New Year New Bunny



 So New Years is all about having a great party and welcoming the new year with hopes it will be better than the last.  Well I know 2012 is going to be a great year for me because I got a new bunny!  Her name is Opal, and she is a blue Flemish Giant.  While this isn't the largest breed of rabbit, she is a very big girl, and should grow up to be well over 20 lbs.  In today's post we will talk about some science but I'm also a history fan so I'm going to change things up and talk about how giant breeds (in this case rabbits) came to America.

  

Opal at 8 weeks old



In the 1800's rabbits were raised and used for meat very commonly throughout Europe.  This was mainly due to the fact that large livestock was expensive to feed, house and had slow breeding rates.  Rabbits have limited need for space and very fast reproductive rates. Being an island, England consumed large amouts of rabbits, and soon turned to importing them to keep up with demand.  Commonly bred rabbits were mid sized around 7 to 8 lbs.  Travelers returned to England with wild tales of rabbits three times the size in Flanders.  Thus around 1860 Flemish Giants were imported to England, then imported to the Americas in 1890 during a similar "rabbit boom".  So now that we know how Flemish Giants got here lets get down to some science!

  

Opal at 10 weeks old



Probably the most distinguishable features of rabbits are their giant ears.  Most people know their ears act like giant dishes to catch sound waves.  But their ears are also one of their main temperature control (i.e. thermoregulation) devices.  When looking at the rabbits ears you will see many blood vessels.  If a rabbit is cold the simply need to go out into the sun or fold their ears close to their furry bodies, the ears blood vessels go through vasoconstriction or become smaller to retain heat.  If a rabbit is hot they can go into the shade and fan out their ears, where their blood vessels go through vasodilation.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year,

Cass (and Opal as the Jackalope)

Pony Time!

So with Christmas less than a week away, I know many little girls are hoping Santa (and their parents) will heed their desperate pleas for a pony under the tree.  Well I was one of the lucky little girls who actually got their dream pony...  My first pony was Phoenix (all pictures of her are in print and I don't have a scanner) and she was that ultimate little girl fantasy, a snowy white Arabian with a perfect dished face.  Could have been a unicorn (and got dressed as one several times) if you put a horn on her sculpted face.  I kept her till she passed away when I was 21.  My second pony is Max (pictured left), another grey Arabian who originally was for my mom but ended up as my jumping pony, clearing obstacles with me that towered higher than his head.  He is still going strong at 25 giving walk-trot lessons for little kids.  Today I have two horses who decorate the side of my blog, Manhattan and Finally.  Manhattan (Manny) is a 17.1 hand Thoroughbred (pictured below) who can jump a house.  Finally is the golden child (pictured at end of blog).  He is a Quarter horse who I have had since he was 2 and has the biggest heart. 

Now that I've shared about my ponies lets get to some science!  Horses are highly evolved animals with some unique attributes.  In my opinion, their feet have the most highly specialized design.  A horse's hoof is actually is the anatomical equivalent of our fingernail.  If you pick up a horse's hoof and look at the underside they have a triangle middle, this is the horse's frog.  It is a spongy shock absorber.  As a horse gallops the hard outside hoof wall strikes first then the frog extends down and outward to absorb much of the shock.  Now I look at the frog and think wow that would be something Nike would love to use in their newest running shoe, or how about inspiration for shocks on off road vehicles?

The frog is also an amazing pump for the horse's circulatory system.   As the horse puts weight onto the hoof, the hoof wall is pushed outwards and the frog compressed, driving blood out of the frog. When weight is removed from the hoof, the release of pressure pulls blood back down into the foot again. This creates a blood pumping system up and down the horses legs.  Horses rarely lay down, you mostly see young horses or older horses taking extended naps.  Horse are unable to spend a long time laying down because their massive body weight will actually crush their internal organs.  So horses spend most of their time standing up.  They have a special locking feature in their knees to help them sleep standing up.  So having great leg circulation becomes even more important. 

I could go on and on about horses but for today that is all you get!  Hope everyone has a happy holiday season with their loved ones. 

Love,
Cass
P.S. including a horse treat recipe just in case you're like me and want to give your equine friends a holiday treat, just add raisins to make it human friendly.


Oat Molasses Cookies

2 Cups Dry Oatmeal
1/2 Cup grated Carrots
3 Tablespoons Molasses
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Combine all ingredients. Add enough water to make a soft dough. Stir
well. Form cookies. Bake 350 for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Reindeer Games

Well it is the beginning of December so time for a holiday post.  Today's featured animal will be the Reindeer also known as the Caribou.  I thought it would be fun to outline some points that would make Reindeer a great animal to pull Santa's sleigh.  They live in both Tundra and Borreal Forrest areas, both of which are very cold.  Reindeer fur has an undercoat and topcoat to help combat the extreme cold.  The undercoat is dense and wooley, while the top coat is longer with hollow air-filled hairs. 
Only the most impressive animal will do for Santa, and a reindeer's antlers certainly look fancy.  Both the males and females grow antlers but the males grow them noticeably larger.  The age of the deer determines when their antlers fall off.  The older males loose them in December the younger males loose them in spring.  Reindeer antlers are the largest compared to their body size.

Something you may not realize about Reindeer is they have a very special nose.  No, it doesn't glow red like Rudolf's.  They have nasal turbine bones that increase the surface area dramatically. This allows incoming air to be warmed by the deer's body heat before being transported to the lungs.  The moisture is also captured from the wet cold air before the warmed air is expired.  The moisture can be used to moisten dry air or even be reabsorbed back into the body via capillaries.

Why were Reindeer chosen to pull Santa's sleigh?  Well, I think it is because they are the only mammal to see ultraviolet light!  They can see wavelengths at around 320 nm much better than humans who tap out at 400 nm.  This is likely because Reindeer live in the Arctic where the world is often covered in snow and relatively monotoned.  Seeing ultraviolet helps certain objects stand out. 

Now that you see the many features of Reindeer you can see why Santa loves them. 

Happy Holidays to everyone,
Cass

One of my Favorite Animals

I've drifted off the biomimicry topic the last few posts and it is time to get back to it!  Today I want to talk about one of my favorite animals, the okapi...  Side note: (for those of you remembering my love of frogs and horses, the specific order of my favorite animals goes 1. Frogs 2. Okapi 3. Horses.)  Okapi's have a very striking coat and body.  They have a reddish brown body, zebra striped legs, and a giraffe shaped head.  The Okapi isn't related to zebras, deer, or horses.  Their closest relative is the giraffe.  If you look at their head you can see a distinct relation in the shape and they have a long dark blue tongue just like giraffe's. 

The Okapi's unusual coloring is actually  ideal for its' environment.  Okapi's live in dense rainforest, where there is little sunlight except for the traces that weave through the dense upper canopy.  This creates stripes of light across the jungle floor that blend in nicely with their legs.  Their body is a dark reddish brown that blends in with the rest of the forest and doesn't attract much attention.  Other striped jungle animals like the Tiger utilize the same strategy of wearing stripes to mimic lighting in the dense jungle.

One of the most unique features of the Okapi is their large ears.  Okapis make lots of noise but our human ears cant detect them.  They are at a ultra low frequency, while predators hear at higher frequency.  By having low vocals they can communicate with one another without predators listening in.  This has evolved mostly for mother Okapi's and their babies.  At the beginning of the day the mother Okapi will hide the new baby while she goes off to find food and water.  She doesn't go out of earshot so if baby Okapi needs her she can come back.

Now what are some possible uses for humans if we had Okapi ears?  Well due to their ability to hear low frequencies, Okapi's can hear earthquakes.  If humans could make a small ear sized device, everyone could have their very own earthquake detection device!

Try to keep in mind that every animal and creature has evolved their specific features for a purpose.  If an animal looks strange their must be a reason!  Happy reading,
Cass

A Narrow Vision Doesn't Help Anybody

Yesterday I found a very interesting article discussing that mice have turned into a poor model system for experimentation full article here.  They don't disregard that mice have led to some amazing advancements in science, but at the end of the day mice aren't genetically identical to humans.  Throughout the years, mice have become the predominant lab animal, they make up 59% of lab animal volume.  That is more than all other animals used, rat, fish, birds, primates, and so on combined.  Mice have become the predominant animals for experimentation for several reasons, they're easy to breed, they're small enough that fed and space isn't a big issue, they're also relatively easy to handle.  Scientists have diagnosed the mouse genome to death.  They can knock out, add, alter almost any gene to express whatever behavior they want.  But back to my original point, mice aren't humans...  Over time scientists have yet to cure many diseases in humans yet their treatments have a very high success rate on mice?  Why is this?  One scientist believes it is because mice are kept in a very sedentary lifestyle, they sit in their cage for days on end.  When mice were exercised vigorously and put on a restricted diet many treatments that previously were successful failed. 

My biggest issue with using mice as the mass model organism is it limits creativity.  No longer are people thinking out of the box.  Unfortunately this leads to another problem I really don't have a solution.  Using primates as the new mass model organism would seem like an option.   Their genetic make-up that is closer to humans, but having large amounts of primates really it isn't feasible due to the much higher maintenance costs and it takes a lot longer to breed enough.  The general public also has a much bigger moral issue with using primates and other non-rodent or fish animals. 

