Bandicoot rat

Here’s a handy rule of thumb: the more teats, the bigger the litter.

And thus began one of my weirder journeys on the internet, all because the Britannica said this regarding the Bandicoot rat of India and Sri Lanka: “The litter size is probably large, since the female has 12 teats.”

Sadly, there are people who actually research this stuff (I mean, besides me). According to the scientist Avery Nelson Gilbert (http://bit.ly/1UQExYr), Aristotle first suggested this relationship between the mammary number and litter size. However, it has not been proven and is somewhat controversial among evolutionary biologists.

After studying rats, mice and squirrels, Gilbert’s conclusion?  “Mean litter size is typically one-half the number of available mammaries, while maximum litter size approximates mammary number….Mammary number may have operated as a selective constraint on litter size over evolutionary time.”

To save you the embarrassment of examining your own pets, here are the numbers:

Teats                          Litter sizes

dogs, 8-12                 2-8 (varies widely, with bigger dogs having bigger litters)

cats, 8                         3-5.

Photo credit (from the actual photographer–check out his site!):

John Lund

Artemisia II

Sister and wife of King Mausolus (reigned 377/376–353/352) of Caria, in southwestern Anatolia, and sole ruler for about three years after the king’s death (EB). She is renowned for her extraordinary grief at the death of her husband (and brother) Mausolus. She is said to have mixed his ashes in her daily drink, and to have gradually pined away during the two years that she survived him (Wikipedia).  She built for her husband, in his capital at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey), the tomb called the Mausoleum, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World (EB).

Artemisia was also known as a botanist and medical researcher; Artemisia, a plant genus, is named after her (EB).

I just thought it was interesting where the word “mausoleum” came from.  Also, I read in another article that Egyptian brothers and sisters sometimes married, but the Greeks were appalled by the practice.

Arber, Agnes

“botanist noted chiefly for her studies in comparative anatomy of plants….Later works reflect her interest in philosophy: The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form (1950), The Mind and the Eye: A Study of the Biologist’s Standpoint (1954), The Manifold and the One (1957).”

I have often wondered if the morphological study of plants and animals is simply pseudo-science.  If two animals happen to look alike, does that really signify anything important?  Just as psychology is often pseudo-scientific when it is not based in biochemistry, so, too, morphology seems pseudo-scientific when not based on genetics.  Is it surprising that the worthlessness of her science led her to philosophy?

Her books combining philosophy with biology might be interesting to read, however.

The Antlion (aka the doodlebug)

What if humans only ate until the age of 6–and then never ate again?

The antlion larva digs a funnel-shaped pit (a pitfall) and then buries itself so that only its jaws are visible.  Any small insect that ventures over the edge of the sandy pit slips to the bottom and is seized.

What caught me: Since the adult does not feed, the larva must consume enough food to sustain the adult.

What if humans were the same way?

Would the weight-loss industry exist?

(And if there were no fat people, what would the standard of beauty be?)

Would our lifespans be short? If so, would people value the right things in life, in time?

More importantly, would all the customs associated with eating not exist?  Think of a world where

1)  We don’t take a date out to dinner or break bread with an enemy

2)  We don’t have holidays centered around eating, like Thanksgiving or Christmas.  In fact, there is no “family meal.”

3)  We have no idea what aphrodisiacs are.

Food for thought?

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1oFn1Iu