Tour content ideas

[jrosindell]

Here's an issue in which we can dump ideas for tours, as we come across them.

Convergence in "saws" of sawfish etc: https://mapress.com/mz/article/view/mesozoic.1.2.3 - would make a nice tour
This sort of thing is an example of topical social media-type stuff to highlight (or make a tour for) on OneZoom: https://x.com/ImperfectFunGuy/status/1801965609200095250

[jrosindell]

Introductory tours and tours advertising OneZoom products

• Introductory / how to use / remake the tutorial as a tour
• What is a tour - explaining the concept of slides etc. so others could see how they might imagine content for a tour themselves
• Sponsorship stories (Coelanth,Pearl,Seahorse,Transfish,Pearl,Saiga)
• Popularity index tour

Eco and Evo concepts

• “EDGE” species (started) (explaining what an edge species is, by looking at ED-only species e.g. tuataras or aardvarks, GE species e.g. mouse shrews, and full EDGE species e.g. purple frog, kakapo, long-beaked echidnas)
• Convergent evolution (e.g. poison frogs, pitcher plants, blind snakes, pangolin scales, spines of echidna and hedgehog and porcupine)
• Island gigantism
• Eusociality incl. Eusocial shrimps
• What is biodiversity (species concept, traits, features, phylogenetic diversity - with examples)
• Island radiations tour (classic examples from Madagascar, Hawaii, Galapagos)
• Evolution of the eye and vision (octopus, fly, starfish, tuatara - third eye, pit viper, mammals, wavelengths of light, loss of sight and other forms of vision - star nosed mole)
• Zoonotic diseases (carriers, vectors, message about wildlife trade and conservation).
• great and small: evolution of body size
• How things evolved (e.g. any feature) (e.g. heart - tunicates are interesting part of the story and Kowalevskia lost its heart)
• Population dynamics tour

Taxa based tours

• Rose by any other name
• Lemurs (their evolutionary history and relatives / ancestors outside Madagascar, Aye aye, other endangered lemurs. (this is started)
• Dog or wolf (we need Canis familiaris on the tree really)
• Reptiles (started)
• Fish
• Birds
• Flowering plants
• Insects
• Cephalopods (James has a rough plan)
• Dinosaurs and their place relative to living species (best to wait for dino tree probably now)
• Kakapo and its relatives (Kakapo, Kia, other parrots, evolution, Kiwi, food - rimu fruit, reasons for decline - Polynesian rat)
• Chameleons (tour of global diversity and evolution)
• Plankton (can visit broad parts of the tree)

Habitat / location focused tours

• Underground species (bacteria, earth worm, purple frog, star nosed mole, naked mole rat, blind snake, western underground orchid)
• Returns to the sea
• Madagascar e.g. Baobabs (Madagascan species and mainland species) Madagascan carnivores (Fossa, Mongoose radiation)
• Western Ghatts tour

Fun tours

• Crazy names (Nervous shark, Chocolate chip starfish, scrambled egg slime, mint sauce worm, football jersey worm - make an underlying point about too many species to find short / sensible names for)
• Superpowers (started) again a bit of fun but the chance to show off amazing capabilities of a range of animals, plants and fungi
• Nature’s shiny things (gold gems, dragons etc.)
• Colours of blood
• Species of cultural importance (myriad possibilities e.g. crops, building materials)
• Bird songs and animal sounds
• How to draw animals / plants
• Art and music inspired by animals and plants
• Medicinal plants
• species named after celebrities
• iridescent animals
• Tour of stings and the Schmitt pain scale
• References to literature / peoms

Food and drink tours

• Gin tour (botanicals that are added and why)
• Recipes

Tours corresponding to special days in the calendar

• Paternal care e.g. tours for mother's / Father's Day. https://x.com/ImperfectFunGuy/status/1801965609200095250
• Valentines day
• tours for important days of the year corresponding to festivals etc.