Fun Facts

[Sideways]

The mantis is the only animal known to have one ear, which is located in the middle of their chest (courtesy of my failed attempt to finish a NYT crossword the other day).

Originally thought to be deaf, they can actually hear ultrasonic frequencies. Which is especially cool.

Although, I still can’t quite get rid of the image of waking up one morning and seeing an ear growing out of the middle of my chest…

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

The mantis is the only animal known to have one ear, which is located in the middle of their chest (courtesy of my failed attempt to finish a NYT crossword the other day).

Originally thought to be deaf, they can actually hear ultrasonic frequencies. Which is especially cool.

Although, I still can’t quite get rid of the image of waking up one morning and seeing an ear growing out of the middle of my chest…

Would that be the wild front ear?

 

[Rose White]

Romantic poet Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace is regarded by many historians to have invented computer programming.

 

[Rose White]

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is currently consuming another galaxy, The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.

 

[Friday]

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is currently consuming another galaxy, The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.

Nom nom nom.

 

[Rose White]

Insects can feel chronic pain.

Study Finds Insects Can Experience Chronic Pain

Injured fruit flies still experience nerve pain after healing, a finding that could lead the way to more non-opioid pain medications

www.smithsonianmag.com

Scientists cut off part of one leg on fruit flies and then tested the sensitivity of the flies to heat. The flies with the cut leg (which had healed) left a heated room at lower temperatures than those without the previous injury. The idea is that the fruit flies are hyper-sensitive to pain for the rest of their wee little lives.

The scientists determined that it was due to some pain channels in the ventral nerve cords (analogous to our spinal cords) becoming “left open” by the severed nerve sending non-stop messages of pain.

I mean, to me it makes sense that insects would feel pain because living things need to have a way to interact with the environment in a way that preserves their energy and their very lives.

 

[parrotthepolly]

You can see the back of your head in the event horizon of a black hole.

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

albino individuals of many species of birds, amphibian and reptile are often yellow (or orange), because albinism is absence of melanins, and these animals have other, additional pigments, normally carotenoids which are used for yellow, orange or red.

albino corn snakes are orange, albino budgies and ball pythons are yellow, unless they are axantic as well, which is the absence of yellow(++) pigments.

in animals with melanins and carotenoids (or other type of yellow pigments), like the above mentioned, there are often white, and yellow albinos, depending on if the individual has their yellow pigments or not.



blue budgies are axanthic, they have only melanins (melanins are the basis for birds’ reflective, structurally blue feathers) and no carotenoids.

 

[Friday]

albino individuals of many species of birds, amphibian and reptile are often yellow (or orange), because albinism is absence of melanins, and these animals have other, additional pigments, normally carotenoids which are used for yellow, orange or red.

albino corn snakes are orange, albino budgies and ball pythons are yellow, unless they are axantic as well, which is the absence of yellow(++) pigments.

in animals with melanins and carotenoids (or other type of yellow pigments), like the above mentioned, there are often white, and yellow albinos, depending on if the individual has their yellow pigments or not.



blue budgies are axanthic, they have only melanins (melanins are the basis for birds’ reflective, structurally blue feathers) and no carotenoids.

Fact check problem, what I know the book I read it in, but I can’t find it. Will double back when I find the book, about anoxic (not axanthic) blue birds/flowers becoming Pink when exposed to the chemical. (It’s a dioxide, like steel rusting via oxidation; but specifically linked to birds & plants that are blue without exposure, and pink with exposure. Vexing. My O-chem is wildly out of date. I SHOULD/do know this, but cannot recall my references).

 

[Rose White]

Biology nerd here

white, and yellow albinos, depending

I remember when the first piebald and then leucistic ball pythons were bred—stunning! Leucistic is where they lack some pigment or combination of pigments but still retain it in other parts. In the leucistic ball python they have ivory white scales and normal dark eyes. Leucistic parrots have a similar look, white with normal eyes. An albino parrot would be yellow with pink eyes. A piebald ball python looks like it was dipped in white paint—normal color interspersed with pure white patches.

Unfortunately the amount of inbreeding and linebreeding necessary to achieve leucism often results in unwanted fragility in the vitality of the organism—since chromosomes are such a random assortment of traits, when you pull out certain aesthetic traits they are often inevitably linked to unforeseen maladaptive traits or even just a lack of vigor—poor eating, poor immunity, odd behavior, or inability to breed. And there are often dozens, if not more, of unwanted “normal” (sold as hets with the potential to produce the desired aesthetic offspring) baby snakes, since the desired aesthetic is such a rare combination of genes (due to it being maladaptive for survival.)

becoming Pink when exposed to the chemical

I wonder if you are thinking of anthocyanin-based ph sensitivity? It’s what causes morning glory flowers to change color as they age (from blue to pink) and hydrangeas to change color depending on the soil ph. The anthocyanin pigment molecule changes structure depending on the concentration of hydrogen ions in the cell. Red cabbage and pomegranate juice show this property too. When the molecule changes structure (due to it gaining or losing protons which are hydrogen ions) its absorption spectrum shifts, meaning it absorbs and reflects different wavelengths of light.

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

love to see a fellow bio nerd

I remember when the first piebald and then leucistic ball pythons were bred—stunning!

yeah! interestingly piebald budgies go yellow patched instead of white (unless they’re axanthic), because their pied mutations only affect melanin, but as far as ive seen snakes always go white patched. wonder what it is about snake piebaldism that inhibits expression of all their pigment in those areas instead of just melanin.

Unfortunately the amount of inbreeding and linebreeding necessary to achieve leucism often results in unwanted fragility in the vitality of the organism—

yeah, such a shame how bad people let it get just to get some morphs. same goes for all animals but the neurological stuff in some mutations of ball pythons is sad! they’ve done it with domestic pigeons too, but that’s more in relation to breeding for anatomical differences where the neuro issues have been concentrated, than for color.

i love love genetics but always disheartening to see people disregard health.





nother fun fact:
there are two types of melanin that appear on the skin/hair of people and animals; eumenalin and pheomelanin. eumelanins are responsible for black, grey and browns, while pheomelanins are responsible for cream, ginger and “reds”. people (and animals) who are ginger express high levels of pheomelanin and low levels of eumelanin than other people.

in cats, the gene responsible for suppressing eumelanin is sex linked to the X chromosome, which is why only female cats can naturally be tortoiseshell. while (typical) male cats can only be orange or not orange. tortoiseshell cats are an example of co-dominance in genetics, expressing both “orange” and “not orange” in patches, instead of just one.
male tortoiseshells are either XXY or chimeras (often fusing of two embryos). chimeras can reproduce but will function as whatever genotype their reproductive cells belong to.
chimerism is also responsible for things like dilute and solid colors in the same coat (ie. black cat/dog with grey patches)

 

[Rose White]

*high fives fellow bio nerd*

If you like genetics check out the website “Messy Beast”. It’s older but it’s chock full of rare photos and interesting content.

wonder what it is about snake piebaldism

I suspect that it’s just the word being used differently. Because like leucism in snake breeding is the all white with dark eyes—no matter what species shows it. But leucism in general just means “whitish” (according to Wikipedia) so like a “splash” chicken (white with randoms spots of color) might be called a piebald pigeon (same color pattern) and on the Wikipedia article a piebald was a form of leucism.

they’ve done it with domestic pigeons

Omg what they’ve done to domestic pigeons goes WAY beyond what has been done to dogs and cats in terms of cruelty, in my opinion. Parlor rollers?? (Bred to tumble on the ground when they try to fly and are tossed like bocce balls). Owl pigeons with beaks so tiny they can’t feed their babies? The fan tails whose necks are crooked so far over their backs that they look straight up? I could go on. I showed my students a picture of a Bokhara trumpeter and asked them to guess what it was. It’s almost difficult to recognize as a bird. The head isn’t even visible in many individuals. Ah, humans… strange lot!