Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Dinosaur gangs, psychedelic fish and long-distance elephant calls
- By Amanda Bensen, Joseph Caputo, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, May 2009
1 of 6
| Next »»
(iStockphoto)
How Elephants Call Long-Distance
Some elephant calls are so deep in pitch they shake the ground. An elephant miles away can detect those seismic signals with sensory cells in all four feet. But a Stanford ecologist working in Namibia now says the elephant may prefer to "hear" the message in a different way: the ground vibrations travel directly from its front feet through its leg and shoulder bones and on to its skull and middle ear. An elephant brain can gauge where a seismic call is coming from by comparing the timing of the signals that the front feet receive.
1 of 6
| Next »»
Comments (3)
My wife and I work at the Georgia State Archives, while there I came across an article in the May 2009 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, the article mentioned that stone tools were found with animal proteins detected on the tools. Along with camel, bear, and sheep proteins there were horse proteins, and it was my understanding that horse's did not exist on this continent until they were brought here by the Spanish. If the horse was on this contenent when did they disappear, and could they have been used as beasts of burden by the people living in the area? I realize they were probably smaller than the burros of today and much smaller than todays horse, but just how big were they. Thank you Ben Carrigan
Posted by Ben Carrigan on November 2,2009 | 06:31 PM
what an odd fish, its just so weird.
Posted by Avery on May 11,2009 | 05:25 PM
Just another amazing thing about elephants! The more we learn, the more amazing they seem!
Posted by Denise Mathews on April 21,2009 | 12:41 AM