Contrary to popular belief, the slow loris is not actually a venomous primate. Rather, the animal produces an allergen (Fel d1) from a gland in its armpit, which is transferred to the mouth when licked. When the loris then bites, this chemical doesn’t elicit a response because of toxicity; some individuals just have a strong allergic reaction. Quite astoundingly, this allergen is the same as that produced by the domestic cat. So in effect, if a slow loris is venomous, then so is the common house cat!
On a side note, can you see the small second tongue? It’s called a sublingua, and most likely functions to remove hair and debris from between the teeth – it’s basically a built in tooth pick!
Photo by David Haring (CC)
See: Krane S., (2003) “Venom” of the slow loris: sequence similarity of prosimian skin gland protein and Fel d 1 cat allergen
Although this image just looks like a rock formation, pictured here is actually a species of chiton, Acanthopleura granulata. Recent research on this animal identified functional eye-like structures on each of the shell plates. Rather than being formed from proteins, these “eyes” are actually composed of aragonite, a carbonate mineral. Interestingly, the team of researchers concluded that aragonite can be used to form a lens effective both above and below water.
Photo by Hans Hillewaert (CC)
See: Speiser, D. et al, (2011), A Chiton Uses Aragonite Lenses to Form Images, Current Biology, 21: 8, pp 665-670.
Fun Fact of The Day: This dolphin here is actually using the puffer fish as a drug to induce a trance-like state. The skin of the puffer fish, in small amounts, is known to produce a narcotic effect. The behavior was captured by an award winning wildlife documentary producer, John Downer, and a zoologist, Rob Pilley, who states “Young dolphins are purposely experimenting with something we know to be intoxicating. After chewing it gently and passing it around, they began acting most peculiarly, hanging around with their noses at the surface as if fascinated by their own reflection.”
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