Discovery Science 🧬

wolves. Having discovered danger, the ungulates form a tight ring. Inside are weak individuals and young animals. Outside are strong bulls and cows, ready to make a chop out of the enemy. The mighty beast cannot breathe out calmly even during the short summer. The peak of the rut occurs in June and July. It all starts with the fact that the most bullish musk ox drives other males out of the herd, leaving around him a harem of 7-15 females. If someone does not agree with this situation, a fight ensues. Males disperse at a distance of 20 meters, as if in a duel. There will be no seconds, but a trumpet roar and the sound of horns will be heard, which will spread across the tundra. Before they collide, the bulls accelerate to 60 km/h. They will fight each other until one of them gives up. The winner will become a father after 8.5 months. Females give birth to one cub. There is no time to breed calf tenders in the far north - a newborn is ready to follow the herd a couple of hours after it is born. But do not think that the baby is deprived of affection and love. The child stays with his mother until he is two years old! Time passed, the climate changed, glaciers melted. But our hero stoically endured all the hardships. The musk ox remained a fragment of relict fauna - it has survived to this day in Canada and Greenland. The beast returned to Europe and Russia, to its historical lands, relatively recently, in the 20th century. The fact is that the musk ox is an extremely useful animal. It doesn’t just trample the ground, but preserves and enriches the fragile tundra ecosystem. Scientists conducted an experiment lasting 15 years. During this time, they monitored how the number of plants, mosses, lichens and fungi changed in places where the musk ox was present and where it was not. The results are amazing: where moths grazed regularly, biodiversity loss was reduced by almost 50% thanks to regular soil fertilization! So the musk ox has not only preserved itself as a species, but will also help us keep the north in a pristine and healthy state. 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Muskox: Titan of the North. The secret to surviving -70°C and ancient tactics against wolves This woolen titanium is an echo of the prehistoric era, when the world was plunged into eternal winter. A symbol of a bygone period, a relic whose spirit and body were tempered by cold, ice and blizzard. Meet the musk ox - the mammoth of our time. The musk ox exudes primeval power. Thick horns protect the skull like a helmet. Coarse long hair falls almost to the ground. Under a thick fur coat is an alloy of muscles and imperturbable confidence weighing 300-600 kilos. In the conditions of the far north it will not be possible to look less brutal - the ungulate lives in the Arctic lands of Europe and America: Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Siberia. Despite its name and appearance, the musk ox is neither a sheep nor a cow. According to taxonomy, goats are closest to them! Why is the beast so different from its relatives? The fact is that musk oxen appeared when being big and hairy was vital. During the Ice Age. The ancestors of shaggy goats descended from the Himalayas 3.5 million years ago. Then, when the overall temperature on the planet began to rapidly fall. On the way to the north, the musk oxen became hairy and mature. When woolly mammoths, rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers and cave bears roam around you - you need to match up! About a million years ago, the species was already trampling the plains of Europe. And 200 thousand years ago, when man had just become intelligent, the ungulate had already crossed the Bering Strait and populated America. The musk ox perfectly adapted to the conditions of the Ice Age. He became the largest representative of the goat subfamily. The larger the body size, the slower it cools. Simple physics. Thick two-layer wool helps keep warm. On top is the guard hair. It works like a windbreaker: it protects against wind, water and snow. In the winter season, the musk ox's tails hang almost to the ground! The inner layer is called qiviut - stuffed down, warming even in the most severe frosts. This is one of the most valuable types of wool in the world: it is stronger than sheepskin, but softer than cashmere! In the snow dunes, the musk ox feels like a fish in water. In snowdrifts the animal is capable of reaching speeds of up to 40 km/h. And powerful hooves help to get food even from under a layer of loose snow 40-50 cm thick. Surviving alone in the icy desert is not an option. Therefore, musk oxen gather in large herds: in winter the number of heads reaches fifty. Both the female and the male can control the group. The head of the herd chooses where to run, when to rest and where to look for food. Together they scour the icy expanses, gratefully accepting any food that fate sends them: moss, moss, dry herbs and shrubs - there is no choice of menu in the kingdom of eternal cold. The musk ox itself rarely becomes prey for anyone. The only ones who can encroach on his barrel are an experienced pack of polar

