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Chicken egg colours explained
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It's a common knowledge that different breeds of chickens lay different colored eggs. Here I'll explain what chemicals and conditions give rise to these differences. White eggsAll eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and the white ones have no pigment added.Brown eggsThe brown colour is caused by protoporphyrin IX, from the hen's haemoglobin, and is coated on the outside of the egg as it moves through the oviduct.Blue eggsBlue eggshells have the pigment oocyanin, which does permeate the shell, so the blue coloring will be all the way through.Green eggsIf a brown layer and a blue layer are crossbred, chances are you will get a green egg when the protoporphyrin IX layer is deposited over the blue oocyanin shell.Pink eggsThe pinkish tint ...
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1479 |
bio_man |
6 years ago |
What color is a toucan's skull?
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Well, obviously it's white, but take a look at its bill! The attractive 7.5-inch-long bill is possessed by both male and female toucans. Interestingly, they use them during a mating ritual, pitching fruit to one another, but has very limited use as an excavation tool. Toucans make their nests in tree hollows found in rain forest regions of Southern Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean region to which they are native. ...
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1100 |
bio_man |
6 years ago |
What does a box and these fish have in common?
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Their name and shape!Ostraciidae is a family of squared, bony fish closely related to the pufferfishes and filefishes. Members of this family occur in a variety of different colors (e.g. right - Hawaiian Blue Boxfish, Ostracion meleagris and the Yellow Boxfish, Ostracion cubicus), and are notable for the hexagonal or "honeycomb" patterns on their skin. Boxfish swim in a rowing manner. Their hexagonal plate-like scales are fused together into a solid, triangular or box-like carapace, from which the fins, tail, eyes and mouth protrude. Because of these heavy armoured scales, Ostraciidae are limited to slow movements, but few other fish are able to eat the adults. Some boxfish also secrete poisons from their skin into the surrounding water, fu ...
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6163 |
bio_man |
6 years ago |
Fruity pebble colored rocks
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Opals (shown above) are is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO 2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Because of its amorphous character, it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are classed as minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. Opal is the national gemstone of Australia. The internal structure of precious opal makes it diffract light. Depending on the conditions in which it formed, it can take on many colors. The one pictured on the left is called the "Virgin Rainbow" opal, being the finest ...
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11165 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
This incredible marsh turns from green to red as seasons change
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The Panjin Red Beach lies on the Shuangtaizi River estuary, just outside of Panjin City, China. The river isn’t your typical freshwater river. The water has a high saline content and very high alkaline levels. Typically, this leads to plants being unable to grow in the water or on the shore. However, there is a very special plant that has adapted to the conditions of the river and thrives in this environment. Suaeda (also known as seablite), is a kind of succulent that only grows in the type of habitat found along the river. Like a lot of plants, the suaeda changes with the seasons. During the spring and summer months, the seablite is a typical green color. In the fall, it turns this deep bright red color as far as the eye can see. Tourist ve ...
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10131 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
As this tarantula matures, its abdomen changes from blue to red
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As its scientific name suggests, the Antilles pinktoe tarantula ( Avicularia versicolor) changes color as it matures. The spider’s abdomen turns from blue to pink or red and the carapace becomes metallic green. Antilles pinktoe tarantulas are native to Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique in the Caribbean Sea. They are arboreal (tree-dwelling) species, and can spin elaborate funnel webs in which they spend most of their time. Though these tarantulas are naturally docile, they are quick and can jump up to 30 cm far or high! ...
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9883 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
Peacocks look even more awesome when they fly
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Peacocks can easily fluttered into the air, but only up to a limited gap. Unlike other birds, they cannot prolong their flight, but these small drifts come in handy while scavenging for food, and are extremely important in escaping deadly killers. As soon as any predator approaches them, they ascend to a nearby tree for safety (check out the video below). ...
