Research paper “Why do animals need tails? The role of the tail in the life of animals

Sometimes it seems that the body structure of animals is unique, and it is not clear what some parts of the body are for. For example, why do animals need tails? Every scientist will say that there is nothing superfluous on the planet, even the smallest tail in the world is necessary if it exists.

For the most part, it performs a physiological and mechanical role in the life of the animal; the tail helps to jump, move along branches and delight its own kind.

Tail as a support

Once upon a time, lizards walked the earth who were different sizes, but the most interesting thing is that they moved like people, on two legs. Why do animals need tails? It served as a third leg when the lizard sat or moved. Although many lizards have disappeared from the face of the earth, some animals still have such tails. For example, a kangaroo or an aardvark. The latter animal most often moves on four legs, but having found a termite dwelling, it sits on its hind legs, leaning on its tail, and breaks the structure to get insects.

Woodpeckers and pikas also have very powerful and stiff tails. It also acts as a support when the woodpecker hammers a stump or climbs a tree.

Tail-hand

What is another role of the tail in animals? In some monkeys, in particular in South American monkeys and howler monkeys, it plays the role of a hand. The howler monkey's tail is covered with hair only on top to make it easier to cling to tree branches.

They can hang on a branch for a long time, clinging to only one paw and tail. At the same time, this type of animal is able to use its tail, getting tree fruits and pushing objects.

The kinkajou (a relative of the raccoon) uses its tail in the same way as koats. This is a small animal, no larger than a rabbit, but with a very long and tenacious fifth limb.

And the seahorse, which swims quite poorly, uses its tail to cling to a plant and wait for prey, rather than swim, spending great amount strength and energy.

Tail-"motor"

Why do animals need tails? They can use this limb as a motor. The most striking example is the whale, which has the most powerful tail of all animals. It's scary to imagine, but the width of the tail toothed whale- 5 meters. Another interesting fact is that whales have a horizontal tail, that is, it is positioned differently from all fish. This is due to the fact that the animal breathes atmospheric air, and dives into water only to obtain food, although sometimes it has to descend hundreds of meters. Naturally, delay can cause hunger. And it is the horizontal position of the tail that allows the fish to move faster under water.

And the tail of crayfish can be compared to a powerful motor. In case of danger, it is with the help of it that the animal quickly rake out the hole and hide in it.

The kangaroo also uses its tail as a motor, pushing off from the surface of the earth with it.

Steering wheel and balancer

Why do animals need tails? Most often it is used to control the body. First of all, birds need it to land on the ground. In addition, the tail helps birds search for prey from the air, so in predators they usually have bigger size, wider and longer.

This limb also allows for balance; if you watch birds sitting on branches, you can see that the tail is in constant motion.

But the most important thing is that the tail allows you to extinguish the turbulence of air streams that interfere with flight.

The muskrat and the lion use the tail as a rudder when attacking its prey. And it helps jerboas maintain their center of gravity when the animal jumps.

Parachute

The flying squirrel skillfully uses its fifth limb as a parachute. When it already seems that the marten will overtake its prey, the flying squirrel straightens its tail and in the blink of an eye finds itself on the ground or lower branches. The striped chipmunk has a similar skill.

Defender and weapon

Why do animals need tails? It can act as protection. The simplest example is horses and cows, in which this process allows them to ward off annoying flies and gadflies.

Another example is a lizard that, quickly escaping from an enemy, sheds its tail. While it is still squirming on the ground, the animal itself runs away, and the predator can only be content with the lizard’s tail.

The jerboa does the same thing, only during an enemy attack the tail does not fall off, but peels off, leaving the predator with only the skin in its mouth or beak.

And the herbivorous lizard from the Arabian and Egyptian deserts uses its tail like a jump rope, with which it fights off enemies. And crocodiles use their limb to attack the victim. The same gharial that has gigantic sizes(up to 5 meters in length), is still not dangerous for people, and with its tail it stuns fish in the water, which is what it feeds on.

Lungs

A striking example is the water bug or, as it is also called, the scorpion. It is a small insect that feeds on crustaceans and aquatic insects. If an insect falls into water, it can breathe air through its tail, folding it into a tube. The tail of the ranatra insect is structured in a similar way.

Is there some more interesting fish jumper, which can stay on wet sand for up to 5 days. But this fish always puts its tail in the water. According to some reports, this is how she breathes on land.

Blanket

Naturally, it is quite difficult to track wild animals, but it is an established fact that many of them use their tail as a blanket. This can even be noticed when the dog is sleeping. When it’s cold, she always hides her nose in her tail, the hairs of which warm the air, and warm air enters the body.

And the squirrel’s fluffy tail is a real barrier from the wind. When it is cool enough outside, the animal lies down against the wind and wraps itself in its own tail. The anteater also covers itself with its own limb, falling on its side before going to sleep, it tucks its paws and covers itself with its tail.

Pantry with supplies

Some animals even use their own tail to store food. This is what the thick-tailed marsupial dormouse, living in the Australian archipelago, does. When there is a huge amount of food, it stores fat in the tail, so that it can then be consumed during hibernation. Fat in the fifth limb is also deposited by fat-tailed sheep.

Dogs

These animals have a tail that is almost constantly in motion. Why does a dog need a tail? By its movements you can determine what state the animal is in. If the tail is tucked between the legs, then the dog is scared; if it wags, then it is excited.

When moving quickly, you can see how the tail helps the dog move, find the right position when turning, or running along a log. The same thing happens during swimming, the tail allows you to stay afloat and choose the right direction, that is, it actually serves as a rudder.

Why does a dog need a tail? In addition to its steering function, the tail is a natural means of transmitting scent. At the base there are paraanal glands, which have a completely different smell for each dog. By emitting a scent, the dog attracts the opposite sex, expresses its joy, and in a moment of fear, hides its tail between its hind legs so that the smell does not spread.

Cats

Why does a cat need a tail? For the same reason as in dogs. It performs a steering function for balancing, expresses the animal’s mood, and helps with jumping and running. But the most interesting thing is that only representatives of this species that are tamed know how to hold their tail with a pipe, wild cats they never do that, they keep it down or horizontal.

Why does a cat need a tail and can he live without it? Of course yes. Cats that have lost their tails throughout their lives continue to live active lives and are not affected at all. There are also two breeds, Cymric and Mank, which due to genetic characteristics do not have this limb at all. And there is a bobtail breed, whose representatives have a very small tail, consisting of five vertebrae and outwardly resembling a pom-pom.

Representatives of fauna without a tail

In fact, there are very few animals and birds in the world that have a small tail or no tail at all. First of all, humanoid animals do not have tails: chimpanzees, gorillas, magotu and orangutans. Kiwis (relatives of ostriches) also do not have a fifth limb, because they cannot fly and do not climb trees.

But perhaps the most unique tailed animal is the snake, which has no legs. But she skillfully moves through sand and trees, hunts and uses only her tail for this.

What exactly is a tail? We are so accustomed to the fact that a variety of animals have it that we somehow don’t particularly think about the meaning of this appendage attached to the back of the body. But in mammals this is also a kind of “architectural excess”, passed on to them from reptile-like ancestors, and to those from fish.

Well, everything is clear with fish, their tail is used for swimming. In reptiles, it most often drags along the body idle, although sometimes it can perform a signaling function (the round-headed lizard twirls it, threatening an opponent), serve as a “decoy” (in many lizards it comes off if you grab it), or even be quite formidable weapons (a monitor lizard can whip its tail very painfully).

What about mammals? It turns out that they used their “fish-reptilian heritage” in a smart way, endowing the tail with a variety of functions. The first thing that comes to mind is a herd of cows grazing. It's summer heat, the air is filled with the thick smell of grass... and annoying gadflies. A malicious insect lands on a cow's back - one flick of its tail, and the gadfly is gone. Horses behave in exactly the same way, although their tails are designed completely differently. : a tuft of long, strong hair is constantly in motion, animals fan themselves with it, like a fan, driving away flies.

In many arboreal animals the tail serves as a “fifth limb”. Its thin tip is very flexible and sensitive. "Trainy tail" is characteristic of many inhabitants of tropical forests - monkeys, marsupials, even some rats and mice.

Some desert rodents managed to make a “warehouse” of fat reserves from their tail. Dwarf jerboa, as tall as house mouse, for this feature it is called fat-tailed. He lives in deserts Central Asia, is active 4-5 months a year when there is no snow, and spends the cold time in hibernation. Before hiding in a hole for the whole winter, the animal feeds heavily, trying to accumulate more subcutaneous fat: the more of it, the easier it is to survive the winter. And since the size of the rodent is small, it stores part of its supplies in long tail. As a result, this normally thin appendage significantly increases in thickness and weight and becomes like a spindle. Pygmy jerboa It is not even possible to lift him when he runs in search of food: on the sand between the double chain of footprints there remains a characteristic mark from the dragging tail.

Many animals can even “talk” with the help of their tail. A dog’s tail movements and “postures” are so characteristic that not only its packmates, but even simply observant people can easily understand this peculiar “language.” Here the dog approaches a group of other dogs: the first thing to do is to wag his tail, in every possible way demonstrating his goodwill, the joy of meeting his own kind. If the flock responds in kind, the wagging tails literally merge into a “chorus of mutual greetings.” But if for some reason you don’t like the stranger, the leader of the flock lifts and straightens his tail with a “stick” - this is a demonstration of superiority, strength, aggressiveness. Then the stranger, if he is clearly weaker, tucks his tail between his legs, in every possible way showing fear and complete submission.

Now, when you meet a dog on the street, do not look into its eyes. - animals don’t like this, they consider it a challenge, but look at the tail, it will tell you a lot about its mood.

Sometimes you can even regret that a person also does not have such a useful tail so that he can communicate “on equal terms” with his four-legged friend.

The ancestors of vertebrates were tailed creatures. Later, some of them had to give up their tails. For example, moles have a miniature tail, because if it was long in an underground corridor it could easily get caught on something. And then you can’t move forward, you can’t turn around in a tight passage in order to go back and unhook. The tail also turned out to be superfluous for animals living in bushes or dense grass. Here, too, it is not surprising to get caught on a branch or injure the tail on a sharp thorn, especially if the animal moves by jumping. Frogs and toads have no tail at all; the hare has only pitiful remains. If the tail is only a hindrance for animals scurrying under the trees, then the inhabitants of the upper floors of the forest simply cannot do without it. Tightrope walkers performing under the big top usually balance with a long pole or use an umbrella.

In squirrels, martens, sables, and some monkeys, the bushy tail combines the properties of a pole and an umbrella, allowing its owners to maintain balance and easily scurry along the branches. When jumping from tree to tree, the tail serves as a rudder. Desert and steppe runners also need a steering wheel. The jerboa, for example, has a tuft of hair at the tip of its almost bare tail. The tail is both a balancer and a rudder for them. While running, the jerboas seem to rest their tassels on the air and, making sharp turns while running, thanks to this they do not fall. Large kangaroos use their heavy three-meter tail as a counterweight to help maintain balance and as a stool.

Aquatic creatures use their tail as a means of transportation. At the same time, the tail is used as a rudder not only by fish and birds. In the air, birds turn well with the help of their wings, but the tail increases maneuverability.

And one more function of a bird's tail: it serves as a brake. At enormous speeds you can't do without it. The brake is most often used during landing. Take a closer look at how the pigeons land on the ground, spreading their tail like a wide fan and slightly tucking it under themselves.

The tail greatly increases the carrying capacity of birds. It allows her to soar in height, almost without moving her wings, and carry weights.

Many representatives of the animal world got their name precisely because of the tail, for example, the saw-tail shark, stingray, hook-tailed bird, sharp-tailed mouse, etc.

Some use it as a support when running, jumping, walking, as a rudder when swimming and flying, and additional support when climbing. Snakes, chameleons, and lizards have very tenacious tails. Big variety grasping tails in marsupials. For example, the ring-tailed possum clings with its tail to a branch located above the nest, hangs upside down on it and uses its front paws to remove eggs from the nest.

And the pangomen lizard hangs on branches all day long, clinging to them with its muscular tail, and with its front paws it breaks apart a termite mound and feasts on tasty prey. Many lizards have a tail most body length.

Some mice and rats have prehensile tails. Tiny little mice weighing only 6-7 g weave a spherical nest on branches and stems. When climbing, they wrap their flexible tails around the stems to protect themselves from falling. But woodpeckers use their tail for support. Sitting on a vertical trunk, they rest their tail on it and hollow out a hollow.

Platypuses are endowed with remarkable tails; their tails are flattened in a horizontal plane and help with swimming.

Some animals use their tails to carry loads. For example, the brush-tailed kangaroo rat can carry “bundles of brushwood” with its tail wrapped around it.

The tail is the rudder and brake for most fish. Crocodiles have a powerful tail, with its help they swim and dig ponds for themselves, scattering the soil with their hind legs and blows of their strong tail.

Marsupial jerboas can boast of a long tail with a tassel at the end. These animals, relying on their tails while jumping, reach speeds of up to 50 km per hour.

Animals also need their tail as a thermostat. Wrapped in a fluffy tail, like in a warm blanket, animals sleep sweetly in cold weather. Some of them, for example the anteater, have a tail that is just a real feather bed!

And in some animals the tail is a “pantry” in which they accumulate fat reserves. For example, fat-tailed marsupial mice, whose tails are swollen at the base, are where fat reserves are stored for a rainy day.

Many in childhood tried to catch lizards, and when they caught them, they found only a wriggling tail in their palm. The lizard has this principle: it is better to be left without a tail than to lose your head! Losing a tail is almost painless for lizards. The discarded tail can remain mobile for up to 12 hours.

Many people have heard about the rattlesnake. It carries a rattle or rattle at the end of its tail, which is how it got its name. The ratchet is a means of defense. When a snake is frightened, it curls up into a ring and, raising the tip of its tail, quickly vibrates it. This sound can be heard 30 meters away and warns the enemy that there is a serious enemy in front of him. At the stingray top part tail is armed with one or more dagger-shaped needles. To defend itself from enemies, the stingray releases deadly poison through its needle.

The most important task of any animal species is to protect the offspring and ensure their survival. And here some of the animals use the tail for this purpose. Shrews, one of the most caring parents, do not spare their tails to raise their babies. All the time, until they grow up, their cubs will follow their mother in a caravan and catch her and each other with their teeth at the tip of their tails. Giant elephants do the same thing: their babies will never get lost, because they always hold on to their mother’s tail with their trunks.

The tail of animals is an organ through which some species transmit information. An interesting system of mutual understanding has developed between sea crustaceans and gobies. Crustaceans live in burrows, where they hide when in danger. Coming out of the hole, they maintain contact with the gobies: when the goby fish sees danger, it informs the crustacean about this by strongly vibrating its tail. This is a unique case of information exchange in the animal kingdom. Many representatives of fish, in order to win the heart of a friend, show off their tail, and many birds do the same.

The tail demonstrates the mood of our four-legged friends - dogs. Perhaps the wagging of a dog's tail is equivalent to our smiling when we meet - this sign of greeting indicates friendly intentions. The tail is an indicator of the mood of wolves, hyena dogs, tigers and other animals. They use their tails to warn of danger, communicating with each other.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan

MBOU Secondary School of Shagaan-Aryg No. 1, Ulug-Khem district of the Republic of Tatarstan

Republican Conference of Research and design work

"I am a researcher"

Research work

Subject: "Why do animals need tails?

Toksar Aziyat Orlanovich

MBOU SECONDARY SCHOOL:Ust-Buren village, Kaa-Khem district

Class:3

Supervisor:Oorzhak Urana Vladimirovna

2016

Content

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..….3

The role of tails in the life of animals………………………………………………...4

Types of tailings by name…………………………………………………………….....5-6

Practical part……………………………………………………………..7-8

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………9

List of used literature……………………………………………………...10

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………11

Introduction

My question is not simple
- Why do animals need tails?
Let me tell you the secret.
After all, many people don’t have a tail.

I really love watching animals. Notice their habits and learn something new. I read a lot of books about animals. My brother and I watch cartoons. One day, he and I watched the well-known cartoon about Winnie the Pooh and his friend the donkey Eeyore. A tragedy happened to him, he lost his tail and did not notice it for quite a long time. But in fact, only a few people can do without a tail. I decided to collect interesting facts on the topic. And I thought. Why do animals need tails? What role do tails play for animals? And what types of tails are there?

The purpose of my research work: find out and figure out why animals need tails?

Object of study : animals.

Subject of study : tail.

Research objectives:

1) analyze the literature on the research topic;

determine the role of tails in the life of animals;

find out what types of tails there are by name;

learn to make tables and diagrams.

Research methods: Observation, survey, analysis and comparison.

Research hypotheses:

1) suppose, for beauty.

2) let's assume that tails are needed to drive away insects.

3)possibly in order to stay on the trees.

4) what if tails are needed for self-defense?

