Animalist - zoology of animal

Explains how end-of-Mesozoic climate change, rising mountains, and swamp destruction around 70 million years ago reduced plants and favored birds and mammals, sealing dinosaurs' extinction.

We compare the qilin with the giraffe using ancient texts and myths to explain its appearance, behavior, and the myth of the four auspicious beasts.

Explore why jellyfish sting, how nematocysts fire toxins to paralyze prey and cause pain to humans, and the myth, tentacles, and senses surrounding jellyfish biology.

Explain why earthworms do not sing or have ears, despite ancient beliefs. Detect vibrations and light through tactile and photoreceptive cells, revealing nocturnal behavior.

Earthworms change the ground by digesting organic matter and mixing soil, turning it finer, moister, and richer, while tilling the land and boosting crop health.

Leeches inject hirudin, an anticoagulant, causing continuous bleeding from a y-shaped wound after biting; remove with salt water and treat with silver nitrate or pressure.

Observe how nacre secreted by the mantle forms shells and pearls. Form natural pearls in pearl oysters; artificial pearls imitate this process.

Clams maintain continuous water flow through inhalant and exhalant siphons, enabling feeding and respiration even when shells are closed, driven by cilia on gills and mantle.

Discover why clams' shells open after cooking as closing muscles lose contractile power while the ligaments remain elastic, letting hinges open the shells.

Snails move with a muscular foot and a foot gland that secretes a sticky liquid, leaving a shiny slime trail; drying mucus can glue them to surfaces.

Change color through dermal pigment cells in shrimps and crabs that expand or contract with light and environment, while cooking leaves orange-red tones as pigments break down.

Explain why mature crabs migrate from freshwater to the sea to spawn and how females lay up to 100,000 eggs, with larvae returning upstream to mature over 3-5 years.

Explain how crabs breathe with feather-like gill plates, store water on land, and exhale air and water to form bubbles that create the white foam in front of their mouths.

Shrimp migrate in large groups through reproductive, feeding, and overwintering migrations to preserve species, moving from deep waters to spawning grounds near the Bohai Sea and Korean Bay, then returning.

Hermit crabs live in snail shells for protection, testing shell size and moving in when they fit, with sea anemones defending them and other sea animals using shells for transport.

Explore why small insects caught in spider webs become empty shells as spiders liquefy prey with venom and digestive enzymes through external digestion, leaving hollow exoskeletons behind.

Spiders extend long aerial threads from anchor points to span between distant trees, forming a sky bridge that becomes a suspension web built from thick cables of proteinaceous silk.

Insects produce sound without vocal cords using specialized organs: cicadas vibrate tymbals on the abdomen, while crickets and grasshoppers stridulate wings, and locusts rub leg joints against forewing veins.

Explore how insects hear with diverse auditory organs, from tympanic membranes in cicadas, crickets, and katydids to fine antennal hairs in male mosquitoes, and how rhythmic patterns differ from melodies.

Explore why insect blood often appears colorless, while higher animals show red blood from hemoglobin, and learn about blister beetle toxins and pigment-driven colors in some species.

Explain why dragonflies fly faster and farther than other insects, using powerful thorax muscles, two differently flapping wing pairs, lightweight bodies, large wings, aerodynamic shape, and large compound eyes.

Dragonfly larvae spend 1–2 years in water, using an extendable lower lip to catch prey, and their dipping into water signals their eggs-laying behavior.

Explain why termites threaten buildings in tropical humid regions, as they bore into cellulose in wood and paper, aided by termite protozoan symbiosis, cutting water supply lines controls them.

Explore why locusts form gregarious groups, from how egg laying and synchronized hatching create dense masses to how shared physiology drives heat retention, movement, and sun-following migration.

Explore why butterflies fly awkwardly in the morning as cool air and damp wings hinder takeoff. Note how morning condensation adds weight and reduces lift, explaining clumsy flight.

Explore how butterfly wing colors arise from microscopic scales that reflect light to produce chemical and physical colors, and learn preservation tips to protect specimens from sunlight.

The lecture explains why mole crickets have large forefeet and why locust back feet develop in summer, highlighting digging adaptations, blade-like forelegs, and powerful hind legs for jumping.

Explain how mustard oil odours from Brassicaceae crops attract the cabbage butterfly to oviposition, revealing its reliance on the antennae olfactory nerves to select cabbage family plants.

Discover why male silkworms produce more silk than females by showing how nutrients from mulberry leaves are allocated to silk production vs. egg development.

Explain why flies and mosquitoes have only one pair of wings. Highlight halteres as hind-wing–derived balancing organs that stabilize flight and reflect their evolutionary role in Diptera.

Explore why flies thrive in dirty places and carry hundreds of thousands to millions of bacteria, like Salmonella and Shigella, yet remain unharmed due to their digestive tract dynamics.

Investigate how chemotaxis draws mosquitoes to humans in hot, humid weather before storms. Understand skin secretions like amino acids and lactic acid, and the role of mugwort repellents.