Personally I'm not against animal experimentation for scientific means.  I don't condone animal experimentation for cosmetics or trivial reasons (yes that is a blurry line).  I see animal experimentation as a necessary evil.  Proper avenues should be carried out with experimentation starting on simple organisms like cells and bacteria and slowly worked up until the human phase.  My first job out of college was working for a clinical trials group.  It was highly monitored and every effect of the drug both good and bad was closely monitored and recorded.  Patient safety was always the number one priority.  Our group helped many people and had great success.  Now back to the original problem.  Mice have severed their purpose as the model organism the advancements have slowed and people have gotten far too comfortable with mice.  But, what do we do now?  The truth is I don't know, but I am sure we need to open our eyes and start thinking outside the box again.  As always I would love your feedback and thoughts of all types.
That's it for now,
Cass

Dissapearing Act... The Rhino

Saw a sad article today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45236688/ns/world_news-world_environment/ that Africa's Western Black Rhino has been declared extinct.  It hurts for two reasons, the first being I have always loved rhino's, they are such an amazing unique creature.  The second being that this was another reminder that animals species are going extinct everyday.  Many of the larger species get noticed when they are on the decline simply due to their size, but species of all sizes are going extinct daily.  I'm not writing this to depress you but more as a call to action.  I'm including another link to a list of some species we have lost in the past 40 years and ways to prevent more species from disappearing forever: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45236688/ns/world_news-world_environment/.

Now, for your weekly dose of animal facts.  Rhino's have a human cause for their decline, they are hunted for their horns.  Some cultures believe their horns have medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.  To cut down on poaching in many areas rhinos have had their horns removed.  A rhino's horn consists of keratin only and do not have a bony core like cows horns.  Keratin makes up the outer layer of our skin, our hair, and nails.  The only other biological matter known to come close to the toughness of keratinized tissue is chitin which is found in tree trunks.  Understanding keratin structure could make a great biological marker because keratin expression is helpful in determining epithelial origin (where the cancer started) in anaplastic cancers.  Tumors that express keratin include carcinomas, thymomas, sarcomas, and trophoblastic neoplasms.  Who knew rhino horn could be a clue to diagnosing and finding cancer? 

That's all for now,
Cass

The Aquatic Episode....

Two weeks ago I asked people what animal they would like me to write about and while the response varied, there was a significant majority of fish lovers!  Something that defines every type of fish is their shape.  Each fish has adapted it's body over time to cater it specifically for it's environment.  Some would assume, that since all fish live in the water they all simply modify their body for streamlined swimming, not the case.  The ocean is just as varied as the surface in its different biomes.  Coral reefs are full of tight places, open ocean is miles and miles of vast open water, kelp beds are the forests of the sea.  These different environments have given variation to fish body shape.

Our first fish will be the box fish.  This brightly colored but admittedly awkwardly shaped fish lives in coral reefs.  Coral reefs are the one of the densest environments in the ocean.  This fish's body is ideal for tight swift turns to maneuver at optimal efficiency, and emits very little drag.  Mercedes Benz even modeled a car after the box fish shape, this concept car was exceptionally streamlined with a 65% lower drag coefficient than its' compact car competitors.

Next ocean fish with an extreme body shape is the tuna.  All tuna have an especially streamlined body shape, with a pointed head and a tapered tail. The large caudal fin is lunate (crescent shaped). Following each fin is a series of finlets, the number varying with the species. In all species, the scales are extremely small or lacking.  Everything about the tuna has been designed to cut down drag.  The torpedo shape cuts through the water, scales create drag so minimizing them or getting rid of them is ideal, and having a number of small finlets gives the tuna optimal control without needing large bulky fins.  The tuna has many more adaptations and may end op getting its own separate blog soon.

Next fish with the opposite body shape is the puffer fish.  Now this is a fish built for flexibility not for speed.  They tend to stay on the ocean floor because they are not fast swimmers.  Everyone knows their defense of puffing up many times their original body size by filling their stomach with water, but their deflated state is also very special.  They are very manoeuvrable and able to hover, swim backwards, and change direction much more quickly than most other types of fish.

The last requested aquatic creature is the Trigger fish, they live in tropic and subtropic oceans.  Trigger fish have an oval shaped, highly compressed body. The head is large, terminating in a small but strong- jawed mouth with teeth adapted for crushing shells. Their eyes are small and very high up on their head (to protect from spines).  They only have a single gill opening above the pectoral fins.  This fish actually has teeth due to its' very crunchy diet of slow-moving, bottom dwelling crustaceans and echinoderms, generally creatures with protective shells and spines.  Each jaw contains a row of four teeth on either side, while the upper jaw contains an additional set of six plate-like pharyngeal teeth.  Basically the trigger fish doesn't need speed because its' prey is extremely slow, instead its' body is built for protection and power.

That's it for now, if you have any other animals you want me to write about let me know,
Cass