Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Oxpeckers graze exclusively on the bodies of large mammals. Certain species are seemingly preferred, whereas others, like the Lichtenstein's hartebeest or topi are generally avoided. Smaller antelope such as lechwe , duikers and reedbuck are also avoided; the smallest regularly used species is the impala , probably because of the heavy tick ...
Morphology of a male skeleton shrimp, Caprella mutica Morphology in biology is the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features. [1]This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern, size), i.e. external morphology (or eidonomy), as well as the form and structure of internal parts like bones and organs, i.e. internal ...
Cleaning symbiosis is a relationship between a pair of animals of different species, involving the removal and subsequent ingestion of ectoparasites, diseased and injured tissue, and unwanted food items from the surface of the host organism (the client) by the cleaning organism (the cleaner). [5]
The preferred habitat is open country, and the red-billed oxpecker eats insects. Both the English and scientific names arise from this species' habit of perching on large wild and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating ticks. [4] This species's relationship with rhinos gives the Swahili name Askari wa kifaru meaning "the rhino's guard". [5]
Whatever the net result, mammals generally tolerate oxpeckers. [8] The yellow-billed oxpecker is 20 cm (7.9 in) long and has plain brown upperparts and head, buff underparts and a pale rump. The feet are strong. The adults' bills are yellow at the base and red at the tip, while juveniles have brown bills. [10] Its flight is strong and direct.
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny [ 1 ] (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era , continuing in the early modern period with work by Pierre Belon who noted the similarities of the skeletons ...
Impala are symbiotically related to oxpeckers, [35] which feed on ticks from those parts of the antelope's body which the animal cannot access by itself (such as the ears, neck, eyelids, forehead and underbelly). The impala is the smallest ungulate with which oxpeckers are associated.
Following on the ideas of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1818), and studies by Johann Friedrich Meckel the Younger (1820), Carl Gustav Carus (1818), Martin Rathke (1825), and Karl Ernst von Baer (1828), [5] the relationship between the reptilian jaw bones and mammalian middle-ear bones was first established on the basis of embryology and comparative anatomy by Karl Bogislaus Reichert (in ...