Questions tagged [zoology]
The biological study of animals. Very broad use so be sure to add additional clarifying tags
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Is there a published calibration between footprint measurements to body length in moose?
I am in the early stages of designing a study involving a moose (Alces alces) population.
An often-true heuristic is that body parts of an animal monotonically increases in size. There likely exist ...
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Why the "trailing" woodpecker sound?
I recently (March 26th, 2022) recorded a woodpecker in the woods around Habo Ljunga, Lomma, Skåne, Sweden and that gave me an idea. While cutting the audio, I noticed that the woodpecker's sound seems ...
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How could microplastics accumulate in the bodies of marine mammals?
I have read several literature reviews and studies on the effects of microplastic particles on fish and invertebrates (one example includes the review by Franzellitti et al. (2019)) and there are ...
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Photo attached of flies ‘injecting’ into spider egg sacs. Why? What’s going on here?
Brisbane, Australia.
While no image is available, direct observations were made of flies doing something to the egg sac.
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How can this coral survive with little sunlight?
Forgive me if this question is off topic, but I’ve seen similar questions so I think it should be on topic.
I’m at the beach currently, and I was looking in tide pools for interesting things. I found ...
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What is the phenomenon when animals mimic other animals in order to survive?
The caterpillar Hemeroplanes triptolemus adopts the appearance of a snake when it detects danger. What is this phenomenon called in which animals mimic other animals in order to survive? Is it ...
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What's the definition of 'natural prey' and 'natural predator'?
I am sure we all see both of these phrases used commonly, but is there a reason as to why the terms 'natural predator' and 'natural prey' are used as opposed to just 'predator' and 'prey'?
Below are ...
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What insect in shell is this?
Location: INDIA(Tropical Monsoon)
I found an insect (approx 7mm) (marked with red in image) in my bedroom hanging from the roof.
It can spin some kind of thread, since it was hanging at the first ...
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Which animal has the smallest percentage of their body mass made up of water?
It's a "well known" and interesting "fact" that the human body is made up of "mostly water". With percentages from 65% to 90% often being repeated as if they were exact ...
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Which varieties of Aurelia aurita do not have a polyp phase?
According to this "In some Aurelia aurita, the polyp stage does not exist.", but they don't cite anything. Is there a resource detailing life cycles of various jellyfish or do I have to find ...
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Does anybody know what sort of fossil this could be?
enter image description here
Found in rural North Dakota. Small rock with black circular indentations.
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What is the modern experiment in which a frog was heated at the slowest rate?
I did a bit of research on the boiling frog phenomenon. It turned out that:
In the 19th century, there have been done three experiments in which a frog in water was heated very slowly. It didn't jump ...
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What is the thickness of the mucous, submucosal, muscular and serous membranes of the stomach wall of a piglet aged 60-75 days? (Large White pig)
There is publicly available data on the thickness of the layers of the stomach wall of piglets aged no more than 20 days. But at an early age, the thickness of the layers of the stomach wall increases ...
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Movement of Common Jelly Fish
Among the different types of movements in the bodies of various organisms, the movement exhibited by jelly fishes are very unique and peculiar in some ways. I can't understand how to classify the type ...
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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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What's the best way to find a Tardigrade
So I have a school science project on the best sample to look under a microscope, so I want to bring in a Tardigrade. It's winter here in Ohio, although Tardigrades are freeze tolerant I don't think ...
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Why porifera is classified to have an incomplete digestive system although it has no organs?
Why are we using the term "incomplete" for digestive system only? We could have also said that for circulatory system that it is either incomplete or present as a simple system. What I mean ...
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What is this bone from?
This object showed up on my fire escape in New York city. It appears to be some kind of bone. It's a bit smaller than an adult human hand. What animal is it from?
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Do wolves mate with siblings?
I have just watched a "documentary" on a female wolf raising her cubs in the Alps. I found various aspects of the programme less than convincing, but one in particular puzzled me. The alpha ...
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What is this large, lively barnacle?
Yesterday I found this creature in a rocky cove in central California, around mid tide (+ 3 feet). It's about 3-4 inches long. At first I thought it was dead, but it closed its mouth when I removed ...
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Owl identification. Winter in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada
Is this owl a 'Great Grey Owl' or 'Barred Owl'? I'm thinking a Great Grey because it was quite huge - about 1.5 to 2 feet tall.
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Bug Identification: Black Insect with Red/Orange dot on back
I lifted the cover off my push bike today and discovered 15-20 of these insects all along one of my brake cables.
A few were tending to "egg" like structures that were stuck to the cable and ...
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What kind of spider is this from New Zealand?
This is biggest one I have caught so far:
They would occasionally walk into my house and wait for the night to go out and about.
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What do cats see when they look at 2D, still images?
My cat doesn't like other cats. She doesn't really like anyone that isn't part of our family. So when she sees other cats she will aggressively try and chase them out of her area. She will also do the ...
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What is this spider with blue striped head?
I found this spider on the balcony of a Brisbane, Australia quarantine hotel. About 1.5cm. Anyone know what it is?
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There are some species that grow throughout their lives -- is there evidence that even in adulthood their brains increase in size?
