Questions tagged [zoology]
The biological study of animals. Very broad use so be sure to add additional clarifying tags
1,391
questions
2
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1answer
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By what mechanism do cephalopods regrow limbs?
As far as I can tell, there are two types of limb regeneration: epimorphosis and morphallaxis. Epimorphosis is used by animals such as amphibians and various phyla of worms, while morphallaxis is used ...
8
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0answers
133 views
Identification of an animal building
I live in south-west Germany and today while mowing the lawn I discovered a strange structure. It looks like a molehill on which additional branches were placed. This kind of branches are easy to find ...
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0answers
32 views
If electric eels use electricity, why don't they produce visible, electrical sparks, or cook to death? [closed]
Electric eels can produce a voltage of up to 800 volts at 1 ampere. The breakdown voltage of cell membranes is just ~300 mV. 800 volts at 1 ampere should produce a wicked amount of heat, as well - but ...
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0answers
36 views
Are there animals that usually sneeze with their eyes open?
As per title. I believe that most animals tend to sneeze with their eyes closed, but wonder if any normally keep their eyes open.
Is it the case?
-4
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1answer
45 views
Are dragons real animals? [closed]
I'm having this debate with someone on whether or not dragons are real. They say they are real because there's been thousands of historical sightings of them, and there was at least one historical ...
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0answers
57 views
What kind of animals are these little creatures?
I have 3 tanks. 1 with my fishes and 2 other are technical.
The smallest one is 0.5l and I'm using it as trash bin where I put dead plants and algae from main aquarium and it has sand from the see at ...
-1
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1answer
36 views
What is this tiny bug [duplicate]
I have seen these on my floor several times now that spring has arrived and temps have started to go up. It is silvery in color, appears to have a hard and segmented shell, it kind of reminds me of a ...
0
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0answers
39 views
Can anyone tell me what species this baby bird this is?
Can anyone tell me what species this baby bird this is? He or she is less than two weeks old. Fell out of nest. He is doing well. I live in Sacramento Ca, Thank you.
0
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1answer
55 views
What exactly is blood?
There is a scripture (Leviticus 17:11) in the bible that states:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls
The blood (...
0
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0answers
32 views
What is this snake in South Florida, USA
I observed this snake for about 10 minutes. It was slithering back and forth in about 50x20 yard (50x20 meter) area. Just kept going back and forth (then I left). There was a similar snake at the same ...
0
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1answer
38 views
Probably a moth larvae but better to confirm [duplicate]
What I know,
It reacts to light
the red seems to be blood but can't say for sure
1 to 10 mm
it has a casing of something soft fabric possibly
it grabs to walls
3
votes
1answer
51 views
Can hunting of large specimens of a species make the size and weight of the species tend to be smaller?
Siberian tigers in the wild don't grow as much as they used to be in past (in the 1900s).
Their average weight was measured 176 kg in 2005 study. But it was also said that those tigers observed in ...
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0answers
21 views
Do crocodiles have short stamina like snakes? [closed]
Do crocodiles have short stamina like snakes? They are in the same category of animals? Not mammals. So is it safe to assume that crocs get tired fast?
-3
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0answers
25 views
Is the teeth the hardest and strongest bone in the body for all mammals?
Let's take a jaguar for example. If a jaguar were to bite another jaguar in the skull, will the teeth break or the skull get punctured?
1
vote
0answers
14 views
How does a frog separate blood in its ventricle?
Since a frog has two atria and one ventricle, how does it separate oxygenated blood from deoxygenated blood when both are mixed in the ventricle? Or does a frog simply pump a mixture of both to the ...
34
votes
8answers
9k views
Do “shooting” animals exist?
The well-known cartoon imagery of porcupines shooting their quills at opponents in a fight is just that: a silly cartoon concept that isn't real. But it makes me wonder, does that mechanism exist ...
1
vote
0answers
121 views
What is the water content of avian blood?
