Weird Animal Brain: Fly

Fly lips are called labellum and fly feet are called tarsi. Both the labellum and tarsi contain taste receptors which help the fly find food. Think about that the next time a fly lands on your donut! Butterflies also have taste receptors on their feet, but only use them to avoid poisonous plants.

Fly-01.png

References:

Bittel, J. (2017, August 03). Four Weird Ways Animals Sense the World. Retrieved August 06, 2017, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141122-crabs-snakes-smell-taste-nose-science-biology/

Montell, C. (2009). A taste of the Drosophila gustatory receptors. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19(4), 345-353. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2009.07.001

Weird Animal Brain: Shark

This quote from a Scientific American article on the ampullae of Lorenzini articulates just how powerful the shark's electrical sense is:

"This effect is equivalent to the intensity of the voltage gradient that would be produced in the sea by connecting up a 1.5-volt AA battery with one pole dipped in the Long Island Sound and the other pole in the waters off Jacksonville, Fla. Theoretically, a shark swimming between these points could easily tell when the battery was switched on or off. (Later measurements of brain response indicate that sharks can discern 15 billionths of a volt.) No other tissue, organ or animal exhibits such extreme sensitivity to electricity. Indeed, engineers have difficulty measuring such weak fields in sea-water using modern equipment."

Shark-New-01.png