, ‘Rivers and spatial distance are drivers of genetic diversity in the South American dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus)’, Journal of Zoology, 325:1, (2025), 36-48

The Making of Today and History Through Cities: The Boston Massacre, January-March 1770

Tensions had been rising in the British colonial city of Boston for several years. Anger at British troops being positioned in the city and a wave of new taxes had set people against the British. On March 5, 1770, a cold day with snow covering the ground, a crowd amassed outside the Boston Customs House which was being guarded by British soldiers. One accidentally fired a shot causing his fellow soldiers to fire into the crowd. Within a few minutes five protestors lay dead. This was the Boston Massacre. Today we will look at the Massacre and, linking with our History Through Cities series, why Boston became such a focal point for anti-British activity.

Background to the Massacre

Bostonians reacting to the Stamp Act

Events in both colonial America and Britain were shaping the scene in colonial Boston. Many of these we have covered on this series so for further details please see our previous posts. The Seven Years’ War and its aftermath was the bedrock from which issues would grow from as, despite British victory in the war, the British Empire had been left in serious debt, around £72 million. A series of new taxes were passed by the British parliament as a quick way to raise revenue which disproportionally impacted the new emerging capitalist class and the colonies. As the war had broken out due to Anglo-French conflict in the Ohio Valley, and resulted in the expulsion of the French from continental North America, the British parliament took the view that the war was for the colonials, so they should pay for it. A series of acts, commonly called the Townshend Acts, were passed enacting new taxes on goods entering the colonies and implementing the enforcement of these taxes. Popular anger crossed classes uniting the middle-class with the colony’s poor. An economic depression following the end of the war had impacted the lower classes who found access to coinage depleted and the cost of living in general rising.

The colonial elite began protesting the imposition of these taxes, and they began using the same language that was being used in Britain at the time. You may have heard of the phrase ‘No Taxation without Representation’ which was used by the colonialists, but this idea was also being discussed back in Britain. Much of the British population were barred from voting – only landed men over a certain age could vote and sit in parliament. American colonialists were in direct conversation with writers in Britain who were also excluded from parliamentary politics. In particular, the figure of John Wilkes who had been imprisoned over slander received a wide following on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the figures behind the newly formed group, the Sons of Liberty, William Palfry was in direct correspondence with John Wilkes. A clean break with Britain was not yet on the table – these merchants had economic ties to Britain and still viewed themselves as ‘British in America’ instead of ‘Americans’. As devoted Brits they should have representation in the British parliament, not simply the ‘indirect representation’ currently afforded to them.

By the late-1760s tensions had been rising across the colonies. This is mainly the case in the northeast Atlantic colonies who were reliant on trade and a growing manufacturing industry that was directly impacted by the new taxes. Of course resistance was not limited to the Atlantic cities – at the same time the Regulator movement had risen up in South Carolina. They protested unfair taxation, but were united for being tenant or landless farmers who were being pushed out by the large enslaved-labour based plantations of the south. While in the north the protests managed to cut across class, in the south the Regulator movement was a lower class movement. Certain cities became focal points for protest, and this brings us back to Boston.

Boston and the Crucible of Revolt

Colonial Boston

Boston was one of the major focal points of the protests and the eventual American Revolution. Of course, it was far from the only one with Philadelphia and New York also being major centres of protest, and later, revolt, but Boston was almost lightning in a bottle. Boston was disproportionally reliant on sea trade, from April to December 1720 about 428 ships docked in Boston harbour, most of whom came from other parts of the Thirteen Colonies. Trade and movement was key for Boston becoming a major centre of protest. The post-war depression had hit Boston hard and wealth disparity was growing rapidly – by 1770 49% of Boston’s taxable assets were owned by just 5% of the tax payers. Families of merchants had prospered from monopolising trade, insuring cargo, and ensuring the flow of goods across the colonies. The increasingly mobile and depressed working-class in Boston, of which included free people of color, could have led to a movement similar to the Regulators in Carolina, but what differed was a noticeable British presence. Boston’s mercantile industry was a key revenue source to be taxed so British agents were stationed in the city to ensure tax was collected. This ensured the British became the focus of popular anger instead that of the local colonial elite. Unpopular and conservative British-imposed governor Francis Bernard wrote in 1768:

Early the next Morning, the Shireff came to me to inform me that the Effigys of Mr Paxton and Mr Williams were hanging upon Liberty Tree. I had the Day before appointed a Council to meet, & I now sent round to get them together as soon as possible it might be. Before I went to Council I learnt that the Effigys had been taken down by some of the neighbours without any Opposition. At Council I set it forth in Strong Terms the notoriousness of this Insult, the Danger of it being followed by actual Violence and the Necessity there was of providing for the Defence of the Town. But all I could say made no Impression upon the Council: they persevered in treating the Affair as of no Consequence and assuring me that there was no Danger of any Commotion. After they had given their Opinion as in the inclosed Copy of the Minutes, I received a Letter from the Commissioners setting forth the Insults they had received, the Danger they apprehended, and desiring the Protection of the Government. I communicated this to the Council and proposed that they should reconsider their Business, but finding them not inclined to depart from their Opinion as before given, I adjourned the Reconsideration till the Afternoon. In the afternoon the Question being again put to them, They adhered to their former Opinion.

I should have mentioned before that under all the Assurances I had that there would be no Disturbances, it was never understood, that the Day, the Anniversary of the Repeal of the Stamp Act, should not be celebrated. Accordingly at Break of Day there were beating of Drums and firing of Guns heard, and the whole Town was adorned with Ships Colours: and to add to the Celebration, the Feast of St. Patrick being the Day before was postponed to this Day. However great Pains were taken by the Select Men of the Town & some other Gentlemen that the Festivity should not produce a Riot in the Evening, and so far it succeeded that it produced Terror only and not actual Mischief. There was a Number of Gentlemen dined at the Tavern near the Townhouse, upon the Occasion of the Day. These broke up in good Time, after which many of the same and other Gentlemen kept together at the Coffee House (one of the Taverns) all the Evening. These prevented the lighting a Bonfire in that Street, which was several Times attempted, and would probably have been a Prelude to Action. But the assembling a great Number of People together of all Kinds, Sexes and Ages, many of which shewed a great Disposition to the utmost Disorder, could not be prevented. There were many hundred of them paraded the Streets with Yells and outcries which were quite terrible. I had in my House Mr Burch (one of the Commissioners) and his Lady & Children, who had the Day before moved to our House for Safety. I had also with me the Lieut Governor & the Sheriff of the County. But I had taken no Steps to fortify my House, not being willing to shew an Apprehension of Danger to myself. But at that Time there was so terrible a Yell from the Mob going by, that it was apprehended that they were breaking in: but it was not so. However it caused the same Terror as if it had been so; and the Lady, a stranger to this Country who chose our House for Asylum, has not recovered it as yet.

Quoted in The Boston Massacre: A History with Documents

From this quote we can see how effective British overstepping was in uniting Bostonians against the British instead of the elite. The burning of effigies was a public display, one that created community juxtaposed against a common, and more importantly, distant figure. A domestic printing industry and the vibrant tavern system in Boston further cemented class solidarity as local people were integral to spreading ideas that could not be censored like the press coming from Britain. As protests against taxes and closing smuggling loopholes grew the British responded more forcefully, and thus created more resentment. To enforce the new laws parliament passed a further act which stationed troops in Boston and other cities, and even forced residents to house occupying soldiers in their homes. In 1768 local merchant John Hancock, one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in Boston, had his ship the Liberty seized by the British under accusations that it was engaged in smuggling. A Bostonian mob protested this and forced the customs officers to flee the city. This led to the British sending four regiments to occupy Boston. Future rebel leader Paul Revere would write about the arrival of the British regiments:

On Friday, Sept 30 , 1768, the Ships of WAR, armed Schooners, Transports, &c. Came up the Harbour and Anchored round the TOWN; their Cannon loaded, a Spring on their Cables, as for a regular Siege. At noon on Saturday, October the I the fourteenth & twenty‐ninth Regiments, a detachment from the 59 Reg and Train of Artillery, with two pieces of Cannon, landed on the Long Wharf; then Formed and Marched with insolent Parade, Drums beating, Fifes playing, and Colours ying, up KING STREET.

For many Bostonians this was their own countrymen coming to occupy them. Even more galling was that these regiments had been shiped from Halifax and Ireland – two colonies that had only just become British subjects for the former, or the Catholic rebellious colony for the later. Tensions were at a boiling point.

The Massacre

At the start of March 1770 tensions were high. On March 2 British soldiers had a scrap with rope-makers after rope-makers insulted a British soldier who was looking for extra work to supplement his pay. One of those soldiers, Matthew Killroy, was eager to get back at Bostonians who had just beaten him. On the evening of March 5 Killroy and several other British soldiers were stationed on King Street guarding the Customs House, one of the symbols of British taxation. King Street was a major centre of life in Boston including many taverns and stores, so it was not unusual that someone recognised one of the soldiers. A potentially drunk apprentice called Edward Garrick pointed out and began taunting Private Hugh White for refusing to pay a bill, a bill White had already paid. Then White did one of the worst things possible – he smacked Garrick across the face with his gun. The apprentice fell down and into the snow yelling he had been assaulted. The cries led to a crowd forming who were naturally angry. For months soldiers had been occupying their city and one had just smacked a boy across the face with a gun for insulting them.

The crowd was a cross-section of Bostonian society. Lawyer and future president John Adams wrote that they were ‘a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes, and mullatoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs.’ He wrote this as a way to disparage the crowd, but it reflected the cross-class unity that had been created through the anti-British protests. Soon snowballs, oysters, and trash were being hurled at the soldiers and Captain Thomas Preston yelled at the mob ‘Come on you rascals, you bloody backs, you Lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare, G-d damn you, fire & be damn’d.’ One figure in the crowd, potentially a man called Crispus Attucks, threw a snowball at Private Hugh Montgomery which caused him to accidentally fire his musket. Tragedy then ensued. The soldiers lost their nerve and fired into the crowd. Eleven people were hit of which five were killed. Three died instantly – Crispus Attucks, a rope-maker Samuel Gray, and a mariner called James Caldwell. Two would die in the week – 17-year-old apprentice Samuel Maverick who was hit by ricochet and died the next day, and Irish worker Patrick Carr who was hit in the abdomen and died a week later. There was one last fatality, an apprentice called Christopher Monk who would be disabled by the shot and would die in 1780 due to complications caused by the musket fire.

History Rhyming – Boston and Manchester

The position of the working-class in British society would continue long after the Boston Massacre, and for most of the nineteenth-century protests over the disenfranchisement of working-class men and women would shape British politics. In 1819 working-class men and women gathered in Manchester’s St. Peter’s Field to protest the lack of political inclusion, especially after so many working-class people had fought and died for Britian in the Napoleonic Wars. As the crowd was listening to the main speaker, Henry Hunt, an arrest warrant was issued and the head of the Yeomanry enacted this warrant with utmost violence. The Yeomanry charged into the crowd, sabres drawn, and by the time the crowd had dispersed the Yeomanry had killed 18 people, of which included women and children. The press soon named this the ‘Peterloo Massacre’, ‘Peterloo’ coming from St. Peter’s Field and Waterloo. The fight for enfranchisement would continue for another century when universal suffrage for everyone over the age of 18 was enacted in 1928.

Aftermath

The soldiers involved in the Massacre were arrested in the morning and sent to a jail outside of the city. There was a fear that a mob would rush into the prison and enact their own sense of justice. The shooting would divide Boston in two between the ‘Loyalists’ and the ‘Patriots’ where the printing press became an integral tool in the new political battle. Thomas Pelham had created an engraving depicting what he called The Bloody Massacre which gained more popularity through Paul Revere’s engraving, depicted above, that was widely reprinted. Revere added a feature to Pelham’s engraving, above the British soldiers was a sign reading ‘Butcher’s Hall’. Members of the Sons of Liberty began publishing turning the shooting into the Boston Massacre, most notably through A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre by James Bowdoin. This short piece turned the dead into martyrs of liberty cut down by British force. However, it was not only the Patriots publishing. As the crowd had assaulted the soldiers, and as the crowd was working-class and multi-racial, conservative elements of society portrayed the crowd as brutes. In particular, conservatives focused on Crispus Attucks. We will return to Attucks in depth later, and he has already made an appearance in this series – in one of our first posts we looked at how he escaped from slavery. Crispus Attucks was a mixed-race mariner who escaped enslavement, so his position among the crowd ignited colonial elite fears of working-class and black resistance to ‘law and order’.

