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Many animals are colorful to demonstrate fitness and health to one another—the robin's red breast is a sterling example. But pigment, like everything else in the body, comes at an energy cost
Originally posted by ManBehindTheMask
Hmm Could a version of this be responsible for the "Mongolian Deathworm" reports for all these hundreds of years?
Maybe something like this we just havent found yet in that area?
Originally posted by okamitengu
ok one for the science guys... it has no lungs, so i assume gills.
HOW do its gills filter enough oxygen to provide for it??
i thought gills were inefficient in oxygen rich atmospheres! hence fish dying when we catch them...???!!
That's because the lungless land-dwellers breathe through their skin. Small body size increases the area of porous skin in relation to body mass, making it easier for the animal to absorb oxygen from the air.
The wormlike amphibian Scolecomorphus vittatus sometimes moves over leaf litter in the forests of Tanzania. Since color in amphibians is usually a sign of toxicity, researchers think the caecilian's bright stripe could be a warning that, if eaten, the species creates a burning taste in the mouth.
Breathing through the skin; in some vertebrates the body surface has become highly vascularized for gaseous exchange. Such exchange is of particular importance in the class Amphibia, where mucous glands in the skin maintain a moist respiratory surface; and in the soft-shelled turtles (family Trionychidae).
Originally posted by Majiq
Giant? The article says 4.4 inches long, I can find earthworms in my back yard bigger than that. It looks cool, and all so S&F for that, but giant..
Originally posted by Brad-H
reply to post by ManBehindTheMask
doesnt really make sense mate. A new discovery in south america GUYANA is somehow linked to the asian MONGOLIAN death worm? hmmm, interesting. u must be american. hehe.