I'm doing a work about heavy metal contamination in seabirds. I have found that the toxic threshold for Cu in blood is 1,15 μg/g wet weight. That number refers to an average between some seabirds. I ...
6
votes
1answer
74 views
Can anyone identify this spider? (greater Poland region)
This is in Poland, in the Greater Poland area, found a few days ago by a garage in the city.
I didn't have any coins on me to give a sense of scale, but the body is roughly 1.5cm long. It was dead ...
1
vote
1answer
56 views
Do bears have killer instinct? [closed]
For example, all big cats have killer instinct.
They go straight for the throat or neck of their prey, killing it before consuming.
I've seen videos of bears and wolves hunting prey. I've never seen ...
2
votes
0answers
38 views
Is it true that oxygen levels in water limits fish size?
This answer says that breathing water is inefficient, and that may act as a limiter to the size of fish. I've heard this in a couple of other places as well, but cannot recall the sources. However, ...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
Is human zygote unicellular or multicellular [closed]
Is the human zygote which is formed by fusion of sperm and egg a unicellular structure? Bcz at some places the 2 celled stage which is formed due to cleavage has been labelled as the zygote. So is the ...
0
votes
1answer
51 views
Can animals speak like humans?
I know some animals don't have the required vocals. But, I do think that some like parrots, etc may have the capability to produce speech and talk just as we do.
My question is that if an animal is ...
1
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0answers
25 views
Do penguins “test the ice”?
Do penguins have a way to test the ice that they stand on to ensure that the ice will not break? In other words, do penguins make sure that they will not fall into the ice before stepping onto it?
I ...
4
votes
1answer
71 views
How to convert a genus name to a noun or adjective
Consider the crayfish family Cambaridae. As I understand it, this familial name can be turned into an English noun or adjective by changing the first letter to lower case and dropping the "ae.&...
2
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0answers
50 views
What is this spider found in Brittany?
I found it in Brittany, in my kitchen. It was about 3cm in width and 5 in length.
Is it dangerous ?
0
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0answers
18 views
What are the effect of radioactivity on grey wolves in Chernobyl?
I am doing some research about the effects that radioactivity has and is having on grey wolves in Chernobyl and more particularly on their genetics, but maybe also looking at the populations in the ...
1
vote
1answer
114 views
How does the social structure of lion prides prevent incest?
I assume that lions don't have a concept of incest and they will just mate with any adult lioness in heat, daughter or not.
If so, is incest inevitable as the female cubs will grow up and remain in ...
-1
votes
1answer
100 views
Are the “cocaine hippos” suffering from noticeable inbreeding depression? [duplicate]
Colombia has a population of about 100 "cocaine hippos" founded from a group of one male and three females, which escaped from a drug kingpin's private zoo; it's even estimated that this ...
-6
votes
1answer
128 views
How did animals on Earth survive without plants?
Around 500 million years ago, there were animals on earth, but there were no plants yet. How did animals survive? I'm assuming some of the animals ate other animals, but did some animals eat rocks or ...
34
votes
6answers
6k views
Why didn't Escobar's hippos introduced in a single event die out due to inbreeding
Today I read a BBC Report about how Pablo Escobar had once imported 4 hippos (1 male, 3 female) into his estate in Colombia for his private zoo. After his downfall, while other species were shipped ...
1
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1answer
119 views
Do animal muscles atrophy slower than humans?
Suppose I consider the silver back gorilla as an example. I cannot imagine ever seeing one in the wild intentionally doing something akin to weightlifting like humans solely for the purpose of ...
-3
votes
1answer
67 views
If you only ate fruits, vegetables or smoothies would you be able to skip drinking water?
If you only ate fruits, vegetables or smoothies would you be able to skip drinking water?
I do not see some animals (like squirrels) drinking water daily (doesn't mean they don't have a water source) ...
4
votes
0answers
57 views
Characteristics of 'true' tissue
Why are sponges not considered to have tissue level organization?