This brings us to the trial of the soldiers. It was one of the most controversial trials to hit the colonies since the end of Bacon’s Rebellion a century earlier. Strangely enough it would be one of the future presidents of the US that would defend the British soldiers – John Adams. Officially, Adams defended the men under the grounds that everyone deserved a fair trial, later writing:

The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right. This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest Proofs of the Danger of Standing Armies.

While Adams may have been driven by a liberal idea of fairness and equality as awarded to any Englishman his conservative ideology was also at play. He would be a noted conservative Founding Father who had opposed military action until it was unavoidable, so the appearance of a mob led by Irish migrants, free men of colour, and workers epitomised everything Adams opposed. During the trial, which began in November, he was keen to portray the crowd as unruly, who had provoked retaliation, and focused on Attucks as a ‘terrifying figure’. Captain Preston was trialed separately in October and was quickly acquitted as his troops had fired against his orders. The prosecution had argued that the troops had fired on an unarmed crowd and that several soldiers had wanted revenge following the fight with the rope-makers. However, Adams’s argument of self-defence against a mob won out, only two were found guilty of manslaughter whose punishment was to have their thumbs branded. The rest were acquited.

Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre

The Thirteen Colonies and future American republic were built on racialised slavery, one where black Africans and Native Americans were deemed inferior. The figure of Crispus Attucks, therefore, offered a problem for elite Patriots. He was a martyr, he had died by British bullets defending Bostonians of which one had just been assaulted. As a former enslaved man he knew what slavery was like, and what it meant to be free. Yet, his race and willingness to fight was unsettling for elites who relied on unfree labour of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Many of the future Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, owned men, women, and children as property. As Mitch Kachun and Stephen Browne have argued, Crispus Attucks would be intentionally buried and resurrected by American collective memory. The memory of Attucks was subsumed into a wider martyrdom in the early republic, even by free people of colour. After independence the Boston Massacre was sidelined in the wider memory of the Revolution as more positive events, namely the Boston Tea Party, were held up instead.

Things began changing in the 1840s and 1850s. The question of slavery was coming to ahead, and African-American thinkers and radical white abolitionists turned to Crispus Attucks for inspiration. In particular, black Bostonian William C. Nell pushed for the memory of Crispus Attucks in the 1850s to be an inspiration in the fight against slavery. Attucks had bled and died fighting the British, so how can Americans keep so many people who looked like him in chains? When the Civil War broke out Attucks’s memory crossed racial lines – white Republicans in Boston formed the Attucks Guard to perform at pro-Lincoln rallies, and African-American Bostonians enlisted as the Attucks Guard. The white supremacist resurgence following the end of the Civil War cast Attucks back into obscurity, but like the abolitionists a century prior the Civil Rights Movement used Attucks as a symbol. Schools, community halls, and parks were named after him. Writing in 2026 we may need to enter another fight to preserve the memory of Attucks. Trump’s war of public displays of ‘wokeness’ threatens casting black figures like Attucks out of public imagery, something we cannot let happen. Attucks died fighting against oppression, we have to take up his fight as well.

Other Events:

Other events happened in the first quarter of 1770. Here are some of them:

• February 1, Thomas Jefferson’s home would burn down in Shadwell, Virginia.
• February 14, James Bruce would arrive in Gondar in Abyssinia becoming one of the first Europeans to set foot in the kingdom.
• February 22, Ebenezer Richardson, a British officer in Boston, would kill 11-year-old Christopher Seider causing a wave of protests setting the scene for the Boston Massacre we have discussed today.
• March 21, the newly unified Kingdom of Nepal would shift the seat of power to the Basantapur Palace in Kathmandu.
• March 31, famous philosopher Immanuel Kant would gain a position at the University of Konigsburg.

Bibliography:

• Brooke Barbier, Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire, (Charleston, NC: History Press, 2017)
• Stephen Browne, ‘Remembering Crispus Attucks: Race, rhetoric, and the politics of commemoration’, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 85, (1999), 169-187
• Benjamin Carp, Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Jonathan Dull, The Path to the American Revolution: British-American Relations in Peace and War, 1721-1783, (New York, NY: Routledge, 2024)
• Mitch Kachun, First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)
• Mitch Kachun, ‘From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon: Crispus Attucks, Black Citizenship, and Collective Memory, 1770–1865’, Journal of the Early Republic, 29:2, (2009), 249-286
• Jeremy Land, Colonial Ports, Global Trade, and the Roots of the American Revolution (1700-1776), (Leiden: Brill, 2023)
• Peter Messer, ‘“A scene of Villainy acted by a dirty Banditti, as must astonish the Public”: The Creation of the Boston Massacre’, New England Quarterly, 90:4, (2017), 502-539
• Serena Zabin, The Boston Massacre: A Family History, (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)
• Neil York, (ed.), The Boston Massacre: A History with Documents, (New York, NY: Taylor & Francis, 2010)
• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present, (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2010)

Paleo Profiles: Toxodon

In 1832 a young Charles Darwin on board the Beagle landed in Bahia Blanca in Argentina. There, he excavated some strange teeth, and when the expedition moved north to Uruguay some local farmers sold him a strange skull that the teeth belonged to. The extinct animal puzzled Darwin and when he returned to England he gave his notes and fossils to Richard Owen, the head of the zoology department at the British Museum who, in a few years time, would coin the word ‘dinosaur’. In 1837 Owen described the beast as Toxodon and Darwin would edit his notes to reflect the analysis:

Lastly, the Toxodon , perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered: in size it equalled an elephant or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Mr. Owen states, proves indisputably that it was intimately related to the Gnawers, the order which, at the present day, includes most of the smallest quadrupeds: in many details it is allied to the Pachydermata: judging from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils, it was probably aquatic, like the Dugong and Manatee, to which it is also allied. How wonderfully are the different Orders, at the present time so well separated, blended together in different points of the structure of the Toxodon!

Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, 87

Toxodon would be a puzzle to zoologists and palaeontologists for years to come, mainly as it belonged to a group of mammals that has gone extinct.

