Daily Dose Of Interesting Information

[Visalakshi Ramani]

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# 109. Built-in-food supply.

African viviparous toad which does not lay eggs but gives birth to live young ones. Courtesy Google images.

A few frogs produce live young ons with built-in-food supply.The larvae of these species are nourished while they are growing from an egg yolk which is born with them.

In the African toad the embryos take nourishment direct from their mother.

They feed on the secretion from the inside walls of the oviduct- the tube through which the eggs leave the ovary.

They are born as fully developed tiny replicas of the adult.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 110. Alpine salamander.

Alpine salamander. Courtesy Google Images.

Some female amphibians protect their eggs and the young by carrying them inside their bodies.

The alpine salamander passes through all the stages from an egg into the tiny adult inside its mother's body.

The animals live in low temperatures. It takes two to three years before a litter of just two salamanders is born.The young ones are able to live on land and breathe air immediately.

Fire salamanders also grow inside their mother's body.
They are born in water and have gills for breathing.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 111. Born to fly!

A Golden eagle in flight. Courtesy Google Images.

The bones of the modern birds have adapted well for their flight. The entire skeleton weighs less than the weight of the bird's feathers!

The bones are hollow and are braced by internal struts. They are honeycombed and filled with air sacs.

The sacs are connected to the lungs so that during the fight air flows through them.This speeds up the supply of oxygen to the body tissues.

Even the beak is modified to reduce weight. Unlike the human jaw which is made of thick heavy bone, the bird's beaks are made of light weight bones and do not have teeth.

The design is so light and strong that the golden eagle which can have a wing span of 7.5 feet weighs less than
four kilograms.

 

[sadasivam.sridharan]

This proves that the God Almighty is the super aeronautical wizard.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Not just that! He has streamlined everything He has created.

The fish are designed to swim in the most efficient manner.

The birds are designed to be of least weight, and yet have the maximum wing power in their streamlined bodies.

All our inventions pale into insignificance. They are no more than hopeless copies of the amazing things found in nature.

Surely God does NOT waste either His material or His time on useless substandard things - barring the human beings!:doh:

This proves that the God Almighty is the super aeronautical wizard.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The low density part of a bird's bone resembles this structure!
It has less weight but more strength and is distortion resistant.
Courtesy Google Images.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

#112. The largest egg.


Courtesy Google Images.

The largest egg among living birds is laid by the ostrich.The egg weighs 1.4 K.G (~ 3 pounds) but forms only 1.4% of the body weight of the bird.

Smaller birds lay proportionately larger eggs.

The largest egg by % of body weight is laid by Kiwi the small flightless bird of New Zealand.

Its egg weighs only 0.5 kilogram but is 20% of the bird's body weight!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 113. Compost incubator.

A mallee fowl. Courtesy Google images.

Most birds use their own body heat to incubate their eggs.

But the mallee fowl makes it own smart incubator from the rotting vegetation.

The eggs are buried in a composite heap of rotting vegetation. The male bird monitors the temperature of the incubator with its bill ( a thermometer?)

It adds or removes the covering of sand so that the temperature is maintained at 33 degree C.

The eggs are laid one by one over a period extending to six months but hatch singly.

The care given to the eggs is not extended to the chicks. They have to fend for themselves soon after hatching.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 114. what makes them pink?

Courtesy Google images.

Flamingos, the large long legged wading birds that inhabit African lakes have a distinctive pink colouration.

All flamingos have some pink in their plumage but the rosy flamingo is entirely pink.

This lovely colour is derived from the carotenoid pigments which are present in the microscopic plants and animals these birds eat.

Without this natural food, their pink colour fades and their breeding behaviour changes. They become literally
off-colour.

Also it proves the statement "We are what we eat!"

"Annaath Bhavanthi Bhoothaani!" is how it is put in
Sanskrit.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 115. Desalination plants.

A soaring seabird. Courtesy Google images.

Sea birds have runny noses. Do you know why?
The sea birds have a special hazard - excess consumption of salty water while feeding.

Excess of salt is poisonous. It leads to dehydration and unnecessary load on the kidneys.

The excess salt is disposed off by the special salt glands in the head of the bird.

These glands discharge highly concentrated salt solution into the bird's nostrils to drip back into the sea.

This built-in-desalination plant is so efficient that the bird never needs a drink of fresh water.

The fresh water needed by the bird is extracted from the sea water itself.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 116.Another Peter Pan?

Axolotl salamanders. Courtesy Google Images.

As long as it lives in water, the axolotl salamander of Mexico keeps its youthful appearance for life.

It retains its feathery external gills and the shape of the tadpole. It can even breed in this form.

If the lake dries up, the salamander changes into its adult form with lungs in place of gills.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 117. Tropical tree frogs.

The foam nest churned up by the tungara frogs
The dots are the eggs. Courtesy Google images.

