Social Science Questions & Answers

The song of the birds at dawn has given pleasure to millions of people has been celebrated in poetry and prose for many years. The most usual explanation given in the Middle Ages was that the birds sang each day in praise of God and the beauty with which, he had clothed the world. More recently, there was the feeling …

Turtles and tortoises have been on planet Earth even before the dinosaurs. They are that old. The difference between a turtle and tortoise is that the turtle stays in water while the tortoise stays on land. But both creatures have one thing in common: they live to a ripe old age, from 120 years to almost 200 years! Some of …

Some animals have a special, reflective surface right behind their retinas, called the tapetum lucidum, which helps animals see better in the dark. When light enters the eye, it hits a photoreceptor that transmits the information to the brain. But sometimes light doesn’t hit the photoreceptor, so the tapetum lucidum acts as a mirror to bounce it back for a …

Some plants capture insects and other tiny animals and use them as food. They do not devour their prey by chewing but decompose them in a mixture of enzymes. The pitcher plant attract to its large showy leaf by means of sweet-smelling nectar. The leaf has a treacherous lip which precipitates the unwary victim into a deep hollow pitcher full …

Some animals in cold climates escape the severest weather by hibernating. That is, they spend the winter months in a very long deep sleep. The world hibernate comes from the Latin hibernare, which means to winter many animals find sheltered place underground or at the base of trees and hedges in which to hibernate. Hibernating animals include frogs, newts, toads, …

Rattles are a warning adaptation. The sound of the rattle warns potential predators or careless wanderers of the presence of these venomous creatures.

Rabbits are timid animals with many enemies and rely on their large ears to warm them of the sound of approaching danger. Their ears act like old-fashioned ear-trumpets. The large area catches a great many sound waves and channels them into the rabbit’s inner ear. Wild rabbits spend most of the day underground, usually coming out to feed between dusk …

What is it that makes every child remember Bugs Bunny? Its toothy smile of course! All rabbits have huge buck teeth in front, and with good reason. Being vegetarians they have to make a meal of leaf, grass, or vegetable. The plants, on their part, are very smart. Over a period of time they have developed ways of protecting their …

Although many birds can both swim and fly, no other bird can swim as well as the flightless penguins. Penguins have muscles, bones and organs very much like those of flying birds, so we assume that their ancestors must have been able to fly. Probably they slowly lost the power of flight while learning to swim faster and dive deeper …

Birds fly so well because they have developed skeletons which are especially light and strong. Most of their bones are hollow, with the interior webbed or honeycombed across by fine girders of bone to give added strength. They are sometimes called pneumatic or air-filled bones. A bird’s skull is made of thin bone in remarkable contrast to the solid, heavy …