Questions tagged [zoology]
The biological study of animals. Very broad use so be sure to add additional clarifying tags
279
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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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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Why are animal's whiskers in a square lattice?
I was observing my cat up close when I noticed his whiskers were in a square lattice as a novice mathematician, took notice of it and wanted to know if any other animal had this peculiar feature, so I ...
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Do animals get "unhealthily" fat in the wild?
Looking at a picture of a seriously fat cat, apparently directly nurtured by humans, popping up in a language learning app, I started wondering:
do animals "in the wild" (this might be ambiguous, but ...
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Are there any parasites that alter human behavior in a self destructive way?
There seems to be quite a few examples of parasites taking over the behavior of insects in a way that leads to the death of the host. A couple of examples include:
Spinochordodes tellinii: A ...
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Identify this bone found on beach
Does anyone have an idea what this bone is?
It was found on the beach in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA.
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I had an encounter with a cougar (mountain lion). What does the recurrence time look like?
I had an encounter with a cougar recently. I was walking down a muddy old forest service road when approximately 15-20 meters behind me a deer burst out of the brush with a cougar chasing it close ...
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Identification of a red arachnida (?) (picture and video)
I found this in a greenhouse in Norway. It is a few millimeters in size, I could fit 5-6 of them on my thumbnail.
It looks a lot like this one from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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Snail species identification from the United Kingdom
Can anybody identify the species of this snail?
From this website, it looks like a Common Snail.
Could it be the dextral type of Cornu aspersum?
These snails have been found in a garden, have ...
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Species identification - what kind of worm is this?
I am finding these worms in my bathroom since summer arrived. I have been finding these on floor, walls and damp towel I left hung overnight in bathroom couple of times. When these worms are squished, ...
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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 ...
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Hammerhead worm
Which Bipalium is this worm? It has no tripe. Nor head collar. It is dark brown as can be seen in the image. This worm is right now in Mauritius. Please help me recognise this Hammerhead worm. Thanks
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Are there animals / mammals which only have one eye?
Do all animals (of a certain size and not thinking about worms) have the possibility to perceive depth?
Do all mammals have at least two eyes? Are there mammals with more than two eyes?
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Difference between haemocoel and coelom
I am looking for an embryological perspective on the following question.
I know about coelom derivation, but I want to know how haemocoel is derived and how it is fundamentally different from coelom.
...
4
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1
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Recognise this thing found in beach?
Kindly help me identify this thing found in beach
Chennai, India . Size would be just 1.5 cm in diameter..across maximum size. It's shelled and has something inside it. It make a small noise when it ...
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Identify this excreta!
A picture is worth a thousand words!
It's about 1.3cm (1/2") long. We rented a basement and I found this on a machine that was moved in a bit earlier.
I would like to know if there are any mice, ...
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What determines the color of the air sac of a Portuguese man o' war?
I know that the Portuguese man o' war is a colonial organism composed of many "zooids", one of which is the pneumatophore, which essentially serves as a flotation device for the whole colony....
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How does Anabantoideis' labyrinth function? What does it look like?
Anabantoideis are fish with an organ that allows them to take oxygen directly from the air outside of water. However, I cannot find much on how this functions, nor can I find any clear image of what ...
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What species of insect is this, spotted south-east of Berlin? Habitat: forest near lake shore, Size: body 40mm, w/o antennas and ovipositor
This insect has been spotted south-east of Berlin (2021-10-31).
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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, ...
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How do mothers handle acid from embryo bone mineralization?
This is a relatively trivial question, but, I have not seen it discussed much. It could be one factor in the "acidosis of pregnancy" (JAMA, 1929). Are the compensatory mechanisms measurable, ...
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What is the minimum atmospheric pressure at which bees can live/thrive?
Bees are amazing little critters. (Gosh, they're cute.) But what if we colonize Mars and start terraforming it? At what point will bees (and other insects) be able to live/thrive in that environment?
...
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Identification of the bug on the curry leaf- Delhi, India
I found this bug on my curry leaf in early morning. Which bug is this?
Size- 1-2 cm
Habitat- Delhi, India.
The bug was on one of the curry leaf of the curry plant pot in my residential balcony
Time- 7:...
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What is blood pH for different animals?
So we all know that humans average blood pH is 7.4. But is it the same for the animals?
I need examples of animals with the same blood pH as humans and the ones with different blood pH.
I guess dogs ...
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What kind of worm/bug is this?
Recently, I found a few worms in my bathroom and I am wondering what kind of worms are they. They move slowly and they are about 6-9 millimetres long. It seems that they are not sensitive to water. ...
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Can Chilopoda "vocalize" or produce sound for the express purpose of communication, as opposed to sound as a byproduct of other movements?
Is there any species of Chilopoda that can "vocalize" or or otherwise produce sound for the express purpose of communication, as opposed to sounds it might create as a byproduct of other movements ...
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What is the name of this moth and why does it have an extra wing?
Moth of length 15mm. Seen in Kerala, India on March 2019. Third Unusual wing part visible. Without mobile flash the colour of moth visible is completely black.
