Our Amazing Bodies: Our hearts beat 100,000 times a day that's 3 billion in a lifetime. It pumps 2000 gallons of blood per day, 750000 a year, and 60 million in a lifetime! We live 30000 days so that's 30000 sunrise's sunsets and poops! Also ninety thousand meals. 23000 breaths a day, 8 million a year, 700 million in a lifetime! The average person walks a 100,000 miles in their life, that's 5 times around the equator! All animals are similarly blessed in a myriad of ways flying, swimming, and so forth.
Insects and arachnids are 65% to
85% of all creatures and central to all ecosystems. Insects pollinate 85% of
crops and are vectors for many serious illnesses. 80% of plants are angiosperms
(flowering plants) so require pollination. This accounts for 35% of human
foods. Some insects can lift a hundred times their weight. The scarab beetle
can lift 850 times its weight. The dung beetle can roll 1000 times its weight
which translates 280 tons for humans - 7 buses!
Incredible Arachnids: Flower crab spiders can change color from green to white to yellow to match their environment within a few days. Goliath tarantulas are bigger than your hand. Some tarantulas eat birds and live 20 years. The wheel spider cartwheels downhill to escape wasps at 300 kilometers per hour. Some insects eat their mother. Some spiders take down their web during the day so they aren't detected. Black Widow venom is worse than a rattlesnake. A diving bell spider makes its own air-filled underwater home with its web. Spiders can inundate the landscape and cover trees and bushes completely. Google spider swarms and you can see huge clumps of spiders - yuck!
Spiders can produce up to seven different types of silk, but most spiders can make four or five: Dragline: The strongest type of silk, used for support lines and the non-sticky spokes of a web. Attachment: Used to anchor a thread of silk to a surface or to another thread. Swathing: Used for wrapping and immobilizing prey. Egg sac: Used to make the outer silk of an egg sac.
Each type of silk is produced by a different silk gland in the spider's rear end, called a spinneret. Spiders use silk in many ways, including: Web building: The major and minor ampullate glands produce silk for web construction. Catching prey: The flagelliform and aggregate glands produce the sticky spiral of an orb web. One spider can even throw it’s silk to catch prey! Wrapping prey: The aciniform gland produces silk for wrapping captured prey. Attaching to a surface: The pyriform gland produces glue-like silk for attaching the web to a surface. Spider silk is stronger than any man-made or natural fiber on Earth. It's made of connected chains of proteins that give it strength, and unconnected chains that make it flexible.
Other Amazing Animals: Pit vipers can sense infrared to see in the dark. The mantis shrimp can see in 12 colors and in three images. For us it's one image. We can only see in three colors, dogs in two. Mantis attack their prey at the speed of a bullet with such great force that if we had 1/3 of it we could throw a baseball into orbit. They attack with a club. It goes so fast it creates a shock wave that knocks out their prey. The Jesus Lizard can run on water.
The archerfish can shoot a stream of water 5 ft to knock insects out and into the water. Tigers can weigh up to 720 lb and eat 12 lb of meat per day, up to 60 at a sitting, and have night vision six times better than us. The immortal jellyfish can transform into a polyp colony of hundreds of clones! The exploding ant explodes it-‘s abdomen to coat it’s attackers with a slimy goo. Other ants spray their enemies with formic acid.
The mimic octopus can mimic fifteen animals shape, color, and behavior. A snake, crab, shrimp, fish, Etc. The Platypus can sense electrical fields underwater because it has flaps to cover its eyes and ears. The parasite wasp lays eggs on their ant prey and turns them into zombies until it matures. The tardigrade (water bear) can survive -450 degrees and 300 degrees above zero. It can also survive huge pressures, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, radiation, and can dry out and replace its bodies water with sugar then reverse it when water becomes available.
Many lizards can lose their tails many times and simply regrow them. The tail stores fat and nutrients so it can shorten their life by nearly half if lost too often. The tail is so nutrient dense other animals know this and may choose the tail instead of a fight for the whole lizard. In fact, if the lizard is very hungry or the tail is damaged it will eat it itself!
Some geckos can shed their skin/scales when attacked. Another can pump air into a small bubble under its scales just above its nose to use as a scuba tank and stay under water up to 18 minutes. Other geckos can change their color to match the environment even if they are blindfolded as the skin itself sense the surrounding color. Tilapias, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods can do this too. Prasinohemus skinks have green skin, bones, blood, and tongues.
A 1300 year old Lotus seed sprouted. Insects can survive for 50 years asleep, a snail can go 3 years, many animals go 7 to 8 months barely breathing and the heart barely beating. Certain snakes and frogs can actually stop their breathing and heartbeat. The frog can even freeze as it’s blood turns into a kind of anti-freeze!
Hydro vulgaris has no mouth or anus so, it tears open its skin to feed or poop then heals it. It can be cut in half to make two individuals. Even put through a blender it will reanimate! More than one head may grow until one becomes dominant and the other fades. This is because half its body is stem cells, so can rebuild itself. Stem cells are like Legos, you can build all kinds of (living) things out of them. They can reproduce sexually or bud polyps on their own. They also live forever, where as our stem cells and bodies age and wear out with time.
Flatworms can be cut into 200 pieces and every one of them heals to a complete adult because they have a lot of stem cells. They can have their heads and tails cut off and if stimulated they can grow 2 heads or 2 tails. The offspring will continue to have 2 heads until they cut one off and stimulate a tail. If you expose them to barium their heads will explode, but they can adapt to it to survive, and grow a new head within a few days. All this even though it's not found in their environment so is completely foreign to them.
Picasso Frogs created by Michael Levin and his team. They stimulate eyes and jaws and mouths in the wrong place yet the organs travel to the correct position, and if they overshoot they go back until they are in the correct place. Xenobots. They take the skin from a frog embryo and set it loose in water it acts like an animal searching for food. If they put tiny pieces of skin in with the xenobots it will collect them to make new creatures, so they can do reproduction too!
Metamorphosis: 65% of all animals go through some level of metamorphosis, including 80% of insects such as beetles, flies, bees, ants, moss, and butterflies. Some up to 15 stages. Studies have shown insects can even remember things after going through metamorphosis. It happens in private and at their own pace. A good lesson for us all. Some insects go through a partial or incomplete metamorphosis where the adults are similar to the larvae, but many change to something completely different at each stage.
Some parts of the adult develop and move into place others grow from their final location. Some amphibians and fish undergo metamorphosis too. Tadpoles go from vegetarians to carnivores as their intestine shrinks and they turn into frogs. One hormone does it all in amphibians. Flatfish start out like most fish but then their eyes move to one side as they lay on the bottom on their side. Eels have four stages also. Complete metamorphosis goes through four stages. Egg, larva, pupa, adult. Some larvae do not have sexual organs and some adults don't have mouths or poop.
Metamorphosis is a process where an organism undergoes dramatic physical changes as it matures. The word comes from the Greek word for "change of form". Here are some examples of metamorphosis: Butterflies and moths: These insects undergo complete metamorphosis, which has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The larva stage is also known as the caterpillar stage, and the pupa stage is also known as the chrysalis stage.
Frogs and toads: These amphibians undergo metamorphosis as they transition from aquatic larvae (tadpoles) to terrestrial adults. Fish: Many fish, like salmon, undergo metamorphosis as they move from fresh water to salt water and back to fresh water. A butterfly chrysalis is not a cocoon made from silk rather the skin of the larvae. New structures such as wings form from imaginal discs while still in the caterpillar stage. Imagine that!
Embryology is amazing because it provides a window into the intricate process of how a single cell develops into a complex organism, revealing the fundamental mechanisms of life, offering insights into the origins of different body structures, and serving as strong evidence for evolutionary relationships between species, all while providing crucial information for understanding and treating developmental abnormalities in humans.
Five Key points how embryology is fascinating: 1. Understanding the origins of life: By studying embryos, scientists can observe the very early stages of development, from fertilization to the formation of different body systems, offering a unique perspective on the beginnings of life. 2. Evolutionary evidence: Embryos of different species often show striking similarities in their early stages, providing strong evidence for common ancestry and the theory of evolution.
3. Medical applications: Studying embryology is crucial for understanding the causes of birth defects and congenital abnormalities, which can lead to better diagnosis and treatment options. 4. Complexity in simplicity: Despite the seemingly simple process of cell division, the intricate mechanisms that control cell differentiation and patterning during embryonic development are fascinating to study. 5. Visual appeal: Advanced imaging techniques allow scientists to observe the dynamic process of embryogenesis in real-time, providing stunning visuals of development.
Animal Migrations: The Arctic tern migrates 55,923 miles each year between the Arctic and Antarctic, making it the world's longest migration. The bar-tailed godwit bird migrates 6,835 miles nonstop between New Zealand and China in nine days, making it the longest nonstop flight of any bird. Caribou hold the record for the longest land migration, with some herds traveling over 3,000 miles in a year. Great Migration: This annual migration in Africa involves herds of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, and other antelope species. They migrate in a loop through Tanzania and Kenya, following seasonal rains.
Animals migrate for many reasons, including to find food. They can migrate by land, sea, or air, and often travel in large numbers across vast distances. Animals that migrate successfully are more likely to survive the winter and produce healthier young. However, human activities can disrupt migration pathways, making it difficult for animals to access food and habitat. According to the State of the World's Migratory Species report, 20% of the planet's migratory animals face extinction threats.
Microscopic Machines: (Flagellum, Kinesin, DNA, and Topoisomerase) A flagellum is a tiny rotary engine on the end of bacteria with a propeller shaped like a corkscrew. Flagellum allow bacteria to move with remarkable speed and precision due to its intricate, complex molecular machinery. It is composed of numerous precisely assembled protein parts, making it a prime example of biological complexity at the cellular level.
Flagellum key points: Complex structure: A flagellum consists of multiple protein components including a basal body (motor), a hook (joint), and a filament (propeller), all working together seamlessly. Rotary motion: Unlike cilia which move in a back-and-forth motion, a flagellum rotates like a propeller, allowing for rapid movement. Chemotaxis: Bacteria use their flagella to sense chemical gradients in their environment, allowing them to move towards attractants and away from repellents. Irreducible complexity: The intricate design of the flagellum is often cited as an example of "irreducible complexity" in the debate on evolution, meaning that all parts of the system must be present and functioning properly for it to work.
Kinesin is a motor protein that moves along microtubules in a coordinated walking motion. It moves quickly and efficiently, converting chemical energy into motion four times more efficiently than a car. Kinesin moves proteins, organelles, vesicles, and mRNAs from the center of the cell to the periphery. The microtubules are amazing as well. They like a pipe that the Kinesin walk on. They self-assemble just ahead of the Kinesin from when the cargo is stored to where it is needed. It’s like a road that appears just ahead of trucks to take them from the warehouse to where they need to go.
DNA is the blueprints of life, and as new cells are grown, each one needs a new DNA strand of its own. As you probably have seen (if not, look it up!), DNA, look like ladders that have been twisted. DNA replication is the biological process where a double-stranded DNA molecule is copied to produce two identical DNA molecules, ensuring that each new cell created during cell division has a complete set of genetic information, identical to the parent cell.
The replication process is amazing. The DNA must be untwisted, cut down the middle, and new parts added to each half, then coiled back up again. It is twisted so it can fit into our cells, as each strand if uncoiled, would be six feet long! This process involves helicase enzymes to unwind the DNA, primase to initiate replication, and polymerase to add new parts (nucleotides), creating two new strands based on the original. This cell growth and DNA replication happens 50-70 million times each day inside us! To see this wonder in action, search DNA replication in YouTube, it's worth a look!
Topoisomerase, microscopic enzyme machines that untangle DNA are also amazing. As the helicase unwind the DNA the twisting transfers down the DNA like a twisted rope. Eventually it would bind up and stop or break if not for the topoisomerases. There are two types, one cuts just one side of the strand, lets it untwist a bit, then reconnects it. The second type somehow finds tangles and cuts the DNA clear through, drops the tangle through to untangle it, then reconnects it. Without these incredible micro machines, life would be impossible. And this isn't just in animals, plant cells do the same thing!