While it is difficult to determine the exact reason for X, ‘camouflage’ seems to have taken less importance in recent studies.
One of the leading theory is that X confuses blood-sucking flies, and hence gives a significant advantage.
Another is possible reason for X might be be regulation of heat.
Which great mystery of the animal kingdom am I talking about?
Category: Nature
[316]
In the 18th century, Carl Linnaeus named them after the Latin for spirits of the dead, wandering ghosts. He knew they roamed an African island’s forests at night, their large eyes brimming with moonlight, their shrill cries cracking through the treetops.
Which animal?
Show AnswerLemur
They are endemic to the island of Madagascar with around 100 different species. They chiefly live in trees and are active at night.
Read more about Lemurs.
[301]
Around 10% humans & most of the kangaroos show this attribute.
In humans, it is thought to give advantage in certain fields such as music, sports, etc. Some famous personalities known to have this attribute are Oprah, Sir Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga & Bart Simpson.
13th August is celebrated for this. What am I talking about?
[286]
Diclofenac is a non-steroidal painkiller for cattle which was commonly used in India. However, as a second-order effect, the drug led to 90-98% loss of another species of animal.
While the drug was banned in 2006, it is estimated that it has caused more than $69bn per year in mortality damages or the economic costs.
Which animal suffered because of the drug?
[280]
X is the largest land dwelling species of the weasel family. It is a stocky and muscular carnivore. It has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size with the documented ability to kill prey many times its size.
Identify X.
[274]
X is a bone found in a majority of mammals, including some primates, however absent in humans.
People have used X from different animals to fashion various kinds of tools.
Some historians also argue that it was infact Adam’s X and not the rib which was taken away to give life to Eve.
Solve for X.
[247]
While there are estimated to be 400+ varieties of X, all of them are considered to be classified under the same species. This huge variety is attributed to thousands of years of intervention of humans.
Some of these are categorized as:
Sporting
Working
Toy
Non Sporting
What am I talking about?
[240]
Richard X was a British actor, director & producer. He was most famous for his multi-Oscar winning biopic about a freedom fighter released in 1982.
His younger brother David X, is also a prolific film-maker. He is the only person to win a BAFTA award for a programme in black and white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K.
Can you give their surname X?
[212]
About 50% of this fruit’s production comes from India, which is also seen from its scientific name Mangifera indica. It was especially famous with the Mughal emperors, Akbar commissioned an orchid of 1,00,000 trees called Lakhi Bagh near Darbhanga, Bihar.
Today companies like Reliance, Essar are some of the largest exporter of it.
Can you identify this fruit?
[209]
X is a type of deciduous tree native to Madagascar, Africa & Australia. The tree is also referred to as ‘upside down tree’, due to a local myth, or ‘Tree of Life’ due to many uses of its bark & fruit.
It is also one of the longest living trees on Earth, with an estimated age of 2000-3000 years.
Can you identify this iconic tree?
[191]
Endosymbiosys is the process in which one species is engulfed by another, and continues to live inside the host in a symbiotic relationship.
Roughly 2.2 billion years ago an archaea virus absorbed a bacterium to create X.
1.6 billion years ago, cyanobacteria was absorbed by some advanced organism creating Y.
Can you identify X & Y, which have had life changing impact on Earth?
[174]
Ophiocordyceps is a fungus which is found in tropical environments. It is especially deadly to ants and can kill the insect in 4-10 days.
The nature in which it is deadly is quite dramatic & also became an inspiration behind a famous game & TV series.
Can you identify how the fungus works?
[154]
John X was a Scottish-Canadian farmer who is credited with discovering the X Y.
Jef Raskin is credited with the naming of Y’s Z line of products, inspired by X Y.
The difference between X and Z is of spelling. Jef Raskin deliberately misspelled the name to avoid conflict with a high-end audio equipment manufacturer X Laboratories.
Identify X, Y and Z.
[116]
In his 1631 treatise Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis, Dutch physician and explorer Jacobus Bontius wrote, of a tribe he’d encountered in the jungles of what is now Indonesia, that “the Malays informed him that the X could talk, but preferred not to, lest they be compelled to labor.”*
Bontius’ mention of X was the Western world’s first introduction to the name of this tribe, a word that passed from Dutch to Portuguese to English and is still used today in slightly modified form – ironically, even speakers of modern Malay and Indonesian use the European corruption of the name, even though its etymology lies in Old Malay.
Who are the X?
*Considering Bontius was there as part of a Dutch East India Company expedition, this was probably a very good idea.
[110]
What word is used to refer to either:
-a particular cut of meat, usually veal, used in Italian and French cooking, usually cooked in wine or other sauces, or
-a type of bivalve mollusc that is prized both for its meat that is sold as seafood and for its symmetric, fluted, fan-shaped shells?
[98]
The Scientific Revolution is commonly regarded to have been in full swing at the turn of the 17th century, and it was right around this time that a German scientist came up with a quick and easy (for the time, at least) nomenclature system for his particular field of study. This system, named after the scientist himself, originally consisted of a lowercase Greek or Latin letter that (loosely) pinpointed a particular attribute, coupled with a specific set of Latin words that worked to swiftly assign names to what he was working on.
The system has since been tweaked and expanded by other scientists building off of his work, but is still very much recognizable and in use today.
What is this naming system called, and what does it classify?
(Bonus: In an interesting overlap, one of the subjects of study under this classification indirectly inspired the name of a former Formula 1 team.)
[88]
One of these is not like the others — which one, and why?
[11]
The world history has been divided into different eons & eras. The last three eras defined are:
However unofficially, there is movement to classify the current age that we’re living in, under a new name. What is it & why?
[10]
The following animals have been named after this celebrity.
1993 – a spider from California
2003 – an ant from South America
August 2023 – a snake from Peru
The actor called the latest naming an honour, but joked that people ought to stop naming terrifying creatures after him.
Name the actor.
#NationalWildlifeDay