Tag Archives: Anatomy and Physiology

With serpentine necks, flippers and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, plesiosaurs have captured imaginations since paleontologists uncovered the first specimen more than two centuries ago. Their skeletal anatomy is well documented, but their external appearance has largely remained a mystery. Now researchers have conducted the first detailed analysis of plesiosaur soft tissue, offering a more complete look at what …

Flower mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollen in flowers throughout the tropics. To travel from one blossom to another, these tiny, eight-legged creatures hitch rides on the beaks of hummingbirds, taking shelter in the birds’ nostrils during flight. When a speedy hummingbird arrives at a flower to drink nectar, mites run toward its beak to get onboard …

Corals come in a wide array of shapes, sizes and colors, and they build sprawling reefs that serve as refuges for vast amounts of biodiversity in the ocean. But they are not known for being fleet of foot. This is because out of the more than 6,000 species of coral known to science, most are colonial organisms — individual animals …

With hornlike facial fins and diamond-shape bodies that can stretch nearly 30 feet across, manta rays are among the strangest fish in the sea. Yet these behemoths’ most puzzling feature is a whip-like tail that can measure as long as the rest of the fish’s body. Why mantas and related rays have such long tails has long been a mystery. …