Mandarin Duck: The most psychedelic fish on the planet Hello, would you like to eat a tangerine? If you wish, reconsider; I strongly advise you not to do this. After all, you are on the pages of the Book of Animals, and citrus fruits are not found here. But we have tons of toxic fish with psychedelic colors! The mandarin duck that we are telling you about today lives in coral reefs off the coast of Japan, South Asia, Indonesia and Australia and its numbers are quite high - this is a common species, the presence of which on the reef does not surprise anyone. And yet, local predators are in no hurry to eat it. The mandarin duck has no scales and is absolutely defenseless, but its skin is abundantly studded with unusual glands of two types. Some produce thick and sticky mucus, others mix a foul-smelling toxin into it, causing severe itching on the mucous membranes of other animals. Therefore, a predator who tries to feast on a tangerine will suffer for many hours from the desire to scratch his mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach - and you wouldn’t wish that on your enemy. Their poisonous defense works so flawlessly that the tangerines have become very lazy. They have become slow and spend their days leisurely swimming around the reef in search of small invertebrate creatures that they can kill. And if the fish gets tired, then it will not hide in a secluded corner, but will simply sit on the bottom and walk along it with the help of its pelvic fins. Even slower and lazier. The only thing the mandarin duck is fussed over is its coloring. The fish painted itself with the now fashionable postmodernist patterns and did not do it out of love for art. Simply a bright and memorable color is the only reliable way to stand out from the crowd of non-poisonous small fish, so that you are not eaten purely for the company of this harmless little thing. And the tactic worked for most of the mandarin duck's evolutionary journey. But then a man came, saw something bright and cool, and how about putting it in aquariums and selling it to other people! And since the mandarin duck is poorly adapted to life in an aquarium, which is why it regularly dies and almost never reproduces, its population has to be regularly renewed. Moreover, the demand for tangerines is only growing every year. So far, this has not threatened the populations of the cute fish, and they are living peacefully. But will it always be like this? Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

trick is that leatherbacks are mesothermic animals. This is a cross between cold- and warm-blooded. Tortilla got this ability thanks to three factors. Firstly, the turtle is almost always on the move. If you think you're working your ass off during an eight-hour shift, this reptile rests only 0.1% of the time during the day. Her muscles are constantly generating heat. Secondly, despite the constant work of the muscles, the turtle actively accumulates fat. This layer helps keep you warm when diving. Thirdly, the turtle loses heat slowly due to its size. Simple physics: the larger an object, the slower it cools. So it turns out that when swimming in cold waters, the reptile does not freeze at all. Turtles spend their entire lives in water. Only females return to the beach once every two or three years, where they were once born in order to leave offspring. Males feel solid ground under their feet only once in their lives. Well, now about cuteness. Feeling an irresistible desire to become a mother, the female turtle scoops out onto the sand and digs a hole up to a meter deep with her powerful hind flippers. Having prepared a springboard in this way, the expectant mother places the back of her body over it, and from there, as if from a cornucopia, about 100 eggs pour into the hole. After such an important process, the nest is again covered with sand and compacted tightly. The female performs this procedure 3-4 times every 10 days. It is easy to calculate that one turtle can lay up to 400 eggs per season. After two months, the sand in the place of laying begins to move, revealing tiny turtles about 5 cm in length. The baby must orientate itself with the direction and quickly, quickly move its flippers towards the water so that they are not eaten by bad birds and crustaceans. This stage of life becomes the first and last for 70% of babies! Unfortunately, at present, humans are very successfully doing what evolution could not do during the 110 million years of existence of this amazing species - actively reducing the population of leatherback turtles. Adult reptiles have few natural enemies - no jaws are enough to unpreserve an armored carcass weighing half a ton. In addition, there is little meat in turtles, so even among people it is not very popular. One of the main reasons why the leatherback turtle was given a place in the Red Book is its mouth! In creating such a mouth, evolution somehow forgot that there is still a person on Earth who likes to actively litter. But he doesn’t like to think actively. Turtles mistake discarded plastic bags for jellyfish and try to eat them. As a result, the reptiles' stomachs become filled with plastic, causing blockage of the digestive tract and the death of the animal. Author: Tatyana Syrcina Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Leatherback Turtle: Its mouth is a portal to hell. But that's how she conquered the entire ocean I don’t envy anyone who dreams of the mouth of a leatherback turtle. The throat studded with thorns does not at all invite you to look deeper, causing only one desire - to run away as fast as you can. But, as often happens in life, appearances are deceiving. In fact, the heroine of our topic is an excellent student, a Komsomol member, an athlete and just a good turtle. The leatherback turtle seemed to have set itself the goal of collecting