The role of tails in animal life

The tail plays a huge role in the life of every animal. I studied many literary sources, turned to the Internet for help, and learned that the tail performs mechanical, physiological and communicative functions (Appendix 1). It turns out that tailless animals and birds can be counted on one hand, but there are no snakes or fish without tails. Animals really, really need tails.

When returning home from school I often watch birds. I noticed that while sitting on the branches, they twitched their tails. It’s hard to imagine how they would stay on such an unreliable support if they didn’t have a tail. This means that the tail helps birds maintain balance.

Monkeys' tails help them climb trees and cling to branches.

Scorpio needs its tail as a weapon.

Baby elephants willingly grab the tails of their relatives in order to keep up with the group.

A kangaroo's tail is needed for balance when jumping.

A squirrel needs a tail for almost the same purpose.

The beaver controls its tail when swimming, like an oar.

And of course, the most beautiful tail is the peacock’s, with which its owner not only scares away enemies, but also attracts females.

Types of tails by name

I found out that the tail plays a special role in each animal (Appendix 2). This is where these names came from. That's what I called them.

The tail is a parachute.

The squirrel's tail serves as a parachute. When jumping, she fluffs her tail, which supports her in the air.

The tail is a blanket.

Let us remember how a dog sleeps in the cold. She sleeps curled up and always hides her nose in her tail. Squirrels also sleep Snow Leopard, arctic fox, fox, cat.

The tail is the protector.

The lizard escapes from enemies by sacrificing its tail. The tail breaks off easily. The loss of a tail is not so terrible for a lizard: after a few weeks, the tail will grow back.

The tail is the protector of the chipmunk, the wood mouse.

Tail - hand.

The monkey's tail is very prehensile.

Monkeys are often suspended from a tree with the help of their tail, and in this position they bring food with their front paws to their mouths, hanging upside down, and pick the fruits.

The tail is a storage room.

Some animals store large amounts of fat in their tail. For example, lemurs that live in Madagascar. During the dry period of the year, during sleep, they use the accumulated favorable time there is fat in the tail. Jerboas and monitor lizards deposit excess fat at the base of their tail.

The tail is a fly swatter.

A cow and a horse use their tail to fight off flies, mosquitoes and gadflies in the same way as zebras and lions in Africa.

The tail is a helper.

The crocodile uses its tail to hunt. Its blow can knock down not only a small animal, but also a large one.

Tail – support, steering wheel, brake.

The woodpecker uses its tail as a rudder and brake when flying. The tail serves as a support for the woodpecker. It clings to the bark of trees with its claws, and rests against the trunk with its tail. Sitting on his own tail, like on a stool, he gets his food.

The kangaroo sits on its hind legs, leaning on its tail. The long tail helps it maintain balance and change direction while jumping.The tail is an ornament.

Birds still have the most beautiful tails. A luxurious tail is a means to please a friend and defeat an enemy.This is the tail of a peacock.

Practical part

I conducted a survey among my peers. Primary school students took part in the survey. For this I compiled a table (Appendix 3). The children were asked to answer the question “Why do animals need tails?” I have compiled seven possible answers to this question. Such as:

Cold protection

To run better

For driving

To cover your tracks

To repel insects

To swim

To protect enemies

I presented the results of the survey in the form of a diagram.

From it you can see that most guys think that animals need a tail in order to cover their tracks. But we will try to figure out whether this is really so.

Conclusion

While working on my research work, I learned a lot of new and interesting things. While studying this topic, I realized that nothing happens for nothing. How everything is interconnected in nature.

It was interesting to work with literature, especially with determinants. This was my first time working with such amazing books.

You can draw a conclusion after the work done. The guys don’t quite know why animals need tails. Therefore, I will advise them to read the books that I used in my work.

I realized that tails play a huge role in the lives of animals.

List of used literature

Alekseev V.A. 300 questions and answers about animals. – Ya.: Academy of Development, 1997.

Biology. / Comp. Z.A.Vlasova. – M.: Philologist. Society "Slovo", Company "Klyuch-S", TKO AST, Center for the Humanities. Sciences at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, 2000.

Children's encyclopedia Machaon, Animals, 2003.

I explore the world: Children's encyclopedia: Animals. / Auto-stat. P.R. Lyakhov - M.: LLC "AST Publishing House", LLC "Astrel", 2005.

shkolazhizni. ru– Why do animals need tails?

Annex 1

Scheme 1

Functions of the tail

There are many different animals in nature: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. And almost everyone has tails. They are very different: large and small, fluffy and hairless, with and without scales. We also have a wonderful animal representative at home - the cat Stepan. My mom and dad gave it to me for my birthday three years ago. Then my Stepan was a small one-month-old kitten. But so beautiful, cute, fluffy, with big blue eyes and a small sticking tail! I fell in love with him from the first minutes of my stay in our house. I often play with him and fall asleep only with my favorite Stepan. Over the years, my cat has grown and turned into a real handsome man with a big fluffy tail. I noticed that Stepan's tail was different situations moves differently. And it was amazing. I recently read the story “Tails” by Vitaly Bianchi. And it seemed to me that the author of this educational story revealed only a small part of all the functions of the tail in animals. Questions regarding tails seemed so fascinating to me that I decided to continue collecting interesting facts about this theme. Why do we need tails? And are they needed at all?

Description of the main groups of animals.

In everyday life, the word animals often means only four-legged terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, reptiles and amphibians). In science, the term animals has a broader meaning. Animals, in addition to mammals, include a huge variety of other organisms: fish, birds, insects, arachnids, mollusks, starfish, all kinds of worms, etc.

Mammals are the most beautiful animals existing on earth. This class of animals includes 20 orders and 4012 species. Thanks to features characteristic only of them, mammals, or animals, have adapted to live everywhere - on the ground, in the soil, in the water, underground, in the air, in the humid tropics, in the cold Arctic and Antarctic, in the hot dry desert, high in the mountains.

Birds are a class of feathered, warm-blooded, oviparous vertebrates whose forelimbs are shaped like wings. Initially, the body structure of birds is adapted for flight, although at present there are many species of flightless birds. Another distinctive feature of birds is the presence of a beak. Today there are more than 9,800 people living on Earth various types(in Russia - 600 species), which makes them the most diverse group of the tetrapod superclass. Birds are found on all continents and in all ecosystems from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

Fishes are a superclass of aquatic animals, a large group of jawed vertebrates characterized by gill breathing. Fish are common in both salty and fresh waters, from deep ocean trenches to mountain streams.

Dimensions modern fish vary from 7.9 mm to 13.7 m (whale shark).

According to various sources, from 25,000 to 31,000 species of fish are known in the world. About 3,000 species live in Russia, including more than 280 species found in fresh waters.

Reptiles (reptiles, reptiles) - a class that includes modern turtles, crocodiles, beaked animals, amphisbaenians, lizards and snakes. There are 8,734 species of reptiles known in the world; 72 species live in Russia, occupying an intermediate position in terms of organization between amphibians, on the one hand, and birds and mammals, on the other.

There are four orders of modern reptiles. These are 300 species of turtles (Chelonia), 25 species of crocodiles (Crocodilia), about 5500 squamates, i.e. lizards and snakes (Squamata) and, finally, tuatara, or tuatara - sole representative order of beaked heads (Rhynchocephalia).

Insects are a class of invertebrate arthropods. Together with millipedes, they belong to the tracheal subphylum. About 1 million species of insects are known. They have the greatest diversity of any other animal on Earth; include butterflies, beetles, flies, ants, bees and others.

Briefly the class can be characterized as follows. These are terrestrial arthropods, in which the body is clearly divided into a head, chest and abdomen, and the main limbs used for movement are among 3 pairs on the thoracic region.

Amphibians (Amphibia) - occupy a special place among other animals, since they represent the first and most simply organized terrestrial vertebrates. Amphibians are the smallest class of vertebrates, comprising only about 2,100 modern species, represented by three orders: tailed, legless and tailless.

Studying the literature about animals, we note that the variety of tails in the animal world can amaze any imagination. They differ from each other in color, shape, are long and short, bare and fluffy, thick and thin. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals have tails.

The tail has several functions:

mechanical (helps with movement);
protective (can be thrown away by an animal in case of danger or serve as a weapon of active attack and defense);
physiological (serves for storing nutrients, thermoregulation)
communicative (participates in the exchange of information between animals).

The mechanical function of the tail is that it is often used as a support when running, jumping, walking, steering when swimming, flying, as an additional hand when climbing. Many animals spend most of their lives in the crowns of trees and rarely come down to the ground. How to stay on a tree? Everyone solves this problem in their own way. And the tenacious, grasping tail helps many in this. Aquatic and semi-aquatic animals - muskrats, muskrats, beavers, nutria, river otters and others - usually have a relatively long tail, which, when striking from side to side or up and down, plays mainly the role of a rudder.

Tail and caudal fin - the most important organs movements, steering and brakes in the vast majority of fish.

The physiological function of the tail is thermoregulation*; the tail performs this “blanket” function in those mammals that have a fluffy tail.

The tail plays a great role in thermoregulation in the beaver (it is not only a rudder when swimming and an audible alarm). A highly developed network of blood vessels in the tail ensures rapid cooling of the body, preventing overheating and removing excess heat from the internal organs.

And in aquatic animals, such as cetaceans, fins and tails are perfect thermo- and self-regulators. With unequal swimming conditions, maximum heat transfer occurs through the dorsal and caudal fins.

Another physiological function of the tail is storage; In jerboas, inhabitants of deserts, the reserve of fat is stored in the tail; thick tails do not interfere with the function of both the steering wheel and the balancer when running. Mouse lemurs also have tails, which store fat. They help them endure unfavorable conditions and use fat reserves sparingly during hibernation.

Protective function of the tail - in small mustelids in winter the tail is protected by coloring. The ermine has white fur and the tip of its tail is black; during an attack, the predator focuses on its “eye”, i.e. a dark spot on a white background, and the ermine’s tail, literally, saves the head.

The tail of zebras, donkeys, bison, and roe deer helps drive away mosquitoes and horseflies. The North American porcupine defends itself with its spiny tail, which acts like a rattlesnake. The end of the porcupine's tail resembles a brush; it consists of thick hairs with brush-like swellings at the ends along the entire length of the hair. With such a “rattle” the porcupine warns the enemy. Losing a tail is also a defense. In forest mice, not the entire tail is lost, but only its tip. Fleeing from death, leaving the skin with the tip of their tail in the claws and teeth of their enemies, they run away to a safe place.

The communicative function of the tail is a form of communication and signaling in animals. The tail is an indicator of mood. Let's look at this function using my cat Stepan as an example. When Stepan is calm, his tail hangs freely down. When we are joyfully greeted when we come home, Stepan’s tail is raised high. When stroking a cat, its tail also sticks out like a “pipe”. When Stepan “goes hunting” (watches pigeons through the window), he makes short waves of his tail or its tip.

The story about the tail

2. Some questions regarding the role of tails in different animals

1 Why do animals need tails?

2.2 How do animals use their tails?

3 How is the tail used for communication?

4 How does an animal defend itself with its tail?

5 What is a beaver's tail for?

6 Which bird has a lyre-shaped tail?

7 What is a horseshoe crab?

8 Why do cats need a tail?

9 Shapes and position of a dog’s tail. The dog's tail and its mood

1. The story about the tail

The variety of tails in the animal world can amaze anyone's imagination. They differ from each other in color, shape, are long and short, bare and fluffy, thick and thin. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals have tails. Many animals got their name due to the structural features and functioning of their tail. For example, the sawtail shark is so named because its tail fin really resembles a saw - it is jagged on top. The upper surface of the tail of stingrays is armed with one or several long dagger-shaped spines; in crooked stingrays, the caudal fin is displaced and curved downwards. The body of these fish is compressed laterally and enclosed in a bony shell with a knife-sharp edge. In schools, common crooktails stay vertically (upside down) between the long spines of diadem sea urchins, which reliably protect them from attacks by predators.

The tail of the male lyre bird actually resembles a mellifluous ancient instrument. The list of animals that got their name thanks to their tails includes rat-tailed geckos and long-tailed lizards, the pintail duck and long-tailed mouse, the dwarf fat-tailed jerboa... You can really list them all!

However, let’s immediately make a reservation that tails are different. The tail fin of a fish and a whale, the tail of a mouse and a magpie are not at all the same thing. Let's look at how the tails of representatives of different classes of vertebrates are arranged.

The tail of most bony fishes is formed by radial rays, between which there is a membrane, and the ends of which are immersed in muscles. The end of the spine extends only slightly into the upper lobe of such a tail and is not directly connected to the rays supporting the tail.

Nature has worked no less hard to create a variety of fish tails than amateur aquarists. Small and large, with pointed blades and rounded ones bordering the tail, with spikes and needles at the end - amazing variety!

The tail of amphibians and reptiles is formed by the caudal spine. In tailed amphibians it is formed by 22-36 vertebrae. The more closely a species is connected to a body of water, the longer, as a rule, the body of the animal, including the tail, on which a powerful fin develops, while the limbs are reduced. But legless and tailless amphibians have no tail at all. However, the larvae of tailless amphibians - tadpoles - have a tail. It functions not only as an organ of movement, but also as a respiratory organ - due to a well-developed fin fold penetrated by blood vessels. During metamorphosis, the tail is reabsorbed starting from the end.

The tail of various reptile species includes from 15 to 40 vertebrae. Lizards have the longest tails. In some of them, the tail exceeds the length of the body together with the head by 2.5-3 or even 4 times. The tails of geckos are extremely diverse in structure and shape. In some species, the tail is round or oval in cross section; in others, the tail is strongly flattened, spade-shaped, or equipped with a beet-like extension. The tail of rat-tailed geckos sharply thins towards the end, while that of spiny-tailed geckos is greatly shortened and resembles a small bump. Leaf-toed geckos are characterized by a short tail, separated from the body by a constriction. Most species of geckos have expanded plates on their toes, on which special brushes made of microscopic multi-vertex hairs are located below. These hook hairs are capable of covering the smallest irregularities in the substrate. Thanks to this, geckos can move freely on smooth inclined and vertical surfaces, including glass, and hang quite confidently on the ceiling upside down. And in representatives of the African genus Lagodaetylus, similar devices at the tip of the tail allow them to stay on vertical surfaces without the help of legs. If, while escaping from a predator, a gecko loses its tail, then the plates on the newly grown tail are not restored and the gecko can no longer hang on it.

In birds, the anterior caudal vertebrae merge with the sacral vertebrae. The free tail vertebrae are few in number, and the terminal ones are fused into a plate that serves to support the tail feathers - the pygostyle. The free tail vertebrae of birds are very mobile, which is associated with controlling the movements of the tail feathers. The tails of birds themselves are formed by tail feathers, the number of which ranges from 8 to 28, and the entire variety of tails in the bird world is determined by the structure and color of these feathers.

Since we are talking about the tails of birds, how can one not remember the peacock with its eye-shaped tail, dazzling in beauty and richness of colors. True, the peacock has a false tail - it is not a tail, but a train. It is formed by the upper covert feathers, the length of which reaches 140-160 cm. But this is far from a record. The tail of the Reinart pheasant reaches 173 cm. The record holder among the bird tribe is the domestic Japanese phoenix rooster. The length of its tail can exceed 5 m, and each tail feather is as wide as a palm - 13 cm.

All mammals have caudal vertebrae, so in this sense we can consider that all representatives of this class have a tail, even if it is reduced. The number of caudal vertebrae in mammals varies from 3-4 to 50, maximum number vertebrae in pangolins. You may not immediately notice the small tail of the well-known golden hamster, but the long tail of the rat, practically devoid of hair and covered with scales, attracts attention. The fluffy tails of dormice, squirrels, and chinchillas are beautiful.

What functions does the tail of animals perform? It has several functions: mechanical (helps with movement); protective (can be thrown away by an animal in case of danger or serve as a weapon of active attack and defense); physiological (serves for storing nutrients, thermoregulation) and communicative (participates in the exchange of information between animals).

The mechanical function of the tail is that this organ is often used by animals as a support when running, jumping, walking, as a rudder when swimming, flying, and as an additional “hand” when climbing. This is why the tail is sometimes called the fifth limb. Many animals spend most of their lives in the crowns of trees and rarely come down to the ground. How to stay on a tree? Everyone solves this problem in their own way. And the tenacious, grasping tail helps many in this.

The diamondback python lives in Australia and New Guinea. A long, prehensile tail helps this snake move deftly through trees. The green python uses its tail in a similar way. One of their relatives, the dog-headed boa constrictor, which inhabits the humid forests of Brazil and Guiana, has an even more tenacious tail. If, having become tired while traveling in the treetops, a boa constrictor decides to take a break, then it fastens its tail onto a branch, hangs two half-rings of a flexible, muscular body from each side, and places its head on top.

Some species of snakes, bronze sharp-headed snakes, have a tenacious thin tail, which, while camouflaging, reproduces the color, surface structure and shape of vines. Chameleons' tails are typically thick at the base and gradually taper toward the tip. In this case, the narrow end spirals down and can wrap around the branches. This ability is absent only in a relatively small number of chameleon species with short tail. Some species of lizards also have a prehensile tail.

