Dolphins:.With
all the research on dolphins, we still don't know
how they can swim so well with the hydrodynamics
and physiology
that they have, but fluid dynamics reveals amazing things about them. They
too, like the housefly, are a conundrum.
The dolphin continues to
challenge our understanding of it. Dolphins can speed at 10 meters.(9
yards).a
second, with muscles not powerful enough to overcome the water drag at
that speed. How do they do it? They have the ability to achieve laminar
flow at high velocity,
with no turbulence over the dolphin's head 'sonar dome'. Such amazing design!
Compared to bats, dolphins
have a very large brain, but the smaller brained bat has a much more sophisticated.echolocation
system. Something more than brain size is going on.
Dolphins, whales, sea lions
and seals as well as bats possess this amazing echolocation ability.
Dolphins love to play and
blow bubbles wimp.com/dolphinbubbles/
Findings by the Hawaii Institute
of Marine Biology.(search
at commondreams.org).may
explain several strandings of dolphins and whales in the past decade. Most
strandings are still thought to be natural events, but the tests strengthen
fears that exercises by naval vessels equipped with sonar are responsible
for at least some of them.
Porpoises and dolphins have
very different teeth, but in other aspects they are most similar. Their
diversity
can not be accounted for by the nutty theory of evolution.
Most types of dolphins possess
dorsal fins, but why not the Northern Right Whale Dolphin?
Dolphins are
related to whales but are generally
smaller and have a beak-like snout.
Dolphins and seals hear without
ears with fat bundles in the lower jaw and their connecting ear canals
have a shape like an ear trumpet. Little ones respond to their mother's
signature whistles.
Mother dolphins form playpens
for the young to protect them. Dolphins cooperate when they feed, circling
schools of fish and taking turns to dart in and feed. What motivates dolphins
to keep herding fish, once they have satisfied their hunger? A good example
of altruistic
behavior. But it's balanced with some negatives.
Dolphins engage in both positive
and negative behavior. Negative in that they sometimes kill other species,
but not for food and commit infanticide.(killing
their young; perhaps because they sense a weakness that would put at risk
the growing dolphin). Positive in that
the adults play.(not
common among adult mammals).and
cement social relationships with sex.
The Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin,
common to the coastal waters of South Africa, is know for cooperating with
fishermen by driving fish toward their nets.
In summer when the water
is the warmest, dolphins give birth, the mother lunging quickly away from
her new born calf in order to snap the umbilical cord, thusly freeing her
calf to swim to the surface for its first breath. Soon the calf is nursing,
taking solid food in the form of fish after about 6 months. The nursing
may continue for several years.
Young dolphins like to play
and often toss Sting rays around like frisbees. Dolphins are sociable creatures
and enjoy meeting humans.
Coral(s):.Coral
is in fact a marine animal. Like sea
anemones,.(findingcoral.com).hydra
and jelly fish, they are polyps.(small
flowerlike marine animals with a tubelike body).
Cold water and deep water corals retain 'their pigments',
which they in response to environmental stress. Why they do this is a mystery,
as they don't need them for solar protection. They just look pretty! Corals
live in large colonies.(many
living together). Their skeletons form
a stony mass, as only the top layer of a coral reef is living. As the individual
polyps die, their calcium carbonate skeletons remain. Tiny ocean corals'
calcified bodies provide the infrastructure
for their descendants.
Atolls.(means
'uniting', as in a ring shaped coral island surrounding a lagoon).of
coral are found in many tropical seas.
Many coral so beautifully
fluoresce.such
vivid
colors and yet, so much more so than other animals. The color of the coral
comes from the different types of algae which inhabit
different depths.
The highly poisonous Lion
Fish keeps the coral reef safe from poachers.
Fish maintain the balance of algae growth, so the algae doesn't choke the
coral.
Coral have
the ability to turn their innards outward, discharging them at enemies.
Corals have a symbiotic
relationship with
algae upon
which it depends 80% for its nutrients,
but algae abandon coral when the temperature rises above 30ºC. Algae
use the carbon dioxide
emitted
by the coral's orifice.(hole,.which,
interestingly enough, acts as both mouth and anus).to
photosynthesize
oxygen and food in return for the carbon dioxide. The whole scenario
is truly Gaian
and altruistic! Production of
carbon and other elements making Earth life possible entails
a sensitive balance of physical equational
constants.
Parrot Fish:.Parrot
fishes can cloak.(something
that covers or conceals).themselves
in their own mucous.secreted
from their mouths. These bubbles from their mouths mask the sleeping Parrot
Fishes from night prowling morays.(eels.inhabiting.coral
reefs, that feed on fish like Parrot Fish).
To become the
dominant
one in the social order of reef fishes, Parrot fish compare the size of
their opened mouth, a behavior known as gaping.
Parrot fish
look today as they did
in ancient times. No evolution for them or anything else for
that matter. What many call evolution is adaptions to environment,
but it's certainly not change into another species; for example, a fish
doesn't change into a horse.