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Scorpions are Master Architects

posted by janrinok on Sunday July 13 2014, @11:34PM   Printer-friendly

cafebabe writes:

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.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @01:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @01:54AM (#68732)

    Don't capitalize species epithets please.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @02:51AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @02:51AM (#68745)

    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

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @11:32AM (#68856)

      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

        by everdred (110) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 14 2014, @06:17PM (#68986) Homepage Journal

        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

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @06:24AM (#69184)

        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

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @01:11PM (#68885)

      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

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 14 2014, @02:03PM (#68910)

      You don't appear too familiar with headlines involving binominal taxa.