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#Post#: 358--------------------------------------------------
Special Sensory Perception
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: June 15, 2022, 3:11 pm
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[center]Which Animals Use Starlight to Help with Navigation?
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It’s not rocket science, but a male dung beetle’s quest to
navigate a newly-formed ball of dung in a straight line -- in
order to avoid marauders who might steal the dung, and to get
back to his mate as quickly as possible -- does require a
certain amount of expertise in celestial navigation. In a 2013
study published in Current Biology, zoologist Marie Dacke’s team
determined the dung beetle can find its way using only the Milky
Way as a guide. Birds, seals, and humans have been known to use
stars for navigation, but this was the first evidence that
insects can do so, too.
[center]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/CSIRO_ScienceImage_10809_Dung_beetle_Onthophagus_nigriventris.jpg[/center]
[center]Dung beetle [I]Onthophagus nigriventris[/I][/center]
[move]Rollin', rollin', rollin': ;D[/move]
[center]
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• Researchers placed African dung beetles in a planetarium, and
found that they could navigate just as easily with only the
Milky Way visible as with a full starlit sky. Under overcast
conditions, the beetles lost their way.
• Dacke's previous research showed that dung beetles use the
Moon and celestial polarization patterns to keep moving in a
straight line. Now they know that nocturnal beetles can stay on
course even on moonless nights.
• “It was assumed insects could not use the stars because their
eyes don’t have the resolution to see them,” explains Dacke.
Navigating using the entire Milky Way eliminates the need to see
individual stars, she says.
HTML http://www.wisegeek.com/which-animals-use-starlight-to-help-with-navigation.htm
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-150622161347.jpeg[/center]
[center]Now you know the dung beetles look at, and make use of,
the Milky Way. [/center]
#Post#: 359--------------------------------------------------
Lateral Line: A “Sixth Sense” for Fish (And Other Cool Tricks)
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: June 15, 2022, 3:43 pm
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June 11, 2022 By David Coppedge
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[center]
HTML https://evolutionnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Lateral_line_01.jpg[/center]
[center]Lateral Line: A “Sixth Sense” for Fish (And Other Cool
Tricks)[/center]
SNIPPET:
Have you ever heard of the “lateral line”? No, it’s not a
football play. It’s a sense organ shared by most fish, from
sharks to salmon to goldfish.
From 🐟 Gills to Tail
The lateral line has been called a “sixth sense” for fish. It
runs from gills to tail along the sides of the fish, right in
the middle. You can see it when you catch a trout. Or in the
case of a goldfish, it’s visible in the photo above. A page from
the University of Minnesota Sea Grant describes this amazing
organ:
Sometimes referred to as the “sense of distant touch,” lateral
lines convert subtle changes in water pressure into ⚡
electrical pulses similar to the way our inner ear responds to
sound waves. Running lengthwise down each side of the body and
over the head, these pressure-sensing organs help their owners
avoid collisions, participate in schooling behavior, orient to
water currents, elude predators, and detect prey.
--- Quote ---
> Lateral lines are composed of neuromasts (hair cells
surrounded by a protruding jelly-like cup) that usually lie at
the bottom of a visible pit or groove. These hair cells — the
same sensory cells found in all vertebrate ears — convert
mechanical energy into electrical energy when moved. Presumably,
auditory and lateral line pathways evolved in close association
since they share many features. [Emphasis added.]
--- End Quote ---
You can shrug off that fish story about how it evolved
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-250817121649.png.<br
/>What’s remarkable is that this organ constitutes an
analog-to-digital converter, as pressure waves (analog) are
converted to electrical signals. Actually, we all have that
capability in our skin, as Science reports — a fact that has
inspired Stanford engineers to create “electronic skin”:
Human skin relies on cutaneous receptors that output digital
signals for tactile sensingin which the intensity of stimulation
is converted to a series of voltage pulses. We present a
power-efficient skin-inspired mechanoreceptor with a flexible
organic transistor circuit that transduces pressure into digital
frequency signals directly.
Back to fish and the lateral line. News from the University of
Florida showed two researchers using lasers to try to understand
how the lateral line works. One of them, Dr. James Liao, calls
it a “hydrodynamic antenna” that is “configured to receive flow
signals,” according to Physical Review Letters. A diagram at
Wikipedia shows how many components are involved in this complex
sensory apparatus.
Swim Muscles
Another little-known fact about fish is how their muscles are
arranged. Have you ever cooked salmon and wondered about those
stripes in the muscle? Those are called myomeres. See the good
diagrams and photos on Earthlife.net, which points out that
“Gram for gram fish have more muscle than any other vertebrate,
a male salmon or tuna can be nearly 70 percent muscle, which is
one reason why fish are so good to eat.” 😋
Read more:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164615-5351419.gif
HTML https://evolutionnews.org/2022/06/lateral-line-a-sixth-sense-for-fish-and-other-cool-tricks/
[move]David Coppedge 👍 is a freelance science reporter
in Southern California. He has been a board member of Illustra
Media since its founding and serves as their science consultant.
He worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 14
years, on the Cassini mission to Saturn, until he was ousted in
2011 for sharing material on intelligent design, a
discriminatory action that led to a nationally publicized court
trial in 2012. Discovery Institute supported his case, but a
lone judge ruled against him without explanation. A nature
photographer, outdoorsman, and musician, David holds B.S.
degrees in science education and in physics and gives
presentations on ID and other scientific subjects.[/move]
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