text:
Sheep vs. Furry animals
Why can't we take the fur of a fox without killing or skinning it just like the sheep , what's the biological or chemical structure or even the trait which is on a sheep's body that separates wool from its skin
Why can't we apply the bioclip technology on furry animals too ?
Sheep wool is like cutting long curly human hairs: they stick together due to the length and curliness.
For foxes, chita, rabbit, lions, etc, the hair are really short and parallel: it's like cutting your eyebrows: they won't stick together. That why you (used to) find them as carpet, kept with the skin.
Fur, wool, and hair are all made of keratins.
To the best of my knowledge wool and fur are separated arbitrarily, based on the properties of the fibres. This arbitrary division allows rabbits to have fur but selective breeding has produced angora rabbits, which have wool. The opposite should be possible, with time you could breed a sheep that has fur.
Length; Wool grows continuously and animals are clipped when the fibres are long. Fur often has a maximum length.
Structure: The structure of the keratin in the wool makes the fibres kinked (crimped). These kinks aid the production of fabrics. I believe the cuticular scales also aid in the production of fabrics.
Fur doesn't have kinks, so even if it's long enough to weave the fabric is likely to lack durability.
Some furs are used in textiles rather than pelts. Possum fur is 'plucked' and woven into fabrics with wool. The resulting fabric is slightly less durable. However, possum fur is hollow and smooth so possum fur fabrics are very soft and warm. The clothing is very good to to wear.
However, fur is generally inferior to wool for textiles and it took a couple of decades to develop techniques to produce textiles from possum fur. This happened because of odd ecological and economic drivers. Possums are are a major pest species in New Zealand where they contribute to the decline of native birds and insects. Millions of possums are killed every year in New Zealand. The market for possum skins is very small. This is why so much effort was put into producing a fabric from possum fur.
So you could shear a fox and produce a fabric but the fabric would likely be poor and there's no reason to do so.
Difference Between Lambs and Sheep
We all love animals and profit from the meals that comes from them this can be each inside the kind of meat or from the milk and completely different merchandise after we focus on mammals. The most complex phrases which could be related to them are about lamb and the sheep. The principal between them is sheep is an exact animal whereas lamb is the form of meat that comes from it. In completely different circumstances, they usually are the animal who provides meat and the meat respectively.
Basis of Distinction Lambs Sheep
Difference Either typically referred to as an animal which is the youthful mannequin of a sheep or generally known as the form of meat that comes from the sheep. An exact animal that has backward horns which might be curved from the beginning and has a small beard after we focus on male ones. It has a thick white coat on its physique and is saved in flocks.
Range Less than 12 months More than 12 months
Food Drinks the milk of a sheep. Grazes on grass.
Type Meat Lamb, Mutton, Hogget.
There are many types of meat referring to a sheep, nonetheless the most typical ones embrace Mutton, Lamb, and hogget. In simpler phrases a lamb is a sheep who's at a youthful age, that's usually between 2-5 years. In most components of the world, a sheep inside the first yr could be generally known as a lamb, and the similar title may know the meat. As it grows in age, the title of the animal will maintain altering with the form of meat. The lamb meat is the most costly of those that will be came upon there, and that is as a result of freshness and the reality that the animal killed at a youthful age with out getting completely different benefits equal to exploit and its coat. Although there are three varieties over the previous couple of weeks, the time interval solely used for sheep meat is lamb. Mutton has flip into frequent as a meat of goat whereas the alternative time interval, hogget has disappeared. In Australia, who is thought for its sheep, the time interval lamb significantly used for the animals who've been launched up merely so that their meat is for consuming capabilities and geared up on the market as soon as they develop up. The definitions differ from places to places a lamb is a sheep who's beneath 12 months referring to worldwide places which have stayed beneath the British rule. In the United States, the similar phrase will get acknowledged for ovine animals which may be of any age. The variation is out there in place equal to Asian worldwide places the place significantly used for the meat of a sheep regardless of their age. The meat itself is juicy and is extreme in vitality as a result of this truth prevented by people who concern to attain weight.
A sheep is no doubt one of many hottest mammals which could be present inside the livestock commerce and help in performing a variety of duties along with providing people with meat and milk that's accessible in useful to beat the demand. The phrase should not be distinctive to 1 kind of animal and is used usually for lots of various varieties nonetheless what everybody is aware of is the one who has a white furry coat on the physique, and that may be utilized to make fully differing types of garments. A simple methodology of defining will in all probability be that it is a dwelling animal that has backward horns which could be curved from the beginning and has a small beard after we focus on male ones. It had a thick white coat on its physique and saved in flocks. It is energetic and can run at an excellent tempo whereas provides milk, meat and pores and pores and skin for us human beings to profit from. They have the tendency of following completely different herds even after they're fully completely different from them, and that is the explanation they examine from a youthful age. Their coat has utilized in making garments equal to coats and jackets which might be famously worn by people and maintain warmth. They moreover adjust to one chief and if that one begins transferring your complete flock will star transferring within the similar route. If they sense any hazard, they quickly come collectively and stroll shut to 1 one other, and if the hazard grows quickly, they start working. They are very social and want to work along with others. They maintain happier in groups and flip into weak in the event that they're saved on their very personal and are moreover well-known for his or her sharp sense in all the circumstances.
Sheep is a time interval broadly used for animals who fall into the category which has a white furry physique with horns which could be turned inside out whereas lamb is no doubt one of many classes of such animals who fall into the similar variety.
A Sheep is known to be an animal who isn't any age fluctuate whereas lamb usually used for the youthful mannequin of a sheep who's usually beneath two years.
Once a lamb turns into better than a yr outdated, then it will not be typically referred to as a lamb anymore and could be generally known as a sheep.
A sheep will feed on grass, and completely different crops whereas a lamb will feed on the milk of its mother.
In one other circumstances, the time interval sheep is used for the animal itself whereas the time interval lamb is used for the meat of a sheep.
The meat of sheep is of three different types usually typically referred to as mutton, lamb, and hogget whereas the lamb meat is the most costly amongst all the alternative types.
Lamb meat is unique to a sheep whereas mutton has now flip into specific to a goat meat whereas the time interval hogget has flip into redundant
Harlon Moss
Harlon currently works as a quality moderator and content writer for Difference Wiki. He graduated from the University of California in 2010 with a degree in Computer Science. Follow him on Twitter @HarlonMoss
Sheep Breeds
There are a number of different theories regarding the origins of domestic sheep. However, most sources agree that they originated from mouflon. There are two wild populations of mouflons still in existence: the Asiatic mouflon which is still found in the mountains of Asia Minor and southern Iran and the European mouflon of which the only existing members are on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. These two species are closely related with the only difference being the redder coloration and different horn configuration of the Asiatic mouflon. Some sources even hypothesize that the European mouflon actually developed from the first domestic sheep in European being allowed to become feral and that all sheep are actually descendants of the Asiatic mouflon.
Sheep were among the first animals domesticated. An archeological site in Iran produced a statuette of a wooled sheep which suggests that selection for woolly sheep had begun to occur over 6000 years ago. The common features of today's sheep were already appearing in Mesopotamian and Babylonian art and books by 3000 B.C.
Another indication of the early domestication is the fact that they are the only species of livestock unable to return to a feral or wild state. Selection for wool type, flocking instinct and other economically important traits over the centuries has resulted in more than 200 distinct breeds of sheep occurring worldwide. Modern breeding schemes have also resulted in an increasing number of composite or synthetic breeds which are the result of a crossing of two or more established breeds.
Immortal Line of Cloned Mice Created
Watch out, George Lucas, there's a new attack of the clones, and these ones are furry.
Japanese researchers have created a potentially endless line of mice cloned from other cloned mice. They used the same technique that created Dolly the sheep to produce 581 mice from an original donor mouse through 25 rounds of cloning, the scientists report in the March 7 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
"This technique could be very useful for the large-scale production of superior-quality animals, for farming or conservation purposes," study leader Teruhiko Wakayama of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, said in a statement.
The researchers used a cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which a cell nucleus containing one individual's genetic information is inserted into an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. Dolly the Sheep became the first cloned mammal in 1996 using this technique. Many other animals have been cloned since, but the technique has had a low success rate and attempts to "reclone" animals have often failed.
Genetic abnormalities that can accumulate over consecutive generations of clones may explain these failures, Wakayama said. [That's Odd! The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]
In their study, Wakayama and colleagues grew the cloned cells in a solution containing trichostatin, a compound that interferes with enzymes that make changes to DNA. Using this technique, the cloning process was five times more successful.
The team successfully cloned the mice 25 consecutive times. In other words, they cloned one mouse, then cloned those clones, and so on. A total of 581 healthy mice were made, all of which were fertile and lived a normal life span of about two years. The efficiency of making the cloned cells neither worsened nor improved over the generations.
"This is a very important set of results," geneticist George Church of Harvard Medical School told LiveScience. It's "not just that it's 25 sequential clonings, it's that they found a way to improve things five-fold," Church said. Figuring out what didn't work was equally important, he added.
No abnormalities accumulated in the mice, even after repeated cloning, the researchers found. "Our results show that repeated iterative recloning is possible and suggest that, with adequately efficient techniques, it may be possible to reclone animals indefinitely," the authors wrote in the study.
In 2008, Wakayama's team created clones from the bodies of mice that had been frozen for 16 years. Other researchers have successfully recloned cows, pigs and cats, but not beyond three generations. Scientists have also created stem cells from cloned human embryos, but ethical and scientific barriers to human cloning remain.
Calmest Animals
1. Doves
These plump-bodied and long-tailed, fluffy birds are found in almost every part of the world. There are hundreds of dove species but only a handful of doves are commonly available as pets. The dove with an olive branch has been an eternal symbol of peace. White doves symbolize new beginnings, peace, fidelity, and love. Releasing doves signifies new beginnings and prayers for peace.
2. Sheep
One of the calmest animals in the world, Sheep is the most docile, non-violent, gentle and peaceful creatures ever known on earth. You will never hear or read about a sheep attacking someone or being aggressive. Sheep generally stay together in herds and can become agitated when separated from the group. The docile nature of sheep is often misunderstood for negatively as creatures that can be stupid or easily led. But sheep are the eternally peaceful and intelligent animals that make different sounds to communicate different emotions.
3. Cranes
Cranes are heavy-bodied, long-necked, long-legged birds of open grasslands and freshwater marshes. We recognize the crane as a symbol of peace and hope. In 1958, the statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was erected in Hiroshima's Peace Park as an international symbol of peace after the Hiroshima bombing attacks. Cranes are considered symbols of marital fidelity in India. They are believed to mate for life. If their partner dies, they will grieve the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death.
4. Frogs
Frogs are extremely sensitive to changes in their environment. They stay in groups called knots and are one of the favorite Toad Species. They eat, pray, jump, hop, and lay eggs, all in a quiet, peaceful way. A study of their peaceful behaviour can give scientists valuable insight into the functioning of an ecosystem. Frogs are social creatures that live in groups. They are fairly peaceful animals except during mating season when the males can become aggressive. Frogs are seen as a lucky symbol of transformation and fertility. They are one of the calmest animals in the world.
Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rain forests. They are arboreal mammals noted for slowness of movement. Sloths are gentle creatures and move slowly to conserve energy. In nature, animals snooze about 9-10 hours per day. Sloths are solitary creatures. They rarely interact with one another. Sloths never feel lonely because of their rigorous sleep schedule.
6. Giant Panda
One of the calmest animals in the world, The giant panda is native to the mountain ranges of south-central China. It is characterized by large, black patches around its eyes, ears, and the body. Giant pandas are generally solitary and each adult has a defined territory where others and do not like to venture into. They are mostly docile and loving creatures, who spend most of their time quietly chewing bamboo leaves or climbing trees.
7. Dolphin
One of the cutest marine animals, Dolphins are intelligent and altruistic animals that are part of the family of toothed whales. They are known to stay and help injured individuals. They can even help them to the surface to breathe by pushing gently with their noses. These mammals have curved mouths, which give them a permanent "smile."- All the more reasons to be gentle and affectionate. Dolphins are also noted for seeking out social encounters with humans.
8. Koala
The Koala is a furry marsupial native to Australia. Koalas are docile and very fond of being petted and cuddled. Even when terrified, they look cute and gentle. They spend long hours sleeping quietly on trees. They often sleep for up to 18-20 hours each day, coming out only in the night. They do not live in big groups but prefer to enjoy their own company. They remain solitary, quiet and calm creatures.
9. Slow Loris
Slow Lorises are known for their slowness (as indicated by the name). They can remain motionless for hours together but at night when they are hunting prey, they can catch up a speed of 8 kilometres per hour. They have an adorable look with their pair of teddy bear eyes, a button nose, and a cute face that looks like a cross between a red panda and a sloth. The slow loris is a cool animal, which makes slow, deliberate movements like a sloth and little noise.
10. Bull Mastiff
The Bullmastiff is a gentle and affectionate, large-sized breed of domestic dog. It has a solid build and a short muzzle, and are commonly known as the "silent watchdog. " This breed is mellow in behaviour and they have got a soft spot for their loved ones. Bullmastiffs are very good and careful guard dogs and will protect their home and family with their life if the need arises.
These are the various animals and birds that belong to the category of calm, docile and gentle creatures. Their unique habits, cute bodies, and cam behaviours can take the heart of anyone seeing them. Some of them can make great pets, while some prefer to stay quietly in the woods.
Mammals vs dinosaurs
Were dinosaurs really the most exciting and interesting creatures ever to roam the planet? Zoologist Nick Crumpton tells the Cambridge Science Festival that it's high time other prehistoric animals stepped out from the shadows.
It's time to pay more attention to all the other incredible creatures that lived before the time of the dinosaurs, during it, and after they were gone.
Nick Crumpton
Dinosaurs, as every schoolchild knows, were not just the most terrifying creatures ever to roam the Earth, but also the most exciting, and therefore the best. The peak of their golden age was one in which monstrous reptiles and carnivorous predators stalked the planet. True, not all of them were as big as houses, but some could grow up to 150 feet in length and more than 30 feet high. And the fiercest of the lot had no equal. Megaraptors, for example, possessed huge, sickle-like claws and powerful jaws with serrated teeth. Utahraptors, some palaeontologists have speculated, could run at speeds exceeding 50mph as they hunted down their prey in order to satiate their taste for flesh.
