Results of the Why Not Both? Division

The Why Not Both? Division of the 2022 March Mammal Madness tournament is full of some pretty strange matchups, and I decided to go with winning picks based purely on who was top higher seeded. I ended up in pretty much the same boat as I did when I tried to use an educated guess as to who would win…oh well, that’s how tournaments go; anything can win and be surprising. And that’s part of the fun…the underdog winning, the Cinderella story. Who will be the Cinderella of this year’s March Mammal Madness?

It could be the 14th seed Spotted Salamander who took on and defeated a heavily favored 3 seeded Lungfish. The win did not come without a price, as the Salamander had to shed it’s tail in order to fend off the onslaught of the Lungfish. So while the little guy may have moved on, they certainly face an uphill battle in the rest of the tournament.

The other upset of last night was the Echidna emerging victorious over the Muntjac. The Muntjac, a small deer, was ranked 8th but the Echidna, who was the 9th seed, was a bit more tricky than the Muntjac was prepared to deal with. While antlers and tusks allow the Muntjac to take care of itself in a lot of circumstances, the spines of the Echidna provided a warning sign the deer could not resist. When the small Australian curled up to protect itself, the spines stood out, and the Muntjac didn’t want to have anything to do with getting poked.

The other battles went according to their seeds and my picks, so that was nice to see. The top 2 seeds, the Walrus and the Swordfish, easily advanced as they overpowered their opponents. The scaled Pangolin ran off the Redstart, and the Serval made a meal of the New Zealand Short-tailed Bat. In the ancestral bout, the Therapsid defeats the Scansoriopterygid, and in the battle of the Hairy…the Hairy Frogfish ate the Hairy Frog.

On the whole, I think it was a good day of contests, and my picks performed pretty well. I hope yours did too.

Ramble 117 | Dingo 43 | 2022.53 | Results of the Why Not Both? Division