Friday, September 18, 2009

Armadillo

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Cingulata

Photo Credit: Vlad Lazarenko

Of the twenty species of armadillo that exist throughout the Americas, the nine-banded armadillo is the only one found in the United States. When startled, the nine-banded armadillo can jump straight upward about three to four feet into the air. This reflex may help scare off predators in the wild. Unfortunately, many armadillos are killed when they jump into the underside of moving vehicles.

Armadillos can cross bodies of water in two ways. They can:

1. inflate their stomachs and intestines with air and float across the water, or,
2. sink down and use their sharp claws to walk across the bottom.

They can hold their breath for six minutes or more!

Photo Credit: Tom Friedel

The nine-banded armadillo always gives birth to same gender quadruplets from a single egg. For this reason, it serves science well with its unusual reproductive system. Because they are always genetically identical, the group of four young provides a good subject for scientific, behavioral or medical tests that need consistent biological and genetic makeup in the test subjects.

The Latin name for the nine-banded armadillo is Dasypus novemcinctus. The word Dasypus is derived from the Latin word for rabbit, Novem means nine and cinctus means band. Literally, it translates to "nine-banded rabbit." It is said that armadillos without their shells resemble rabbits.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Flying Fox

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Suborder: Megachiroptera
Family: Pteropodidae
Genus: Pteropus


Photo Credit: Markus Nolf

The Flying Fox is a megabat and often called a fruit bat because its diet consists of eating fruit or sucking the nectar from flowers or juice from fruit. This bat does have teeth that are used to bite through fruit skins, and it has a long tongue that is inserted into flowers to reach the nectar.

Despite the appearance of these large bats and their reputation in horror movies as blood-sucking vampires, the Flying Fox is in fact frugivorous and is not dangerous to humans.

Like most bats, the Flying Fox is social and nocturnal. They roost together at a camp during the day and feed at night.


Photo Credit: Daniel Vianna

The Flying Fox is typically around 16 inches long with a wingspan of up to 5 feet. These giants can also weigh 2+ pounds each. The name Flying Fox comes from the bat's head resemblence to a fox, with small ears, pointed nose and large eyes. They live in the tropics of Asia and Australia and on islands in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.