No wonder, then, that dinosaurs have been captivating the public for generations - ever since the Victorian age, in fact, when palaeontology really began to flourish as a science. Mammals, on the other hand, have always seemed a bit tame by comparison. In fairness, the biological class Mammalia makes some pretty decent contributions to the prehistoric record - think of the woolly mammoth, for example, or Smilodon (one of the many sabre-toothed tigers). In the final analysis, though, nobody ever made a film based on a book called "Pliocene Park", nor a board game called "Lost Valley of the Marsupials". Viewing figures for a TV series entitled "When Mammals Roamed America" would probably have left advertisers bitterly disappointed.
Yet while dinosaurs continue to thrill and intrigue us, Cambridge zoologist Nick Crumpton reckons that other prehistoric animals have been getting a raw deal. He argues that there are plenty such creatures that existed before, during and after the dinosaur age, and which, far from less interesting, are simply less well-known. In practice, they were – if not better – than certainly brainier, stealthier, and more capable of surviving in a wide range of different environments, than their dino counterparts.
In recent years, scientists have uncovered much more about these often overlooked specimens. Thanks to their efforts, there has never been a better moment to set the record straight in the contest between dinosaurs and other animals for our hearts and minds, and the time is ripe for the likes of the Phytosaur, Lycaenops, or even the humble Morganucodon to step out from the dinosaurs' substantial shadows and claim their rightful place in public awareness. This Saturday (March 16), Crumpton will be on a mission to achieve exactly that at the Cambridge Science Festival. Not wishing to show bias towards either side in this epic clash of prehistoric heavyweights, his talk bears the modest and subdued title: "DINOBORES: Why mammals are way cool".
"It's a real shame that everyone knows about these incredible dinosaurs which evolved and ruled the Earth until 65 million years ago, but less about the amazing animals that in some cases predated them," Crumpton says.
The idea for the talk came to him while he was co-authoring a children's book, "Triassic Terrors", which is being published by Flying Eye Books. "As we were writing it I realised that the most fun bits to write weren't about dinosaurs, because during the Triassic period - about 200 million years ago - dinosaurs were really just evolving. There were, however, incredible mammals that we don't hear of. The same is true of periods when dinosaurs really thrived, the Jurassic and Cretaceous. And that's a pity, because some of the most important fossils for such mammals have been found right here in the British Isles."
In truth, Crumpton's interest lies not just with mammals, but with a whole host of animals which have traditionally barely been recognised because of the more established and charismatic appeal of the dinosaurs. Recent finds and thorough research, however, are allowing scientists to change that picture, and they are beginning to realise that the world hundreds of millions of years ago was populated by a far greater diversity of life than had previously been imagined.
This applies to prehistory before dinosaurs as well as during the dinosaur age. In the Permian period, for example (roughly 298 to 252 million years ago), we have evidence of animals such as Gorgonopsids - large, carnivorous, four-legged monsters with long, sabre-like fangs, strong rear legs, and a vaulted palate that allowed them to breathe when they grabbed their prey. The biggest was roughly the size of a large bear.
One of the best-known is Gorgonops itself, the dominant predator of its day, which thanks to its pillar-like rear legs probably moved at very fast speeds. Another, called Lycaenops, had powerful canine teeth in both its upper and lower jaws, which meant that despite measuring about three feet in size, it was capable of stabbing or tearing at much larger animals - although it probably stuck to hunting reptiles and other small prey most of the time. Its leg positioning was such that it was probably much more agile than many contemporary creatures, and able to outrun them to hunt them down.
Mammals are not the only interesting, but little-known creatures from around this time for which fossil evidence is growing. Today, for example, we are familiar with crocodiles and alligators, which are reptiles. Yet these are just two surviving examples of a much larger lineage called Pseudosuchia, which thrived during Triassic times, and in some cases were a much more fearsome prospect.
Take, for example, Ornithosuchus (literally "bird crocodile"), which was a sufficiently terrifying flesh-eater that for some time palaeontologists believed it was actually an ancestor to T-Rex. In fact, it wasn't a dinosaur at all, and probably resembled a crocodile in looks to some extent, although worryingly it could stand on two legs when it needed to. It was also bigger – probably about four metres (13 feet) in length. Not something you want to run into, nor indeed away from, given that it could probably move pretty swiftly, as well.
The preeminence of dinosaurs really only began about 200 million years ago, when there was a sudden, devastating extinction event which probably wiped out something like half of the life on Earth. Until then, dinosaurs had only really had a bit-part in natural history, but thanks to "a quirk of fate", as Crumpton puts it, their line recovered faster than most others, and so began the golden age of dinosaurs.
This, however, did not rule out the existence of mammals. For example, scientists have uncovered the remains of a small, squirrel-sized mammal that lived at least 125 million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs were dominant. This appears to have had a sizable, furry "patagium" - an extension of its skin, a bit like bat wings, and similar to that seen in flying squirrels today. Whatever this creature was, it was clearly gliding around the place in exactly the same age as the reptilian Pterosaurs.
Morganucodon, also a contemporary of dinosaurs, was an apparently less-spectacular, nocturnal creature. It lived about 205 million years ago and many remains attesting to its existence have been found in Glamorgan, in Wales. This small, furry animal had quite a long tail and a skull two to three centimetres in length, lived in a burrow, and might have looked a bit like a vole. It survived by eating insects, and other small animals.
As face-offs go, this appears to be something of a no-brainer. On the one hand, Megaraptors were large, terrifying and had big claws and pointy teeth. On the other, the likes of Morganucodon were certainly furry, possibly cute, and spent their day in a hole refusing to go outside.
Crumpton, however, argues that looks aren't everything. "For some reason, people seem to have latched on to the idea of dinosaurs. But non-avian dinosaurs had small brains relative to their body-size, senses which weren't as well developed, didn't have endothermy as we do, and probably weren't as good at parenting," he complains. More constructively, he also points out that it was precisely the capacity of mammals to better these shortcomings which meant that, when the dinosaurs themselves were wiped out by another extinction event, probably caused by an asteroid hitting the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, mammals were able to fill the ecological niche they had left behind.
Once this happened, the mammals "really went to town". Whales evolved where no fully aquatic dinosaurs had existed. Bats became so successful that today there are over 1,000 different species of bat on Earth. It wasn't just the dinosaurs' ecological niche that was occupied - everything was up for grabs.
So what was it that made mammals so successful, once they were given this chance to capitalise on the dinosaurs' extinction? One significant asset was their relatively large brain size. "Bigger brains basically means better senses," Crumpton explains. "Morganucodon was able to scamper around at night because it had better senses for coping in a nocturnal environment. Some of these animals also probably had a better sense of balance, which helped the flying squirrel-like creatures to glide through the air. Later these senses would enable them to communicate with each other, or co-ordinate hunts, like wolves. It's highly unlikely, judging by the size of its brain, whether a T. Rex could have managed that."
Then there was the fact that they were endothermic, or warm-blooded. Although there is some evidence for endothermy in a few groups of dinosaurs, the widespread warm-bloodedness found in mammals led to a range of physiological advantages. In particular, mammals had an increased metabolic rate and more energy available "on demand", which meant that they could withstand temperature changes in a manner that dinosaurs could not. Nearly all reptiles today still bask on rocks in order to warm up in the sunshine. Mammals did not need to do this, and were far less vulnerable as a result.