Among mammals, we find a wide variety of prehensile, grasping tails among representatives of the group of marsupials - inhabitants of Australia, New Guinea and South America. Ring-tailed gliders get their name because the end of their tail is almost always curled into a ring, even when not wrapped around a branch. But, as a rule, these animals prefer to hold onto branches with their tails, as if they are afraid of falling. Ring-tailed gliders do not jump, but crawl from one branch to another. Having reached the end of the branch, the animal hangs on it head down, clinging to its tail, and looks for new support with its front paws.

But in placental mammals, oddly enough, prehensile tails are not so common. Their lucky owners are binturongs, kinkajou raccoons, small and medium-sized anteaters, pangolins and some species of American monkeys.

Binturong, a predator from the civet family, can rightfully be proud of its tail. It is the only non-marsupial predator of the Old World with a prehensile tail. To avoid falling while sleeping, the binturong wraps its tail around a tree. When he goes down with his head, he clings to the branches with his tail. The kinkajou raccoon inhabits the forests of southern Mexico, Central America and Northern Brazil. Outwardly, he is somewhat similar to a monkey. The length of its body is about 50 cm, and the tenacious tail of the animal reaches the same length. The kinkajou spends its entire life in trees, traveling in the canopy.

The prehensile tail is successfully used when moving and arboreal anteaters. When attacked, the animal grabs a branch with its hind paws and tail and uses its front paws with long sharp claws.

IN South-East Asia Representatives of the order of pangolins, or lizards, live in Equatorial and South Africa. The entire body of these animals is armored with durable horny scales, which make them very similar to huge tailed fir cones. Pangolins feed on ants and termites. You can often observe the following picture: a tree lizard hangs on a thick branch, clinging to it with its muscular tail, and with its front paws with long curved claws it breaks apart a termite mound and feasts on tasty prey.

Hanging on a tree, its tail caught on a branch, one often imagines a monkey. However, tails, replacing the “fifth hand,” are the privilege of American monkeys, and even then not all of them. They are found in 4 genera and approximately 14 species of howler monkeys, arachnids and woolly monkeys. The lower surface of their tail is equipped with peculiar tactile “soles”. These are bare areas of skin covered with tactile papillary ridges. It is impossible not to talk about an interesting feature of the “tactile sole”. Humans and monkeys have unique, individual patterns of lines and grooves on their palms and feet. And nature has endowed the sensitive surface of monkey tails with the same pattern, so that, if necessary, forensic examination could take tail prints. Capuchins do not have a bare “sole” on the lower surface of the tail, although their tails have a fair amount of tenacity - monkeys can pull up and drag small objects with them.

And among all the monkeys of the Old World, only young gwenons and adult mangobeys can give themselves pleasure and swing on their tail, clasping a branch with it.

We humans have inherited only four tail vertebrae from our ape-like ancestors and therefore cannot fully appreciate all the benefits that the tail gives to its owners. Nevertheless, I know children, and quite respectable people, who at least once in their lives have felt the desire... to swing on their tail. Some of us probably inherited these atavistic thoughts along with our tail vertebrae from the same ape-like ancestors who perhaps experienced such pleasure.

Some mice and rats also have prehensile tails. Tiny baby mice live in forests from the Pyrenees to Japan. These cute little ones weigh only 6-7 g, so even thin stalks of cereals can withstand them. When climbing, they wrap their flexible tails around the stems to protect themselves from falling.

And spiny-tailed squirrels use their tails like linemen climbing a high pole, “cats.” These rodents live in Africa, they have a flight membrane with which they glide from tree to tree. A notable feature of their tail is the three rows of strong, backward-pointing horny scales located on its lower surface. When a squirrel climbs up, the scales protrude and cling to the smallest protrusions. She climbs the trunk quickly, like a caterpillar: she clings to her with her front paws, then bends her back in an arc. During the daytime, spiny-tailed squirrels sleep directly on the trunk, and the tail spines securely hold them.

Some animals use their tails to carry loads. For example, a marsupial animal, the brush-tailed kangaroo rat, can carry quite substantial “bundles of brushwood” with its tail wrapped around it. Marsupial flying squirrels often drag leaves collected for the nest with their tail curled into a ring.

There are mammals that use their tail as an extra leg. Large species Kangaroos rest on their tail when standing quietly on their hind legs. Ground pangolins rake ant heaps with their front paws, standing on their hind paws and leaning on their tail.

The tail and caudal fin are the most important organs of movement, rudders and brakes in the vast majority of fish. The lateral bends of the tail help newts and other tailed amphibians to swim. Not last role The tail also plays a role in the swimming of semi-aquatic reptiles. For example, marine iguana swims and dives well, using a strong paddle-shaped, laterally flattened tail to move in the water. This lizard reaches a length of 140 cm, of which more than half is the tail. Long-tailed lizards “swim” in a peculiar way, which, as their name indicates, are distinguished by a very long tail. Only longtails “swim” not in water, but in thick grass, deftly holding themselves among the stems above the ground thanks to tenacious fingers and a long wriggling tail. Longtails are found in Asia, including here in the south of Primorye.

Subaquatic and semi-aquatic animals - muskrats, muskrats, beavers, nutria, river otters and others - usually have a relatively long tail, which, when striking from side to side or up and down, plays mainly the role of a rudder.

But real aquatic mammals that never go onto land - whales and sirens - have a thick and muscular tail, and at its end there is a special device - a caudal fin. The tail is the main locomotor organ of cetaceans and has amazing strength. Two pairs of spinal muscles are especially strongly developed: those lying above and below the tail - they bear the main load when the whale moves.

If you play a videotape of a swimming dolphin in slow motion, you can see that when the animal swims, the caudal peduncle beats up and down, and the blades of the caudal fin take different angles of inclination. The speed at which an animal swims depends on the frequency and range of tail strokes, as well as the degree of inclination of the tail blades.

The shape of the tail of cetaceans is very diverse. In the gray dolphin, for example, the blades of the caudal fin are long and narrow, while in the sperm whale, on the contrary, they are short and wide. Another adaptation is well-developed peculiar caudal keels - skin folds running along the caudal peduncle from above and below. Such a keel extension has enormous hydrodynamic significance, creating a very advanced turning apparatus, and in addition, it stabilizes the position of the body when the tail moves up and down. These two most important adaptations of cetaceans turned them into excellent maneuverable swimmers.

tail animal protective communicative

2. Some questions regarding the role of tails in different animals

1 Why do animals need tails?

What about mammals? It turns out that they used their “fish-reptilian heritage” in a smart way, endowing the tail with a variety of functions. The first thing that comes to mind is a herd of cows grazing. It's summer heat, the air is filled with the thick smell of grass... and annoying gadflies. A malicious insect lands on a cow's back - one flick of its tail, and the gadfly is gone. Horses behave in exactly the same way, although their tails are structured completely differently: a tuft of long, strong hair is constantly in motion, the animals fan themselves with it, like a fan, driving away flies.

In many arboreal animals the tail serves as a “fifth limb”. Its thin tip is very flexible and sensitive. “Strong-tailedness” is characteristic of many inhabitants of tropical forests - monkeys, marsupials, even some rats and mice.

Some desert rodents managed to make a “warehouse” of fat reserves from their tail. The dwarf jerboa, the size of a house mouse, is called fat-tailed for this feature. It lives in the deserts of Central Asia, is active 4-5 months a year, when there is no snow, and spends the cold time in hibernation. Before hiding in a hole for the whole winter, the animal feeds heavily, trying to accumulate more subcutaneous fat: the more of it, the easier it is to survive the winter. And since the size of the rodent is small, it stores part of its supplies in its long tail. As a result, this normally thin appendage significantly increases in thickness and weight, and becomes like a spindle. The pygmy jerboa cannot even lift it when it runs in search of food: a characteristic mark of a dragging tail remains on the sand between the double chain of footprints.

Many animals can even “talk” with the help of their tail. A dog’s tail movements and “postures” are so characteristic that not only its packmates, but even simply observant people can easily understand this peculiar “language.” Here the dog approaches a group of other dogs: the first thing to do is to wag his tail, demonstrating in every possible way his goodwill and joy from meeting his own kind. If the pack responds in kind, the wagging tails literally merge into a “chorus of mutual greetings.” But if for some reason you don’t like the stranger, the leader of the pack raises and straightens his tail with a “stick” - this is a demonstration of superiority, strength, aggressiveness. Then the stranger, if he clearly weaker, tucks his tail between his legs, in every possible way showing fear and complete submission.

