Questions tagged [zoology]

The biological study of animals. Very broad use so be sure to add additional clarifying tags

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1 answer
226 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
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3 votes
1 answer
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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 ...
1 vote
1 answer
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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 ...
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35 votes
8 answers
10k 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
0 answers
143 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 ...
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6 votes
1 answer
187 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 ...
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1 vote
1 answer
101 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
0 answers
50 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, ...
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0 votes
1 answer
297 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 ...
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0 votes
1 answer
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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 ...
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1 vote
0 answers
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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
1 answer
133 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 votes
1 answer
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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 ?
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0 answers
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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
1 answer
8k 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
1 answer
610 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 ...
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-6 votes
1 answer
636 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
6 answers
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 ...
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1 vote
1 answer
592 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
1 answer
88 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
0 answers
821 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 ...
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-1 votes
1 answer
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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
1 answer
105 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 ...
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1 vote
1 answer
70 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 ...
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3 votes
1 answer
123 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, ...
4 votes
3 answers
107 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 ...
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9 votes
2 answers
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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1 vote
0 answers
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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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1 vote
0 answers
96 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?
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22 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 ...
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2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Did snow leopards lose the ability to roar or never have it?

Since snow leopards are the only species in the genus Panthera that can't roar, was this something the others developed after snow leopards diverged or something that snow leopards lost?
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0 votes
0 answers
42 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. ...
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-3 votes
1 answer
245 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 votes
0 answers
64 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, ...
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1 vote
1 answer
156 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 ...
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0 votes
1 answer
64 views

The Fish-Tetrapod Transition, evolution of the "elbow" in Stem Tetrapods

The Acanthostega and Tulerpeton limbs seem to form "elbows" in an axis perpendicular to the flexor and extensor plane of the fin. They seem to "flex" their "elbow" ...
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3 votes
1 answer
97 views

What is the name of this bird from Tanzania?

I took this picture in late 2018 in Tanzania. The Birds of East Africa book does not include it and I've been unable to identify it looking on the web. Can someone help me identify it, please. Thank ...
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

What type of creature makes those mounds?

Location: South Ireland, Appeared: 2020 Nearest river: 500 meter down hill south Water is running down the hill also but there’s drainage to not flood the grass Seen before: potted plant I used earth ...
-2 votes
1 answer
28 views

Sprawling locomotion, are knee/elbow joints perpendicular to erect locomotion?

The first terrestrial animals used sprawling locomotion. Is the knee and elbow jointed perpendicular to the joints in erect locomotion? It is easy to assume so, based on how the limbs move in ...
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3 votes
1 answer
59 views

Bats observed hunting insect prey - any evidence of "handedness" (laterality) in circular flight pattern?

Whilst watching a bat hunting on the wing at dusk (most likely was a species common to my urban UK location, e.g. pipistrelle) its flight pattern around the garden comprised circles, several metres in ...
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1 vote
0 answers
52 views

Can this toad be approx 1cm long?

Recently the toad from this video has been identified as an American Toad inside this post in Reddit. The original video mentions it was filmed in White Clay Creek State Park, Newark, Delaware, USA. ...
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0 votes
1 answer
133 views

Can someone identify this worm?

The first time I saw these was in an old cooler full of water by my shed, there were 3 of them about 2 weeks ago. Now tonight I found one crawling up my door. Can anyone offer some insight? I have ...
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4 votes
1 answer
224 views

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. ...
0 votes
1 answer
130 views

confusion in types and kingdom system of classification

I am a high school student and I want to ask: is the 'kingdom system' of classification (two-kingdom, three-kingdom etc.) different from artificial or natural classification? I am asking this because ...
-6 votes
1 answer
82 views

Animal species anatomy [closed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal Do all animal species have two lungs and two kidneys similar to human beings?
0 votes
0 answers
56 views

Found lots of these insects on my study desk today. What are these? [duplicate]

I came home today, switched on the lights and saw many of these running around my study desk. Any help in identifying these little insects? The picture is zoomed in so it doesn't really do justice to ...
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1 vote
0 answers
42 views

Weird Black Worm (Possibly Flatworm?)

I was out walking one night (In Florida) when I spotted this creature sliding around in the grass. I believe it may be a New Guinea Flatworm, but not quite sure. Could anyone please provide a definite ...
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1 vote
0 answers
33 views

Animals with very high bite pressures

When media, such as this site wants to explain just how dangerous large animals are, they often quote bite-forces as pounds per square inch (psi). However, it appears that they mixed up the units, as ...
0 votes
0 answers
37 views

Why do Oak Processionary caterpillars form processions?

Firstly ,I don't live in Europe. I live in South India, and my garden has a Night Flowering Jasmine tree. And these trees are quite popular, but notorious for their caterpillars. In our region ,there ...
0 votes
0 answers
58 views

Need help identifying what looks to be a skull

( BOTTOM VIEW )I was given this skull(?) by someone a few years ago, it was found washed up on a beach in Panama. I collect bones so usually I’m really good at IDing skulls and I’ve spent some time ...
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