AMAZING ANIMALS

NICOLAS ALVIAR 200616208
DERECHO
GR.10
10.04.08

Some animals have developed amazing adaptations to their environments. Many different types of energy exist in the environment, some of which humans cannot detect. Here are some examples of how some animals sense the outside world and the anatomical structures that allow them to do so.

For example:

Bees
Can see light between wavelengths 300 nm and 650 nm.
Have chemoreceptors (taste receptors) on their jaws, forelimbs and antennae.
Worker honey bees have 5,500 lenses ("ommatidia") in each eye.
Worker honey bees have a ring of iron oxide ("magnetite") in their abdomens that may be used to detect magnetic fields. They may use this ability to detect changes in the earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation.
Can see polarized light.

Bats
Can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away using its "nose-leaf".
Bats can also find food (insects) up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using their sense of echolocation.
Can hear frequencies between 3,000 and 120,000 Hz.
Snakes
Pit-vipers have a heat-sensitive organ between the eyes and the nostrils about 0.5 cm deep. This organ has a membrane containing 7,000 nerve endings that respond to temperature changes as small as 0.002-0.003 degrees centigrade. A rattlesnake can detect a mouse 40 cm away if the mouse is 10 degrees centigrade above the outside temperature.
The tongue of snakes has no taste buds. Instead, the tongue is used to bring smells and tastes into the mouth. Smells and tastes are then detected in two pits, called "Jacobson's organs", on the roof of their mouths. Receptors in the pits then transmit smell and taste information to the brain.
Snakes have no external ears. Therefore, they do not hear the music of a "snake charmer". Instead, they are probably responding to the movements of the snake charmer and the flute. However, sound waves may travel through bones in their heads to the middle ear.