The biological study of animals
0
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1answer
34 views
+50
What medical and commercial proteins are made using genetically modified animals?
I have heard of recombinant technologies in micro-organisms being used to produce commercial and medically useful proteins like insulin. However, until recently, I was aware that transgenic animals ...
0
votes
2answers
51 views
What kind of arthropod/animal is this?
Can anyone identify this strange creature? I live in a very urban part of Montreal, Canada. It wasn't moving (seemed dead) and although the image is huge, it wasn't as big as it seems (a couple of ...
0
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0answers
16 views
General undergraduate zoology textbook recommendation?
I am very interested in zoology,and I want to study zoology in my spare time.
Any undergraduate level zoology text book recommendation?
2
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0answers
28 views
Why do ants dig surface paths?
A few days ago I observed a corridor built and used by ants that went over a path in fields:
Why do they build it? It seems it doesn't bring any considerable protection from the surrounding ...
4
votes
1answer
37 views
How do sharks and other fish conserve and gain water in marine environments?
With the osmolarity of the average vertebrate being around 300mOsml, and salt water having an osmolarity of 1000mOsml, why does the water from the shark not leave to the salt water around it?
I ...
0
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1answer
43 views
Does anyone know what marsupial this is? [closed]
I know what this is a marsupial, but i'm not quite sure which one. Any thoughts?
8
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1answer
563 views
How strong is spider silk?
Spider silk is pretty darn strong and all sorts of comparisons are made to steel. I'm more curious about the various moduli of spider silk and how it compares to other materials. What is the Young's ...
14
votes
3answers
773 views
Why are there no wheeled animals?
In physics, "almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes." (See Jolly.) Therefore, on Physics SE, people are veering off into different directions: ...
0
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0answers
26 views
How are zooids identified?
Physalia (Portuguese Man O'War) and other siphonophores are called colonial animals because despite their appearance as a complete organism, they are an organized colony of organisms called zooids.
I ...
4
votes
2answers
131 views
Did dinosaurs have more than one brain? If so, why?
I once remember reading (15 years ago) that dinosaurs had two brains. One for their head and another one for their digestive functions. What is the current opinion on this theory? Has more evidence ...
3
votes
1answer
96 views
What makes an animal/species suitable for domestication/training?
Humans have domesticated all manner of creatures during the course of their civilization - dogs, horses, several types of cattle, varieties of birds, and perhaps others too.
A prerequisite for an ...
7
votes
1answer
234 views
Do egg laying animals experience a pregnancy?
Does a female animal that lays eggs experience a pregnancy-like period of time, where she will feel and behave differently as if she were fertilized and her body is prepared to lay a fertile egg, not ...
1
vote
2answers
73 views
What organs are absolutely needed by the human body?
The title is my question: what organs are absolutely needed (fatal if injured/removed) by the human body and perhaps animals in general?
I'm not asking which organs are mechanically replaceable, but ...
1
vote
1answer
34 views
How do animals/plants change for each season?
The question pretty much sums it up. How do animals/plants change for each: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter?
A detailed explanation on distinct behaviour and appearance changes would be nice.
-1
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0answers
57 views
Are sharks everything that are not sharks? [closed]
Is this true:
shark = not things that are not a shark
∴
shark = not not sharks
?
Sharks
Things that are not sharks
0
votes
2answers
150 views
Do cockroaches have less health issues than humans?
Cockroaches are known to live in very dirty places like sewers. Does this cause them to evolve to be stronger against parasites and bacteria? Recently I read online that cockroaches can sustain ...
1
vote
2answers
80 views
How to know if a woman is fertile without actually making her pregnant?
How to know if a human female is fertile (can give birth to child in future) without making her pregnant? Any signs, tests?
1
vote
1answer
43 views
What type of photosynthesis is performed by phytoplankton?
I am not a biologist, but I know there exist three variants of photosynthesis, namely C3, C4 and CAM.
I would like to know what type is used by the ocean's phytoplankton? It might also be that ...
2
votes
2answers
103 views
What would it take to recognize a deer by its photo?
I am trying to recognize a deer by its antlers or any other means.
Elaborating:
I was hoping to use their antlers to recognize them but I have heard that most deers shed their antlers every year so ...
1
vote
0answers
20 views
Do the antlers re-grow in the same pattern every year? [duplicate]
I am a software engineer and I am trying to develop a system to identify a deer by its photograph.
Most deers lose their antlers every year. I would like to know if they re-grow in the same pattern ...
0
votes
1answer
61 views
What insect is this?
I found it in Russia.
Where they usually live? What they eat?
Full length is approximately 2 cm.
1
vote
2answers
34 views
How long can you keep sheep eyes in formaldehyde before dissecting?
We're preparing for an experiment in our classroom and my teaching partner and I are at different points in the unit. I am concerned that the experiment will be less successful because of the ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
Is it possible to pet/groom birds?
I wonder if it's possible to pet a domestic crow, or an owl. Do birds respond to grooming as cats or dogs, for example? If so, then how does one pet a bird?
0
votes
0answers
24 views
When is wing growth in the bat complete and how soon can bats fly after wing growth is complete?
I was reading this paper by Cretekos et al (2008), in which they state that wing development in the bat is not complete until after birth - the wing continues to elongate postnatally. This would ...
3
votes
1answer
43 views
What limits the size of fish compared to marine mammals?
The largest extant fish species is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus). With a length of 13 meters and a mass of about 20-30 metric tons, the whale shark is relatively small compared to the largest ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
What kind of caterpillar is this?
I've made a photo using the reversed 58 mm lens and my cropped DSLR:
Could you please help? I really don't know where this came from.