Now, when you meet a dog on the street, do not look into its eyes. - animals don’t like this, they consider it a challenge, but look at the tail, it will tell you a lot about its mood.

Sometimes you can even regret that a person also does not have such a useful tail so that he can communicate “on equal terms” with his four-legged friend.

And one more function of a bird's tail: it serves as a brake. At enormous speeds you cannot do without it. The brake is most often used during landing. Take a closer look at how the pigeons land on the ground, spreading their tail like a wide fan and slightly tucking it under themselves.

The tail greatly increases the carrying capacity of birds. It allows her to soar in height, almost without moving her wings, and carry weights.

Many representatives of the animal world got their name precisely because of the tail, for example, the saw-tail shark, stingray, hook-tailed bird, sharp-tailed mouse, etc.

Some use it as a support when running, jumping, walking, as a rudder when swimming and flying, and additional support when climbing. Snakes, chameleons, and lizards have very tenacious tails. There is a wide variety of prehensile tails in marsupials. For example, the ring-tailed possum clings with its tail to a branch located above the nest, hangs upside down on it and uses its front paws to remove eggs from the nest.

And the pangomen lizard hangs on branches all day long, clinging to them with its muscular tail, and with its front paws it breaks apart a termite mound and feasts on tasty prey. In many lizards, the tail makes up most of the body length.

Platypuses are endowed with remarkable tails; their tails are flattened in a horizontal plane and help with swimming.

Some animals use their tails to carry loads. For example, the brush-tailed kangaroo rat can carry “bundles of brushwood” with its tail wrapped around it.

Marsupial jerboas can boast of a long tail with a tassel at the end. These animals, relying on their tails while jumping, reach speeds of up to 50 km per hour.

Many people have heard about the rattlesnake. It carries a rattle or rattle at the end of its tail, which is how it got its name. The ratchet is a means of defense. When a snake is frightened, it curls up into a ring and, raising the tip of its tail, quickly vibrates it. This sound can be heard 30 meters away and warns the enemy that there is a serious enemy in front of him. The stingray's upper tail is armed with one or more dagger-shaped spines. To defend itself from enemies, the stingray releases deadly poison through its needle.

2.2 How do animals use their tails?

The tail is used in different ways by different animals. Squirrels, martens, sables and some species of monkeys use their tails like ropes, clinging to branches or balancing at heights. The kangaroo sits on its three-meter tail, like on a stool, while birds use their tail as a steering wheel or brake. But the most unusual function of the tail is its use as a warehouse. It is safer to carry your own property with you. Jerboas and monitor lizards deposit excess fat at the base of the tail. Fat-tailed sheep have two bags hanging from here, containing up to 11 kilograms of fat!

Residents of the North and highlands: arctic foxes, foxes, martens, sables and leopards - use their fluffy tail as a warm woolen blanket. The fox does not use its hole in winter. At night, she settles down right in the snow, curls up into a ball, tucks her paws under herself, and covers the only part of her body not protected by hair - her nose - with her tail.

For some animals, the tail replaces the gills. Our newts have lungs. Therefore, they constantly have to float to the surface of the water for new portions of air. During mating games and spawning, they have no time to do this. The tail helps the males out. Under its thin skin there is a mass of blood vessels and oxygen from the water easily penetrates into the blood. In the spring, these “gills” of crested newts enlarge: a crest grows on the back from the back of the head to the tip of the tail, and the elegant gentlemen breathe easier.

2.3 How is the tail used for communication?

In some birds, the tail acts as an identification card. In the spring, when it’s time to start a family and build nests, it is important for them to know exactly who is who. Often the most noticeable identifying feature is the tail. It is no coincidence that the rooster’s is so large and bright, while the chicken’s is smaller and more modestly colored.

The high-raised tail of a skunk notifies all living things in advance of its approach. The tail has the same function. rattlesnake. During molting, a rattle is formed at its tip - 5-8 segments of unshed skin. The frightened snake curls up into a ring and, raising the tip of its tail, begins to vibrate it, making a strange sound. A cat twitches its tail when it is angry. And if the tip of a tiger’s tail twitches while lying in the thickets, you can be sure that the animal is not resting, but, seeing its prey, is preparing to jump.

2.4 How does an animal defend itself with its tail?

For many animals, the tail is their only weapon. An interesting creature lives in the Black Sea - the stingray, or sea cat. Externally, stingrays look like a large frying pan with a tail handle. At the base of the tail grows a long, flat, jagged at the edges and sharp, like a sword. Having been attacked, the sea cat furiously beats its tail, inflicting wounds with a “sword”.

Crooktail fish are small creatures with an elegant body protected on the outside by a shell that forms a sharp edge on the belly, like a knife blade. Therefore, the fish also has a second name - razor. At the back, instead of a caudal fin, there is a long spike, curved with a hook towards the belly. When everything around is calm, the fish slowly swim upside down, but if an enemy appears, they turn towards him with the spike and blade of their shell.

Large lizards - monitor lizards, living in the deserts and steppes of Central Asia, defending themselves from a predator, beat it with their tail like a whip. The blow can be so strong that it can lead to broken bones. Bulls, horses, zebras, donkeys, antelopes, even huge elephants defend themselves from mosquitoes, midges, flies, horseflies and other insects with the help of their tail. When insects are very annoying, Przewalski's horses take up a perimeter defense, standing in a tight circle, with their muzzles inward, and waving their tails in unison to drive away small aggressors.

Small animals, having fallen into the clutches of a predator, try to “pay off”. In this case, lizards and terrestrial salamanders, by tensing special muscles, break one of their vertebrae at the base of their tail and throw it away. The attacker grabs the convulsively wriggling tail, and his owner hurries to run away. For these animals, the loss of a tail is not a loss; it will grow back. If a predator grabs a mouse by the tail, he won't have to eat dinner. The skin of the tail, along with sparse hairs, is easily pulled off the tail like a stocking and remains in the teeth of the enemy, and the mouse hurries to run away. The skin will not grow back, and the exposed tip of the tail will dry out and fall off. But you can live without a tail!

2.5 What is a beaver's tail for?

“For beauty,” some will say, and they will be right: the tail, of course, adorns any animal. It is not without reason that in fairy tales the greatest shame that, for example, a fox or a wolf was subjected to was the loss of their tail. “For work,” others will say, and they will be even more right, since it is rare that any part of the body of any animal or person does not perform some function. That same fox has a magnificent fluffy tail that perfectly covers his tracks.

As for the beaver, its tail is simply amazing: it does so many different jobs. Firstly, the beaver's spade-shaped, horizontally positioned tail is an excellent rudder when swimming. These same qualities of the tail help the beaver use it as a shovel, covering up holes and cracks in dams and huts (after all, the beaver is a tireless builder).

What if you need to warn your relatives about impending danger? And the tail does this job perfectly. A slap in the water with a paddle-shovel - and the alarm signal can be heard far around.

Where does the beaver store his winter supplies, which he, of course, does? You probably already guessed: in the tail, of course. Indeed, the tail serves the beaver, as well as some other mammals: the fat-tailed jerboa, mouse lemur- winter warehouse. By winter, he “gets fat” due to accumulated fat reserves. In this case, the thickness of the tail increases by 2 times.

And finally, the tail saves the beaver from overheating in the summer. If it gets very hot, the animal lowers its tail into cool water. The blood vessels in the tail greatly expand, and the cooled blood from the tail begins to run faster through them to the internal organs, taking away excess heat from them. Therefore, we can say that the tail is a thermostat for the beaver, that is, a temperature regulator.

2.6 Which bird has a lyre-shaped tail?

This bird, which lives in Australia, is called the lyrebird.

to his unusual name it owes primarily to its tail, which is shaped like a lyre - an ancient musical instrument. The outer tail feathers, bizarrely curved, resemble the base of a lyre, and the numerous thin silver feathers between them are its strings. The length of the tail of the great lyrebird, the largest member of the family, reaches 80 centimeters and is almost twice the size of its body.

However, the lyre bird is so named not only for its bizarre appearance, but also for its exceptionally diverse song repertoire. In fact, the lyrebird does not have its own song as such, but the bird more than makes up for this gap with its unique skill of onomatopoeia. Her “arrangement” includes the trills of other birds, as well as various, sometimes far from pleasing sounds, such as the crackling of a motorcycle, the barking of a dog, the bleating of a lamb or the hoarse laughter of the Australian kingfisher, which turns into an amazing song for which the lyrebird is deservedly considered a “star” forest stage". But, like most birds, only male lyrebirds sing, and not all year round, but only during mating games.

