Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
While some aquatic animals move by "walking" along the ocean floor or burrowing, the predominant mode of fish locomotion is swimming, achieved by exerting force on the surrounding water which, by Newton's 3rd law, results in a reactive force that propels the animal forward.
Sleep can follow a physiological or behavioral definition. In the physiological sense, sleep is a state characterized by reversible unconsciousness, special brainwave patterns, sporadic eye movement, loss of muscle tone (possibly with some exceptions; see below regarding the sleep of birds and of aquatic mammals), and a compensatory increase following deprivation of the state, this last known ...
The primary physiological and biochemical concerns for an aestivating animal are to conserve energy, retain water in the body, ration the use of stored energy, handle the nitrogenous end products, and stabilize bodily organs, cells, and macromolecules. This can be quite a task as hot temperatures and arid conditions may last for months, in some ...
Hibernation functions to conserve energy when sufficient food is not available. To achieve this energy saving, an endothermic animal decreases its metabolic rate and thereby its body temperature. [3] Hibernation may last days, weeks, or months—depending on the species, ambient temperature, time of year, and the individual's body-condition.
The hippopotamus sleeps with both hemispheres of the brain resting, as in all land mammals, and usually sleeps on land or in water with the nostrils exposed. Despite this, it may be capable of sleeping while submerged, intermittently surfacing to breathe without waking.
Mammals tend to rely on lower glide ratios to increase the amount of time foraging for lower energy food. [8] An equilibrium glide, achieving a constant airspeed and glide angle, is harder to obtain as animal size increases. Larger animals need to glide from much higher heights and longer distances to make it energetically beneficial. [9]
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the ...
Animals caught in terrestrial mudflows are subject to involuntary locomotion; this may be beneficial to the distribution of species with limited locomotive range under their own power. There is less opportunity for passive locomotion on land than by sea or air, though parasitism (hitchhiking) is available toward this end, as in all other habitats.