Plants and Animals

If you think of Pythagoras, you will probably see an image of an old man with a beard in a tunic, probably looking at the triangle and making goo-goo eyes. The philosopher is often credited with making scientific and mathematical discoveries that have bothered you for many years, starting with the identification of the morning and evening stars as Venus: the Pythagorean Theorem. He was also, to be fair to him; pie. Pythagoras had somewhat strange beliefs, even for his time. You probably weren’t taught math that he ran a community that forbade followers to wear fur and forced them to wear sandals right before their left. The class would have been a bit slower if all her children had wanted to know her thoughts about flip-flops. The best part of his faith, however, relates to beans.

Pythagoras, you see, believed that when you die your soul is transferred to another creature. Although we don’t know for sure, it has been claimed that he stopped eating meat to prevent such a bizarre situation of accidentally eating a dead friend. The old triangles not only believed this, he further believed that humans and beans came from the same source – why not – and decided to do an experiment to prove it. He found a bunch of beans and buried them, observing how it was done with very few people and waiting for them to grow for weeks. When he dug them up again, he noticed that they looked a bit like human embryos.

Satisfied with his experimental design, without even bothering to try to bury a man, he came to the conclusion that eating beans would be basically like cannibalism, and his contacts forbade them to eat. To Pythagoras and his followers, beans can contain the souls of dead people. As much as the corpses in your mouth can’t be spread, perhaps hitting or crushing beans with a nice tomato sauce is basically his views on you Hannibal Lectern (who also famously ate beans) and your 5-year-old man who is exclusively on human flesh and animal. You are forced to eat refrigerated beans rather than eating food.’

According to the philosopher, the philosopher explained to an ox from time to time that he should never eat beans again when the herdsmen were staring and then the ox was surprised after he stopped eating beans. The understandable thing is I’m sure you’ll agree, although I don’t know why I expected better from someone whose biggest achievement was basic GCSE math.

His belief, although obviously something you can get the response to “what do you say about people, they’re beans”, led to his death. Like all the legends about statistics like this, you should take it with a pinch of salt, though it’s a fun story and we thought we’d let you know it on National Bean Day. According to legend, Pythagoras, the son of an aristocrat named Kylon, tried to enter the bean group (for lack of beans, stay for the triangles) but was rejected due to reluctance to follow the training rules, before which 5 years of silence involved you even get to the triangle.

In order to attack Pythagoras and burn down the buildings of the commune, Kylon naturally organized a mass rally (see, this is exactly how it happened then) formed a human bridge to remove it from the building. Unfortunately, the worst happened as soon as he escaped: his path took him straight to the bean field.

Refusing to be trampled on the ground, Pythagoras was stabbed to death while standing there carrying out massacres like Beanzilla. One crime I am sure Pythagoras mentioned at the time was that it was abominable to give beans. Other theories about his death include that he committed suicide after his followers died in the fire, or he hid from the crowd and died of starvation. This is a lot less fun and fun.

When we think of spiders, we often imagine nets but silk-spinning arachnids use this super-strong substance in all ways. Spidey silk comes in all shapes and sizes, from ogre-face spider prey to nets (which can be heard with its feet) to bola spider-throwing lassos.

Now, new research has discovered an even more amazing way to use spider silk, such as a species from Madagascar found sewing leaves together that seem to be a trap for prey, especially an unfortunate frog. This unusual sight, described in the journal Ecology and Evolution, was an incidental finding made by a researcher conducting an ecological survey in Madagascar.  One morning after finishing counting the points of a bird at Ambodiala they would feed both a spider (Sparassidae, Damascus sp.) feeding on an amphibian. The invertebrates fed to the vertebrates are not heard; as was the case with the unfortunate consequences of a pygmy probability, but the researchers consider their report to be one of only two to describe such a predictable event in Madagascar.

The same spider species was seen on three more occasions, in vanilla tree gardens across much of the region. The most interesting thing about all of them is that the spiders were sewn together with silk; the leaves were ted near the back or inside. The retreats were presented regionally which seemed to be the cool abode of the hot frogs caught in the Madagascan sun but they did not know that a spider was jumping inside and waiting. 

