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Biology Fact of the Day

Started by Sophus, April 28, 2010, 05:29:04 AM

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Sophus

Would anybody happen to know of a website that allows you to subscribe for daily emails, similar to that of Dictionary's 'Word of the Day', only for facts about animals or plants? I'm so fascinated by all that's out there and I feel like I don't even know the half of it.
‎"Christian doesn't necessarily just mean good. It just means better." - John Oliver

Squid

Hmm, I know there's plenty of random science fact sites but I don't know any that you can subscribe to.  I had something like a science fact of the day thread on my old website but I went into a bit more detail about it than just one sentence.  When doubt, start a sticky thread.

joeactor

Well... here's a general science site I get weekly updates from:
http://www.world-science.net/

They also have a yahoo group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/WorldScience/

... at least some of it is biology.

So, I got that going for me,
JoeActor

Sophus

Thanks Joe!

Squid, what's a sticky?
‎"Christian doesn't necessarily just mean good. It just means better." - John Oliver

SSY

A thread that sticks to the top of the forum.

On a related note, what is brown and sticky?
[spoiler:1agwfxbl]A STICK![/spoiler:1agwfxbl]
Classic
Quote from: "Godschild"SSY: You are fairly smart and to think I thought you were a few fries short of a happy meal.
Quote from: "Godschild"explain to them how and why you decided to be athiest and take the consequences that come along with it
Quote from: "Aedus"Unlike atheists, I'm not an angry prick

karadan

Quote from: "SSY"On a related note, what is brown and sticky?
[spoiler:x9u2v9fv]A STICK![/spoiler:x9u2v9fv]
Classic

Lol. I love that joke.

Here's a bological fact i find super cool:

Some species of aphid can be pregnant with offspring which are themselves also pregnant with offspring. This is known as telescoping generations and reminds me of a Russian doll.
QuoteI find it mistifying that in this age of information, some people still deny the scientific history of our existence.

Squid

Quote from: "Sophus"Thanks Joe!

Squid, what's a sticky?

A sticky thread - a thread that stays on top of all the others for quick finding.

Sophus

Quote from: "Squid"A sticky thread - a thread that stays on top of all the others for quick finding.
Oh cool. Is it too late for that?/how do I do that?  :blush:
‎"Christian doesn't necessarily just mean good. It just means better." - John Oliver

SSY

You can't, only mods have the sticky sauce to stick things with.
Quote from: "Godschild"SSY: You are fairly smart and to think I thought you were a few fries short of a happy meal.
Quote from: "Godschild"explain to them how and why you decided to be athiest and take the consequences that come along with it
Quote from: "Aedus"Unlike atheists, I'm not an angry prick

Squid

Quote from: "Sophus"
Quote from: "Squid"A sticky thread - a thread that stays on top of all the others for quick finding.
Oh cool. Is it too late for that?/how do I do that?  :blush:

Well, if ya want you can either make a new thread or I can make this one a sticky if ya want and we can all start sharing our biology facts which I think is cool.

Sophus

Oh, I see. I like that idea!

I'll start off with this awesome little guy:



Looks like a snake, right? Well it's actually a caterpillar.
The Hawkmoth Caterpillar (Sphingidae) has a tail that mimics a snake's head to protect itself from predators. If that's not crazy cool I don't know what is.
‎"Christian doesn't necessarily just mean good. It just means better." - John Oliver

pinkocommie

Quote from: "Sophus"Oh, I see. I like that idea!

I'll start off with this awesome little guy:



Looks like a snake, right? Well it's actually a caterpillar.
The Hawkmoth Caterpillar (Sphingidae) has a tail that mimics a snake's head to protect itself from predators. If that's not crazy cool I don't know what is.

Seriously, that is crazy cool.  :D
Ubi dubium ibi libertas: Where there is doubt, there is freedom.
http://alliedatheistalliance.blogspot.com/

Tom62

#12
Here is another awesome guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Bsu4z9Y3k
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

SSY

Convergent evolution

If two animals exploit similar biological niches, they may eventually evolve features very similar to each other, but which their latest common ancestor did not have. These features are called homologous, sharing the same form but from different origins, as opposed to analogous, where features share the same origin, but may be different in form.

Example



The top image shows a legless lizard(Pygopodidae), and the second a snake(green boa). If we compare the top picture to this picture of a skink (another lizard)


we can clearly see the similarity in head shape. This shows that a variety of animals can evolve the same features, regardless of their origin, quite a nice example of natural selection.
Quote from: "Godschild"SSY: You are fairly smart and to think I thought you were a few fries short of a happy meal.
Quote from: "Godschild"explain to them how and why you decided to be athiest and take the consequences that come along with it
Quote from: "Aedus"Unlike atheists, I'm not an angry prick

karadan

The venom from a Funnel Web spider (atraxotoxin) is non-lethal to cats and dogs but highly lethal to primates.
They are also the stuff nightmares are made of.  :shock:

QuoteI find it mistifying that in this age of information, some people still deny the scientific history of our existence.