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5305 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
Fluke surgery restores this lady's eyesight after 21 years of blindness
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Mary Ann Franco, now 70 years old, lost here eyesight in 1995 when a car accident damaged her spine. More than two decades after the initial injury, she fell in her home and injured her neck, sending her to the hospital once again to seek treatment for pain in her arm and back. After doctors decided to perform surgery on her back to alleviate her pain, they happened to cure her blindness. It is suspected that her first injury caused a lack of blood flow to the brain that controls eyesight, and this operation restored it. Interestingly, Franco has been colour blind since birth, but the operation seems to have fixed that problem, too. The spinal cords running down our spines carry a bundle of nerve tissue and other cells from the base of the b ...
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4280 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
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16879 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
This trick will make your brain see a black-and-white image in color
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Watch the video above, the trick is nothing short of incredible! This is due to a mechanism called the opponent-process theory, which was developed in the 1870s. It is the idea of perceiving color in terms of paired opposites such as red with green, and yellow with blue. The possible scientific explanation for this theory is that bipolar cells are excited by one set of wavelengths and inhibited by other, which are in extend attached to the cone retinal receptors.
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3679 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
See-through flower
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Diphylleia grayi, also known as the skeleton flower, has white petals that turn transparent with rain. When dry, they revert to white. This plant is native to the eastern United States and eastern Asia.
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1295 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Another beautiful bird
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This species of bird, known as the Plum-coloured Starling or Amethyst Starling, is the smallest of the Southern African starlings, reaching only about 18 cm in length. The sexes are strongly sexually dimorphic, meaning that there is a distinct difference in the appearance of the male and female. The breeding male is brilliantly coloured, with feathers an iridescent shining plum violet colour along the length of is back, wings, face and throat, contrasting with bright white on the rest of the body. Females (and juveniles) are a streaky brown and buff colour, and can easily be mistaken for a thrush. ...
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1874 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
The 'emo' version of a dove
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The Luzon bleeding heart dove ( Gallicolumba luzonica) gets its name from a splash of vivid red colour at the centre of their white breasts. On first sight it is hard to believe that the bird has not recently been wounded. A reddish hue that extends down the belly furthers the illusion of blood having run down the bird's front.
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2181 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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1 |
1815 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
A purple and blue crustacean
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These brightly colored crayfish are found in Indonesia. While colored crayfish have been sold commercially in Asia since the early 2000s, this recently-discovered sub-species has a distinctive body shape and color from others in the Cherax family.
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4790 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Amazing blue mushroom
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This is the sky blue mushroom ( Entoloma hochstetteri), a species of mushroom found in New Zealand and India. The small mushroom is a distinctive all-blue colour, while the gills have a slight reddish tint from the spores. The blue colouring of the fruit body is due to three azulene pigments. Entoloma hochstetteri is not edible, but whether or not it is poisonous is unknown. This species was one of six native fungi featured in a set of fungal stamps issued in New Zealand in 2002. It is also seen on the reverse side of the $50 bank note, issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 1990. Source: http://oddstuffmagazine.com/13-bizzare-mushrooms-from-around-the-world.html ...
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18996 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
The rainbow eucalyptus tree has its name because of its vibrant colored bark
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Eucalyptus deglupta, commonly called rainbow eucalyptus, is a very large, fast-growing, broadleaved evergreen tree that is native to moist humid tropical forested areas with high rainfall in New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippine Islands (Island of Mindanao). It is perhaps best noted for its smooth orange-tinted trunk bark which peels in summer to reveal a unique and sometimes stunning multi-colored bark (as described by the common name of rainbow eucalyptus) consisting of streaks of pale green, red, orange, gray and purple-brown. ...
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26082 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
One shiny, golden bug
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Nicknamed ‘goldenbugs’, this pretty little molten gold beetle is the golden tortoise beetle ( Charidotella sexpunctata). It grows to around 5.0 to 7.0 mm in length and favour foods such as sweet potato and morning glory. Strangely, it can completely change colour while having sex. ...
