Animania Issue

Folks seem to have no shortage of questions about our furry and feathered friends. In this issue of Search + Discover, you’ll learn:

whether the chicken or the egg came first
whether we’ll ever speak to dolphins
why geese fly in a V formation
how birds survive severe weather
why spiders don’t stick in their own webs
whether ants have hearts
why certain animals can mimic human language
whether fish have feelings

Plus, you can explore further reading and related links.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

"This is frequently given as the quintessential unanswerable question. But the question isn't unanswerable because we lack sufficient knowledge; it is unanswerable because the question is ambiguous. It is pretty tough to come up with an answer if you don't understand the question.

"In this case, we need clarification about what exactly is meant by the words 'chicken' and 'egg.' With the help of Merriam-Webster Online we can rewrite the question as follows:

Which came first, the common domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) or the hard-shelled reproductive body produced by a bird and especially by the common domestic chicken?

"Restated in this precise fashion, the answer is very straightforward. The common domestic fowl was bred from the wild Red Jungle Fowl approximately 8,000 years ago by people living in what is now Southeast Asia.

"Since the egg as defined by Merriam-Webster is found in all birds (including the common domestic chicken), then we have to go back to the common ancestor of all birds to find the first bird egg. Since this common ancestor was alive well over 150 million years ago, it seems pretty clear that the egg came first.

"Of course, there are different definitions of the word 'egg.' If you happen to be a fan of the MSN Encarta World English Dictionary MSN Encarta World English Dictionary, then our question would be rewritten as:

Which came first, the common domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) or a large sex cell produced by birds, fish, insects, reptiles, or amphibians, enclosed in a protective covering that allows the fertilized embryo to continue developing outside the mother's body until it hatches?

"Based on this definition, in order to find the first egg you would have to go back over 500 million years to find the common ancestor of birds, fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. In other words, the egg clearly came first."

Scott M. Lanyon
Director, Bell Museum of Natural History
Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Will we ever speak to dolphins?

That depends on what you mean by "speak," says Mark Bee, assistant professor in the department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior.

Bee is confident that human beings will never chat with dolphins in dolphins' language and dolphins will never say "how do you do" or "thanks for all the fish" in any human language. But, he said, that doesn't mean the two species can't exchange information.

"So if you phrase the question differently and ask whether we will ever communicate with dolphins, the answer is yes," Bee says.

Animal trainers like those at Orlando Florida's Sea World already communicate with dolphins using simple verbal commands and hand signals, he says, and scientists studying the sounds dolphins make with each other are beginning to develop a kind of dolphin lexicon of the animals' unique signature whistles and other sounds.

"The interest in dolphins is that these are smart creatures and they do have relatively complex vocal systems," Bee says. "But the intellectual challenge is to figure out what they're saying to each other as opposed to trying to figure out ways to communicate with them somehow, because there are probably much simpler ways to do that than cracking the code of their own communication system."

Why do ducks and geese fly in a V formation?

"These birds are just doing the avian equivalent of a NASCAR driver's slipstreaming (or drafting)," says Scott Lanyon, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History and a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "Geese and ducks are relatively large birds, and they affect the air they fly through just as a race car does. Each bird creates a slight uplift at the tips of their wings during flight. By flying behind and slightly above another bird's wing tip, birds experience an updraft. These trailing birds gain an advantage and expend less energy than they would if they were flying by themselves. Studies have shown that a bird in a flock flying the same speed as a bird flying alone flaps its wings half as often."

How do birds survive in a tornado or severely high winds?

"Not surprisingly, there isn't a wealth of research information on how birds respond to severe weather—researchers are frequently too busy responding to severe weather themselves to make detailed observations of birds," says Scott Lanyon, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History and a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "We do know that birds tend to move closer to the ground and under cover (e.g., in dense bushes) when they encounter severe winds and weather, and they work hard to remain facing into the wind. If the wind comes from behind them it will catch the feathers and lift them up, allowing rain to get underneath. Properly-arranged plumage is well oiled and sheds water efficiently—but a truly wet bird is unlikely to survive a storm.

"It is very likely that some birds do get blown out of their hiding places and die during severe storms. We don't know how common this is because the necessary research (which would be logistically difficult) hasn't been conducted."

Why don't spiders get caught in their own webs?

"Spiders are amazing silk engineers," says Susan J. Weller, associate professor in the Department of Entomology and curator of Lepidoptera at the Bell Museum. "They make many different kinds of silk for different purposes. They use a strong, non-sticky silk for the main components of their webs and another kind of silk for capturing their prey. They don't get caught in their webs because they walk on the non-sticky silk or lower themselves on a separate silk line, carefully avoiding the sticky. Humans are studying how to make artificial spider silk because it is so strong and light. In fact, the Department of Defense is interested in practical applications of artificial spider silk."

Do ants have hearts?

"Yes, all insects have hearts—just not the kind that humans have," says Susan J. Weller, associate professor in the Department of Entomology and curator of Lepidoptera at the Bell Museum. "An insect heart is a single long tube that occurs on their top side (dorsal). They also have extra mini-hearts (pulsatile organs) at the base of their wings and legs to return the blood to the abdomen. Blood enters the heart in the abdomen and is then pushed through the tube and exits into the head cavity. The blood then exits the head cavity and moves through the other body cavities, but not in blood vessels. Insects have an 'open' circulatory system that differs from human closed circulatory systems.

"Another big difference between insects and humans is that insects don't use blood to deliver oxygen to their cells. They have miles of small air tubes (trachea) that deliver oxygen directly to their cells. It's a great delivery system for small animals but wouldn't work in an animal our size."

Why can parakeets mimic human language while other animals cannot?

"In many animal species, vocalizations simply aren't learned—individuals develop their call or song based on their DNA, and the only learning is in the refinement of those vocalizations," says Scott Lanyon, director of the Bell Museum of Natural History and a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "In other species, including many parrots and parakeets, mynas, ravens and mockingbirds, learning plays a substantial role in the development of calls and songs. As a result, these species can often learn, or be taught, to make sounds that mimic other bird species as well as human language, car alarms, cell phones, chain saws, and other even more obnoxious sounds."

Do fish have feelings?

"The capacity of fish for feeling or pain is usually dismissed by anglers as just another fish story, and it's a question that the fishing industry probably does not want answered," says University of Minnesota Duluth associate professor Allen Mensinger. "The unsuccessful fisherman can take solace that his quarry possesses surprisingly sophisticated sensory systems which more than justify his annual investment in the latest tackle and electronic gear. The drive to feed and reproduce while avoiding predation is inherent in every fish. To successfully accomplish these tasks, fish cycle through transient arousal states that are under hormonal control. Millions of years of evolution have selected for an exquisite array of underwater sensors that allow fish to see, smell, taste and feel their way through 'inner space.'

"Pain perception in fish, however, continues to be debated among scientists. Given that recently hooked fish will readily grab bait again, and that fish have been known to resume eating within 12 hours following brain surgery, pain perception, if any, must be drastically different than mammals. The fish brain also lacks the structures and organization associated with pain perception in mammals. While ethics dictate the use of anesthesia for fish handling and surgery, the regulations are more indicative of our inability to characterize pain than testament to fish experiencing pain. And while anthropomorphism of an animal's emotional welfare undoubtedly evolved parallel to human's cognitive abilities, further research is needed to demonstrate true pain perception in fish."