Discovery and Fossils

As we have just mentioned, the first fossils belonging to Toxodon were named by Richard Owen based off of the findings that Charles Darwin made on his trip on the Beagle. The first specimen to be described was given the scientific name Toxodon platensis meaning ‘Bowed tooth from La Plata’. The ‘bowed tooth’ came from the strange teeth that would puzzle Darwin and Owen, and ‘La Plata’ from Argentina. Due to how recently Toxodon platensis lived we have a lot of fossils belonging to this species, with some specimens that are nearly complete. Since then other species have been identified, but how many species there are has been debated. Up to 12 species are seen as valid by the Paleobiology Database, although some sources only classify six species as being valid. This post will largely be focusing on T. platensis, being the species we know most about, although do note that we are largely focusing on the largest Toxodon species.

Taxonomy and Evolution

A big reason why Toxodon was such a puzzle to palaeontologists was due to it belonging to a branch of mammals that has gone extinct. It was a member of the order Notungulata, or the ‘southern ungulates’. Ungulates are the hoofed mammals currently split between the ‘odd-toed’ ungulates like horses, rhinos, and tapirs and the ‘even-toed’ ungulates like deer, cows, boar, hippos, and even whales. Notungulata emerged as far back as 61 million years ago and evolved to become so unique due to where they evolved. Notungulata evolved in South America which had been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years, only ending its isolation around 3 million years ago with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. Notungulata would come to fill the void filled by other hoofed mammals and other herbivorous mammals in other continents with Toxodontids like Toxodon filling the role of rhinos, archaeohyracids filling the role of horses, and mesotheres taking the role of rodents. In 2015 DNA analysis finally answered the question of which mammals the Notungulata are most related to. They diverged from the odd-toed ungulates like rhinos and tapirs.

Biology

Toxodon were massive animals. They reached between 2.7 and 3 metres (8 to 10 feet) in length and weighed around 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds). This puts them at a similar body size to Indian rhinos, although white rhinos are much larger than Toxodon. A shoulder hump, which was the tallest part of the Toxodon, existed which would have limited movement of the neck. As a result, Toxodon would have been unable to lift its head too high so it would have kept its head low to the ground. The adults were so large that it would have been unlikely that they had many predators. For a long time it was believed that Toxodon lived like a hippo, mostly based on the nose, eyes, and ears being placed on top of the head like in hippos. The theory had it that Toxodon would have spent most of the day lounging and swimming in water, but this theory has fallen out of favour. Largely this is due to where Toxodon fossils being found which was not suitable for a hippo-like lifestyle. Isotope analysis also found that its bones contained isotopes more closer to that of terrestrial animals than amphibious or aquatic animals. Instead, Toxodon would have lived more like a rhino than a hippo.

Toxodon had a massive head, one almost comically large for its body. Equally unusual was its teeth which seemed to combine the teeth of both horses and rodents. The teeth were high-crowned like a horse with thick enamel and large molars. However, the top teeth and incisors were chisel-like, almost like a rodent, that seemed to constantly be growing. This is what really confused Owen and Darwin as this animal seemed to combine features from rodents and rhinos. It did also help Darwin to begin thinking about the nature of extinction and how animals were related to one another before he could arrive on the Galapagos Islands to study the unique finches and tortoises. These teeth evolved to let Toxodon eat as much vegetation as it could. The horse-like teeth were good for grinding with thick enamel allowing it to eat plants made of hard cellulose, as well as containing grit, without the teeth immediately being worn down. We do have evidence of teeth being worn from grinding. The rodent-like chisel teeth allowed them to snip off other species of plant. They were adaptable and from looking at isotopes in their molars we can find out what they ate. Toxodon were mostly grazers, but the type of plants they ate depended on where they lived. Those in southern Brazil and the Chaco ate more C4 plants, whereas those closer to the Amazon switched to browsing on C3 plants.

It is difficult to know about the behaviour of animals from just their bones. We do not know if they lived in herds, how aggressive they were, or when they were most active during the day. We can make a few assumptions – based on similar sized mammals they likely only had one calf at a time. While typically depicted with bent knees we now know that they walked with their legs straight, and we have evidence of strain on their legs in older specimens.

When and Where

Toxodon fossils first appear in the fossil record during the Pliocene, around 5.28 million years ago, and managed to survive until very recent times. The last Toxodon went extinct around 12,000 years ago at a time when humans were firmly starting to settle South America. They were found over a wide area in South America ranging from northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay in the south up as potentially as far north as Pernambuco in northern Brazil if a set of footprints turn out to belong to Toxodon. Toxodon and toxodontids managed to survive the ecosystem changes that came with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. As northern mammals moved south many notoungulates went extinct, but the toxodontids continued to thrive with a relative of Toxodon called Mixotoxodon moving north to colonise Texas.

Habitat and Extinction

Reconstruction by Velizar Simeonovski

Toxodon were mainly found in grasslands and the edges of forests where they lived alongside a wide range of animals both familiar and bizarre. Some of the animals can be seen today like javelinas, jaguars, anteaters, and rhea, as well as truly unusual animals. These included the giant ground sloths, llama-like Macrauchenia, and giant armoured armadillos like Doedicurus. Smilodon would have potentially hunted Toxodon as their relatives in North America were hunting as equally large animals like bison. Around 12,000 years ago Toxodon began vanishing and eventually went extinct. The obvious answer is the arrival of humans, after all Toxodon bones have been found in a human habitation site at Tres Arroyos, Argentina. Human hunters would have introduced a new dynamic that resulted in Toxodon being unable to survive. However, this was not the only reason. As older and older archaeological sites are found in the Americas pushing back human habitation further the period of co-existence between humans and the now-extinct megafauna lengthens. Climate change associated with the end of the Ice Age impacted the entire planet, and this would have impacted Toxodon numbers. The mix of human hunting and climate change would have been enough to drive Toxodon to extinction.

