The biological study of animals
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2answers
152 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
311 views
Why animals can move and plants cannot in general?
To clarify, I think the answer should be able to explain:
What are animals?
What are plants?
What's the difference between animals and plants (How do biologists differentiate them, if they ...
6
votes
1answer
140 views
Effect of spaying on the female cat organism and health
Veterinarians often recommend spaying a female cat if the owner does not want her to have kittens. What does biology know about the effect of spaying on female cats' organism and health (apart from ...
6
votes
1answer
96 views
Is there such thing as Animal non-verbal body language?
Have there been any studies done on the animal use of their bodies to signal, communicate or express their emotions, particularly to members of other species (ex: humans)?
I've been observing a very ...
6
votes
2answers
259 views
What happens to snakes that swallow rodents as a whole?
As we all know, a few species of snakes swallow rodents as a whole. My question is what happens to the teeth and bones of these animals? Won't they cut into the flesh of the snake and hurt it? Are the ...
6
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1answer
139 views
Is there any documented evidence for suicide among vertebrates other than humans?
Is there any documented evidence for suicide among vertebrates other than humans? Lemmings not accepted !
5
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1answer
67 views
What is this crow eating, and is it a common part of the corvid diet?
Here's a picture (by Rob Curtis) of a crow carrying and eating the corpse of what looks a bit like a small hawk or falcon:
Other pictures clearly show the crow is eating the dead bird. This image ...
5
votes
1answer
88 views
Why do the feet of the Gecko Lizard not stick to Teflon surfaces?
I have noticed that lizards feet can stick to walls but not to Teflon surfaces?
Why is that?
5
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1answer
108 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 ...
5
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1answer
94 views
Is there any reason the common housefly continues to return to an area?
This might come off as a really silly question. But I'm wondering (especially in the case of food) if there is any reason a fly would continue to try and sit on top of a piece of food even after ...
5
votes
1answer
130 views
What evolutionary mechanism caused felines to develop purring?
And why can some felines roar while others meow?
5
votes
1answer
107 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 ...
5
votes
2answers
551 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 ...
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
84 views
Homologies to insect wings
All winged vertebrates have wings which are homologous to each other and to the forelimbs of the non-winged vertebrates. But what about insect wings? Are all insect wings homologous, and are there any ...
5
votes
2answers
474 views
Fetal development, gastrulation and embryonic disc
I completely confused by the images circulating on the internet of human gastrulation.
First, lets see how it happens in deuterostomes. This image depicts the process:
(image is from Wikipedia)
...
4
votes
3answers
749 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
96 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
66 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?
4
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1answer
170 views
4
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1answer
122 views
Why would deers keep crossing a river full of crocodiles while some of them have been killed?
I recently watched a clip on Discovery Channel, where I saw deers crossing a river full of crocodiles, ignoring the fact that some of them would have been killed doing so.
What could be an ...
4
votes
1answer
32 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
88 views
Does culling badgers restrict the spread of bovine tuberculosis?
The British government has announced that it plans a large-scale badger cull which they argue are implicated in the spread of Mycobacterium bovis - so-called bovine tuberculosis. Any cattle that ...
4
votes
3answers
79 views
Do dogs have something different about their physiology that allows them to pant without hyperventilating?
I was wondering this as I considered how effective panting would be for humans as a means of cooling.
4
votes
2answers
129 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
118 views
Is there a way for a 19th century scientist to prove that the octopus doesn't revive?
Say a sophiscated scientist in the 19th century noted that applying soy sauce on a dead octopus leads to movement of the legs, as a result of the voltage differences resulting from the salt in the soy ...
4
votes
1answer
233 views
Is there a relationship between efficiency of cellular metabolism and warm-blooded-ness?
My BIO 101 book states that when human cells convert glucose to ATP, the process is only approx 35% efficient, and much of the potential energy is lost as heat. However, that heat is useful to us in ...
4
votes
1answer
92 views
intravenous (IV) in the tail vein of an anaesthetized mouse
I trained myself to do intravenous injection on live mice. However, on anaesthetized mice you don't see the flux of your product showing that your injection was successful. In the same way, on live ...
4
votes
1answer
102 views
Are there any other animals that become attached to a non-living object?
Do any animals become attached to any non-living object that is not useful to the animal for any of its physical needs, like some children do to stuffed animals? Some children are so attached to their ...
4
votes
0answers
110 views
How do I save a coffee damaged wasp? [closed]
I found a wasp in one of my coffee cups about 1 hour ago. There was barely any coffee left but it had managed to get itself pretty much drenched in coffee. I took it out. Put it on a piece of paper ...
3
votes
2answers
160 views
Difference between mice and rats
What is the actual biological difference between mice and rats? Are they actually the same thing with two different names depending on appearance (are they all mice for instance and we call the larger ...
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 ...
3
votes
2answers
156 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
1answer
1k views
Why are (some) cats attracted by bleach?
(Sorry if this question is only partly biological)
I have noticed that several cats (including the one that keeps sleeping in my house), are fond of the odor of bleach (eau de Javel) and chlorine.
...
3
votes
1answer
95 views
List of species recently found of economic value
Is there a website or organization cataloging lists of biological species to have been recently found of great economic value? For example, a plant that wasn't of economic relevance a while ago but ...
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
64 views
What is the known maximum ranging distance of a bat's sonar?
Bats are known to navigate by using echo-location.
How far away can a bat detect an object by its sonar?
3
votes
1answer
117 views
Do all sea creatures that have scales have to have fins?
Do all sea creatures that have scales have to have fins?
Do we know of any sea creatures that have only scales without fins?
I'm especially interested in fish that have scales but no fins.
3
votes
1answer
95 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
50 views
How does sex differentiation work in Paracerceis sculpta, the sexually tetramorphic isopod?
Paracerceis sculpta is a marine isopod species known for its unusual reproductive strategy:
female: medium-sized; lives in harems run by an α male
α male: large; keeps a harem of females
β male: ...
3
votes
3answers
684 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
40 views
What do breeders call the effect when a breed resists modification?
It is impossible to breed a blue rose or a cat with a bulldog shape. This is because breeding is limited by gene variations in the population.
What do breeders call this effect?
UPDATE
I guess ...
3
votes
1answer
44 views
Is there such thing as “biological cycles” of activity/performance/etc in mammals?
I'm looking for some information about the cycles of increased/decreased activity, mental performance or endurance that are related to a mammal's age and the time of a season.
First of all, I'm not ...
3
votes
0answers
36 views
Help with designing the analysis of radio telemetry study [closed]
I was wondering if there are any spatial ecologists out there who can provide some insight on the trouble I'm having with my Masters research.
I am looking at the association a bat species to high ...
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
88 views
Color of the Fur coat of Polar bears
Recently I was playing a quiz and a question was asked about the color of the fur coat of a polar bear. To my surprise the answer was black. I thought it was yellowish white or creamy. Why so ?
2
votes
1answer
843 views
Can all mammals swim?
When I checked it seemed trivial to answer: yes, all mammals can swim. But research on the internet provided different information. I found:
people and primates cannot swim, but can be taught how to ...
2
votes
2answers
102 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 ...
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.
2
votes
1answer
52 views
Diet of free-range herbivores
Giving minimal credence to estimates in popular media of the average biomass of insects/arachnids, etc. in an acre of land, it seems that a "free-range" cow (I don't mean to pick on cows) might be ...