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14179 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Walking sushi
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While this may look like sushi, it's actually Argentina's pink fairy armadillo. This rarely seen animal has silky white hair and a pinkish carapace; it ranges in size from 3.3 to 4.6 inches (84 to 117 millimeters) long, making it one of the smallest species of armadillos. The animal is also nocturnal and has the ability to bury itself in lightning speed given its long claws, which are an astonishing one-sixth the length of the body. ...
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16886 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
When chemistry and physics come together
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When chemistry and physics come together, it looks awesome. This is the emission spectra of the Elements - in other words, these are the colors they emit in the gaseous state.
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4092 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Hot pink animals
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Nature likes to be a little fabulous sometimes. That's why it makes hot pink animals including: fluorescent slugs from Australia; poisonous shocking pink dragon millipedes from Thailand; pink-bryozoan munching nudibranchs from California; and hairy squat lobsters.
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7714 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Beautiful blue bees
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These pretty little insects are blue-banded bees, native to Australia. They use a special technique called 'buzz pollination', which involves vibrating their bodies to shake particles of pollen free from flowers. Crops such as tomatoes, blueberries, eggplants and chillies rely on it.
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7630 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
These aren't party balloons
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These may look like party balloons but they are actually rainbow grapes. These grapes aren't a rare species, they are created during Véraison (when grapes turn from green to purple as they ripen).
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31320 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
How many colours do you see?
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You see those embedded spirals of green, pink and blue? The green and blue spirals are actually the exact same colour. When the green and pink colours are placed side-by-side, they enhance each other’s darker tones, making them look like completely new colours. How we perceive colours is dependant on the light and shadow surrounding them and on the placing of contrasting colours side by side.
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3637 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Clouds that look like rainbows
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'Fire rainbows', also known as iridescent clouds, are a rare phenomenon that only occur when the Sun is higher than 58° above the horizon and its light passes through cirrus clouds made of ice crystals. At the right alignment, the ice crystals act as a prism, and refract the light to look like a rainbow. ...
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2459 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
A fish that resembles a bird
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This bright blue fish, named the blue parrotfish, can be found in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and spends 80% of its time searching for food.
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2407 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Delicious black chicken
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This extraordinary bird is an Ayam Cemani, an entirely black breed of Indonesian chicken. And when we say entirely, we mean it - not only are its feathers black, but so is its skin, its muscles, its bones and its organs. The only thing this chicken has that isn't black is its blood. This kind of hyper-pigmentation is known as fibromelanosis. ...
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6127 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
See-through animal!
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The transparent glass frog is found in Venezuela. It is made up of many specialized cells that have different functions. They form different parts of this organism, which are easy to see through its “glass” skin.
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5907 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Not all corals live underground
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This is beautiful but deceptive Clavaria zollingeri, also known as the violet or magenta coral. But contrary to its name, it doesn't live underwater - it's a species of fungus that grows in woodland areas in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
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6796 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Designer crab
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This is Trapezia rufopunctata, a small and brightly coloured species of crab native to the lagoons and coastal reefs of the Maldives, Polynesia and the Indo-Pacific region. Also known as a guard crab, it lives symbiotically with corals, feeding on their discarded tissue and mucus while defending them from predators. ...
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4682 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
One extremely intelligent beak -- I mean bird
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This is the emerald toucanet, and it can be found camouflaging very nicely in the mountainous forests of Mexico, Central America, Venezuela and along the Andes. These beautiful birds are extremely intelligent - when reared by hand in captivity, they can learn tricks as fast as cockatoos.
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3469 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Birds of Paradise
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A must see introductory video about paradise birds. This video reveals the astounding beauty of 39 of the most exquisitely specialized animals on earth. After 8 years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands, Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes and National Geographic photojournalist Tim Laman succeeded in capturing images of all 39 species in the bird-of-paradise family for the first time ever.
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3262 |
savio |
10 years ago |
A peculiar lobster has been discovered
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1 out of every 50-100 million lobsters has split coloring. One side is typically a dark brown, while the other side is blue, orange, or red. These individuals usually exhibit traits of both males and females.
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4866 |
duddy |
10 years ago |