Bibliography:

• ‘Toxodon Owen 1837 (notoungulate)’, PBDB Taxon, [Accessed 10/09/2026]
• Michael Buckley, ‘Ancient collagen reveals evolutionary history of the endemic South American ‘ungulates’”, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282, (2015), 20142671
• Donato Costamagna, Brenda S. Ferrero, Federico Giri, and Ana María Ribeiro, ‘Study of the shape and size in lower molars of Toxodon platensis (Mammalia: Toxodontidae) of the Late Pleistocene of South America’, Geobios, 88:89, (2025), 49-60
• Ricardo da Costa Ribeiro, Angela Kinoshita, Hermínio Ismael de Araújo-Júnior, Ana Maria Graciano Figueiredo, Ismar de Souza Carvalho, and Oswaldo Baff, ‘ESR dating of Toxodon teeth from Baixa Grande, Bahia, Brazil’, Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 112, (2021), 103616
• Darin Croft, Horned Armadillos and Rafting Monkeys: The Fascinating Fossil Mammals of South America, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016)
• Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, (Santa Barbara, CA: The Narrative Press, 2000)
• Renato P. Lopes, Ana Maria Ribeiro, Sérgio Rebello Dillenburg, and Cesar Leandro Schultz, ‘Late middle to late Pleistocene paleoecology and paleoenvironments in the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul State, Southern Brazil, from stable isotopes in fossils of Toxodon and Stegomastodon‘, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 369, (2013), 385-394
• Carlos A. Luna, Fernando H. De S. Barbosa, Romina Gonzalez, Ángel R. Miño-Boilini, Carolina Repetto, and Alfredo E. Zurita, ‘Bone diseases in a Pleistocene South American native ungulate species: the case of Toxodon platensis Owen, 1837 (Mammalia, Notoungulata, Toxodontidae)’, Journal of Quaternary Science, 39:8, (2024), 1206-1215
• PBS Eons, ‘The Creature that Stumped Darwin’, YouTube.com, (01/09/2021), [Accessed 08/09/2026]
• Gustavo G Politis, María A Gutiérrez, Daniel J Rafuse, and Adriana Blasi, ‘The Arrival of Homo sapiens into the Southern Cone at 14,000 Years Ago’, PLoS ONE, 11:9, (2016), e0162870
• Donald Prothero, The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017)
• Donald Prothero, Giants of the Lost World: Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Monsters of South America, (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2016)

Zoopedia: King Penguin

This week we’re looking at the second largest species of penguin, and one member of this species is a major general in the Royal Norwegian Guard. Quite fittingly, this is the king penguin, one of the most charismatic species of penguin and popular in aquaria all over the world.

Taxonomy and Evolution

King penguins have the scientific name Aptenodytes patagonicus which they share with one other species, the emperor penguin which we looked at here. A third species dating to the Pliocene, 5 to 3 million years ago, has been found in what is now Christchurch, Aotearoa which is currently the oldest known member of Aptenodytes. This was Ridgen’s penguin, named after the 11-year-old who found the bones. There is just one family of penguins alive today, and the order they belong to first appeared in the fossil record around 62 million years ago where they were already adapting to the water. By 40 million years ago they had evolved to be divers and some managed to get to large sizes, larger than the modern emperor and king penguins. There are some debates about whether king penguins have subspecies or not. CornellLab considers it to have no subspecies, but some sources will say that there are two: one in the south Atlantic and one in the south Indian ocean.

Biology and Behaviour

As mentioned, the king penguin is the second largest species of penguin after the emperor penguin reaching between 90 and 100 cm (2.9 and 3.3 feet) in height. They have average weights of 11.8 kilograms although some penguins have been found to weigh as much as 17.3 kilograms. Males are just slightly larger than females and the main way to tell them apart is their calls. They look similar to emperor penguins but are slimmer with bright feather colouration. They have a white front, black or gray back with certain parts of the flippers having black spots, a black head, and orange spots around the ears and just below the head. King penguins have a long beak which the underside has an orange or reddish spot that can actually reflect UV light. Juvenile penguins are a duller version of the adults, but the chicks look wildly different. They are effectively brown lumps of feathers, something to keep them warm before they molt and get their waterproof feathers.

King penguins are very sociable birds forming colonies exceeding 100 pengunins! During the breeding season these colonies merge so tens of thousands of penguins congregate together. In one part of South Georgia a colony has been recorded as reaching 150,000 birds! They are vocal birds, with them and emperor penguins having an organ called the syrinx to make calls. This organ has two parts which the penguins can move independently to produce a variety of calls, something needed with the giant colonies they live in. This helps them find their chicks and mates in such a large colony. King penguins share a similar biology to other penguins as a way to live in an aquatic lifestyle. Highly evolved wings have turned into a flipper to help propel them through the water. Several layers of intersecting feathers help keep them warm as they swim. The top layers are made of waterproof feathers while the bottom layers are thick, insulating feathers which keeps the birds warm. King penguins need this as they can dive into the water 100 times a day hunting for food.

King penguins become sexually mature at three years of age, although many do not breed the first year they become mature. A large part of the reason why is because penguins have to compete for both space and partners with the older, larger penguins. They are monogamous, but do not mate for life with only a third of penguins going back to one another year after year. Mates are chosen by plumage and calls, and before reproduction happens the males will bulk up on food. This is because when the egg is laid he will not be able to eat for over a month. When the egg is laid between October and December the parents will take some time balancing the egg on their feet, and when the egg hatches the mother leaves for a month. Around half of eggs and chicks do not survive. During this period males lose a significant amount of their weight, around 30%, until the females return and they can share the chick rearing. The chicks will spend a lot of time in communal creches returning to their parents for feeding, a process that ends when they become independent at 14 to 16 months in age. The success of a breeding cycle depends on when in the year the egg is laid – earlier layings are more successful than those who lay in December. Pairs that have failed breeding cycles are more likely to lay their eggs earlier the following year. We do not have a concrete lifespan for wild penguins, but captive ones can live for 26 years.

Distribution and Habitat

King penguins are not truly Antarctic species as they live on islands just north of Antarctica. These islands are more rocky than ice covered with their breeding colonies being on the ice-free beaches of these islands. Some do make their way down to Antarctica, but this brings them into competition with the emperor penguin who is adapted to the ice shores. Some are found on southern Chile and Argentina, but the biggest colonies are on islands with fewer to no land predators like Las Malvinas, South Georgia, the Prince Edward Islands, and Ile aux Cochons to name a few. Of course, the waters around these islands are still cold, but not as cold as the Antarctic. However, climate change is allowing king penguins to move further south into territory once the home of the Antarctic penguins.

Diet and Predators

King penguins have a diet that overwhelmingly consists of fish. Heavy bones help the penguins dive into deeper water to go after fish that diving birds cannot get to. A section of their diet also consists of squid, again the ability to dive deeper thanks to heavy bones help them go after squid. Adult penguins are only hunted by two animals – leopard seals and orca. The chicks and eggs are attacked and hunted by large gulls, petrels, and skuas. Penguins can be accidentally killed by male elephant seals as these giant testosterone filled seals are known to crush smaller animals as they fight over mates.