The lyrebird lives in the most remote and impassable places; it especially loves thickets of ferns. In general, the lyrebird is ground bird, flies rarely and prefers to glide from one tree to another.

However, it spends the night on the branches. It feeds on a variety of worms, insects and snails, vigorously tearing apart the forest floor with its long, rake-like legs. Lyrebird loves it very much cloudy weather and even drizzling rain, under which its silky plumage acquires shine.

2.7 What is a horseshoe crab?

The horseshoe crab is a very interesting creature. Let's start with the fact that, although in English it is called "king crab", it is not a crab at all, although it is related to crabs and spiders.

Its scientific name - Limulus Polyphemus - hints at its amazing eyes. This animal has four eyes. Two eyes protrude from the sides, and two more are set very close to each other on the front of the head and almost merge into one eye, similar to the one that the Cyclops Polyphemus had in ancient Greek myth.

Scientists call horseshoe crabs “living fossils.” The body of the polyphemus has changed very little over the millions of years of its existence. Imagine, they have existed in this form for almost two hundred million years!

The entire body of the horseshoe crab is protected by a thick shell. Its long and pointed tail resembles a sword. This sword is covered in serrations. When a horseshoe crab is flipped over by a wave, it uses its tail to return to its normal position.

The horseshoe crab has six pairs of legs. He uses four pairs to move along the sandy ocean floor. And a strong back pair of legs is for pushing off the bottom and swimming. It also uses its short front legs to push food towards its mouth. The mouth is almost completely hidden among the legs used for walking, making it difficult to notice.

Its “shoulders,” or inner paw joints, resemble real pincers. With their help, he grinds his prey before putting it into his mouth. Horseshoe crabs eat almost everything from small shellfish, worms and fish eggs to algae and decaying organisms.

The horseshoe crab breathes using folded gills. Each valve contains about one hundred and fifty thin plates, with the help of which it consumes oxygen dissolved in water. As long as these plates remain wet, the animal can breathe.

Horseshoe crab babies hatch from small eggs, emerging without a tail and with a very soft shell. After four weeks, they grow out of their shells, which do not grow with them. The animal must shed this shell, that is, shed.

Until the horseshoe crab reaches its full height, from thirty to sixty centimeters, it can change its shell up to twenty times!

8 Why do cats need a tail?

The tail is an integral means of self-expression of the “mustachioed-striped”. Without a tail, a cat's appearance would lose its effectiveness - the tail is, as it were, the final chord, emphasizing the plasticity and fragile grace of these animals. There is an opinion that without a tail, a cat cannot survive in its usual conditions. Indeed, this flexible and beautiful appendage performs several rather significant roles. But are these roles vital?

The cat's tail is one of the balancing organs. In the book Catalog of Cats, Kenneth Anderson published an article in which he claims that it is the tail that helps the cat balance during jumps and turns, and when falling from a height, the tail is a real life preserver. When falling, a cat performs a trick called “self-righting,” where the animal's tail, like a whip, moves rapidly from side to side, facilitating a landing on all fours. However, not everyone finds this version fair enough. Doctor of Veterinary Sciences Gordon Robinson gives one example that proves the opposite: if you take a tailless cat and, turning it over, release it even from a small height of a couple of meters, the animal will then have time to level itself without touching the floor.

In addition, Alvin and Virginia Silverstein, in their book “Cats: All About Them,” also question the idea that without a tail, a cat loses its balance: “The joints of their paws are designed in such a way that their paws move in them more freely than our arms and legs.” When a cat walks, its front paws turn slightly inward, so the prints of the left and right paws are straight lines, and the front and hind paws are the same. "Her hind legs had no problems with support. This helps her move easily along a fence or tree branch." As you can see, the tail is far from the only guarantee of perfect balance. It, of course, plays its role - for example, during sharp turns, but in general, you can do without it.

However, the tail is an integral means of self-expression for the “mustachioed-striped”. With its help, cats can send many “messages”, in other words, communicate. If the tail is lowered between the hind legs, the cat is scared of something; if it is bristled, the animal is angry. If the cat is friendly and wants to give a greeting signal, the direction of the tail will be strictly vertical. A swaying tail moving back and forth signals that the cat is irritated, and if tension increases and the cat is filled with rage, you will immediately hear an angry howl. But if a “badger” with its tail raised above its head walks through the streets with a confident gait, you know that the storm of the neighborhood is walking, a cat that dominates the area, and through its tail it is trying once again to remind the rest of its brothers who is in charge here.

But how then do tailless cats communicate? For example, a cat from the Isle of Man - nature endowed this rare cat with thick hair, but lacked a tail. However, they can do without it - and still feel great. Dr. Michael Fox claims that even if one of the elements of communication is lost, cats communicate not only with the help of their tail, they are able to send signals using movements of the head, whiskers, paws and even pupils... For example, if an animal is in a good mood, the cat’s ears are raised , the paw pads clench and unclench, and the most obvious signal of an excellent mood is purring... We can give many more examples when, trying to demonstrate its feelings, a cat can do without a tail. In the end, ordinary tailed cats lose their tails as a result of injury, but this does not stop them from climbing fences and communicating with their brothers. It turns out that there are more important things for a cat than its tail, for example its whiskers. But that is another story….

A cat's tail also reflects its mood. A heavily fluffed tail indicates that the cat is very excited or scared. An irritated cat sometimes jerks its tail sharply from side to side, which sometimes indicates that it is in doubt. There are two possible reasons for this behavior: either she is going to retreat, or she is going to fight again. It is better for attackers not to mess with a cat whose ears stick out back, but are not completely pressed back. Be aware that such a cat is in an extremely aggressive state, but is not yet scared enough to press its ears tightly back. In other words, her ears are warning: "Watch out!"

Cats have almost no facial expressions. But all their organs are a reflection of their feelings. Cats whose pupils are rounded may be scared or excited, while an angry cat will constrict them into two intimidating slits.

9 Shapes and position of a dog’s tail. The dog's tail and its mood

Appearance dogs, all its external forms as a whole and some features of individual parts that are characteristic of a particular breed and gender are called exterior. The exterior contains information about the dog’s physique and structure. Some characteristic deviations and defects of addition. Exterior plays a huge role in the selection of breeding dogs; it is an indicator of the type of constitution, health, strength of the animal and its adaptability to certain conditions of detention.

The tail is one of the characteristic features of the breed and consists of 20-23 caudal vertebrae, which forms the basis of the caudal section, which, in turn, perform a protective function and the role of a kind of rudder during fast movements, i.e. a means of balance in movement: lifting, lowering, swinging, rotating. All this helps the dog in performing various maneuvers when moving quickly, except for all of the above - the tail expresses the dog’s mood and temperament.

The length of the tail is usually measured in relation to the hock joint. In most breeds it is lowered down, with the last vertebra reaching the hock joint - this is the normal length. Naturally, this norm evaluates the length of the tail of those dogs for which the length of the tail is significant. Sometimes there is a natural bobtail (i.e. the tail does not reach hock joints).

The thickness of the tail plays an important role in a number of breeds and in such cases is regulated by the standard.

Tail shapes:

Saber-shaped;

Crochet tail;

The tail is a log;

Crochet tail;

Tail feather;

Tail with a rod;

Tail with sickle;

Tail ring

Double ring tail

The shape of the tail is the most variable and varied. Tails are: straight and curved (in the form of a saber or sickle, twisted into a ring, with a break and a hook at the end.) For some breeds, a break in the tail is a breed characteristic, and in most cases this phenomenon is abnormal. Each breed standard stipulates whether it is a disqualifying fault or breed specificity. Some breeds have fused caudal vertebrae, which is also penalized if the standard does not allow this deviation.

The tail set may be low, i.e. lowered in the form of a saber, log, arc with a hook at the end. In this case, a striking example is the German Shepherd. The tail is fluffy, well covered, reaching the hock joint (not shorter). At the end, the tail sometimes bends into a hook, which is undesirable. IN calm state hanging down, it forms an arch; when excited and during movement, it bends more strongly, but not above the line of the back. The tail should not curl, but be straight. Buying is not allowed. As an example of a low-set tail, we can consider the Welsh Corgi Cardigan - this tail resembles a fox and is a continuation of the body, moderately long almost to the ground, the position of the tail, as mentioned above, is low, and when the dog moves, it raises the tail, but not above the top line .

The tail set may be high, i.e. raised

Continuing the topline

Above the topline

Thrown over the croup

Rolled into a ring.

Now let's look at this with examples...

Kerry - Blue Terrier - the tail is thin, set high, the dog carries it vertically.

Scotch Terrier (Scottish Terrier) - standing upright, slightly leaning forward is allowed.

The tail is set high in continuation of the line of the back; this example can be found in dogs of the following breeds: Golden Retriever - the tail is of medium length, reaching the hock joint. When moving, it carries its tail at the level of the back.

Labrador retriever, the tail is thick at the base, gradually tapers towards the end, covered over the entire surface with thick, close-lying hair, which gives it a rounded shape, slightly raised upward. The tail of the American Cocker Spaniel is at the level of the continuation of the back or slightly higher, constantly wagging its tail when moving.

The tail is set high and carried over the croup. A striking example of such a tail is the Chow Chow breed - the tail is set high and lies well on the back. The Japanese Chin, with long and silky tail hair, is carried over its back.

Tail set high, curled into a ring. A striking example of such a tail is the following breeds: pug - shaped tightly twisted in a spiral, lying on the back or hip; a tail twisted in two rings is considered ideal.

The Basenji has a high-set tail, tightly curled in a ring over the back and pressed to the croup.

Pomeranian Spitz (Dwarf Spitz) - tail set high, medium length. Straight from the root, the tail is raised and curled in a ring over the back, it is pressed tightly to the back and is very abundantly covered with hair.

It must be said that the tails also differ in mobility. They are sedentary, mobile and very mobile. The most mobile tails are dogs of group 3 - terriers. Terriers are lively, energetic dogs, fearless in character, playful and cheerful. They hold their ponytails proudly and with dignity, as much as possible.

Sedentary tails - as a rule, these are low-set, hanging tails large dogs with a decisive character, distrustful of strangers, independent, not very demanding of maintenance, with strong massive bones, with well-developed muscles. Typically, these dogs have a long, low-set tail that hangs down to the hocks. And only in an excited state rises to the line of the back (commander, South Russian Shepherd, Caucasian Shepherd Dog- unlike the previous 2 dogs, this dog’s tail is set high, but in a calm state it also keeps it lowered and this tail is also inactive)

Movable tails are medium-sized dogs, distinguished by a cheerful and playful character, completely devoted to their owner and his family, very active and cheerful.

And so, we found out that tails vary greatly in mobility, but they also differ in hairiness. The hairiness of the tail can be uniform (evenly covered with hair on all sides). For example: Dalmatian, Labrador, Basset Hound, etc. The hair coat can be uneven (covered mainly from below with outer coat, which has a silhouette characteristic of the breed. For example: golden retriever, English setter, Gordon setter, etc.

At the very beginning of the work, when the shapes of the tails were listed, it was mentioned that there are corkscrew-shaped tails with a break and a hook at the end. So, an example of such a tail would be a dog of the breed French Bulldog. This tail is very short, low-set, thick at the base, tapering sharply towards the end; with pronounced breaks, corkscrew; should not rise above the croup; when calm, it should be lowered and pressed tightly to the body.

The Dwarf Bull Terrier's tail standard is a short, thin, tapering straight or corkscrew tail.

English bulldog. The tail is corkscrew, set low, comes out straight and then curves down, round in cross-section, smooth, without dewlap or brush - thick at the base and sharply tapering towards the end.

The tail in some breeds must be docked, then in these cases the standard specifies the length of the tail to be removed, but more often the standard length after docking is specified. Canne - Corso - the tail is set high, thick, docked at the end at the level of the fourth vertebra; when moving, the dog should hold the tail high, but not straight.

Since 1998 In Russia, a law has been passed banning tail docking for some breeds, an example being the Rottweiler breed. Until recently, in the standard for this breed It was clearly stated that the tail is docked at the level of the first or second vertebra, and today at exhibitions you can see a Rottweiler proudly carrying his tail, thick at the base and gradually tapering towards the end. When calm, the dog keeps its tail lowered; when excited, it rises.

There are times when the tail wags the dog, but in most cases, however, the opposite is true. It was the dog’s tail moving back and forth that researchers of our four-legged friends turned their attention to in order to understand the manifestation of emotions in dogs and the connection of these emotions with the hemispheres of the brain. The dogs were studied from nose to tail, and an interesting picture emerged.

Every dog owner and lover knows how they let you know about their mood. If the ears are pressed to the head, the whole body is tense and the tail is extended, this means “You better not mess with me.” Your pet's ears stand up, and he, without ceasing, curls at your feet and at the same time waves his tail so much that it will come off at any moment? Everyone should understand what this means: “I’m so glad to see you!”

The time may come when dogs will give more readable signals (using an LED tail attachment and a mechanical scruff), but for now we have to learn to understand dog “gestures”.

And recently, scientists discovered one very interesting feature of dog behavior, which not only the best dog breeders (with their recommendations), but even dog experts were unaware of.

After conducting a series of experiments on 30 dogs of various breeds, it turned out that if the dog is generally positive, then he waves his tail more to the right side. If he is upset or angry about something, then the movements are shifted to the left side of the sacrum. Watch the video.

If the dog sees the owner, then its tail waves to the right, which means it is safe to approach. If she sees a dominant dog, then movements shifted to the left signal “I think I’ll go.”

Well, that's an interesting observation. But where is the science here?

The thing is that many researchers are still arguing whether emotional asymmetry of the brain can manifest itself in any animal other than humans, in whom left side the brain began to evolve along with the development of speech.

Previous work by various scientists has shown that in most animals, including birds, fish and frogs, the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for positive emotions and so-called energy enrichment. For example, in humans, the left hemisphere is associated with feelings such as love, affection, peace and security, when they appear, the heart rate slows down, and the body experiences a feeling of peace and satisfaction.

The right hemisphere, on the contrary, is responsible for behavior related to energy consumption and output. For people this is: fear, depression, flight, physiologically expressed by rapid heartbeat and stopping the functioning of the digestive system.

Since the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side, the asymmetry of body movements is opposite to the activity of the brain hemispheres.

Apparently for this reason, many birds search for food using their right eye to a greater extent (left hemisphere, saturation of the body), and control the presence of predators around them with their left eye.

Right side human face tends to express happiness, while the muscles of the left side show all the sorrows and sorrows. For left-handers, however, the opposite is true.

"But the dog's tail is on midline body, neither on the left nor on the right half. “Could he be exhibiting emotional asymmetry?” asked Dr. Richard J. Davidson, director of the Laboratory of Emotional Neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin (University of Italians Giorgio Vallortigara), a neurophysiologist at the University of Trieste (University degli Studi di Trieste) and his fellow veterinarians from the University of Bari (Universita degli Studi di Bari) Angelo Quaranta and Marcello Siniscalchi answered Davidson’s question and showed that it can.

To do this, they placed pets in cages equipped with cameras that accurately recorded the angle of deviation of the tail from the midline of the body. They were then presented with 4 different stimuli: their owner, an unfamiliar person, a cat, and an unfamiliar “dominant” dog.

In each case, the dog observed the person or animal for one minute. Then the experimenters took a break for one and a half minutes, and then the next picture followed. The experiments lasted 25 days with 10 sessions daily.

When they saw their owners, the dogs vigorously waved their tails with a shift to the right side; when they saw a stranger, the movements also shifted to the right, but were not so frequent. The sight of a cat caused tail movements shifted to the right, but with less amplitude. If an aggressive woman appeared nearby unfamiliar dog(large Belgian Shepherd), the tails immediately responded by moving to the left.

Thus, it can be assumed that the muscles of the right part of the tail are responsible for the expression of positive emotions, and the left - negative.

And in this case, the dog’s tail not only showed scientists what a dog’s mood is, but also, perhaps, prompted new research, because no one has yet proven that dogs do not have their own language.

List of used literature

Bogen G. -Modern biology. - M.: Mir, 1970.

Green N., Stout W., Taylor D. -Biology: in 3 volumes. T. 3: trans. from English/ed. R. Soper. -M.: Mir, 1990.

From molecules to humans. - M.: Education, 1973.

Willie K. - Biology ( biological laws and processes). - M.: Mir, 1974.

Slyusarev A.A. - Biology with general genetics. - M.: Medicine, 1978.

Evelyn P. - Anatomy and physiology for nurses. -M.: BelADI (Turtle), 1997.

From animals to humans. - M.: Nauka, 1971.

Sabunaev V. "Entertaining zoology." - L. "Children's Literature" - 1976.

www.cute-dog-pictures.doggiewoggie.com

Http://www.zooclub.ru/zakon/52.shtml

www.potomy.ru/fauna/1598.html

Http://www.bril2002.narod.ru/olimp.html

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