I found it in Russia.
0
votes
1answer
51 views
Are ape communities more “anarchist” or “communist” in structure?
I am using these terms because we can imagine them quite good, I guess ;)
By "anarchist" I mean that the ape wants to live without the rule of others apes(same biological race or other) and he pursue ...
9
votes
3answers
608 views
Species with reproduction barriers that can both reproduce with a third species
To start with, I do not have a sound knowledge in biology or any formal education in the area.
I was told that one of the definition of a species is a reproductive barrier, which means that if two ...
1
vote
1answer
38 views
Is there an animal which, when eaten by other animal, poisons the predator and gets out of it's stomach?
It was a question in one competition, but it remained unanswered and i am curious about an answer.
There was a hint: American bullfrog
but i can not find any example of this behaviour on the web.
4
votes
1answer
99 views
Do plant-animal cross races exist?
Plants and animals have the following distinct properties:
Plants live from solar energy by photosynthesis, they use solar energy to make sugar and oxygen out of carbon dioxide, which gives them ...
5
votes
2answers
562 views
Why is it that cats can jump so high for their size, compared with humans?
My cat is about 1' high at the shoulder, and I am a little over 6', but my cat can easily jump onto something as high as I am. That is 6x it's height. If a cat can do this, then Why can't I jump up ...
9
votes
1answer
183 views
How does a jumping spider manage to “jump” on the ceiling?
I just witnessed a small jumping spider jump on some kind of louse or bed bug on the ceiling. How does it do that without falling? I have yet to find a high-speed-camera video of a jumping spider ...
7
votes
2answers
87 views
Is there a term for tool use in animals?
Is there a technical/scientific term that scientists use to refer to tool making abilities found in certain types of animals?
Reference ...
0
votes
0answers
793 views
Which species of animals have females as dominant (alpha) [closed]
In hyena species females are dominant (alpha) over males, can you give me any examples of other species in which females are dominant.
9
votes
4answers
160 views
What was the reason for some plant and animals to become giant in course of evolution?
The dinosaurs, mammoths, giant plants etc are known to be bigger than modern animals. I wonder why they had been lived and why they are not living now? I really don't know much but is it something ...
8
votes
3answers
179 views
Why is blood pressure higher the more distal an artery is?
Why is blood pressure generally higher in more distal arteries?
2
votes
1answer
56 views
What kind of bird species is this?
Every now and then I got a glimpse of this bird which I'm pretty sure is not native to Northern Germany where I live. There are at least three of these birds around but I usually only see something ...
4
votes
1answer
68 views
Excretion of small kangaroos while in the pouch
How is the excretion of small kangaroos done when they are in the pouch of their mother, fastened onto her teat? My question is what happens with the products; do they accumulate in the pouch?
6
votes
2answers
154 views
What's the difference between a plant and an animal?
Are there some living things where the distinction between plant and animal is blurry or unclear? I wouldn't know where to put something like yeast. I also thought of photosynthesis, but then I ...
4
votes
3answers
751 views
Is the theory of evolution being disproved by bats?
For some species the Darwin's theory evolution makes perfect sense. I can easily imagine how, for example, the giraffe has evolved to its current appearance: the natural selection was favoring ...
3
votes
2answers
160 views
Why do some animals have 8 Limbs (e.g. Spiders, Octopuses)?
Octopuses have 8 tentacles, spiders have 8 legs.
Is there something special about 8? It seems like an animal that needs 360° mobility has 8 legs.
3
votes
3answers
720 views
Small worm living in some kind of cocoon, what are these animals?
I am curious what animal is this. It is/lives inside some kind of cocoon, about 1 cm in length. They are attached to walls and to the ceiling, but sometimes they fall off. Inside the structure there ...
5
votes
1answer
113 views
Do octopuses have better eyes than humans?
I've read that unlike humans, octopuses have eyes "designed" the "right way", i.e. with the nerve fibers behind the retina, thus getting rid of the blind spot we humans have as well as theoretically ...
3
votes
2answers
139 views
Why is the frog genome so much larger than a fish's?
As we have heard in the summaries of the human ENCODE project, 80 per cent of junk DNA appears to have an essential function. Many fish have a genome with only one tenth the size of a usual vertebrate ...
1
vote
0answers
22 views
Where might I find a list of all recorded instincts by species?
Where might I find a list of all recorded instincts (possibly with all other attributes) by species?
Thanks,
Chenz
9
votes
1answer
615 views
Do fish break a water molecule to absorb oxygen?
How do fish separate oxygen from H20 & consume it? Do they break the water molecule and absorb the oxygen only?
2
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0answers
55 views
Will a completely removed cat whisker grow back?
I just accidentally pulled out, while playing, my cat's whisker entirely, follicle and all. I feel terribly as I know she is a kitten and whiskers are rooted deep in a place rich in nerves. I'm ...
5
votes
2answers
97 views
Can female Drosophila melanogaster lay eggs without males?
Can female Drosophila melanogaster lay egg without males? I maintain our lab stock but find a line that seems to have all females (or all males). In the vial, I see some eggs laid, but the flies ...
5
votes
1answer
109 views
Are tongues red because they contain blood?
Many animals have red tongues, though not all of them - blue-tongued skinks and giraffes come to mind. Are they red because of the blood (and therefore haemoglobin) in them?
It sounds plausible, but ...
1
vote
2answers
78 views
Do any cells change in size or mass as mammals grow?
That is to say, are there cells that, between infancy and adulthood, get larger? Or is all growth done entirely via cell division? I'm wondering if it is safe to assume that the approximate number ...