One species I have read about is carp whose growth is limited only by food supply and space. One can actually, because their skin is almost transparent, see their brains and it sure does look like ...
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What are these bugs eating my lumber?
Duplicate of this question.
I found bugs in wood that I've had air drying for the last few years. What are they?
I had a tree cut down a few years ago and some of the wood milled in to slabs. However, ...
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What animal has the strongest immune system?
I'm wondering what animal has the strongest immune system. It can be defined as the most evolved immune system or the immune system that can eliminate or tolerate most number of (different) viruses/...
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Are snake capable of love? (social bond in a male/female couple)
I'm wondering whether it has been noticed that some species of snake form male/female couples for life (or at least multiple reproduction cycles) like other types of animals do (penguins come to mind)....
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Best way to estimate wolf density through camera traps
I would like to know the most suitable sampling strategies and analytical methods (possibly, with relative bibliographical references) to estimate the populational density of wolves through camera ...
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Does a brown Pieris brassicae chrysalis indicate it is dead?
I have been breeding Pieris brassicae larvae in a glass tank indoors for my own personal observation. One of them, after the fifth instar, has moulted into a chrysalis. After 5 days of development in ...
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Are there taxonomic keys for members of the family poeciliidae in America?
I wish to know what are the taxonomic aspects necessary for the identification of certain species of poecilids, specifically what is the role in the counting of rays and spines and also the ...
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Please, help identify this sea worm
It was found in Malta, in a puddle by the sea.
It left a lot of tiny hair on the shoes (which we removed thoroughly without touching them).
I didn’t have any coins with me so I put keys for scale.
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For animals with separate hermaphrodite and non-hermaphrodite populations which is more common, female + herm or male + herm?
I think the question already says it all. I know there exist animals that have both herm and female populations and other's with herm and male populations, I'm not personally aware of any animal that ...
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Kansas Spider Identification, found in Pasta Package
I live in Kansas. I found a spider inside my macaroni pasta package after dinner (6pm), and I really want to figure out its species.
Since I have consumed food from that package, I'm especially ...
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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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Are 99% of animals bilaterally symmetric?
The Wikipedia article for "Symmetry in Biology" claims: "Animals with bilateral symmetry are classified into a large group called the Bilateria which contains 99% of all animals (...
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Vertebrae looking bone found on beach in New Zealand
I found this bone on a beach in New Zealand. Does anybody have any idea which part of the body or which animal it’s from?
(click to enlarge)
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What species is this fly? Look like mosquito with unusually long legs
I found this in Bangalore, India. It looks exactly like a mosquito but with extremely long legs, first I confused it with long legged spider (which are common here) but it's not, Can someone tell me ...
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What bug has similar legs to a prawn?
This is a bug that I observe in Melbourne.
This bug is living in wet places and jumping a few centimeters while its length is 8.5mm.
It does not have insect legs. It's legs are more similar to prawn.
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What terrestrial trait makes cetaceans so successful in an aquatic lifestyle?
Intuitively, I would expect that an organism that has lived in the ocean for millions of years and can breathe underwater should outcompete any newcomer that is not fully adapted for oceanic life. It ...
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For which wing characteristic are Plecoptera (stoneflies) named for?
I'm coming across variable etymological meanings for the order Plecoptera (stoneflies).
Some sources indicate the meaning is "wicker/braided-winged", while others suggest "folded/...
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What species of snake is this? It was sighted in NE New Mexico, Union County
The snake in this photograph was found injured/dead in Clayton, Union, New Mexico (USA) on 10/06/2021. I want to know if it is a juvenile bullsnake or a Chihuahuan Night Snake...or something ...
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Deflated bag-like species on beach: Identification
I encountered this on a beach in Chandipur, along the Bay of Bengal in India. Quite a few of them were scattered in different locations. Identification of this controversial object is appreciated.
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I found this tiny transparent creature in my aquarium - what is it?
Please help me identify this 1-2 mm nearly transparent animal which I found in my salt water aquarium.
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Evolutionary advantage of the nutrient played by the chicken [duplicate]
What is the evolutionary advantage of the chicken throwing out so much nutrient ovulating all the time?
Is there a clear advantage to this? Chickens ovulate all the time for the same reason human ...
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Do the activity patterns of an owl species determine their eye colour?
Recently I've been thinking about the colour of owl eyes, and trying to figure out if there is a pattern anywhere between species.
I have read for example, that yellow-eyes implies they are day time ...
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What are the current theories on how baleen whales make whale song?
Wikipedia does not provide many details1 on how baleen whales produce 'whale song', saying it's still a mystery.
The linked Gizmodo article provides these paragraphs:
Humpback whales, for example, do ...
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What is this water animal in my swimming pool?
I have had a swimming pool (which is salt) for few months. 2 weeks ago I saw this:
I made a quick gif of a video:
Today, I found 4 more of this animal:
All of them that are living I found in the ...
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Do you know what kind of bug this is?
I have tried to find a similar picture online, but can’t seem to find any. Does anyone know what kind of bug this is?
It has been on a penstemon plant for about 3 days.
I am located just outside of ...
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