As well as remarkable because they seem half-forgotten and exotic, Crumpton argues that prehistoric mammals and other animals were also amazing because they had qualities and capabilities that dinosaurs lacked. "I still love dinosaurs - they were what got me into biology when I was a kid and I don't mean to resurrect an incorrect Victorian image of lumbering monsters dragging themselves slowly around the Earth," he insists. "But now that I know more about life on Earth, it feels like it's time to pay more attention to all these other incredible creatures that lived before the time of the dinosaurs, during it, and after they were gone."
Nick Crumpton will be giving his free talk, "Dinobores: Why mammals are way cool", on Saturday 16 March, from 10 - 10.45am in Arts School Room A on the New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge. The event is one of a huge range of activities for all ages that are being organised for "Science On Saturday", part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
Fuzzy science: researchers brush up on the biology of hair.
Grown long, it became a hallmark of hippies. Neatly trimmed and moussed, it has become the trademark of yuppies. Women sprouting yellow ones have been said to have more fun. And men in whom it's thinning become obsessed with its disappearance, supporting a booming industry of ointments, transplants and toupees.
Among humans, at least, hair carries symbolic significance far beyond what one might expect from a collection of dead appendages.
In the United States alone, style-conscious mammals unwilling to accept their follicular fates spend more than $40 billion each year to cut, perm, tame or otherwise alter this peculiar vestige of a furrier past. Still, for all the attention lavished upon it, hair remains one of the least understood components of the mammalian body.
Recently, however, scientists have begun to lift hair's shroud of mystery. Recognizing that hair may hold the answers to some long-standing questions in cell biology, researchers have focused renewed attention on this evolutionary equivalent of feathers and scales.
In many cases, hair research is financed by pharmaceutical and textile companies hoping to profit from the basic science. At its strangest, the new work has led to the development of laboratory culture systems that allow scientists to cultivate small amounts of hair from follicle-rich slabs of artificial skin. But despite substantial research expenditures, no one has managed to grow significant amounts of hair anywhere but on the body itself - a fact that offers testimony to hair's bewildering biology.
"One of the reasons people have avoided looking at hair is because it's so complex," says Howard Baden, who studies the molecular biology of hair at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Now scientists are recognizing that it's a very good model for looking at some basic biological problems."
Indeed, hair biology has attracted researchers from several scientific disciplines. Cancer specialists explore hair and its follicles because these are the only part of the body that repeatedly die and self-regenerate throughout life. For these scientists, hair promises insights into the cellular controls that go awry in skin cancer and other proliferative disorders.
For development biologists, the life-long cycle of hair death and regeneration provides a series of remarkable repeat performances that allows them to examine and reexamine in a single animal the stages of cell growth and differentiation.
Textile developers hope that an understanding of hair growth at the molecular level will lead to genetically engineered sheep bearing improved varieties of wool - a motivation that explains the large proportion of hair research performed in Australia. And for cosmetic and pharmaceutical manufacturers, every new finding related to hair regeneration holds the prospect of enormous profits from a population of aging men unwilling to accept nature's plans for their pates.
"This was a nonfield just a few years ago. There were very few people studying hair and follicle growth," says Stewart Yuspa of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. Now, he says, "a lot of the basic questions in skin cell biology have been answered, and people are looking for new challenges. The hair follicle is it."
As a trait unique to mammals - and one intimately involved in sexual communication - hair has attracted plenty of scientific attention on the macroscopic level. Its functions are myriad: As fur it provides camouflage and insulation as whiskers it offers tactile sensitivity as eyelashes and nasal hairs it protects against dust.
About 100,000 of the fibers grace the scalp of the average human. Seen in cross section, hairs appear oval in Caucasians, flat in blacks and circular in Asians. In humans, the few patches of body hair that have survived evolution serve primarily as social cues between the sexes, says Kurt S. Stenn of the Yale University School of Medicine.
Of particular interest to biologists is the observation that hair grows in cycles. In humans, for example, individual hairs grow for periods of two to five years, then rest for four to six months. Growth involves the rapid proliferation of cells inside the hair follicle, a specialized involution of skin.
Production of a hair within a follicle resembles a miniature assembly line. As dividing hair cells push older hair cells upward and out of the skin, pigmented cells called melanocytes enter the developing fiber to provide color. At the same time, a series of polymerizing reactions cross-links 10 different kinds of protein molecules, or keratins, within the hair cells to create the tough, finished product. All this goes on while the new hair emerges at a rate of about one-third millimeter per day, or about half an inch per month.
During the resting phase, growth comes to a halt and many cells in the follicular bulb wither and die. But all is not lost. A supply of so-called papilla cells, capable of reseeding the follicle, remains hidden in a portion of the deflated follicle. Later, in response to molecular signals secreted by surrounding cells, the follicle springs to life again. Papilla cells migrate to the bottom of the follicle and begin to divide, and a new hair shaft grows upward, pushing out the old hair as it goes.
In humans - in contrast to animals with seasonally synchronized molts - the growth and rest cycles of individual hairs are uncoordinated, so that any given time, 90 percent of the hair are growing while the rest are not. But hair growth cycles, especially in men, get shorter with age, until the amount of time each follicle spends resting exceeds the amount of time spent growing. Moreover, the follicles become smaller and shallower with age, squeezing out finer and finer hairs. For many men completing their third or fourth decade, a look in the mirror provides evidence of "male pattern baldness" - a receding hairline and thinning crown.
Scientists hope that by studying the hair cycle they will learn to control the growth and regeneration of hair and skin, But whether the goal is to slow the balding process in men, increase wool production in sheep or stop skin cell proliferation in cancer patients, the key lies in understanding the molecular signals that regulate the cycle of growth and rest.
The hair cycle, says Yuspa, "is extremely well controlled, based on the appearance and disappearance of regulatory molecules and the presence or absence of receptors within each follicle." But to rewrite the score of this regulatory symphony, researchers need a way of testing the effects of individual hormones and cellular growth factors in a controlled fashion. Thus, much of the recent work on hair biology has focused on the development of laboratory-grown hair.
Until recently, the only way to test the effects of drugs or naturally occurring cell-growth factors on hair was to spread the lotions and ointments on furry animals. Indeed, a few animals remain popular for such studies.
Southeast Asian stumptailed macaque monkeys (Macaca arctoides), for example, predictably and progressively go bald between their fourth and seventh years, providing a "speeded up" model of baldness in humans. Early experiments with minoxidil, today's only FDA-approved hair-regenerating drug, were performed on stumptails, and scientists continue to use the animals to test other experimental hair thickeners.
Another popular animal model for hair growth is the so-called fuzzy rat - the hybrid progeny of a hairy albino rat and a hairless, normally pigmented rat. The fuzzy rat's tiny follicles sprout fine filaments resembling the thinning hairs in balding men. "Fuzzy rats have fuzz, and bald [human] heads have fuzz," observes Hideo Uno, who works with the rats and macaques at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "So if a drug makes the fuzzy rat's fuzz get thicker, then that's the bottom line, right?"
To test candidate hair growth enhancers, Uno takes 4-millimeter skin biopsies from the scalps of test animals and compares the proportion of growing and resting follicles before and alter application of experimental compounds. He is also developing a computer system that provides enhanced views of animal scalps to ease objective comparisons of hair density.
But in many respects, living animals make poor models for hair growth experiments. The constant circulation of hormones, immune factors and other metabolic variables confound interpretation of an already complicated phenomenon. So researchers are increasingly turning to in vitro systems to decipher the molecular signals that trigger hair growth.
In one approach, researchers remove a few hair follicles from human skin and extract from each follicle about 10,000 outer root sheath (ORS) cells, which surround the hair root. They culture these cells along with dermal fibroblasts - a type of skin cell - gaining about 1 million ORS cells within two or three weeks.
These cells, when grown on a slab of collagen (a protein common in skin) and nourished with hormones and growth factors, differentiate into several kinds of cells, including trichocytes, or hair cells. But as with several other petri dish systems, the trichocytes fail to develop further into true hairs, reports skin researcher Alain Limat of Cosmital SA in Marly, Switzerland. Limat described his research in January at a conference on the molecular and structural biology of hair, sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences.
In another approach, Michael P. Philpott and his colleagues at Cambridge University in England dissect follicles from the human scalp and culture them in tiny wells filled with a cocktail of nutrients. In what appears to be the first successful growth of hair filaments in vitro, the team has kept the system alive for up to 10 days, during which time the disembodied follicles produced hair shafts up to 3 millimeters long.
The researchers used their system to test the effects of cell-stimulating compounds such as epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor alpha and transforming growth factor beta-1. Many scientists suspect that these and other factors, produced by various cells in the body, play regulatory roles in the hair growth cycle.
Indeed, Philpott's initial results suggest that at least some of these compounds are key elements determining the timing and duration of hair growth, although the details remain obscure. But not everyone agrees that Philpott's system represents true hair growth.
"I think you can be fooled very easily," comments one scientist, noting that previous in vitro hair growth "successes" have turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of epithelial cells lining up in formation.
"The problem is, epithelial cells have this habit of moving," says Harvard's Baden. "So there's always this question of whether there's really a new population of cells being created or whether these cells are just changing their shape or position."
In upcoming experiments, the Cambridge group plans to look for a wave of DNA synthesis moving up the length of the hair strand, which may settle questions of the system's validity, Philpott says.
Meanwhile, a third technique shows some promise. Karen A. Holbrook of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle places small pieces of human tissue from aborted 10-week fetuses in a liquid growth medium. After several days, the skin swatches naturally gather themselves into hollow, seamless balls and continue to grow.
In the following couple of weeks, the skin cells differentiate into the major cell types and tissue layers typically seen in developing fetuses, with hair follicles appearing on the outer surface. So far, Holbrook says, these follicles produce only "hair pegs" - stubby precursors to true hairs. But ongoing studies may suggest ways to push their development further, she adds.
With laboratory models of hair falling short of anything that might reasonably be called hirsute, other researchers argue that for now at least, live animals remain the best systems for studying the biology of hair.
In one of the more bizarre attempts to study hair growth in rodents, researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland have transplanted one foot pad from each of six rats onto the rodents' backs to make the hairless pads more accessible. (Foot pads don't have follicles.) Then they transplanted dermal papilla cells into each of the transplanted pads. All five foot pads that survived the procedure developed hair follicles, and three of the pads sprouted "beautiful hair fibers," says Dundee biologist Colin Jahoda.
"A lot of people want to grow more hair on their head," Jahoba says. "But we think that produced hair fibers here, where hair never grows, is actually more significant." He says the work strengthens the argument that dermal papilla cells "contain the information that says, |Make a hair," but it remains unclear weather dermal papilla cell transplants represent a practical means of adding hair to human heads.
In other experiments that may shepherd in a new era of rational textile design, Australian researchers at the CSIRO Division of Animal Production in Blacktown, New South Wales, have begun altering the DNA of mice and sheep in hopes of learning how to enhance wool production. "Our ultimate aim is to produce transgenic sheep that produce more wool and also to make fibers with new chemical and physiology properties for the textile industry," says CSIRO researcher Graham Cam.
Cam and his colleagues are experimenting with genes that increase follicular production of glucose and sulfur-containing amino acids critical to keratin formation. By placing these genes under the control of other hair-related genes, they hope to boost wool production using the animals' own genetic machinery.
Recently, the Australian team inserted a cell-proliferation gene called N-myc alongside a gene that regulates keratin synthesis in mice. But the genetically supercharged DNA proved fatal to most members of the first experimental litter, and the two surviving mice showed no obvious improvements in coats.
With failures like these far outnumbering successes, researchers concede they face tough challenges as they investigate the nature of hair and attempt to control its growth. The picture appears even more complicated, some note, as evidence accumulates that some hormones and growth factors that stimulate hair growth at certain times or in certain parts of the body also suppress that growth at other times or in other parts of the body.
But in the long run, the work promises a host of human benefits that extend beyond the development of anti-balding agents. Not least of these, says Yuspa of the National Cancer Institute, is the resolution of several cancer-related problems.
"We got into the field out of the question of whether epithelial cancers originate in the follicle cell or the [surrounding] skin cells," he says. "This has been a question that has been nagging us for 20 years."
Hair studies may shed light on other aspects of cancer, too. "Hair growth resembles tumor growth," Yuspa says. For example, when follicles regenerate after a resting phase, they penetrate the outer layers of skin in much the same way as cancer cells invade surrounding tissues.
Insights into the mechanisms of follicular invasion and the regulatory molecules that limit its extent may help scientists block the uncontrolled epidermal invasion characteristic of skin cancers, Yuspa says. "Ultimately, cancer is our goal. But you can't understand cancer unless you understand normal."
Then again, when it comes to hair, "normal" isn't always desirable. Should baldness - normal among aging men - be considered a "problem"?
"I don't really think it's a problem," Yuspa says. But a look at his thick-cropped head of hair suggests to some that he may not be the best judge.
242 Funny Animal Jokes That Will Drive You Wild With Laughter
Good animal jokes are hard to come by, but we've collected our favourites here to get you howling, hooting and roaring with laughter. EPIC! From the four-legged to the in-flight, the beaked to the barnacled, from dog jokes to elephant jokes, horse jokes to bird jokes, we've got them all!
Why did the fox go for a duck?
Because he was rubbish at cricket. (Probably something to do with not being able to hold a bat in his little paws – Ed)
When do ducks usually wake up?
Q: What's the difference between a tree and a moose? A: I don't know?
No wonder you're failing biology
A goat, a drum, and a snake fell off a cliff…
What did the bored goat say?
What did the goat say when it pranked the cow?
How do you stop a goat from charging?
What do you call a goat that likes cleaning?
What do you call a goat that likes country music?
What do you call a goat that knows martial arts?
What's a goat's favorite TV show?
What do you call a goat who paints pictures?
Why is it hard to have a conversation with a goat?
Why did the goat run off the cliff?
It didn't see the ewe turn!
What's 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat and 1/2 goat?
What do you call a goat with a beard?
What's a goat's favorite musical?
Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Goat!
Why are goats from France so musical?
Because they have French horns!
What do you call a goat on a mountain?
My pet snake is exactly 3.14m long…
What do you call a cow with a twitch?
Why do mother kangaroos hate rainy days?
Because their kids have to play inside!
What did the mummy spider say to baby spider?
You spend too much time on the web!
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
How is a throwing a dictionary similar to birds flying south for winter?
They're both flying information!
Why do birds fly to warmer climates in the winter?
Because it's easier than walking!
What's white on the outside, green on the inside and comes with relish and onions?
Two fish are sitting in a tank…
One looks at the other and says, "Hey, do you know how to drive this thing?!"
What's worse than raining cats and dogs?
What do you get when you cross a sheep and a porcupine?
An animal that can sew its own sweaters!
Why should you not write a book on penguins?
Because writing a book on paper is much easier!
Why do polar bears and penguins not get on?
Because they are polar opposites!
Why do bee keepers have such beautiful eyes?
Because beauty is in the eye of the beeholder!
Why is a bear big, brown and hairy?
Because if it was small, smooth and white… it would be an egg!
What's Swiper's favourite dance?
What car does a snake drive?
What kind of vehicle does a mouse drive?
What mouse was a Roman Emperor?
What goes dot, dot, dash, squeak?
Why was the mouse afraid of swimming?
What did Tom get when he locked Jerry in the freezer?
What kind of cheese do mice like?
What is small, furry, and brilliant at sword fights?
Why do mice have long tails?
Well, they'd look silly with long hair!
What's a mouse's least favourite song?
Why did the mouse stay inside?
Because it was raining cats and dogs!
What's a cow's favourite sci-fi TV programme?
What do you call two monkeys who share an Amazon account?
What do you give a sausage dog with a fever?
Mustard – it's the best thing for a hot dog!
What happened to the frog who parked on the double yellow lines?
Who's the smartest pig in the world?
Why should you never share a bed with a pig?
What do you call an angry pig?
What are bears without bees?
What did the shark say after eating a clown fish?
This tastes a little funny!
What did the shark say when he was accused of hitting his brother?
What's a sharks favourite movie?
What is a Great White shark's favourite kind of sandwich?
Peanut butter and jellyfish!
What do you get when you cross a parrot with a shark?
An animal that talks your head off!
What did the Mum shark say to the kid shark?
Watch that sharkasm, young man!
What do sharks do when they have a big choice to make?
What did the shark say to the other shark?
There's some-fin special about you!
How does a shark greet a fish?
Where do sharks go on vacation?
What do sharks order at McDonalds?
A quarter flounder with cheese!
What happened when the shark got famous?
Why do sharks live in salt water?
Because pepper water makes them sneeze!
What did prehistoric animals get instead of blisters?
What do you call a bear without any teeth?
What's Peter Pan's favourite animal?
What did Hamm build his house out of?
Why did Woody give Bullseye some cough syrup?
What type of magazines do cows read?
What do you call an elephant that can't stop cleaning?
Why couldn't Cinderella use horses to pull the Pumpkin Coach?
Because they were too busy playing stable tennis!
What is it about birthdays that make kangaroos unhappy?
They only get to celebrate them in leap years!
What do you say to a kangaroo on its birthday?
Where do sheep get their hair cut?
Where do lions sell their unwanted stuff?
How do you stop a skunk from smelling?
Why did Mozart hate chickens?
All they ever say is "Bach-Bach-Bach"!
You never see elephants hiding in trees…
They must be really good at it!
They told me to stop doing flamingo impressions…
I had to put my foot down!
What did the grape say when the sloth stood on it?
Nothing, it just let out a little wine!
What do sloths like to read?
What do you call a cat who works for Santa?
Why did the lobster giggle?
Why do gorillas have such big nostrils?
Because they have such big fingers!
Which dinosaur knew the most words?
What do you call a dog falling from a great height?
What do you call a pig who steals stuff?
Person 1: My dog has no nose! Person 2: But how does he smell?
Because they're not tall enough to be pilots!
What is a skunk's favourite Christmas carol?
How do Mexican sheep say Merry Christmas?
What do angry mice send to each other at Christmas?
Who delivers Christmas presents to baby sharks?
Did you hear abut the vampire who got a pet dog?
He'd always wanted a bloodhound!
What animal is best at baseball?
What did one pig say to the other on Valentine's Day?
Where do cows go for entertainment?
What sea creature can add up?
What do you get from a pampered cow?
What do cows use in WhatsApp messages?
What goes tick-tock woof-woof?
How many skunks does it take to make a stink?
What do ghosts put on their turkey?
What do you get if you cross Darth Vader with a toad?
What's a dog's favourite kind of pizza?
What is a snake's favourite subject?
How do you make a baby snake cry?
Did you hear about the dog who ate nothing but garlic?
His bark was worse than his bite!
What snakes do you find on cars?
A snake that's bitten its tongue!
What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?
Where do you put a criminal sheep?
Doctor, doctor! I feel like a sheep!
Doctor, doctor! I feel like a pony!
Don't worry, you're just a little hoarse!
Why will a dog never win Strictly?
What reindeer has the worst manners?
Why are leopards bad at hide and seek?
Because they're always spotted!
Why are octopuses good in a war?
What's an alligator's favourite card game?
What is a bear's favourite drink?
What was the pig doing in the kitchen?
What do you call a sleeping bull?
How do pigs send secret messages?
How do pigs get to hospital?
Did you hear about the dog who went to see the flea circus?
What did one penguin say to the other?
Nothing, he gave him the cold shoulder!
Who delivers your dog's Christmas presents?
What do you call dogs who did up ancient artefacts?
What do you call a tiger at the North Pole?
What first aid do mice learn?
Mouse to mouse resuscitation!
What's a mouse's favourite game?
What do you get if you cross a dog with a calculator?
A best friend you can really count on!
What's black and white, black and white, black and white?
A penguin rolling down a hill!
Why did the ladybird go to the doctor?
Why did the lion spit out the clown?
Did you hear about the hungry lion?
Where do kittens go on school trips?
Where do frogs hang their coats?
What weighs two tons and jumps like a frog?
What's a frog's favourite sweet?
How do hedgehogs play leapfrog?
What do you get if you cross a hedgehog with a giraffe?
Why was the duck arrested?
It was suspected of fowl play!
What do you call fish with no eyes?
On what side does a duck have the most feathers?
What do you get if you put a duck in a cement mixer?
What do you call an elephant in a phone box?
How do dolphins make decisions?
What do you call a donkey with three legs?
What do you get when a dinosaur walks through a strawberry patch?
What do you call a dinosaur as tall as a house, with long sharp teeth, and 12 claws on each foot?
How do dogs train their fleas?
Why does a Brontosaurus have a long neck?
What do you call a dinosaur who wears glasses?
Why did the dinosaur take a bath?
What do you call a dinosaur that never gives up?
What's the most musical part of a fish?
What do you call it when one cow spies on another?
Why was the crab arrested?
What do you call a deer with no eyes?
What do you get if you cross a pig with a dinosaur?
What should you do if you find a dinosaur in your bed ?
Find somewhere else to sleep!
Why did the T-rex cross the road?
To eat the chicken on the other side!
Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
Because chickens hadn't evolved yet!
Why did the boy take his dog to a watchmaker?
Why do ducks make good detectives?
They always quack the case!
What do you get if you cross a chicken with a cow?
How do chickens communicate?
What do you call a cow you can't see?
What's the difference between a guitar and a fish?
Why should you be careful when it's raining cats and dogs?
You might step in a poodle!
What do you get if you cross a centipede with a parrot?
What do you call a Tyrannosaurus rex when it wears a cowboy hat and boots ?
How do chickens leave the building?
What do you call a Triceratops with carrots in its ears?
Anything you like, it can't hear you!
Doctor, doctor! I can't help thinking I'm a goat. How long have you felt like this?
Knock, knock! Who's there? The interrupting cow. The interrupting…
What do you do if you find a bear in your toilet?
Why do dogs run in circles?
It's too hard to run in squares!
Knock, knock! Who's there? Cowsgo. Cowsgo who?
Doctor, doctor! I keep thinking I'm a dog! Do take a seat.
I can't – Mum says I'm not allowed on the furniture!
What kind of dog does magic tricks?
Who was the horse's favourite footballer?
Who was the sheep's favourite footballer?
What do you call a penguin in the desert?
What do you get if you sit under a cow?
What do you get if you cross a snake with a builder?
What's the most musical part of a turkey?
What does a Triceratops sit on?
What sport is a Brontosaurus good at?
What did the beaver say to the tree?
People always panda'd to him!
What happened when the frog's car broke down?
What is the wettest animal?
Why do owls get invited to parties?
What do you call a pig who can't mind its own business?
Where do you find a monster snail?
At the end of a monster's finger!
What did one pig say to the other pig?
How does a mouse feel after a bath?
Why are dinosaurs no longer around?
What is the best way to get in touch with a fish?
What do mice hate doing most?
What kind of dog comes from Asgard and wields a mighty hammer?
Which animal do you want to be in winter?
When is it bad luck to see a black cat?
What animal drives really badly?
What's a Canadian's favourite dessert?
What kind of key opens a banana?
What was the scariest prehistoric animal?
Why don't fish play tennis?
How many elephants can you put into an empty stadium?
One – after that it isn't empty!
What do elephants wear to go swimming?
What did the duck say to the waiter?
What do you call a duck who's always telling jokes?
Why did the elephant quit the circus?
He was being paid peanuts!
Doctor, doctor! I keep thinking I'm a cat! How long has this been going on?
Goat Anatomy
Below is an anatomy diagram of a typical female goat.
Goats are sure-footed animals who have a rough pad on the bottom of their two-toed hooves. Goats have a long, thick, furry coat that protects them from the cold. Goats range from about 17 to 42 inches (43 to 107 centimetres) tall at the shoulder. Both male and female wild goats have beards and pointed black horns.
Female goats have udders from which goats milk is extracted.
Below is a diagram of the internal digestive system of a goat. It shows the four stomach chambers and the intestines.
Mature goats are ruminant animals. Their digestive tracts, which are similar to those of cattle, sheep and deer, consist of the mouth, oesophagus, four stomach compartments, small intestine and large intestine.
Like other ruminant animals, goats have no upper incisor or canine teeth. Goats depend on the dental pad in front of the hard palate, lower incisor teeth, lips and tongue to take food into their mouths.
The Four Chambered Stomach Explained!
Rumen: This is the largest of the four stomach compartments of ruminant animals. The capacity of the rumen of goats ranges from 3 to 6 gallons depending on the type of feed. This compartment, also known as the 'paunch', contains many microorganisms (bacteria and protozoa) that supply enzymes to breakdown fibre and other food that the goat eats. The conversion of the cellulose of feeds to volatile fatty acids (acetic, propionic, and butyric acids) is the result of microbiological activities in the rumen. These volatile fatty acids are absorbed through the rumen wall and provide up to 80 percent of the total energy requirements of the animal. Microbial digestion in the rumen is the basic reason why ruminant animals effectively utilize fibrous feeds and are maintained primarily on roughages.
Rumen microorganisms also convert components of the feed to useful products such as the essential amino acids, the B complex vitamins, and vitamin K. Finally, the microorganisms themselves are digested further in the digestive tract.
Reticulum: This compartment, also known as the 'hardware stomach' or 'honeycomb', is located just below the entrance of the oesophagus into the stomach. The reticulum is part of the rumen separated only by an overflow connection, the 'rumino-reticular fold'. The capacity of the reticulum of goats ranges from 0.25 to 0.50 gallons.
Omasum: This compartment, also known as the 'manyplies', consists of many folds or layers of tissue that grind up feed ingesta and remove some of the water from the feed. The capacity of the omasum in goats is approximately 0.25 gallons.
Abomasum: This compartment is more often considered the 'true stomach' of ruminant animals. It functions similarly to human stomachs. It contains hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes that breakdown food particles before they enter the small intestine. The capacity of the abomasum of goats is approximately one gallon.
As partially digested feed enters the small intestine, enzymes produced and secreted by the pancreas and small intestinal mucosa further breakdown feed nutrients into simple compounds that are absorbed into the bloodstream. Undigested feed and unabsorbed nutrients leaving the small intestine pass into the large intestine. The functions of the large intestine include absorption of water and further digestion of feed materials by the microorganisms present in this area. The 100-foot-long intestinal canal of goats has a capacity to hold 3 gallons.
When a goat kid is born, the rumen is small and the abomasum is the largest of the four stomach compartments. The rumen of a goat kid represents about 30 percent of the total stomach area, while the abomasum represents about 70 percent. Hence, digestion in the goat kid is like that of a monogastric animal. In the suckling goat kid, closure of the oesophageal groove ensures that milk is channeled directly to the abomasum, instead of entering the rumen, reticulum, and omasum. When the suckling goat kid starts to eat vegetation (first or second week of life), the rumen, reticulum and omasum gradually develop in size and function.
Goats are very particular about what they eat, they will not consume food of poor quality or food that is dirty or has been trampled on. Goats require the best quality hay, green stuffs and concentrates (oats, barley, soya, linseed, etc. generally sold as a goat mix). However goats will eat a wide range of food, preferring more fibrous food to lush grass. Goats will eat young thistles and brambles, as well as twigs, they also like bark from trees. Goats are inquisitive and will nibble and investigate most items (including the proverbial washing off the line!), however, they are selective about what they actually eat.
Here's how it works in my mind: anthropomorphic is the base definition non-human/object with human characteristics this covers the whole spectrum from Mickey Mouse to Optimus Prime.
Furry is the little made-up category for characters whose body and forearms are relatively humanoid but the head, legs or just the feet with the addition of a tail are from an animal. The most popular being wolves, foxes, cats & horses. Though I think any character fitting the criteria is a furry there are even more made-up sub categories of furry: Scalies, Feather fags (probably not the right term but it's catchy as hell).
Scalies are any character based of a reptiles but it's not uncommon to have fish or amphibians group in there as well mostly due to hardcore furries having no actual knowledge of their BS spirit animal.
Avian(See now I remember the term) are characters based off birds I like to note that this category has the least amount of real world birds usually you are only told that it's a bird and that's it no information on what species.
Miscellaneous Furries- Just like it implies are character made up of two or more animals, usualy mammal-bird or mammal-reptile.
Furries bases off actual mythical shit
Mers- Furs with a fish tail
Centaurs- Upper portion humanoid bottom half the body of horse of whatever the character is based off
Least common under the furry category: Fruit that's right it's out there and personally the most amusing to looks at because with most furries your giving an outline on the character's personality through the animal it's based off.
BS differences between anthro and furry
The most common mistake people make is thinking they're two different things, anthro is for "Serious" characters like talking foxes or cartoons and furry is all about creepy porn and blah blah.
EpicExpansion here furries are no-lifers squatting furaffinity, are only interested into fur-related stuff, have a fursona, call everything they touch or make with the prefix "fur-" in it, and calls everything on their interest "furry" . furry art, furry porn, furry music, furry food, furry house.
anthro is anything with humanoid appearance, prefferably cute :3
Anthro art is drawing anthropomorphic animals, animals with human characteristics.