all the Oscars of the animal world, becoming the very best in several categories at once. Let's start with the fact that this is the largest living representative of the Turtle order and one of the largest reptiles in principle. Its size can reach 2.5 meters (average 1.5 m), and weight - up to 700 kg (average 350-500 kg). The span of the flippers reaches a whopping 2.7 m, thanks to which turtles are able to reach speeds of up to 35 km/h, while still managing to maneuver deftly in the water. True, in fairness it must be said that for such indicators the leatherback needs to be highly motivated. Usually the speed of movement does not exceed 10 km/h. The carapace is dark brown, almost black, shield-shaped, with seven sharp longitudinal ridges on the dorsal side and five on the ventral side. It consists of many bone plates, closely but at the same time movable, articulated with each other and covered with skin. Due to this unusual structure, the reptile’s armor expands when breathing and contracts under strong pressure. And here another record awaits us: leatherbacks are one of the deepest sea animals that breathe atmospheric air, second only to the beaked whale, sperm whale and elephant seal. They are able to dive towards the center of the Earth to a depth of up to 1200 m, without fear of being flattened into a cake. Now let’s dive into the inner world of the turtle itself. Yes, yes, we will finally reveal the secret of this terrible mouth. Reptiles feed mainly on jellyfish. How are jellyfish different? That's right, increased slipperiness and snotty. How to hold and swallow such an actively moving jelly? Make a portal to hell from the mouth! The turtle's throat and esophagus are studded with sharp spines that are curved inward. It looks creepy, and for jellyfish it’s also deadly. Having caught on the thorns with a jelly-like body, they can no longer get back out. But let's get back to counting medals and cups. The distribution range of leatherback turtles is the widest among all sea turtles in principle. The species is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans from the southernmost tips of Africa and New Zealand to Alaska and Norway in the north. Let’s not forget that the turtle also regularly dives to depths where temperatures tend to zero, and we open our mouths in amazement. How can a cold-blooded animal, which all reptiles are, be able to maintain mobility at such low temperatures? The

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<b>Antarctic mosquito: The only insect of the South Pole </b> Forget everything you know about mosquitoes. This one does not squeak, does not fly and does not drink blood. Moreover, it DIES at room temperature. Meet Belgica antarctica - the only true insect of Antarctica. 2-6 millimeters in size, but with incredible superpowers: it can lose 70% of moisture and survive, it can live for a month without oxygen. The color is lacquered black, the size is like a grain of rice. And most importantly: NO WINGS. Why did evolution take away their wings? Just think: with an Antarctic wind of 80-100 km/h, any winged little one will instantly be blown into the ocean. Wings in Antarctica are a death sentence. Life cycle - TWO YEARS. He spends almost two of these years as a larva frozen in ice. And only 7-10 days - an adult. The larvae feed on algae, fungi and penguin excrement. Adult mosquitoes DO NOT FEED AT ALL. They don't have a mouth to eat. Females mate on the first day of life, lay eggs and die. Two years of preparation for seven days of breeding. The Antarctic mosquito also has the smallest genome among all insects on the planet. He THROWED OUT everything unnecessary from DNA - every extra molecule requires energy, which is critically scarce in Antarctica. Most insects die after losing 20% ​​of their moisture. This one is experiencing 70% dehydration. In winter, the larva CONSCIOUSLY expels water from its body so as not to turn into ice. The body shrinks, metabolism freezes. In the spring it absorbs moisture back and lives on. Plus it accumulates natural antifreeze from sugars and lives for a month without oxygen, frozen in ice. Here's a paradox: the Antarctic mosquito CANNOT TOLERATE HEAT. The larvae die at +10°C within a week. At +30°C - in hours. Room temperature is lethal. They adapted to the cold so much that they lost the ability to live in warmth. But at −15°C it’s normal. Irony: Antarctica's only insect will go extinct if the continent gets warmer. And this happens. Temperatures are rising, winters are getting warmer. In cold winters, 50% of the larvae survive; in warm winters, only 30%. Warm autumn does not allow the accumulation of energy; the larvae hibernate exhausted and do not survive until spring. The mosquito has NO PREDATORS. There is no one to eat it. No parasites or diseases - too cold. The only enemies are cold, ultraviolet radiation and dehydration. The Antarctic mosquito is a living paradox. A mosquito without wings that doesn't bite. An insect that dies in heat but thrives in ice. Two years of life for seven days of love. Belgica antarctica is proof that life can exist where it seems impossible. The result of 40 million years of evolution in the harshest place on the planet. And now, as Antarctica warms, this little black mosquito is one of the first to disappear. Because he was too well adapted to the cold to survive in the warmth. <b>🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — </b><b>https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot