Animal World

If you still think that whales are fish, you’d better change that mind just now. Well, it really seems like a fish, huge fish, but in fact, it’s not a fish. There are many differences between fish and whales. Whales are much bigger than fish. Fish stay underwater all the time and breathe through gills that take oxygen out of water. Whales breathe through lungs just as you do, so they must come up for air.

Whales are mammals, and they have some common signs like other mammals, like breathe the air into lungs ( You know, fishes use gills to breathe), they have hair (and you can’t compare it to land mammals who have lot more hair),  warm blooded, four-chambered heart, and have mammary glands. What about fish? Come on, fish  lay eggs. It has no mammary glands

Credit : naturescrusaders 

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Fish, diverse group of animals that live and breathe in water.  All fishes are vertebrates (animals with backbones) with gills for breathing. Thefinding about fish and its history shows that about 15,000 new species are still discovered every year, from psychedelic fish to pink millipedes, and from lungless frogs to the Dracula fish. And, the strangest fish in my mind of all is : Dracula Fish.

It called dracula, must be for a certain reason. It has been reported in NewScientist, that Danionella dracula has been found. Danionella expert Ralf Britz of the Natural History Museum in London, mentioned, Dracula fish” is the only member of the 3700-strong Cypriniformes group to have vampire-like fangs on its top and bottom jaws, which the males use to impress each other and to settle squabbles over territory. With its teeth still exist, it looks like it really evolved something new. The Dracula fish’s DNA has been compared with that of zebrafish and other members of the family. And Britz estimates that the bony fangs evolved within 30 million years of the family losing its true teeth. Wow! This fact makes me really curious, how could this teeth still exist? What are these teeth made of?

(Image: The Natural History Museum, London)

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Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria, that have several different morphologies that represent several different cnidarian classes including the Scyphozoa (over 200 species), Staurozoa (about 50 species), Cubozoa (about 20 species), and Hydrozoa.

They are not really fish. Jellyfish have stomachs and mouths, but no heads. They have nervous systems for sensing the world around them, but no brains. They are made almost entirely of water, which is why you can look through them.

Adult jellyfish are shaped like an open umbrella or a bell. Most jellyfish eat fish, tiny creatures called plankton, and even other jellyfish. Some jellyfish are very small, no larger than a marble. Others are quite large. The largest jellyfish can grow to about 7 feet (about 2 meters) across and weigh hundreds of pounds! Jellyfish may be blue, orange, pink, yellow, purple, and other colors. Some jellyfish can glow in darkness by making their own light. The light is made by a chemical reaction inside the jellyfish. Scientists believe jellyfish glow for several reasons. For example, they may glow to scare away predators or to attract animals they like to eat.

Credit : topnews 

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Everybody must be agree if I say that cockroach is disgusting. Most people hate  cockroaches.

But maybe, after having a serious reading on this article, you may find another view about cockroach.  OK then, here they are, cockroach facts!

1. A cockroach can live for 3-4 weeks without its head. And you thought decapititation solved everything. Don’t you think this is scarying? Don’t they need the head as the brain is inside it? Ouw, we gotta get a discussion on this.

2. In a nuclear war which would level the Earth, cockroaches would be the only survivors. An article from Australian Broadcasting Corporation has explained this. The scientist mentioned that cockroaches have a great ability to absorb radiation, about 6-15 times of human’s. Wow!

3. Young cockroaches only need a crack about 0.5mm wide to crawl into your house. Adult males can squeeze into a space of 1.6mm.

4. No food for a month–not even a crumb? Roaches can go without eating for a month but will only live a week without water. German cockroaches even can survive for up to one month without food and two weeks without water.

5. If a cockroach breaks a leg it can grow another one. Wow, this one is so fantastic huh?

6. The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old – 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs!

‘Till this line, don’t you think that most of the facts are scarying? :p

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Take a look at this picture. Perhaps you think it looks like a frog–amphibians. Well, it’s really an amphibian. But you know, it’s not an old species. It’s a new species that has been found in Madagascar by the researchers at Spanish Scientific Research Council.

Report on ScienceDaily showed that according to the researchers, if these results are extrapolated at a global scale, the number of amphibian species worldwide could double. Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid said that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas, from their data.

As it is taken in the animal cartoon movie “Escape to Madagascar”, this island known to be really large, the fourth largest island in the world. No wonder, this island become one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

Source and Credit : ScienceDaily

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Related to honey bee colony depopulation syndrome, scientist from Spain have isolated the parasite. They analyzed two apiaries and managed to find the evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome.

It looks that there’s no evidence of other desease, other than the infection of the parasite that is known as Nocema ceranae. 

It has been predicted that the loss of honeybee could affect holticultural and economic aspect, because they ara the essential part in crops, fruid and flower pollination.

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What is the first single thing coming through your mind, to see a butterfly wing? Beautiful! Certainly it is. God creates a perfect pattern on its wings.

You know what, butterfly can attract mates and ward off predators using different side of their wings. This is the result of the study from biologist at Yale University. See the complete report here.

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Bacteria. First you heard this word, the thought comes up through your mind can be vary. There may be a hate to bacteri because this little animal can cause disease. That’s true, but of course we can’t generalize bactery, as it depends on its kind.

Well, there are some bacterias that can work and help human to guard the environment. Even, we can lay on the green technology of environmental protection to them.

Actually, there is a big potential of bacteria in the fuel cell tecnology, as well as biofuel. Many scientists all over the world still working on this.

Let’s see what Kevin O’Connor working at. His team at University College Dublin, Ireland, was trying to find a way to convert cheap PET plastic bottles into something more valuable, because despite their ubiquity these bottles are rarely worth recycling commercially. They try the bacterial approach, and found strains of Pseudomonas soil bacteria near a PET bottle processing plant that feed on PET, and convert it into a more valuable polymer, PHA. Each bacterium gorges on PET to the point that it becomes 24% PHA plastic by volume.

Untill this way, is it too much if I call them the engineer bactery? What a great work Kevin Kevin O’Connor and the team has done!

Credit and Source : NewScientist

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If you ask, “What animal that can see two different places without moving its neck?” Jackson Chameleon is the answer.

Each of this native African reptile eyes are able to move independently. The secret is the chameleon’s turret eyes. Unlike our eyes, which are sunken into protective, bony sockets, the Jackson’s eyes stick out from either side of its head on raised turrets. It upper and lower eyelids are joined, with only a pinhole large enough for the pupil to see through. More over, they can rotate and focus separately to observe two different objects simultaneously. It in effect gives them a full 360-degree arc of vision around their body.

When the chameleon spots a tasty meal with one eye, it swivels the other eye in the same direction. This gives the chameleon stereoscopic vision, or the ability to see a single image instead of two, allowing it to judge the distance between itself and its prey.

But hang on, The Jackson’s chameleon also has a “third eye” — a small spot on its head sensitive to violet and blue light. Although it can’t form images, this third eye, which is covered in scales, may help the chameleon tell when the sun is rising or setting.

What an amazing eyes ability to use when we hang out, ya?  :)

Source: animal.discovery, allsands

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Mosquito, a tiny creature and yet a fearsome enemy for human. These nasty, blood-sucking, itchy, irritating insect, is also known as disease-carrying pests. They transmit viruses and parasite while they blood feasting. Yellow fever, Dengue, and West Nile virus for example, or malaria and filariasis.

However, mosquitoes do not transmit HIV or AIDS. Thanks to Studies that conducted by the Centers for Disease Control. It said that there are no evidence of HIV transmission from mosquitoes in places with many cases of AIDS and large populations of mosquitoes. One reason for this lack of transmission of the disease is the nature of insect biting behavior. When an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person’s or animal’s blood into the next person bitten. Instead it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant so the insect can feed efficiently. Other diseases such as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through the saliva of specific species of mosquitoes.

But, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect. Therefore even if the virus enters a mosquito, the insect does not become infected and can’t transmit HIV to the next human it bites.

Well, I hope this info is useful. Catch more interesting facts and trivia about this fascinating insect here. At the mean time, watch out for the bites folks!

Credit : Squidoo 

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