Conservation and Threats

The IUCN Red List assessed king penguins in 2020 and gave them a rating of ‘Least Concern’, and stated they their numbers were increasing. Successful conservation efforts and protected zones have greatly helped prevent human encroachment into their breeding sites. Climate change warming the Antarctic has been a disaster for the planet, but king penguins have utilised it to expand their breeding colonies helping with the population increase. That does not mean that everything is bright for the future of king penguins. They very rarely deviate from what they eat, so climate change causing the shifting of ocean currents could dramatically change their access to fish and squid they rely on. Some colonies have actually shrunk thanks to this. The current growth in population could be temporary. However, they are very common in captivity. One of the most notable king penguins is in Edinburgh Zoo. King penguins are on the logo of the zoo and have housed the penguins for over a century, and since 1972 a penguin named Nils Olav has been the mascot for the Norwegian King’s Guard. As king penguins came from the Norwegian owned Bouvet Island this created a link, and Nils Olav and his successors has moved up the ranks. Nils Olav III in 2023 was promoted to the rank of major general, something insane for a penguin in a Scottish zoo.

Bibliography:

• ‘Major General Sir Nils Olav, Baron of the Bouvet Islands’, Edinburgh Zoo, (25/08/2026), [Accessed 04/09/2026]
• BirdLife International, ‘King Penguin’, IUCN Red List, (08/09/2020), [Accessed 04/09/2026]
• Émile Brisson-Curadeau, Kyle Elliott and Charles-André Bost, ‘Contrasting bottom-up effects of warming ocean on two king penguin populations’, Global Change Biology, 29, (2023), 998-1008
• Keena Edwards, ‘Aptenodytes patagonicus (King Penguin)’, Animal Diversity Web, (13/02/2011), [Accessed 04/09/2026]
• Manfred R. Enstipp, Charles-André Bost, Thomas Faulmann, Robin Laesser, Julien Courtecuisse, and Yves Handrich, ‘Penguin molt revisited: dive performance following the molt of adult king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) and conflicting physiological demands at sea’, Journal of Experimental Biology, 228:18, (2025), e251141
• Chris Habard and Guy Kirwan, ‘Penguins’, in Gill Pitts, (ed.), Bird, Second Edition, (New York, NY: DK, 2022), 136-142
• Daniel T. Ksepka, Sara Bertelli, and Norberto P. Giannini, ‘The phylogeny of the living and fossil Sphenisciformes (penguins)’, Cladistics, 22:5, (2006), 412-441
• Marcela M. Libertelli, Jose L. Ordeira and Facundo Alvarez, ‘The explorer king: southern report of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) in the Antarctic Peninsula’, Antarctic Science, 36:3, (2024), 145-148
• I. Martínez, F. Jutglar, and E. Garcia (2020). King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.kinpen1.01
• Tony Williams, The Penguins, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)

Myths, Legends, Religion, and Faith: Tláloc

Among the Mexica, commonly referred to as the Aztecs, one of the most important of the gods, teotl, was Tláloc. The bringer of the rain, overseer of water, and the guardian of the land’s fertility Tláloc was one of the most important figures in the Mexica pantheon. This week we will look at Tláloc and the importance he held in Mexica society, and how this importance allowed him to survive the cultural apocalypse that was the Spanish Conquest.

Tláloc and Faith among the Mexica

As Camilla Townsend has argued, the belief system of the Mexica was greatly different to that of Europeans which has meant many scholars have fundamentally misunderstood Mexica religion. Often, they are described as polytheistic and their religion compared to the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods. A key concept of divinity was Ipalnemoani, ‘That by Which There is Life’, similar to the idea of monism that, instead of there being good or evil, there is just a oneness in all life. Pantheism is a more accurate description, where all things could hold divinity. The term use in the introduction, teotl, can mean ‘god’ or ‘deity’, but is more accurately described as a divinity that can be expressed through the natural world and religious processes. Names for divinity were fluid as different Nahuatl communities would exchange and change the names for teotl. The name was not important, it was a label for humans to understand and comprehend the divine which they hoped to evoke, worship, or appease. This is important to consider when we discuss Tláloc.

When the Spanish encountered Mexica belief systems they assumed Tláloc to be a rain god. In the Florentine Codex, written over two decades after the Conquest of the Aztec, Tláloc is described in this way:

This god named Tlaloc Tlamacazqui was the god of rain. They believed that he granted the rain to irrigate the earth, and that every grass and herb, tree, fruit, and grain grew because of this rain. They also believed that he sent down hail, thunder and lightning, and rain storms, and the dangers of the rivers and sea. The name Tlaloc Tlamacazqui means that he is the god who lives in the earthly paradise and gives men all the food necessary for their physical life.

Written through a Spanish-Catholic lens we see a dualism in Tláloc, but not the European good vs. evil dualism. Tláloc is the one that allows the communities to flourish by bringing the nourishing rains, but those rains can easily become destructive. Tláloc was also not confined to one singular person, and was instead manifested through the Tlaloque, the plural for Tláloc. Four Tláloc stood at each corner of the universe and Tlaloque were found in every mountain and spring. Various names for teotl were potentially Tlaloque, such as Napa Teuctli, ‘Lord of the Four Directions’, that made the reeds grow around the lakes and Atlacoya, ‘Drainer of Waters’, who prevented the droughts. Some cases saw Tláloc play with gender as one of the potential Tlaloque was Chalchiuhtlicue, the Jade Green Skirted Woman, who may have also been his sister and/or consort. Tláloc and the Tlaloque were the bringers of the rain, the protector of the crops, and the ones who could bring death through drought or flood.

Sites of Worship

Like with all divine figures there was a personal, local worship of Tláloc and an official state worship. Polly Schaafsma has identified a series of rock art in New Mexico which represents a northern, localised version of Tláloc with some of the later sites, dating to the 1400s, having vessel offerings found further south. Whether this was Tláloc or a local rain god is unsure, but it is not out of the question. The Mexica are believed to be from what is now northern Mexico and the southwest US, and trade with northern communities did happen with the Mexica. Through these cases Tláloc may have also been a northern deity. Shrines to Tláloc have also been found in caves around the Mexica heartland in what is now Mexico City and estado de Mexico – caves are places of potential security and are often waterlogged.

