View Full Version : Surivival Quiz
I quite liked the idea of Jacks 'answers on a postcard' quiz in the woodland chatter area so I thought I’d do one here
The first question is:
What member of the animal kingdom is the most able to survive extremes of environment?
By this I mean able to tolerate the widest extremes of temperature, Chemicals, Radiation, Pressure and humidity.
I'll let you know as soon as someone gets the right answer and if it goes on too long I will start to give clues until someone gets it.
:-D
I hope this isnt too easy
A wee bug called a "Wooly Bear" at least I think thats what its called.
donkeyporge
22-03-2004, 12:17
Could it be... Cockroaches? they say the only thing that could survive a nuclear war!
A wee bug called a "Wooly Bear" at least I think thats what its called.
What? One of these?
http://www.coldspringschool.org/Mill/00003951.jpg
Sounds like they may be weather indicators too!
Some peopel believe that the Wooly bear caterpillar can tell if the winter is going to be mild or rough. If the stripe on the wooly bear is narrow it means the winter is going to be mild. if the stripe on the caterpillar is wide it means the winter is going to be rough.
Gotta be an insect ... wish I'd paid more attention in biology now!
No its not a catapillar its a very small 6 or 8 legged bug.
either cockroaches or spiders. Roaches are meant to be tough and spiders get everywhere. Read somewhere that spiders can go without food or water for stupidly long times. Good question though, maybe the next step in bushcraft after knive and axe mastering is being cloned into a human spider cockroach thingy? :lol:
Paul
No its not a catapillar its a very small 6 or 8 legged bug.
It's called something else then. The pic is a Wooly Bear.
I'll put my money on the tardigrades. Commonly called water bears. During cryptobiosis they can survive just about anything.
I'll put my money on the tardigrades. Commonly called water bears. During cryptobiosis they can survive just about anything.
well done Hoodoo
Wow That was quick :shock: obivously too easy, I come up with another question for tommorrow :-D
I'll put a post up tonight Explaining just how tough water bears are!
Hoodoo,
Aren't bugs your specialist area? :-D
Keith_Beef
22-03-2004, 12:50
I'll put my money on the tardigrades. Commonly called water bears. During cryptobiosis they can survive just about anything.
well done Hoodoo
Wow That was quick :shock: obivously too easy, I come up with another question for tommorrow :-D
I'll put a post up tonight Explaining just how tough water bears are!
http://www.iwu.edu/~tardisdp/tardigrade_facts.html
Keith.
Water Bears. Thats the little guys I meant. Saw them on T.V a while back.
Scorpian's. You can freeze them, bake them, and they still get up and walk away. Amazing animal !!!
Hoodoo,
Aren't bugs your specialist area? :-D
Not exactly. :wink: I work with insects but did my graduate work using voles. But I've been teaching invertebrate zoology for 7 years and organismal biology for 14 years. :-D
Tardigrades aren't bugs. "Bugs" are in the phylum arthropoda. Water bears have their own phylum, tardigrada. They do have some arthropod traits but they lack a biggie: jointed appendages. All arthropods have jointed appendages but the tardigrades do not.
Not exactly. :wink: I work with insects but did my graduate work using voles. But I've been teaching invertebrate zoology for 7 years and organismal biology for 14 years. :-D
Tardigrades aren't bugs. "Bugs" are in the phylum arthropoda. Water bears have their own phylum, tardigrada. They do have some arthropod traits but they lack a biggie: jointed appendages. All arthropods have jointed appendages but the tardigrades do not.
So many big words. :-? I'll let you off! :-)
Scorpian's. You can freeze them, bake them, and they still get up and walk away. Amazing animal !!!
So do you think this fella might still be alive? :twisted:
http://www.firebox.com/pic/p618ex1.jpg
Comgratulations to Hoodoo for getting this right!
Ok Why are water bears the best survivors of etreames of enviroment?
When times get tough the water bear (tardigrade) curls up, draws in its legs and its metabolism almost stops. This resting stage is know as a Tun, and it is almost indestructable!
It can survive temperatures as low as -272 degrees C which is only one degree above absolute zero (the coldest possible temperature) and as High as 151 degrees C
with regards to pressure it can survive 6000 atmospheres (almost all other organisms including bacteria are killed at 3000) but it can aslo survive the vacum of space and a lack of oxygen (it is capable of surviving outside the earths atmosphere in space)
it can survive pressures 6 times higher than the deepest ocean on earth
it can survive an exposer to radiation of 570,000 Roentgens (only 500 Roentgens would be fatal to a human).
It is capable of surviving the loss of 99% of its water content and even being immersed in pure alcohol
water bears have been revived from this state from samples of dried-out moss after being stored for 120 years
Water bears live in almost every part of the world (including the antarctic and even your garden, or if you dont have a garden they live in your gutters!)
Water bears have been found in oceans 6000 m below the surface and
on mountains 6000 m high and under 6m of solid ice
http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/tar_Heterotardigrade-Echiniscus-Lateral-Body.jpg
I'll start work on the next question :-D
That's one tough sucka! Aren't we lucky it ain't bad for us (I'm hoping it isn't! :shock: )!
A party trick for you.......catch a bee, and freeze it. It becomes dormant but is still alive. Tie (gently) a piece of cotton wool around its thorax. And warm it in the sun. It wakes up and you have a bee on a string. I remember trying this years and years ago. I did this once, but after trying to release it, it stung me and died. Didnt do that again.
Sorry if i sound like some twisted sadist (is that the right word?) :shock:
Cheers,
Jake
I think we all did things to insects as a child that now seem quite twisted
who did'nt use a magnifying glass to kill ants?
In mauritius the children have a game where they catch a cameleon, when the cameleon is annoyed it opens its mouth in a threatening posture
the childen put a lit cigarette in its mouth! (to make him smoke it)
The really bizarre thing is after the cameleon has breathed the cigarette for a few moments the children take the cigarette away, throw it on the floor and release the chameleon, the chameleon runs straight to the cigarette immediately and much to the ammusement of the kids picks it up in his mouth and starts sucking on it (smoking the cigarette) :shock:
this is short lived though as after a few minutes of smoking the cigarette the cameleon dies :-(
How many children around the world are doing horrible things to insects an other little creatures as we speak
still at least you'd think the chameleon stunt would teach children an imporant lesson about cigarettes :-)
I remember as a child (of about 4-5) i would take joy in pulling legs off daddy long legs and watch the leg wriggle.
:shock: :evil:
Jake
In mauritius the children have a game where they catch a cameleon, when the cameleon is annoyed it opens its mouth in a threatening posture
the childen put a lit cigarette in its mouth! (to make him smoke it)
The really bizarre thing is after the cameleon has breathed the cigarette for a few moments the children take the cigarette away, throw it on the floor and release the chameleon, the chameleon runs straight to the cigarette immediately and much to the ammusement of the kids picks it up in his mouth and starts sucking on it (smoking the cigarette) :shock:
I never knew death sticks were THAT addictive - just a few minutes??? Woah!!! :yikes: A good object lesson for teaching kids not to try smoking even once! :nono:
Its actually takes less than a minute, its also intresting to note that the lizard does not appear to breath out :shock: