ScienceDaily reports that:
After trapping the wild large-clawed scorpions (Scorpio Maurus Palmatus) in Israel's Negev desert the researchers filled their burrows with molten aluminum to make replica casts. Once solidified, they were unearthed and analyzed by a 3-D laser scanner and software.
The researchers found that the burrows followed a very sophisticated design, beginning with a short, vertical entrance shaft that flattened out a few centimeters below the surface into a horizontal platform. The burrows then turn sharply downwards, descending further below ground to form a dead-end chamber. This cool, humid chamber, where evaporation water loss is minimal, provides a refuge for the scorpions to rest during the heat of the day.
The design was common to all the scorpion burrows studied, which suggests that burrow building in scorpions has evolved by natural selection to meet the animals' physiological needs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @01:54AM
Don't capitalize species epithets please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @02:51AM
Its a headline, traditionally everything except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions are capitalized. Educate yourself. [yourdictionary.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @11:32AM
I wish English-speaking countries stopped getting hard-on off title capitalization. It's goddamn Internet, not a newspaper.
(Score: 2) by everdred on Monday July 14 2014, @06:17PM
A thousand times this. Headline-style caps are awkward to begin with, but become super-awkward after about four words.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @06:24AM
You're right, there's no reason to try to look professional or anything, we may as well just do away with capital letters and punctuation marks entirely. We're just a website, nobody takes those seriously.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @01:11PM
your "its" is a bit ironic considering you are correcting another persons English.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @02:03PM
You don't appear too familiar with headlines involving binominal taxa.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by That_Dude on Monday July 14 2014, @03:34AM
All I saw was an image of a scorpion. Why talk about something cool like casting their home and scanning it in 3D and then cheese out on the image(s)? I guess the take home message is that these folks are home-wreckers.
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Monday July 14 2014, @05:35PM
Found a photo in this link [bgu.ac.il]. Not fantastic but gives you an idea at least.
(Score: 2) by khakipuce on Monday July 14 2014, @11:41AM
Why? What's wrong with analyzing it with the good old eyeball?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sir Garlon on Monday July 14 2014, @01:37PM
TFA doesn't say so I'll offer two guesses.
1) It's easier to take measurements of the volume and cross-sectional area of the tunnels if you have a 3-D model
2) Maybe they're doing modeling of heat and moisture dissipation and need a 3-D model as input
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 5, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday July 14 2014, @03:19PM
Do not analyse scorpion with remaining eyeball.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @11:47AM
Unfortunately, it does not provide refuge from molten aluminum during science tests.