One of the oldest potential places of worship of Tláloc was the famous site of Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City. Figures with large eyes dot the site, something which has led to the suggestion that the northern rock art could be Tláloc as they also display the same eyes. Teotihuacan was abandoned around 750, centuries before the rise of the Mexica, and often stands as a site that would come to influence many of the other Mesoamerican cultures to come. Chaan, the Mayan rain god, may have also had their origin through cultural diffusion through contacts with Teotihuacan. The main sites would come around during the Mexica cultural and political domination. Most notably Tláloc was prominent at Templo Mayor, the main pyramid and the focal point of Tenochtitlan which was the main city of the Mexica. The Templo Mayor was devoted to three teotl: Queztalcoatl, who had the central spine; Huītzilōpōchtli, the war teotl, which had the right side; and Tláloc, who had the left side. According to Mexica myth, Tenochtitlan was founded based on the sighting of an eagle resting on a cactus holding a snake which was promised by Tláloc. From there the Templo Mayor complex emerged. Until its destruction by the Spanish the Templo Mayor would hold many images of Tláloc and merlons depicting the teotl covered parts of the temple. We know these are Tláloc as they have large eyes and fangs, as well as certain animal and plants being shown alongside him. These are namely butterflies, conches, and water lillies.

Just outside of Mexico City in Estado de Mexico there is another major shrine to Tláloc. On top of a mountain called Cerro Tláloc is a shrine with five stones depicting Tláloc and the four Tlaloque that stand at each corner of the universe. The Mexica and other cultures of Mesoamerica were experts at creating calendars and mapping out the movement of the sun and stars, and this is reflected in Cerro Tláloc. The height of the mountain created a divine landscape that could map the stars alongside a coordination with Templo Mayor further away. This sacred landscape further coalesced around the festival of Huey Tozoztli during April and May at a time when harvests would have produced enough food but before the thunderstorms made climbing Cerro Tláloc difficult. This festival surrounded the shrine on the mountain, a tall space to specifically reach out to the clouds to ask for rain.

Worship

As mentioned above, Tláloc was a central figure in the divine imaginary of the Mexica. The need to access regular rains meant that Tláloc was vital to society – too much rain could cause floods and kill crops, whereas too little would cause droughts. Priests could pray to him to ensure the rains came during times of drought, especially appealing to the need of the commoners. Camilla Townsend found evidence of one such prayer during the 1450s during a particularly bad few years:

Here are the common folk, the macehualtin, those who are the tail and
the wings [of society]. They are perishing. Their eyelids are swelling,
the mouths drying out. They become bony, bent, emaciated. Thin are
the commoners’ lips and blanched are their throats. With pallid eyes
live the babies, the children [of all ages] those who totter, those who
crawl, those who spend their time turning dirt and potsherds, those
who live sitting on the ground, those who lie on the boards, who fill the
cradles. All the people face torment, affliction. They witness that which
makes humans suffer. Already there are none who are passed over.

Townsend, Fifth Sun, 56

Due to the stratified nature of Mexica society, these prayers were to stress that the inability to serve Tláloc was not the fault of the commoners who were suffering the most. Instead, it was the elites who had failed and disappointed the teotl. While Tláloc would have been honoured all year round he had a specific festival devoted to him, the aforementioned Huey Tozoztli. This was a joint festival honouring Tláloc and the maize teotl, the god Cinteotl and the goddess Chicomecoatl. Catherine DiCesare has highlighted that sources dating to the pre-Conquest era emphasise the maiz teotl over Tláloc, with Tláloc’s connection to Huey Tozoztli potentially being found only in a few colonial era sources. However, she also highlights that Huey Tozoztli depicted in the Codex Borbonicus could represent to local and historical temporalities, ones that stressed maiz teotl over Tláloc, and vice versa, depending on these temporalities. Tláloc was therefore brought into Huey Tozoztli as a way to ensure good rains for the harvest.

Sacrifice was a key aspect of Mexica belief, although sacrifice was not always involving humans. Sacrificing crops and animals were done, including in the worship of Tláloc, and blood sacrifice where the priesthood or rulers cut their own bodies to provide blood happened. However, human sacrifice was indeed a feature of worship. Teotl had sacrificed themselves to make the sun and the moon, so to ensure the pleasure of the teotl and the continued cycles of the world sacrifice was needed. We do not have good estimates for how many people were sacrificed, but it was not a wholesale slaughter of populations. Instead, people were taken from certain segments of society – namely prisoners of war, slaves, and children of royal lineages. For Tláloc it was children who were to be sacrificed, both at the Templo Mayor and at Cerro Tláloc. What has been called ‘Offering 48’ at Templo Mayor saw a staggering 42 children sacrificed. Due to their importance the children were honoured and strewn with flowers to signify their importance enough to be sacrificed.

Tláloc after the Conquest

Following the destruction caused by the Spanish Conquest and the implementation of Christianity it would appear that Tláloc’s worship was stamped out. He and other teotl were seen as demons, especially thanks to child sacrifice as being part of his worship, which the Spanish wished to eradicate. However, Catholicism in the Americas saw a large amount of syncretism with local indigenous cultures, and Tláloc soon was brought into the Catholic Church. Smarter priests realised it was easier to bring Tláloc and other teotl into the Church and turn them into Christian parallels than to try and wipe them out. Tláloc’s demand for child sacrifice was soon equated to Abraham’s sacrificing of Isaac, and the usage of blood was equated to the Eucharist. His image was worked into churches, especially churches built in high places or in significant areas, to create a direct link between the old and new religions. Tlatelolco in Mexico City was demolished to make a church by the Spanish, and in that church Tláloc’s image was used. This allowed Tláloc to remain in the cultural imagery of New Spain and eventually Mexico, so much so that he is evoked as a local saint in some communities.

Bibliography:

• Digital Florentine Codex, [Accessed 01/09/2026]
• Catherine R. DiCesare, ‘Tlaloc Rites and the Huey Tozoztli Festival in the Mexican Codex Borbonicus’, Ethnohistory, 62:4, (2015), 683-706
• Stanisław Iwaniszewski, ‘Archaeology and Archaeoastronomy of Mount Tlaloc, Mexico: A Reconsideration’, Latin American Antiquity, 5:2, (1994), 158-176
• Miguel Leon-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture, Trans. by Jack Emory Davis, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963)
• Guilhem Olivier, ‘Tlaloc, el antiguo dios de la lluvia y de la tierra en el Centro de Mexico’, Arquelogia Mexico, [Accessed 01/09/2026]
• Polly Schaafsma, ‘Tlaloc and a Mesoamerican Cosmology in the American Southwest’, Journal of the Southwest, 64:3, (2022), 423-472
• Camilla Townsend, The Aztec Myths, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2024)
• Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)
• Shannon Winfield, ‘Containers of Power: The Tlaloc Vessels of the Templo Mayor as Embodiments of the Aztec Rain God’, Unpublished Masters Thesis, (2014), Tulane University

Florapedia: Potamogeton pondweed

Many different groups of freshwater aquatic plants have the name ‘pondweed’, and one notable group belong to the genus Potamogeton. Found on all continents except for Antartica, Potamogeton pondweed species are a widesparead group and are particularly diverse in the northern hemisphere. No matter where they are found they form an integral part of the local enviornment.

