I’ve started dabbling with metazooa, which is a daily animal taxonomy guessing game. You get 20 guesses, and for each guess it will reveal the part of the taxonomic tree that overlaps between your guess and the right answer. E.g., if the answer is lion, and you guess barracuda, it will tell you that both are in bilateria, both are in euteleostomi (which most vertebrates are), and then stop there. If you guess human, it will keep on going and tell you that both are mammals, etc.
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That was more fun than I expected. I got it on the last attempt using 2 hint-for-rank trades.
I got hung up on a “wrong” classification being something like “terrestrial and semi-aquatic” so I started guessing very aquatic things, and it was not.
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I tried it today, and to my surprise I got it in 3 guesses. It was dumb luck
I guessed Snail, which was a relatively fortunate guess as it and the answer were in Protostomia. My next guess was too close to snail, banana slug. The pictures they showed for Protostomia showed mostly slug/snail/slippery things, but they did also show a praying mantis. That made me think I should venture to arthropods and spiders. I decided to start down that path with the praying mantis, which was the answer. I don’t imagine I’ll often get so lucky as the answer is actually shown in the picture for my first guess.
Animal #123 
I figured it out in 11 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 11
#metazooa
I ended up at the right answer eventually, but I did see that picture and almost guessed correctly then, but figured they wouldn’t just show me the answer lol
Animal #124 
I figured it out in 8 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 8
#metazooa
Just got hung up on the species, guessed 3 things on that rank before getting it.
Animal #124 
I figured it out in 11 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 15.5
#metazooa
Animal #124 
I figured it out in 7 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 8.3
#metazooa
The site feels buggy:
Animal #124 🪽
I figured it out in 7 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 5
Animal #125 
I figured it out in 1 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 4.5
#metazooa
this game is easy
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Animal #125 
I figured it out in 12 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 12
#metazooa
Animal #126 
I figured it out in 14 guesses!
3 | Avg. Guesses: 7.7
#metazooa
Animal #126
I figured it out in 12 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 12
#metazooa
Played today. Got it with 2 guesses to spare, after using 2 hints. Expect to retire undefeated, since I found it quite confusing.
Animal #126 
I figured it out in 11 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 9
#metazooa
Ended up taking a hint deep in, then getting it next answer. I still like the concept, am struggling with the implementation.
Animal #126 
I figured it out in 12 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 14.3
#metazooa
The rank of “Characiphysae” just says “No Wikipedia page found”.
Also, I am not a fan of, say rank 1 is above rank 2a and 2b. Guess species X from correct rank 2a and it gives you rank 2a with your guess.
Guess species Y from incorrect 2b and it just tells you Y is part of rank 1 without giving rank 2b which would help narrow down the next answer. So you can get multiple guesses that are all 2b without any negative hints to point you toward 2a guesses.
Animal #127 
I was stumped by today’s game!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 10.8
#metazooa
just guessing birds until I lost
Animal #127 
I figured it out in 8 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 8.8
#metazooa
Learning about birds is one of the best part of this game to me. I can do a decent job of sorting mammals, but had never really thought about sorting birds before this. And have been surprised by a couple of things, e.g., Eagles are in the Hawk family, but Falcons are not. I would have expected either all 3 together, or all 3 apart.
Animal #127 
I figured it out in 20 guesses!
2 | Avg. Guesses: 18
#metazooa
Got it on the last guess.
🫏 Animal #128 
I figured it out in 9 guesses!
1 | Avg. Guesses: 10.4
#metazooa
Animal #128 
I figured it out in 8 guesses!
3 | Avg. Guesses: 8.7
#metazooa