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What's the lowest atmospheric pressure a tardigrade can remain active in?
I'm not asking what atmospheric pressures they can survive (we now they can survive the vacuum of space) I'm wondering at what point a deficit of atmospheric pressure would cause them to enter one of ...
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How old is the action of sneezing?
Is there an estimate for when the ability of sneezing evolved? A little bit of research, and some critical review of my memories tell me that:
Many, if not maybe all mammals sneeze.
Some reptiles ...
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Can Anyone Identify this Tissue?
I am hoping someone can identify the image below
My wife felt a bug bite her and found this in her hair now she's worried that it was a tick.
the photo is at 40X under microscope. I'm guessing it's ...
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Why do lions keep young preys and don't kill them right away?
I saw some (actually several) videos on Youtube of young lions and lionesses that after hunting baby preys keep them and even seem to play with them. The lions don't seem to want to hurt them but they ...
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why do these sounds make a dog unhappy?
Cross-posted from StackOverflow
This is an odd one. I'm not sure it's the right place to ask, but maybe there are some sound / dog experts who can chime in? (no pun intended)
We use two sounds on ...
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Difference between feral and domesticated honey?
Is there any significant differences in composition (and/or taste) between the honey of wild ("feral") honeybees versus that of domesticated ones used in beekeeping?
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Are baby centipedes poisonous like the adults?
I know that centipedes have an appendage called "poison claw".But I am not sure if the same is there in the baby centipedes and if its functional like that of the adults.
So are baby centipedes ...
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Has a walrus ever been filmed catching a seal under water?
Walruses have been long thought to be grazing feeders, scooping up clams from the sea floor. However, when walruses bodies have been examined by scientists, frequently the remains of seals are found ...
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Affinity for oxygen and carbon dioxide in animals
I'm currently reading Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (A) and don't understand the following fragment:
The affinity for oxygen in lower animals is many times that in higher ones, whereas ...
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Do ants actually stick better after "licking" their legs?
I found an uncommonly large black ant and put it in a glass cup to observe it. It initially had a lot of trouble climbing vertically by any amount. However, I noticed it paused and when I looked ...
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Good resource for penguin behavior for non-specialists
I just returned from Antarctica where we made many shore excursions and spent a great deal of time among penguins - mainly Gentoo, and some Chinstrap species.
They were fascinating and there were ...
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How do coyotes remove cactus needles from their paws?
Here, in Arizona, coyotes roam and hunt in the desert.
While hiking with dogs, I often see spiny bits of Teddy bear cholla cactus on the ground.
Dogs often step on these and get stung by the ...
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Reason for hiccups?
I recently fed my axolotyl an earthworm, which is good for them. I was rather kind and made sure that the said earthworm was quickly despatched beforehand. Now, watching the axolotyl whilst swallowing ...
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How do spiders get silk from their spinnerettes?
I'm 13 and writing a report on spiders. How do they use the silk protein gel from the spinnerets? How does it get from the spinnerets to the web? P.S. I know how silk is created, all the way up until ...
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Pattern in parental care behaviour from lower to higher animals?
I was studying about parental care behavior. There seems a pattern present in this behavior in case of vertebrates. The more evolutionary advanced class the animal belongs to, the greater effort an ...
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Chart of blood pH across different animal species?
How does blood pH vary across species? I can't find an article or chart listing this kind of information.
So far I've found bits and pieces like:
Human blood pH is nominally 7.4.
7.4 seems to be a ...
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How much do crocodiles eat?
How much do crocodiles eat? The closest I found to an answer was on German wikipedia, where it says that adult nile crocodiles eat "only about 50 full meals a year." While interesting, without knowing ...
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What are the identifying characteristics of a Jellyfish?
I was walking down the beach today (Wollongong Australia, near Sydney) and saw this Jellyfish washed up on the beach.
Then I saw another.
I wanted to work out what type it was but didn't know ...
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Do domesticated animals necessarily live longer than wild animals? counterexample wanted!
Generally domesticated animals do not need to worry about their food and other predators, and they have a lower probability of getting sick.
However, it seems there is no sharp difference between ...
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Founders of Cnidarian colony
I know that colonial Cnidaria enlarge their colony by the means of asexual reproduction and sexual and asexual reproduction can originate individuals that will be part of other colonies.
Nevertheless,...
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How did birds become so intelligent?
I have seen a Discovery Channel video of a bird throwing stones in a pot to raise the water level so it is able to reach and drink it.
A similar experiment in this paper from Current Biology shows ...
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What is the name of this sea creature?
I found this creature on the beach in San Diego. It is 8cm long and the end to the right is the mouth. The underside is exactly the same as what is visible. What is the name of this species.
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Why do bees fly inside the gaps between the decoration on the exterior wall of a building and the wall?
My house has decorations around the windows on the exterior wall:
There are gaps between those decorations and the bricks of the building:
During the summer, there are always bees looking for those ...
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what kind of lizard is this
Found on ground by house in residential neighborhood in Fort Pierce FL. looks mature maybe 17".
