Most fascinating animal?

[codewarrior]

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duck billed platypus

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They may or may not be fascinating, but they are evidence of god's sense of humor.

[diebitter]

You need to consider development. Those that don't develop eyes (or better put who develop inferior eyes) are not favoured against in any way. Energies that once went to making the eyes might, by genetic chance, make their fins stronger or something like that.

This is speculation though.

What you can say is that things often get lost evolutionarily cos they are of no use, not specifically because they're selected against or anything.

Anything with 'vestigial' parts (eg our appendix) shows this.

[4_2_it]

Allow me to nominate the chupacabra.

[Kyo Souma II]

Trippy as hell, and they have some amazing biological characteristics.

[Doc7]

The Liger is pretty much my favorite animal.

[Rduke55]

[ QUOTE ]
You need to consider development. Those that don't develop eyes (or better put who develop inferior eyes) are not favoured against in any way. Energies that once went to making the eyes might, by genetic chance, make their fins stronger or something like that.

This is speculation though.

What you can say is that things often get lost evolutionarily cos they are of no use, not specifically because they're selected against or anything.

Anything with 'vestigial' parts (eg our appendix) shows this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, now blind critters are my specialty so I absolutely have to weigh in on this.
Nervous tissue takes up a HUGE amount of resources, not only for development but it's metabolically very expensive. The visual system in a lot of animals takes up a large proportion of the brain. If you don't need it because you live underground there's a large selection pressure to get rid of it for those reasons and others.
Sometimes not having a selection pressure to keep something is the reason it goes away but here there's actually a pressure to get rid of it.

[derosnec]

Theory on why beavers build dams:

[ QUOTE ]
Those released in ponds and large rivers burrowed into the bank, set up beaver housekeeping and then showed no more desire to construct anything beyond their holes. Those released along streams, however, found likely looking pools and then proceeded to deepen them by constructing dams at the narrow, shallow, downstream end. This set the investigator to thinking...



So he proceeded to a riffle (the shallow, high gradient part of the stream) and set up a tape recorder to tape the sound of the water rushing over the gravel and stones. He then set up speakers around known beaver haunts and at dusk turned the tape on.

Lo and behold when he returned the next morning he found the speakers buried under several feet of sticks, gravel and mud - thus effectively silencing the sound. The result was the same whether done along a beaver dammed stream, a large (and quiet) river or a lake or pond. The beavers always covered the speakers until they couldn't hear the sound of rushing water.

And the mystery was neatly solved! Based on experiments with both free living and captive beavers the researcher found that the sound of rushing water was as annoying to a beaver as the sound of fingernails on a blackboard is to humans. And that beavers will pile up sticks and mud in any spot they hear that sound until they can no longer hear it.

This explains in one go why beavers always pick the narrowest and most shallow section of stream to build their dams - it's because that's where the noise is. And they continue piling up sticks and mud in that spot until that annoying sound is silenced. In short, beavers build dams because they like peace and quiet.



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[T.J. Combo]

[Howard Beale]

Sam, former 'World's ugliest dog', RIP.

[ScottieK]

I like sharks, jellyfish, and spiders and all that, but chameleons trip me out.

ScottieK