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Sub-fossorial species weighing more than 80 grams (2.8 oz) have comparably lower basal rates [specify] than those weighing lower than 60 grams (2.1 oz). The average fossorial animal has a basal rate between 60% and 90%. Further observations conclude that larger burrowing animals, such as hedgehogs or armadillos, have lower thermal conductance ...
Horses can be considered cursorial grazers. A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. cheetah) or if it can keep a constant speed for a long distance (high endurance). "Cursorial" is often used to categorize a certain locomotor mode, which is ...
Fossorial adaptations include small eyes, short, naked ears, and large fore feet with heavy claws. Zygomatic arches are widely flared, providing ample room for muscle attachment, [ 5 ] although, unlike other pocket gophers, this species does not use the curved incisors to assist the feet in digging. [ 3 ]
Most fossorial mammals, including the pocket gophers dig with their forepaws held directly below their body, but shrew-moles dig using lateral-strokes. [6] This method of lateral-stroke burrowing in shrew moles is an evolutionary adaptation due to the modification of the pectoral girdle and bones of the forelimbs . [ 6 ]
Free-roaming mustangs (Utah, 2005). Horse behavior is best understood from the view that horses are prey animals with a well-developed fight-or-flight response.Their first reaction to a threat is often to flee, although sometimes they stand their ground and defend themselves or their offspring in cases where flight is untenable, such as when a foal would be threatened.
The goat populations on some Aegean islands and in Crete were introduced during the prehistoric period and constitute relict populations of the domestic goat (Capra hircus) that are now feral. The bezoar ibex is one of the domestic goat's progenitors. [5] Wild goats are thought to have been domesticated at least 10,000 years Before Present. [6]
Extinct equids restored to scale. Left to right: Mesohippus, Neohipparion, Eohippus, Equus scotti and Hypohippus. Wild horses have been known since prehistory from central Asia to Europe, with domestic horses and other equids being distributed more widely in the Old World, but no horses or equids of any type were found in the New World when European explorers reached the Americas.
At the other extreme, an early member of the order, the prehistoric horse Eohippus, had a withers height of only 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 in). [5] Apart from dwarf varieties of the domestic horse and donkey, living perissodactyls reach a body length of 180–420 cm (71–165 in) and a weight of 150 to 4,500 kg (330 to 9,920 lb). [6]