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A dragonfly in its radical final moult, metamorphosing from an aquatic nymph to a winged adult.. In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in ...
When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
Some arthropods, especially large insects with tracheal respiration, expand their new exoskeleton by swallowing or otherwise taking in air. The maturation of the structure and colouration of the new exoskeleton might take days or weeks in a long-lived insect; this can make it difficult to identify an individual if it has recently undergone ecdysis.
The larval stage of insect development is considered by some to be a form of altricial development, but it more accurately depicts, especially amongst eusocial animals, an independent phase of development, as the larvae of bees, ants, and many arachnids are completely physically different from their developed forms, and the pre-pupal stages of ...
A new study by CU Boulder engineers in the Science Advances journal suggests that a mechanism called diffusiophoresis may be the reason behind the sharp and detailed patterns found on even the ...
Some animals may display bloody vaginal discharge, often mistaken for menstruation. [3] Many mammals used in commercial agriculture, such as cattle and sheep, may have their estrous cycles artificially controlled with hormonal medications for optimum productivity. [4] [5] The male equivalent, seen primarily in ruminants, is called rut. [2]
A boa constrictor in the U.K. gave birth to 14 babies — without a mate. The process is called parthenogenesis, from the Greek words for “virgin” and “birth.” ... some animals can have ...
A new analysis of three-toed fossil footprints that date back more than 210 million years reveals that they were created by bipedal reptiles with feet like a bird’s.