We asked for your embarrassing science questions, and now we’re answering them. First up: some of the strangest requests we had, about everything from cat sex, to dinosaur noises, and thirsty fish.
How do birds pee?
Birds only kind of pee. They don't have separate openings for urine and feces, so everything gets mixed up and comes out as a paste through one hole called a cloaca. (See the above diagram, and then go here for more information than you ever wanted to know about bird excretion, courtesy of Eastern Kentucky University.)
Birds also use their cloacas for reproduction, and male birds fertilize female ones in a process called a "cloacal kiss".
Sandara Pond / Getty Images
Can sleeping in a fridge kill you?
The main thing you need to worry about if you're in a fridge is getting enough air – get stuck inside and you'll eventually suffocate. This was apparently such a problem by 1956 that The Refrigerator Safety Act was passed in the US, meaning all new fridges had to have a mechanism that allowed them to be opened from the inside.
So, yes, sleeping in a fridge could actually kill you, if it's not well-ventilated and you get trapped inside.
Thinkstock
Why do chickens have red flappy bits on their heads?
That "red flappy bit" on top of a chicken's head is called a comb, and the part that hangs down from its throat is called a wattle. Together, the comb, wattle, and fleshy bits on their earlobes are known as a caruncle.
The caruncle is thought to be ornamental and used by females to work out whether she wants to have a male's chicks. In males, a large caruncle demonstrates high testosterone levels. According to a paper published in 2010, pheasant hens might be able to work out whether a cock has compatible genes from the size of his wattle.
Edward Neale - Hume and Marshall, Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon (1879–1881) / Via en.wikipedia.org
Do fish get thirsty?
Dorling Kindersley / Getty Images
No comments:
Post a Comment