When the researchers proceeded to take the picture, the first spider that was seen eating the frog was told to return its leaves to a hiding place. Other spiders were either near or inside the backbone of similar vegetables and spiders did not seem to be a priority for tree species, as the leaves of different trees were used for backyard crafting. But their attachment is that they all showed evidence of sewing together with spider silk.

The authors wrote in the paper, “When the temperature rises, the frogs look for shade and cover away from the soil, which the spiders provide in the form of their repulsion.” “Frogs can support seemingly protected nets in an attempt to hide from other predators, such as birds scanning plants for prey … We speculate that both amphibians may not only be opportunistic, arbitrary, or accidental prey, but rather a targeted systematically absorbed food source of Damascus SP. Spiders.”

The researchers acknowledged the limitations in the study because only a single observation was made of a spider feeding on a frog. They also recognize that large prey items such as frogs are easily identified by the human eye and should not be considered as evidence of common behavior. Rarely, however, have silk spinners embroidered their skills to be undoubtedly great.

The view of a pollen-laden blowing from flower to flower in the summer months is a pleasant sight, as these vague friends are important for pollination. A new study of current biology on buffalo-tailed bumblebee (Bombus Terrestris) suggests that shape is of little importance to these insects when it comes to learning the location of flowers.

The first author of the study Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, associate professor of neuroethology at the University of Exeter, said in a statement, “It may not be widely known that pollinating insects learn and develop individual flower preferences, but in reality, corn is chosen.” When exiting the newly found flower, the bees perform a “learning plane” where the bee will turn towards the flower’s face. This allows it to take on the look of the flower and its surroundings. This means that “after the flower has left, they can actively decide how much effort should be put into remembering its location,” said Professor Hempel de Ibarra. “The surprising finding of our study is that bee size determines this decision-making and learning behavior.” Researchers place artificial flowers in greenhouses that contain 10, 20, 30, or 50 percent sucrose. A camera captured the bees to learn the bees and saw that they had raised more sucrose in the face of their duration and time “flowers”.

The researchers then focused on the significance of bee size, as measured by the width of the chest, the middle part where the wings are attached. Among these tests, 20 and 50 percent sucrose solution reactions were tested. It has been found that the responses of large bees differ from those of small bees.

For small bees, there was no difference in flight learning between high and low sucrose percentages. Larger bees, however, spent more on the “flower” face and had to learn longer when it had 50 percent sucrose and less time when it had 20 percent. They also studied the number of bees they drank. Large bees drank more when the sucrose concentration was 50 percent. The little bee didn’t show up as much as a choice.

These results indicate that larger bees learn very little about low-yielding flowers and focus on high-yielding ones, whereas smaller bees are less picky. It can descend under different sized bees of different sizes in the colony. “Big clowns can carry big loads and explore more from home than small ones. Smaller ones with a smaller flight range and carrying capacity are not as capable as being selective, so they adopt a wider range of flowers. These small bees are more involved in work inside the nest – only to graze if the food supply in the colony is low,” Professor Hempel de Ibarra explains.

An incredibly well-preserved worm rhinoceros with many internal organs are still exposed through the Siberian molten permafrost. According to the Siberian Times, the Ice Age creature originated in August by melting permafrost in the extreme northern Yakutia region of Russia and is thought to be the best-preserved wool rhinoceros still found.

The rhinoceros is thought to be a juvenile, probably at the age of three or four, when it died 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Since these remains have been hidden and frozen for thousands of years, the corpse has been significantly preserved and still has hazel-colored hair, soft tissues, intestines, teeth, greasy holes, and even some of its horns. “The young rhino was between three and four years old and separated from his mother at the time of his death, probably drowning,” said Dr. Valery Plotnikov of the Sakha Republic’s Academy of Sciences (Yakutia ), who gave the first description. The search is underway, the Siberian Times reported.

“The [sex] of the animal is still unknown. We are awaiting analysis to determine when the radiocarbon survived; the date range is probably 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.” Rhinoceros fossils were not found far away where the only baby wool rhinoceros in the world was found in 2014, where Sasha, holding strawberry blonde fur, is 34,000 years old.

