Amazing Zoology

This article was originally posted at Marine invertebrates in close up This video shows tropical marine invertebrates in stunning detail. Time-lapse footage reveals the fascinating behaviour of marine invertebrates. Video Link You may also be interested in  Sea slug (Nudibranch) eating another sea slug

This article was originally posted at Fishes singing in chorus recorded; says new research Fish chorus? Our aquariums feel silent doesn’t mean fishes can’t product sounds. Only thing is, they make sounds that are not audible to human ears. Think of oceans, seems like a quiet place, but filled with lots of noises. Researchers from Exeter University and Curtin University, in Perth, Australia identified distinct choruses over an 18-month period, says a research article published in Bioacoustics. [1] Fishes can produce lots of calls. Some fish use their swim bladder to produce noises, releasing air through their mouths, while others use their teeth to make clicking sounds. These calls can be signals for location announcement, territorial disputes or mating calls. Nocturnal predatory fishes use calls to stay together to hunt, while fish that are active during the day use sound to defend their territory. When the same calls are repeated over and over by many fishes, they overlap t...

This article was originally posted at New ant species discovered from the stomach of a frog! New species of ant A new species of ant namely, Lenomyrmex hoelldobleri was discovered from the rainforests of Central and South America by a team led by Christian Rabeling, University of Rochester, New York. [1]  The ant genus Lenomyrmex is a recently described one with species distributed from mid to high elevation rainforests of Central and South America. Including this new addition, the genus consists of just seven species, which are rarely collected. The interesting fact is the place at which it was discovered. It was flushed out from the gut contents of an ant-eating dendrobatid poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica . Ant-eating frogs go for hunting in tiny and hard-to-access places. So these can be used as a tool to go where we can’t go. When capturing a wild frog and flushing their stomachs, the amphibians vomit whatever is in their bellies—revealing potential treasures, like ...

This article was originally posted at Stingrays can chew their food, like mammals [toc] Is chewing a unique mammalian feature? Unlike mammals, other animals usually don’t have the ability to chew their food. Chewing can be defined as the interaction of upper and lower teeth by compressing and shearing food in between. And the peculiarity of mammalian chewing is the opposable motion of upper and lower jaw. Chewing is a very recent evolutionary adaptation. There are a few animals along with mammals to do that. Chewing is estimated to have evolved some 60-70 million years during the diversification of mammals. Some scientists even believed chewing one of the key innovations that allowed mammals to flourish, by dining well on insects, grasses, and other abundant sources of food. Now, recent findings using high speed videography has given scientific evidence to show that chewing is not just a mammalian adaptation. Recent study [1]  reveals that ocellate river stingray ( Potam...

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology Recently at Smiths Beach in Yallingup, Western Australia, a lady named Porsche Indrisie indecently caught a video showing a small octopus bursting out of a tide pool to capture an unsuspecting crab. Common shallow-water octopuses are all carnivores. They envelop the prey and bite, injecting a neurotoxin. As long as their gills are wet, they can stay out of water for a minute or two without damage. It"s the suckers that often get fouled up if they traverse dry and coarse materials. This type of ambush hunting in tide pools is a common behavior for octopuses. Some species of octopus make this their primary habitat, so they are adapted to staying in tide pools and making very short forays for seconds, out of the water.

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology [toc] Why does drinking alcohol feels like burning? Everyone ever tasted alcohol knows the burning sensation it produces. But what is actually producing this burning sensation? New research clearly throws some light into it. There was a lot of misconceptions regarding how alcohol is producing this feeling. These were the old theories: Alcohol deprives water content out of our mucous epithelium. This drying up of mucous epithelium is producing the burning sensation. Alcohol absorbs water from tissues, but it is not the reason for the burning sensation! Alcohol expands blood vessels thereby increasing he circulation, which is producing the heat. Just tasting the alcohol won’t increase blood circulation. Only after consumption of alcohol that the circulation to stomach is increased. It irritates skin and produces the burning feeling. The truth is, it produces a cooling effect when comes in contact with the skin. This cooling e...