Taxonomy and Evolution

As mentioned, we are specifically looking at pondweed belonging to the genus Potamogeton, although not all plants that have the name ‘pondweed’ belong to this genus. In fact, there are five genera in the family Potamogetonaceae of which Potamogeton also belongs. This family belongs to a wider order called Alismatales which is a fairly unique order as many members of this order are actually aquatic, being found in both saltwater and freshwater. Not all members of Alismatales are aquatic with them also colonising the land; some notable members include taro and perhaps the largest flower in the world, the Titan arum. Potamogeton and similar water plants may also provide a clue to the evolution of flowering plants. Alismatales are monocots – any flowering plant with a ‘seed leaf’ that also includes orchids and grasses. There are theories that monocots, like pondweed, first evolved in water and moved onto land, although some like duckwood then evolved to return to the water. There are some debates on how many species of Potamogeton there are with there being between 60 and 95 species. The big debate revolves around how easily these plants hybridise, so we do not know which species are truly species or are hybrids.

Biology

Regardless of the species Potamogeton pondweed have a general body plan. They have a long, thin stem from which hair-like rhizomes, which act as the roots, and leaves grow from. While the stem and leaves are green or brown the rhizomes are generally a pink colour. These rhizomes not only help pondweed take nutrients from the soil, but also allow them to the stay grounded in water as well as reproduce. Plants can produce effective clones of themselves through producing a turion, and in pondweed a turion can grow on the rhizomes producing a new pondweed. With some species of Potamogeton the only way to differentiate them from other species is through the turions. Pondweed grow in conjunction with the confines of their environment. In deeper bodies of water they can grow to a staggering 6 metres (32.8 feet) in length! However, most individuals will not grow that long and will only grow to be a few centimetres in length.

Life in the water does offer challenges for pondweed. As Christopher David Preston has highlighted, competition for nutrients and carbon can be intense so pondweeds have had to be adaptable. By growing rhizomes into the sediment this allows them to take what little they can, even if some of it will be stolen by algae that may grown on the plant. As a plant they do need light which can be difficult while submurged. This is why Potamogeton pondweed grow two types of leaf. One is submerged that resembles grass, and the other rises to the surface and has a broad surface. Not only does this help pondweed have a wide surface area to best take in light, but it effectively blocks off competition. While this is not a problem in their natural habitat, but invasive species of pondweed – like the curly-leaf pondweed in North America – can really disrupt the local enviornment.

Water also creates other issues for aquatic plants, namely if a drought hits. Those species with developed rhizomes can wade this out, effectively being able to wait until water returns. Those that lack these rhizomes simply die. Plants typically use pollination to reproduce, that way they can keep genetic variability up, which is difficult, but not impossible, in water. They produce short, spiny flowers that will break the surface of the water which overcomes this issue. Not all do this though. P. berchtoldii have been spotted using bubbles to spread their pollen! When fertilised pondweed use various means to spread their seeds. The earlier mentioned turions can be broken off and regrow somewhere else, and likewise the seeds can simply fall into the water to be distributed. Another key way they spread is through birds. Birds will eat the seeds and spread them as their digestive system cannot break down the seeds fully.

Distribution and Habitat

Potamegeton are found across the world except for Antarctica, but they are most common in the nothern hemisphere. They do well in cooler, temperate climates, although this does not stop them from being naturally found in tropical climates. The curly-leaf pondweed is naturally found in Britain and northern Europe, as well as the tropical forests of Myanmar and Vietnam. They are normally found in slow moving or still bodies of freshwater, such as ponds and lakes, but some of the hardier species are at home in fast running rivers. Some species can survive in bodies of water that have experienced high levels of eutrophication. This is where a build-up of nutrients, mainly from human pollution, leads to the rapid growth of surface level plants and algae which block off light, killing those plants that are not close to the surface, and then results in the stripping of oxygen in the water killing animal life. Where pondweed is found they are an essential part of their environment by helping bring oxygen into the water, providing shelter for animals, and also food. Those species that live further north will be reduced to their turions during the winter, and will then regrow their stems and leaves when the temperature warms.

Conservation and Threats

Conservation for pondweed is difficult due to how hard it is to tell species apart, how easily they hybridise, and not knowing which species are hybrids or not. A 2018 paper found that a rare species, the Florida pondweed, was not actually a species but a hybrid. This does leave us in a strange place, especially as with pollution even the endangered species of pondweed could be endangered and we do not know about it.

Bibliography:

• ‘Curly-leaf Pondweed’, University of Minnesota Extension, [Accessed 29/08/2026]
• ‘Potamogeton‘, Kew Plants of the World, [Accessed 29/08/2026]
• ‘Potamogeton, Pondweeds’, BSBI.org, [Accessed 29/08/2026]
• Thomas Horst Berthelier, Sébastien Christophe Cabanac, Caroline Callot, William Marande, Hélène San Clemente, Amélie Perez, Guillaume Marti1, Elisabeth Jamet, and Christophe Dunand, ‘Multi-Omics Unveils the Dual-Life of the Aquatic Plant Potamogeton nodosus‘, Physologia Plantarum, 178, (2026), e71037
• Zdeněk Kaplan, Judith Fehrer, Veronika Bambasova, and C. Barre Hellquist, ‘The endangered Florida pondweed (Potamogeton floridanus) is a hybrid: Why we need to understand biodiversity thoroughly’, PLoS ONE, 13:4, (2018), e0195241
• Gill Pitts, (ed.), The Natural History Book, Second Edition, (London: DK, 2021)
• C.D. Preston, Pondweeds of Great Britain and Ireland, (London: Botanical Society of the British Isles, 1995)