Tropical tree frog can churn up a foam nest for its young ones. As the eggs are laid, the slime surrounding them is whipped up into a thick froth by the hind legs of the frogs.

Some frogs even stick leaves to the outside of these foam nests. The inner part of the foam forms a protected little pond for the developing tadpoles.

The developing tadpoles drop down from the nest and complete their development in the water of the pond.
It normally grows to a length of 8 inches.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 118. Under water incubator.

A beautiful tree frog from South American rain forests.
Courtesy Google images.

Some South American tree frogs dig a nest pit in the bank of a pond or stream such that water can seep into the pit.

This creates a natural under water incubator in which the young ones are kept warm.

These incubators also protects the young from the predators which might lurk in the larger and more open areas of water.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 119. Nursery high on a tree.

Courtesy Google images.

Some tree frogs of tropical South American forests lay their eggs in the packets of water that collect at the bases of leaves in the bromeliads high in trees.

The young frogs have a safe nursery high up and often spend most of their time in the bromeliads.

They come to live on earth only hen they are fully grown.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 120. The midwife toad.

A male midwife toad with the string of eggs wound round its hind legs.
Courtesy Google images.

In the case of midwife toads, it is the male and not the female that cares for the young ones.

He gathers up the strings of eggs after they are laid. He winds them round his hind legs!

He dips his legs periodically in the pool to dampen the eggs and keep them alive.

He returns to the water for hatching the eggs after about three weeks.
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[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 121. The marsupial frog.

The young ones develop in the individual pouches on the back of the frog.
Courtesy Google Images.

In the marsupial frogs, the female has a pouch under the skin of her back in which the eggs are carried.

The tadpoles may leave the pouch as soon as the eggs are hatched.

But some of them stay on till they develop fully into little frogs.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

122. The Pipa pipa.

A surinam toad with its eggs on her back
Courtesy Google Images.

The Surinam toad lives permanently in water. The female hatches any number up to 60 eggs on her back- after they have been fertilized by the male.

The eggs stick to her skin and they grow up around them. Each egg is contained in its own protective pocket.

The young ones develop in these little cradles.They emerge as miniature adults after about 12 weeks.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 123. Oozing Poison.

Poison dart frogs with bright colors which seem to warn,"Keep off!"
Courtesy Google Images.


A deadly venom is obtained from the skin glands of the arrow poison frog of South America.

It is still being used by the Indian hunters to kill small animals and birds.

The frogs are roasted over a fire and the venom exuding from their skins is collected and used to coat the tips of the arrows of the hunters.

The frogs produce the venom to protect themselves from the other predators such as lizards and snakes.

Their brightly colored skins and the brilliant mosaics of red, yellow, orange and blue serve to remind the predators that they are too dangerous to be eaten.

 

[Haridasa Siva]

In China, where superstitions about numbers are common, retailers make sure that the first two non-zero digits in product prices include lucky numbers. In the process, they usually raise the prices. Such manipulations inflate retailers’ revenues by as much as 4.2% a year – a total increase that amounts to more than 1% of China’s GDP.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 124. The skin is the lungs!

A Telmatobius. Courtesy Google Images.

Most amphibians breathe with gills in water when they are larvae and in air with lungs when they become adults.

But there are land-living, cave-dwelling and tree climbing species which have neither gills nor lungs. they breathe using their moist skins!

Frogs of the genus Telmatobius live under water in the high Andes. They can absorb oxygen from the cold water directly through their skins.

Some Telmatobius which live in the muddy depths of the deep lakes have evolved loose baggy skins to improve their ability to breath in the oxygen poor deep water.

 

[zebra16]

I will read this thread only when info about dolphins, pandas, lions, tigers, polar bears etc. are posted.

Not interested in frogs, tadpoles, sharks, reptiles etc.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

But I am, since I seem to be surrounded by them! :shocked:

I will read this thread only when info about dolphins, pandas, lions, tigers, polar bears etc. are posted.

Not interested in frogs, tadpoles, sharks, reptiles etc.

 

[Naina_Marbus]

:suspicious:

But I am, since I seem to be surrounded by them! :shocked:

Have you posted beyond 820 comparisons of "EAST meets West" or did I miss further postings? Anyhow, here is one that just flashed my mind:
:tongue1:
It takes one to know one.
பாம்பின் கால் பாம்பறியும்
Pardon me if it has already found a place in your posts.:behindsofa:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

68(a). பாம்பின் கால் பாம்பறியும்.
68(b). Set a thief to catch a thief.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 125. The hairy frog of Cameroons.

A hairy frog of Cameroon during mating season.
Courtesy Google images.

The hairy frog of the Cameroons appears to make use of its skin to breathe.

During the mating season, the male grows thin, hair like pieces of skin on its flanks and hind legs.

Scientists believe that this extra skin surface helps the male to absorb more oxygen during the period of the peak activity.