MANIPULATION

Blackbuck  (Antilope cervicapra, Linnaeus 1758)   Generally, animals do not exchange information on abstract concepts or objects not present in the environment: they communicate immediate events related to the issuer or its habitat. The signals can transmit information on body size, age and strength, or information concerning the environment, for…

Leggi

WHO WEARS PANTS?

 Wattled Jacana – Jacana jacana  (Linnaeus, 1766) Who wear pants. We used to think that investing in the care of offspring is a female exclusive and that the courtship and reproductive behaviour of males are largely attempts to exploit the investment of resources for women. In some cases, however, the…

Leggi

GLOWING FIZZY DRINK

THE GATES OF HELL lava     For most of the twentieth century, the central enigma of volcanology was not about the behavior of volcanic mountains, but their origins in depth. It began to shed light on these phenomena at the beginning of the sixties, when the theory of plate…

Leggi

SEA DRAGONS

Draghi marini

  In the seas of the Triassic lived five major groups of marine reptiles: Pachypleurosauria, Placodontia, Nothosauria, Plesiosauria and Ichthyosauria. Each group is adapted to aquatic life in a very different way and altogether represent an important adaptive radiation to aquatic predators whose origins are probably independent.     Pachypleurosaurs…

Leggi

DO NOT CALL THEM DINOSAURS

Non chiamateli dinosauri

   Pterosaurs and dinosaurs belong to the group of Ornithodira, but are classified under two different superorders, the Pterosauromorpha and the Dinosauromorpha. The genetic distance between them is therefore the same as between a bear and a flying lemur. Define pterosaurs “Flying Dinosaurs” is therefore incorrect. The word “pterosaur” means…

Leggi