BirdsInterestingly, birds and mammals share a suite of highly similar characteristics including endothermy. Recent evidence suggests nocturnality as an initial driver for the evolution of endothermy not only in ancestral mammals but also in birds during their early evolution. This may have allowed them to overcome ambient low-temperature constraints to be active at night, while diurnal ectothermic reptiles essentially depend on sunlight to increase their body temperature to operational levels. This might explain the heightened sensitivity of birds to extinction under the current climate change.
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Insects & Other ArthropodsWe, humans, tend to assume we rule the Earth. However, ants also do well and estimates of their global population range from 10,000 trillion to a quadrillion individuals. Currently, more than 900,000 different species of living insects are known which represents c. 80 % of the world's species of living organisms. The true number of living species of insects can be between 2 and 30 million. It is estimated that there are some 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insect in the world. If we disappear from Earth, insects will hardly notice that.
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Mammals & OthersThe word "mammal" itself comes from the Latin word “mamma”, meaning breast, while Australia is the only continent where venomous snakes outnumber non-venomous snakes.
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Travelling & WorkThe universities are scattered throughout the world, so we need to travel across many countries and continents to visit labs and our colleagues and friends.
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YouTube Videos
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