Dr. Plotnikov described the new rhinoceros as “a very dense short underfur.” Sasha helped prove that fur rhinos were covered in thick hair – something that can only be identified by cave paintings – and now adds this new evidence as evidence that at a young age wool rhinos were perfectly adapted to the cold weather. Currently, the remnants of the ice age are still in Yakutia, waiting for ice roads to form so that it can relocate to the region’s capital, Yakutsk.

Yakutia is well known for finding incredible ancient animals. Due to the warming of the region, especially in the summer months, permafrost is melting. While this may not be good for the atmosphere, it is a treasure trove of ancient animal expressions. Over the past few years’ ancient wolf puppies, “pygmy” mammoths, cave lions, birds, miniatures, and even a curious proto-dog doll.

The online auction marketplace eBay has banned the sale of elephant ivory for a decade, but new research published in the journal Tropical Conservation Research indicates that it has done little to stop the trade on the website. This paper, led by researchers from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), describes how code words sellers are using illegal items in disguise and will describe many items as engraved “bones”. Netsuke is the name given to name engraved objects, usually made of ivory, which forms parts of the cord attached to Japanese kimonos.  Calling pure ivory from carved bones is not an easy task for the neglected eye, but Daisy’s Sophia Venturini and Dr. David Roberts were able to evaluate the authenticity of the Netsukes sold on eBay by searching the Schreger line.

Not wanting to contribute to the trade-in of illegal animal products from an ethical standpoint, they scanned pictures of available items to identify the materials from which they were made. Their investigation revealed that in the description of the item the ivory was usually going to be the bone of the cow, and only a small percentage (~ 1.3 to 6.9 percent) of that was identified and dropped by eBay a month later. In 2008, eBay announced that it was introducing a global ban on the sale of ivory, which began in January 2009. It is a founding member of Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and works with the World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

An eBay spokesperson told CNN Business, “Our global teams are dedicated to upholding standards in our markets, and in the last two years we have blocked or removed more than 265,000 lists that are prohibited in our Animal Products Policy.” Dr. Roberts said in a statement, “Despite eBay’s strict policy on animal and wildlife products, there is still an ongoing trade in ivory, mostly concealed as other unlimited materials.” “Illegal sales of ivory items can be particularly difficult to detect, for example, the term” ivory “can be used to describe a character, and companies like eBay have resources and information that can be mobilized to address the challenges of the illegal wildlife trade.”

The popularity of such items has not waned in recent years, and the government and law enforcement agencies have continued to work to stop it, despite more information available on illegal trafficking and wildlife trade. In 2020, government officials in China removed steps from the list of ingredients used in traditional medicine to curb the trade in endangered pangolins. Pangolins are one of the world’s leading traffickers and last year were found to carry coronaviruses such as the stork-cov-2 pathogen, although at the time of writing there was no evidence that they were the intermediate host that allowed Covid-19 to pass from bats to humans.

While conducting a photographic survey of the giraffe population in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park, a team of researchers noticed something unusual. One of the wild giraffes looks somewhat different from the others, having significantly shorter legs despite appearing as sub-adult body size. Then, while conducting similar work in Namibia, they discovered a second wild giraffe with an abnormality of similar size.  The giraffe calf matures somewhere between three and six years of age and this second giraffe was thought to have been born in 2014, which means this person should show the length of an adult.

The researchers believe that both giraffes have been affected by conditions such as skeletal dysplasia (an umbrella term for conditions that affect the length of limbs, including dwarfism). Their paper in the journal BMC Research Notes describes the first giraffes with this condition found in the wild.

Before diving into why these animals evolved so differently from their fully grown giraffe friends, it’s best to first touch on how you’re going to measure giraffes. With an average height of 4.6 to .1.1 meters (15.1 to 20 feet), this is not an easy task for a relatively small person with a measuring tape. It is also important when conducting research on wildlife that this kind of data collection is not invasive as disrupting these animals can have negative consequences for their behavior or survival.