Quite a few places seem to say that sponges do not have 'true tissue' and only have specialized cells.
Unlike Protozoans, the ...
0
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0answers
40 views
How do tardigrades defend themselves from predators?
Tardigrades or water bears are well known for their ability to enter into a cryptobiotic state which allows them to survive extreme environmental conditions such as extreme temperatures or radiation. ...
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1answer
35 views
Why do insect legs look so different from mammal legs? [closed]
Why do insects (and spiders and centipedes) have legs that are angled acutely upward then downward to meet the ground whereas mammals large and small all have straight legs that curve only slightly ...
-2
votes
1answer
62 views
The Perfect Predator? [closed]
I’m not a biology major or even studying it in any way so I apologize if this makes no sense.
I’m curious, if say the Jurassic Park team came up to you and asked you to genetically engineer the ...
1
vote
1answer
19 views
When should I use cryofixation and chemical fixation?
We know that the technique used in TEM sample preparation involves multiple steps, one of the most important of them is fixation.
Fixation can be of two types:
Cryofixation, that suggests that the ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
What kind of salamander is this?
This guy was found in central Virginia, under a flower pot. He's about 3 inches long, because part of his tail is either missing or it's just short. He looked dried out, so of course I wet my hand, ...
0
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0answers
21 views
How does a bone know the final shape it has to attain (and then maintain)?
How do osteoblasts and osteoclasts share information with each other to maintain this shape?
0
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0answers
17 views
Have scientists tried to communicate with Sperm whales?
I see lots of passive studies of sperm whale click "language", usually focused on fingerprinting to identify groups and individuals. There's application of deep learning, and all sorts of ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
What species of duck is this?
What species of duck is this? See below photo. Head colour is green like a mallard, but that's pretty much the only similarity. Spotted in Leicestershire, UK.
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0answers
50 views
What is this worm like animal found on a well water filter?
This was found in the water filter on a private water well that feeds a house in southeast Colorado, USA. The well has hard water, and is shallow (25’). There are several of these creatures all over ...
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0answers
34 views
What mammals can rotate and move their ears the most?
I found out that rabbits can rotate their ears 270 degrees, and also move them up, down and independently. Are there any other mammals that can control their ears' position that well, or even better?
0
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0answers
21 views
Why mammals don't have renal portal system
I am a high school student and I am a little confused why mammals don't have renal portal system?, some books says that because we have four chambered heart, so our blood is filtered more effectively ...
0
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0answers
21 views
Infectious deadly disease among free animals?
Sorry for the presumably naive question, I'm not a biologist and searched for that but didn't find a clear answer to this question.
What I would like to know if deadly infectious diseases are common ...
0
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0answers
35 views
WC small organisms ID?
I have reached the end of my Winogradsky Column experiment, but out of interest I have kept them for a little longer. I have noticed small bug- and worm-like organisms appearing in some of my columns. ...
0
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0answers
38 views
Why do wasps (Vespula vulgaris) build a new nest every year?
I have been searching it for a while, and i haven't found an answer, why do common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) create a new nest every year instead of using the previous one if the old one is still ...
-3
votes
1answer
87 views
Spontaneous generation of fruit flies
I live in the South of England. It is currently winter.
Whenever I buy bananas, even one, if I leave the discarded banana peel in my kitchen, within hours or even minutes, there is a cloud of little ...
3
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0answers
54 views
Why is the spinal cord shortened in some vertebrates (cauda equina) but not in others?
Hodos, 2009, mentions that the "spinal cord tail" that humans have is not present in most vertebrates. This page mentions cauda equina is not present early on in human embryonic development, ...
1
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1answer
35 views
How many hairs per sq. cm. (or inch) do hamsters have on average?
How many hairs per square centimeter (or inch) do common pet hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus or Phodopus sungorus) have on average?
I thought this would be easy to find by googling, but the best I've ...
