Post #14583

Moloch: Lizard of thorns. It turns out she has a second head Moloch looks like he's about to lie down on the sand and die. He walks along the sand slowly and swaying, freezing every few steps, and an eerie tumor dangles from his neck. But in fact, the hero of this issue is healthy and feeling great! After all, the growth on the neck is a very important, albeit disposable, part of the reptile. This is her false head. When an animal is attacked by some predator, which is not stopped by the prospect of having breakfast with a lump of thorns, the moloch tilts its head down, exposing its false head to the blow. After all, you must admit that it is better to lose a lump of connective tissue than a skull! And he moves so strangely not at all because of the disease that has affected his body, this is a carefully calculated strategy. Despite the fact that the molochs crawl out of their hiding places at dusk, they try not to give themselves away too much, so they move slowly and with frequent stops. And thanks to its silhouette-blurring camouflage and numerous spines, the moloch quite naturally pretends to be a dried-out plant trying to survive in the Australian desert. But unlike native plants, the thorny devil (that's what English speakers call it) feels comfortable in any weather because it is able to extract moisture directly from the air! In the pre-dawn twilight, when the air begins to warm up, moisture falls in the form of dew drops. The water also settles on the moloch, which at this hour specially climbs onto some dune or rock. And then some magic happens. The dew that settles on the moloch is absorbed into microscopic channels and flows through them directly to the reptile’s mouth. All he needs to do is just lick the water! But no, there is no smell of magic here, this is the most ordinary physics, albeit quite complex. The Molochs learned to use the capillary effect. The water molecules inside the channel “stick” to the walls and pull the bulk of the water further, gradually moving towards the reptile’s mouth itself. The chances of observing this effect in everyday life are approaching zero, because the wider the lumen of the tube or channel, the weaker it is. But the Molochs don’t care about this, because the width of their skin tubes is hundredths of a millimeter! And when Moloch gets drunk, he goes to the nearest anthill to eat. Despite its small size, the moloch is a very voracious creature that eats 1.5-2 thousand insects every day. Fortunately, these ubiquitous insects feel great even in the desert. Well, then, after drinking and eating, the reptile hides in an abandoned hole, under a dry bush or between stones. After all, who in their right mind would walk under the scorching sun? Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot