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The Platypus has the same repertoire of milk protein genes as a cow or a human so clearly milk evolved long before the ability to have live offspring. It also has a bigger repertoire of a particular class of vomeronasal receptors than any other animal which suggests that their sense of smell is important while foraging under water!
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‘Bling’ was used by fossilised sea creatures called foraminifera 65 million years ago — they deliberately used extraterrestrial diamonds in their shells.
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Rats, chimps and humans cast aside what they know from their own experience and adopt an inferior course of action just because everyone else is doing it.
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The aboriginal whalers of the east coastline off the Chukotka Peninsula in the far east of Siberia have reported that an increasing number of whales they catch smell so foul that even dogs wont eat them. The few people who have tried the meat suffered numb mouths, stomach ache and skin rashes. Ringed seals, bearded seals, walruses and the eggs of seabirds are similarly affected. The Chukchi hunters first noticed something was amiss in the late 1990’s although older individuals say the problem goes back to the late 960’s — now they estimate that around 10% of whales are inedible. Perhaps it is diet related as ‘stinky’ whales have seaweed and cod in their stomachs rather than their usual diet of shrimp-like crustaceans.
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Chukchi is the news again as the Fish and Wildlife Service (USA Govt) has given oil companies a blank cheque to look for oil in the Chukchi Sea, off the coast of Alaska. This decision will allow ‘essentially unlimited harassment of polar bears'.
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Homosexuality may be quite natural; after all, 470 species of animals indulge in same-sex activity. Male penguins, rams, female macaques all do it.
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An interesting read is Donna Haraway’s 'When Species Meet' (University of Minnesota Press). A study of the author’s encounters with her pet dog and changes her thinking about what it means to be human.
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