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In the animal kingdom, the shape and color of animals are usually a very meaningful subject, so it might as well be called "animal color"! In order to adapt to the surrounding environment, or for the purpose of camouflage or warning, animals have experienced the changes of years and long-term biological evolution, forming a colorful animal color world. Let's take a look at the wonderful performance of several animal stars:
"stars" in the animal world
Picture 1 Knobbly crab spider lying on the bark of trees
Knobbly crab spider was found in Australia's Queenland , with a body length of about 8 to 10 mm, very timid, and moving slowly. It often lives on the bark and is almost difficult to be discovered, so it can effectively avoid bird predation.
Figure 2 Chameleon in prey on Madagascar
mentions chameleon, which is the most popular camouflage animal and is even often kept as a pet. Chameleon's skin contains a large amount of crystals and pigments that can accurately change color in different ranges.
Picture 3 An elder of Andean bear with a "fier appearance"
South America Andean bear has an impressive face, and a circle of white "rings" wrapped around its black eyebrows and big eyes, just like wearing a pair of glasses, which is often called " glasses bear "; the neck is also "wearing" a necklace-like ring stripe, which looks not very difficult to mess with..., which can be understood here as warning color .
Figure 4 The baron caterpillar on the leaves
baron caterpillar is considered to be one of the most powerful insects in the world with deformation ability. It can not only change color but also deform. Look at the picture above. When they just lie on a leaf and rest, they are completely like the veins of a leaf. Do you dare say that they can see it?
Figure 5 The Indonesian dwarf seahorse
dwarf seahorse can be called "camouflage master" , about 2 cm long, was discovered in 1969 and basically all came from tropical waters in Southeast Asia. Their ability to mix has to be amazing. They live on coral , and the tubular capsules on their bodies and skin are very similar to corals. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are fake or real?
In addition to the above, there are many animals with camouflage or alert appearances, which may be even more amazing. For example, there are dead leaf butterfly , dressing crab, cuttlefish , Satan leaf gecko, Dalin trench , Indonesian mimicry octopus , etc., which cannot be said to exist more powerfully than the other. If you want to know, you can leave a message through the article, and I will send another wave of benefits for everyone to appreciate. Speaking of animal color research, I have to invite a "great god", that is, people call " animal color decryptor " - Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo (Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo
Tim Carlo (Tim Caro) , born in the UK in 1952, graduated from , , zoology at the University of Cambridge. At the age of 27, he obtained a doctorate degree in ecology from the University of St Andrews, UK. Working at HD at the University of California, Davis, and serving as a professor of Wild biology. In his 40 years of academic career, Tim Carlo has published hundreds of high-quality papers and 6 best-selling popular science books, all of which are promoting HD Animal protection and research on the color of Animal color . Since Zebra dares to wear black and white striped shirts, swaggeringly on the dangerous African savanna, then let's explore and study why zebras have this color expression of "big rebellion" , or its "retrograde" biological evolution mechanism.
"Great Rebellion" zebra stripes
In the vast African prairie, the animals come and go, it's so lively! With pairs of greedy big eyes, they always pay attention to everything here, that is, the overlord of the grassland - Lion ; the zebras are always particularly conspicuous in their "little flower clothes", as if they are talking about "If you have the ability, eat me" . The lion said, " boy, how dare you think I am blind ", why is this? Could it be that Dorwin's principle of " survival of the fittest" is directly despised here?
Lion and Zebras on the African grassland
Faced with the authoritative challenge of Darwin , greater pressure hit Tim Carlo and his team's hearts, stagnated many times and almost collapsed. Fortunately, with the support of National Geographic Society , Tim Carlo and his colleagues examined more than a dozen zebra populations and all of their stripes in Africa, and collected and measured more than 20 environmental factors, including temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, the distribution range of bacteria-carried mosquitoes and flies, and lions. Then they entered these environmental factors into computer models to analyze which factors are related to the differences in zebra stripes. The results show that the biggest factor affecting the stripes of zebras in is the temperature. The higher the temperature, the more stripes there are on the zebra! where is this? It went astray again, and the research seems to be limited to stagnation of again!
Zebra drinks water leisurely, leaving the questions to Tim Carlo team
to meditate, meditate, and meditate again! The problem seems to have reached a dead end. Tim Carlo slowly recalled that it was Africa in 2014. He had also conducted close observation and research on other animals with stripes, such as three species of zebras and African wild donkeys. They all lived in horse fly . mosquitoes and flies! Mosquitoes and flies! Mosquitoes and flies! In this almost neglected subtle link, Tim Carlo seemed to suddenly find the breakthrough , so in a series of observations around mosquitoes and flies, the truth began to appear, and the answer was slowly found......
mosquitoes and flies bites
Tim Carlo ran between British farms and African grasslands again. The team conducted in-depth observations on the fields of horse flies in the British horse herd habitat, and used a camera to shoot for a long time to analyze the flying behavior of the gadfly in the video. The astonishing conclusion was slowly discovered: flies are difficult to land on striped surfaces, and striped animals are rarely bitten by these insects! Could it be that the special scent of on zebras caused ?
Wear the monochrome flattery of a zebra suit
So he put the horse on the zebra's robe - that is, striped clothes, and the result is still amazing: greatly reduces the probability of mosquitoes and flies successfully landing on the "fake zebra"! When the research team members slowed the video of mosquito and fly that had been filmed, they finally discovered the clues: The fly did not slow down at all when it flew towards the stripes of the zebra! They either flew directly over the zebra or hit the zebra, making it difficult to successfully land!
Another comparative experiment was conducted. The experimental group included: zebra , monochrome horse in coats, and monochrome horse without coats. When the herd of gadflies flew over, it proved this conclusion again: When the distance between is close, the average speed of the gadfly falling on the zebra is only one-quarter of the that falls on the monochrome horse, and zebras are only one-percent of the that is the monochrome horse.If you wear a coat on monochrome horses, the probability of their bites will be reduced by 10 times!
Schematic diagram of biting part in the experiment
Here, the scientific conclusions are basically found: the problem with is in insects such as mosquitoes and flies. The black and white stripes of will seriously disrupt the optical flow of flies (optic flow) -------The movement of the observation target caused by the movement of the observer makes it difficult for mosquitoes and flies to judge the distance and cannot log in! , Just like our common barber shop icon, the simple rotation, visual delay and pause make us always feel in the uninterrupted rise and rotation, as shown in the figure below
optical spoiler in the eyes of mosquitoes and flies
Conclusion and testimonials
- Zebra's striped shirt is not what we naturally understand that it should be prepared for the defense of lions at the top of the food chain, but a "biological optical weapon" prepared for deadly insects such as mosquitoes and flies.
- Another scientific data shows that killing lions to destroy the entire population of zebras can be offset by multiple fertilization; and mosquitoes and flies suck blood and their fatal bacteria and viruses, is more deadly to zebra populations, so it is necessary to zebras choose a prevention mechanism that is beneficial to lions and fatal killing of mosquitoes and flies, and a long-term instinct obtained by through the biological evolution of .
- Science always explores in discovery, and then discovers during exploration, and then continues to advance the spiral upward development mechanism. The evidence chain forms the fuel for promoting this development, and human beings have also brought about their own development and progress due to the advancement of science and technology.
- question should not be buried, and the spirit of exploration should be worth carrying forward. This is the scientific attitude or scientific itself that knitting horizontal should have!
Beautiful Earth
