This week I have an object for you that has a name with it, but I’m not sure I trust the identification:
I’m guessing it’s a little over a foot long (but it’s hard to measure). Any idea what this long, wrinkly, pink(?) thing might be? And please keep it clean!
Last week I gave you this distinctively weird looking skull to identify:
As I suspected, many of you worked out what it was straight away, but I wonder if it would have been as easy if the side view hadn’t included the mandible?
The upper dentition, especially the pair of incisors, is somewhat similar to that of a rodent, but that mandible is ludicrously massive and could only really belong to the weirdest primate in the world: the Aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis É. Geoffroy, 1795
So very well done to Tone Hitchcock, henstridgesj, Chris, Cindy Nelson-Viljoen, Daniel Jones, steve torna, Agata Stachowiak, palfreyman1414, boneman2014Lee Post, joe vans, Allen Hazen, Dave Taylor, Michelle, witcharachne, and Daniel Calleri.
The Aye-aye’s incisors are an adaptation for gnawing holes in wood to get at grubs inside. It finds these tasty morsels using a tapping finger and crazy bat-like ears to detect the tunnels the larvae create when feeding, with a system a bit like seismic ground response analysis.
Aye-aye by Frank Vassen 2008
Once the squishy prey has been detected and an entry point has been gnawed, the Aye-aye fishes it out using a specially adapted long, thin finger with a hooked claw.
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Aye-aye fingers by Dr. Mirko Junge 2009
Basically, the Aye-aye feeds rather like a woodpecker, but with the benefit of fingers and teeth. Perhaps it’s weird, but it’s most definitely wonderful!
When someone is inexplicably silent you might ask them “Has the cat got your tongue?”. I have no idea where this saying came from, since cats aren’t renowned for taking tongues. I think it would be far more appropriate to change the phrase to “Has the Cymothoa got your tongue?” since the Tongue-eating Louse Cymothoa exigua has track record of tongue stealing, at least in fish.
Here are some of the odd little critters in a jar of alcohol in my office:
These bizarre animals not only eat the tongue of their fish host, but they then replace the tongue and take over its normal duties.
Here’s a video that shows a live Cymothoa found by a fisherman, if you want to see them in their leg-wriggling entirety.
Zygoma 