To overcome this, a method for measuring an elephant called photogrammetry was developed. The technique uses a laser rangefinder to measure the distance between features of interest. By determining the distance between the digital pixels in the photos and comparing them to the actual size of the focus feature, they can provide accurate measurements from photographs of large animals, including giraffes. By comparing these metaphorical data, the researchers were able to establish that the two giraffes that appeared abnormally brief were significantly different from the average height of each giraffe population. The Ugandan giraffe had a phalanx (lower part of the leg) that was the same length as its peers, but this part of the Namibian giraffe’s tail was significantly shortened, measuring 21.2 centimeters (8.3 inches) and 15.8 centimeters (meters 6.2 inches), respectively. Both animals had metacarpal and radial measurements compared to the average.

Interestingly, the Ugandan giraffe is made for a slightly smaller size with its cell length which is usually about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) longer than the 1.4 (4.6 feet) presentation giraffe. Namibian giraffes were again below average in this category. The authors write that this kind of skeletal dysplasia has been reported for the first time in wild giraffes, and speaking to some members of the zoo community, it does not appear that it was observed in any captive animal. How common it is in nature, is hard to infer from photographic surveys because finding such animals is like finding a small fluffy needle in a stack of somewhat elongated flower needles. Researchers have not been able to find any members of the scientific and zoo community who have seen giraffes before, but it is understood that this is probably rare.

So why didn’t these two animals grow long legs that are characteristic of giraffes? “It’s hard to say specifically, but we speculate that skeletal dysplasias may be related to some genetic disorders, as the emergence of skeletal dysplasias is often involved in molecular etiologies,” said co-author Michael B. Brown, a conservation biologist at Giraffe Conservation Foundation, reported.

“It is noteworthy that as a result of civil unrest and poaching, the giraffe population in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park created a significant population barrier in the late 1980s. Since then, the population has returned significantly with the current estimate of about 1,500 giraffes, although it is not yet clear whether there has been any lasting impact on previous population disasters. “

After years of expanding the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists have discovered at least 12 deep-sea species that were previously unknown to science. Their discoveries highlight how much of our planet’s oceans are still in undisturbed regions, yet not safe from climate change and environmental stress. The new discoveries come from the Atlas Project, an international effort to better understand the deep-water ecosystems of the North Atlantic Ocean. Through 445 research expeditions involving 60 scientists and student volunteers over the past four years, researchers have now unveiled a number of key discoveries, including new species and fresh insights into their global ecosystem.

The 12 new species include seaweed, powdery and deep-sea coral. The new images also reveal a rich array of extraordinary sea life, including fish and crustaceans, which no science-film movie shows out of place. It was once hoped that the deep-sea ecosystem would be somewhat protected from many of the effects of climate change. Recent research, however, has shown that the deep oceans are also not resistant to warming ocean temperatures. When the surface water warms up at a remarkably rapid rate, the depths of the ocean begin to feel burning and the animals living there may soon experience some dramatic changes.

Professor J Murray Roberts, co-ordinator of the ATLAS project from the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said in a statement, “Everyone knows how important it is to take care of the growing rain forest and other valuable habitats in the summer, but very few people realize that there is not much, much special place in the ocean.” “Atlas we’ve studied the weakest ecosystems in the deep Atlantic and we now realize how important, interconnected, and fragile they really are.”

Climate change is not just a threat to the deep ocean. Human activities such as deep-sea excavation and extraction of fossil fuels are also becoming increasingly strained in these ecosystems. The effects of these disturbances on seawater can be prolonged for decades and spread across a wide range of ecosystems. A recent study of the deep ocean in the Pacific Ocean, about 4,000 meters (2.5 miles) below sea level in the Peruvian Basin, found that deep-sea mining can have a profound effect on bacterial life, helping to support everyone working on life at sea. It takes at least 50 years for germs to fully resume their normal function after being disturbed by minerals.

Through this new work in Atlas, researchers hope to guide new policies and protections that can help save this low-burden environment before it’s too late. Professor Roberts said, “The challenge for the next decade will be to embrace this new scientific and social understanding and use it to create better plans and policies for truly sustainable humanitarian action in the ocean.”