Wild Things: Life as We Know It
Caterpillars, Frogs, Big Birds and More...
- By T. A. Frail, Jesse Rhodes, Jessica Righthand, Brandon Springer and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, October 2010
Blue whales are regularly sighted feeding in the summer off the coast of California, USA. (Visuals Unlimited / Corbis)
Male blue whales off the coast of California sing a drawn-out note pitched four octaves below middle C. San Francisco State University scientists now say such a singing whale may be relying on the phenomenon called the Doppler effect to inform others, especially females, of its location. If other whales perceive the tone as rising, they know they’re moving closer to the source; if the pitch seems to be falling, they know they’re moving away.
Additional Sources
“Mechanical Analysis of Feeding Behavior in the Extinct ‘Terror Bird’ Andalgalornis steulleti (Gruiformes: Phorusrhacidae),” Federico J. Degrange et al., PLoS ONE, August 18, 2010
“Landing in basal frogs: evidence of saltational patterns in the evolution of anuran locomotion,” Richard L. Essner Jr. et al., Naturwissenschaften, July 13, 2010
“Apparent competition with an invasive plant hastens the extinction of an endangered lupine,” Emily M. Dangremond et al., Ecology, August 2010
“Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars,” Michael A. Simon et al., Current Biology, August 24, 2010
“Frequency synchronization of blue whale calls near Pioneer Seamount,” Michael D. Hoffman et al., Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, July 2010
Comments (2)
Very nice Macro work
Posted by Steve on November 29,2010 | 06:19 PM
ok so scientists proved themselves wrong about caterpillars :O
Posted by BigDaddy24 on October 15,2010 | 04:26 PM