How does animal camouflage work? It works by upsetting the edges, mimicking shadows and background, copying shapes, scattering light and countershading, and hiding movement. Camouflage is obviously an evolved trait. All animals have gradually become the color and the shape that they are because it offered an advantage in that they weren’t eaten and got […]
#587 How does animal camouflage work? Read More »
Can a tortoise live without its shell? No. Tortoises and turtles are not just inside their shells. They are the shells. The shells are part of their skeletons. Tortoises and turtles actually come from the same family. In fact, tortoises are turtles. They all come from the family testudines, which are reptiles with a shell
#586 Can a tortoise live without its shell? Read More »
Why are some animals cold-blooded? It lets them go for longer without eating, which means they can survive in more inhospitable areas. There are three types of animals: warm-blooded, cold-blooded, and those in between. Warm-blooded animals are called endotherms and they are able to maintain their body temperature by using their metabolism. We are endotherms.
#583 Why are some animals cold-blooded? Read More »
What is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? There are many differences, including their color, size, snout shape, where they live, behavior, the strength of their bite, and many more. Both crocodiles and alligators come from the family crocodilian. They appeared about 94 million years ago and have a thick scaly skin. They
#581 What is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? Read More »
How do pythons kill their prey? They squeeze their prey to constrict blood flow before consuming the prey whole. Before we start, pythons are not boa constrictors. I always thought they were the same thing, but they aren’t. Pythons are longer than boa constrictors and they come from different areas. Boa constrictors are found in
#579 How do pythons kill their prey? Read More »
What is the difference between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores? Amongst other things, they have differences in their teeth, mouths, eyes, saliva, intestines and their stomachs. Herbivores obviously live off plants. They are known as primary consumers because they eat the energy that the plants have produced through photosynthesis and introduce it into the food chain.
#571 What is the difference between carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores? Read More »
Why are hammerhead sharks shaped like that? The location of their eyes on the end of the hammer give them a greater ability to locate and catch stingrays. There are several different types of hammerhead shark, but they all have the same hammer-shaped head. This hammer shape is called a cephalofoil. The hammerhead shark with
#556 Why are hammerhead sharks shaped like that? Read More »
How do fireflies glow? They combine a chemical called luciferin, an enzyme called luciferases, oxygen, and fuel. Fireflies are not actually flies; they are beetles. They are also not one single type of beetle. They come from a family of beetle called Lampyridae, which contains about 2,000 different types of beetles and nearly all of
#548 How do fireflies glow? Read More »
What makes our hands different to other animals? We have an opposable thumb. We have four fingers and a thumb on each hand. We are not the only animals to have this many fingers, and we are not the only animals to have an opposable thumb, but the reach of our thumb sets us apart.
#540 What makes our hands different to other animals? Read More »
How do millipedes control their legs? Millipedes use a direct-wave gait. That means the legs move from the back to the front in a wave pattern, moving the millipede forwards. Millipedes are invertebrates, which is a cold-blooded animal with no backbone. They have an exoskeleton and they are made of multiple segments. They come from
#538 How do millipedes control their legs? Read More »
