Fun fact: in Australia, some raptors, such as Black Kites, not only lurk around fires and feed on escaping prey, but also get embers and start new fires elsewhere bioone.org/journals/jou... Easy read: livescience.com/61375-fire-s... - ThreadSky

angryhacademic.bsky.social • 27 days ago

Fun fact: in Australia, some raptors, such as Black Kites, not only lurk around fires and feed on escaping prey, but also get embers and start new fires elsewhere
https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-ethnobiology/volume-37/issue-4/0278-0771-37.4.700/Intentional-Fire-Spreading-by-Firehawk-Raptors-in-Northern-Australia/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700.full
Easy read: https://livescience.com/61375-fire-spreading-raptors.html

Comments

angryhacademic.bsky.social•26 days ago

Fun fact: female Photuris fireflies do not produce lucibufagins (a toxic repellent against predators); instead they prey on male Photinus fireflies and acquire their lucibufagins to deter predation
https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.94.18.9723
Easy read: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/09/cornell-biologists-report-mimicry-and-murder-night

angryhacademic.bsky.social•25 days ago

Today's fun fact: bees enjoy playing with balls (regular balls not testicles, you filthy-minded monster), with kids and males being more playful
https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347222002366?via%3Dihub
Easy read: https://theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/27/bumblebees-playing-wooden-balls-bees-study

wildswim.bsky.social•24 days ago

😆

angryhacademic.bsky.social•24 days ago

Fun fact: a day on venus (243 Earth days) is longer than a year (225 Earth days). Sunrise to sunset takes over 100 Earth days, & rises from the west (opposite to Earth)
https://science.nasa.gov/venus/venus-facts/

angryhacademic.bsky.social•23 days ago

Fun fact: there are no known male whiptail lizards. These female lizard Queens 💁🏻‍♀️ reproduce asexually, buuut they still display (male-like) sexual behaviour which seems to improve fertility
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553382/
https://pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.83.24.9547
Easy read: https://theverge.com/2015/7/19/8994705/whiptail-lizard-parthenogenesis-unisexuality-badass

angryhacademic.bsky.social•22 days ago

Fun fact: as well as an iron shell (see here: https://bsky.app/profile/angryhacademic.bsky.social/post/3lmdaq6ufyc2t ), the volcano snail also has iron "armor" plates (sclerites) across its foot
https://academic.oup.com/mollus/article/81/3/322/1087877?login=false
Images: https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/03/discovered-in-the-deep-the-snail-with-iron-armour

angryhacademic.bsky.social•20 days ago

Fun fact: volcano snails live a whopping 2,780 m (~1.7 miles) deep in the sea in an extreme environment characterised by hydrogen sulfide

Their heart is relatively large (~4 % body mass) but for rather unexpected reasons...stay tuned to find out!
https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-015-0105-1

Posting Rules

Be respectful to others
No spam or self-promotion
Stay on topic
Follow Bluesky's terms of service

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply