"Many baby animals—including humans—are born with random wrinkles because they have too much skin for their body shapes. Baby elephants’ trunk creases, by contrast, are consistently in the same places and form before birth, suggesting they have a specific purpose. “We think these wrinkles are very underrated,” Brecht says.
To learn more, Schulz, Brecht, and their colleagues turned to two elephant species, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and African elephants (Loxodonta africana), which are known to use their trunks in different ways. African elephants have two tough cartilage “fingers” at the ends of their trunks that allow them to pinch objects. Asian elephants, by contrast, have one finger and one bulbous projection that they use to clamp large objects such as melons between their trunks and lower lips.
The researchers examined differences between the species in museum specimens, zoo animals, and photos. Asian elephant trunks, they found, contain more wrinkles: 126 of them, on average, compared with the 83 of African elephants. The extra creases might give the Asian species more flexibility to make up for not having an extra “finger,” Schulz says. In both species, the wrinkles were concentrated at a pivot point, which works like a muscular elbow to allow the trunk to wrap around objects.
To study how these wrinkles form, the team gathered two Asian and three African elephant fetuses in museum collections, along with dozens of published photographs or drawings of fetuses at different ages. By lining these up sequentially, the researchers were able to form a visual timeline of prenatal trunk development. Wrinkles, they found, begin to appear as soon as the trunk does—about 20 days into the elephant’s 22-month gestation. Over the next 150 days, the number of wrinkles increases exponentially in both species, doubling every 3 weeks, and concentrates around the pivot point. Asian elephants acquire even more wrinkles later on in development."
For some wild birds , fledging is a big community celebration. I’ve witnessed 2 such celebrations in my life.
I’d been watching some starlings feeding young under the eaves of my neighbor’s house on Precita in SF. One morning there was a line of adult starlings perched on the gutter. They seemed oddly groomed. A few of them had their feathers in spikes, all punky-like! Turns out this was fledge day. It took most of the day for all of the young birds to make it out to the palm tree in my backyard. The first two went quickly, but, like I said, the rest took HOURS. The adult spectators stayed most of the day.
The second flight celebration was in Missouri on a river. I was canoeing the 11point river with a friend when I noticed an unusual gathering of turkey vultures. Some were perched in the usual craggy trees, but with their wings spread out. Just holding still. More than a dozen. Then we saw more groups as we floated down the river. On a branch over the river, we saw the juveniles in a cluster.
Then the adults came swooping around the juveniles, encouraging them to fly to the next group of overhanging trees. Which they did. This was happening right over our heads for a while until they got ahead of us. We were going as slowly as we could to witness this. After they had gotten far ahead we saw them in the sky swooping. Never seen that many turkey vultures in one place. More than 50 birds, maybe closer to 100, just swooping and gliding. It looked playful. It looked like a bird party.
It occurs to me that flight is the biggest thing in bird life. Of COURSE they’d have customs and bird celebrations. I don’t think all birds have this, but starlings and turkey vultures definitely do.
Until 1992, the last large mammal to be discovered by Western science was the okapi, a smaller cuter relative of the giraffe. They are extremely shy which is part of why they stayed unknown to Europeans for so long. They first became known in 1901 via a skull and pelt obtained from locals in Congo. It took nine more years to actually spot a live one.
But in later years these became known:
- Vietnamese Saola (1992) – A rare and elusive bovid found in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos.
- Giant Muntjac (1994) – A large species of muntjac deer discovered in Vietnam.
- Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth (2001) – A distinct species of sloth found only on Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Panama.
- Myanmar Snub-Nosed Monkey (2010) – A new species of monkey discovered in Myanmar.
From Merlin Sheldrake's excellent book ENTANGLED LIFE (pgs 29-30), "A friend of mine who studies tropical insects showed me a video of orchid bees crowding around a crater in a rotting log. Male orchid bees collect scents from the world and amass them into a cocktail that they use to court females. They are perfume makers. Mating takes seconds, but gathering and blending their scents takes their entire adult lives. Although he hadn't yet tested the hypothesis, my friend had a strong hunch that the bees were harvesting fungal compounds to add to their bouquets. Orchid bees are known to have a taste for complex aromatic chemicals, many of which are produced by fungi that break down wood.
Humans wear perfumes produced by other organisms and it is not uncommon for fungal aromas to be incorporated into our own sexual rituals. Agarwood, or oudh, is a fungal infection of Aquilaria trees found in India and Southeast Asia and one of the most valuable raw materials in the world. It is used to make a scent--dank nuts, dark honey, rich wood--and has been coveted at least since the time of the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides. The best oudh is worth more, gram for gram, than gold or platinum--as much as $100,000 per kilogram--and the destructive harvest of Aquilaria trees has driven them to near extinction. "
Hippopotamuses can't swim--they just walk across the bottom of a body of water. They can stay submerged for 5-6 minutes.
Here's a random animal fact -- the wrinkles on an Elephant's trunk are formed in utero:
https://www.science.org/content/article/how-elephant-got-its-wrinkles
"Many baby animals—including humans—are born with random wrinkles because they have too much skin for their body shapes. Baby elephants’ trunk creases, by contrast, are consistently in the same places and form before birth, suggesting they have a specific purpose. “We think these wrinkles are very underrated,” Brecht says.
To learn more, Schulz, Brecht, and their colleagues turned to two elephant species, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and African elephants (Loxodonta africana), which are known to use their trunks in different ways. African elephants have two tough cartilage “fingers” at the ends of their trunks that allow them to pinch objects. Asian elephants, by contrast, have one finger and one bulbous projection that they use to clamp large objects such as melons between their trunks and lower lips.
The researchers examined differences between the species in museum specimens, zoo animals, and photos. Asian elephant trunks, they found, contain more wrinkles: 126 of them, on average, compared with the 83 of African elephants. The extra creases might give the Asian species more flexibility to make up for not having an extra “finger,” Schulz says. In both species, the wrinkles were concentrated at a pivot point, which works like a muscular elbow to allow the trunk to wrap around objects.
To study how these wrinkles form, the team gathered two Asian and three African elephant fetuses in museum collections, along with dozens of published photographs or drawings of fetuses at different ages. By lining these up sequentially, the researchers were able to form a visual timeline of prenatal trunk development. Wrinkles, they found, begin to appear as soon as the trunk does—about 20 days into the elephant’s 22-month gestation. Over the next 150 days, the number of wrinkles increases exponentially in both species, doubling every 3 weeks, and concentrates around the pivot point. Asian elephants acquire even more wrinkles later on in development."
For some wild birds , fledging is a big community celebration. I’ve witnessed 2 such celebrations in my life.
I’d been watching some starlings feeding young under the eaves of my neighbor’s house on Precita in SF. One morning there was a line of adult starlings perched on the gutter. They seemed oddly groomed. A few of them had their feathers in spikes, all punky-like! Turns out this was fledge day. It took most of the day for all of the young birds to make it out to the palm tree in my backyard. The first two went quickly, but, like I said, the rest took HOURS. The adult spectators stayed most of the day.
The second flight celebration was in Missouri on a river. I was canoeing the 11point river with a friend when I noticed an unusual gathering of turkey vultures. Some were perched in the usual craggy trees, but with their wings spread out. Just holding still. More than a dozen. Then we saw more groups as we floated down the river. On a branch over the river, we saw the juveniles in a cluster.
Then the adults came swooping around the juveniles, encouraging them to fly to the next group of overhanging trees. Which they did. This was happening right over our heads for a while until they got ahead of us. We were going as slowly as we could to witness this. After they had gotten far ahead we saw them in the sky swooping. Never seen that many turkey vultures in one place. More than 50 birds, maybe closer to 100, just swooping and gliding. It looked playful. It looked like a bird party.
It occurs to me that flight is the biggest thing in bird life. Of COURSE they’d have customs and bird celebrations. I don’t think all birds have this, but starlings and turkey vultures definitely do.
thanks so much for this Gaia! I love "juveniles in a cluster".
Until 1992, the last large mammal to be discovered by Western science was the okapi, a smaller cuter relative of the giraffe. They are extremely shy which is part of why they stayed unknown to Europeans for so long. They first became known in 1901 via a skull and pelt obtained from locals in Congo. It took nine more years to actually spot a live one.
But in later years these became known:
- Vietnamese Saola (1992) – A rare and elusive bovid found in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos.
- Giant Muntjac (1994) – A large species of muntjac deer discovered in Vietnam.
- Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth (2001) – A distinct species of sloth found only on Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Panama.
- Myanmar Snub-Nosed Monkey (2010) – A new species of monkey discovered in Myanmar.
Hi, Thao-
Do you know the work of Tomas Saraceno? I bet you’d love his spider stuff…
I do not- will check out, thanks Matt!
so good! and damn, Slota.
From Merlin Sheldrake's excellent book ENTANGLED LIFE (pgs 29-30), "A friend of mine who studies tropical insects showed me a video of orchid bees crowding around a crater in a rotting log. Male orchid bees collect scents from the world and amass them into a cocktail that they use to court females. They are perfume makers. Mating takes seconds, but gathering and blending their scents takes their entire adult lives. Although he hadn't yet tested the hypothesis, my friend had a strong hunch that the bees were harvesting fungal compounds to add to their bouquets. Orchid bees are known to have a taste for complex aromatic chemicals, many of which are produced by fungi that break down wood.
Humans wear perfumes produced by other organisms and it is not uncommon for fungal aromas to be incorporated into our own sexual rituals. Agarwood, or oudh, is a fungal infection of Aquilaria trees found in India and Southeast Asia and one of the most valuable raw materials in the world. It is used to make a scent--dank nuts, dark honey, rich wood--and has been coveted at least since the time of the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides. The best oudh is worth more, gram for gram, than gold or platinum--as much as $100,000 per kilogram--and the destructive harvest of Aquilaria trees has driven them to near extinction. "
wombats poop cubes!
A friend wrote an entire children's book about it!
https://www.abicushman.com/books/wombats-are-pretty-weird/
trust this book is a classic in my house!! (i am 20 & my sibling is 15 & we & my parents all love it!!)