There is no such thing as furry art. A furry is just someone involved in the fandom. Furry art would be like drawing any normal guy.
Anthro (short for Anthropomorphic and/or Anthropomorphism) = Pretty much anything that has human-like thoughts/emotions/looks/desires. A skyscraper with a thought balloon coming out of it talking about how he hates getting crapped on by birds is anthro. An ecologist humanoid shaped macaw griffin with valley girl speak is anthro. Na'vi are antrho. We are technically anthro. Lightning McQueen is anthro. In other words, anthro applies to pretty much anything.
Furry = A derogatory term to refer to a narrow-minded clique of anthro artists/fans who think that only canines, felines, and any "cute" creatures are good/sexy/awesome. Usually have strange fetishes as described by people here. Other terms used include "skunk fuckers, wolfaboos, cat screwers, and furfags".
In other words in my books: Anthro describes the art, where as "furry" describes a fandom. Anybody who states that Anthro and Furry are "how the anatomy is drawn" or "how the outlook is" probably don't really know just how big of a subject they're dealing with. I consider myself to be an anthro artist because of all the things I've drawn up and subjects I've used. Hopefully that helps.
"All furrys are anthros, but not all anthros are furrys."
Scott Gustafson [link] -not a furry artist-
Blotch/screwbald [link] -furry artist-
I do not believe the line between furry and anthro can be judged by technical facility. It is due to content and intent, not execution. Furry art isn't always cartoony and antro art isn't always realistically rendered.
Disney's Robin Hood [link] -cartoony, not furry-
spunkywolf [link] -cartoony, furry-
you're both right, and wrong.
Not all anthro's are furries: is right because a toaster can also be anthropomorphic, but furry specifically means anthropomorphic animal.
The links you gave, specifically the first one, *is* furry: the artist might not concider themselves a furry artist, but since furry means anthropomorphic animal, his works do feature furry characters.
Anthropomorphic animal and furry are different words used for the same thing.
yeah a lot of people put them down only because a few individuals draw them in nasty poses. It's really sad that people don't realize that not everyone draws furry art like that.
thank you very much your answer was the most helpful so far
If you see someone over the age of 12 wearing a tail of some sort and it's not Halloween, it's a good chance you've found a furry. I have met them in real life and tried to socialize normally only at one point or another to be bombarded with scary fetish artwork I was not interested in. I'm pretty sure the only difference between a furry and an anime geek is that one watched Disney cartoons well into adulthood while the other one moved onto Japanese cartoons at some point. It's just a nerd subculture filled with people who can relate to each other because they didn't figure it out in grade school like the rest of society. Ostracized kids become weird adults.
Anthropomorphism is a term that means giving human characteristics to something. It can be, as hideshisface said, applied to anything, even inanimate objects. I believe one of the most popular pieces of anthro art on this site is a tree with a face playing a violin in a warm color scheme. has a wide gallery of anthropomorphic artwork, mostly (if not all) animals, and it's very nice to browse through. Beatrix Potter (the artist of the Peter Rabbit books in the late 1800s) drew anthropomorphic bunnies and other animals for her children's series. It's always been one of my favorites despite the fact that I have no taste at all for "furry" art.
I believe you can like and appreciate anthro art without being a furry. However, it's hard to find quality work that isn't just some nerd's RP character crossed with their favorite breed of dog. It takes searching, but if you're going to search just be prepared for a few eyesores along the way. Also, make a note of how many unique pieces of anthro art you can find the most common animals that are drawn in the furry community are pretty, majestic, fantasy or symbolic creatures. I know I've never seen a banana slug furry before, but lord knows I've seen enough foxes, wolves and cats to want to stab my eyes out.
Are you kidding? Just because you don't wear a shirt that says "I AM A FURRY" in huge block letters doesn't mean your behavior or interests won't give you away. You yourself announce it proudly in your signature, others I've known have announced it both online and in reality with a sense of smugness, as if being a furry is more desirable than being a "mundane." As I've said in my first post, furries often go to great length to flaunt their group wearing things like ears and tails (or even fursuits) in public are not something they are ashamed of.
FYI, a furry I knew in high school joined the military and he didn't stop drawing when he went in. He didn't make many friends there, either. According to psychology it's supposedly abnormal to not have a fetish of some kind, I agree. But that doesn't mean that having a fetish makes you more sane, as fetishes come in different levels.
Anime and manga are about people as weird as its porn gets, it will never be as weird as furry porn, sorry. There are more "mundane" otaku than there are furry otaku. A&ampM also has strange fetishes (like tentacle porn) because when the U.S. occupied Japan the laws regarding censorship were changed and anything with genitalia in it, specifically penises, was prohibited from being shown explicitly. In order to sell porn without totally censoring it, the porn industry had to get a little creative, thus tentacles became a popular, penis-replacement fetish.
"Outside the internet, the furry fandom is pretty obscure"
No, it's not. Anthrocon has been happening since 2006, furry cons have been going on in general since the 1970s when people took a lot of interest in sci-fi. There have been t.v. shows about them, documentaries, and a host of published materials in the papers. It doesn't make headline news every night, no, but it is not something that goes undetected when you have a generation of kids that think they're teenage werewolves.
No, uniqueness doesn't have to come from species, but I find it odd that there are so many people who claim to be foxes, wolves, and cats when there is such a DIVERSE world of animals to choose from. If you're just drawing a pretend character, why not find something a little bit less conventional than a horse? The fact is that the furry fandom is just as bad at producing regurgitated bullshit as the anime fandom. The only thing that separates them is that one person draws bad cartoons while the other draws bad half-animal cartoons.
You advertise it. It doesn't matter if anyone knows your name on here or not. It's just as bad as screaming "GAY PRIDE" - whether it's in all caps or IRL yelling, I don't care. I don't have a problem with gay people, but I don't want or need to know their sexual orientation. If furries kept to themselves as much as they claim they do, I wouldn't care.
I've seen a lot of shock imagery and disgusting shit via the internet, but consistently the weirdest, grossest shit that I've ever stumbled upon has always been furry related. You might not enjoy it, but that doesn't mean the fandom isn't heavily steeped in fetish material.
When I was going to high school, I lived in bumfuck nowhere (Arizona) and there were multiple furries that attended the same school. I moved to California later for college and found even more of them. Now I don't live in the U.S. anymore and I can still find them. They stick out like stunted sore thumbs in this country due to the fact that most people living here conform to society when you don't, you stand out immediately.
The species don't become diverse in furry art because the truth is that furries, in experiencing this desire to be liked by others, want to portray themselves in an attractive light. It's only natural for people to want to emulate Paris Hilton if the media and society start believing she is the pinnacle of beauty. To want to be like someone that is admired is a human trait, most likely because we want to be loved, respected and attract potential victims for baby making. It's just nature. As times change, the person who is emulated will change, but since furries don't follow people, their choices with animals are limited. After all, who wants to be a banana slug when you can be a majestic wolf?
As for the art, I also tend to believe that furries draw such shitty work because they're in the same rut as the anime fan tards. They just draw what they like all day long, neglecting the principles of art or the basic understandings of it (like still life, values, proportions, anatomy, etc) in favor of copying each other, bumbling their way through photoshop and bullshitting away their mistakes with sayings like "It's my style!" or "The anatomy is supposed to be that way! It's not human!" The anthro artists who aren't furries and draw amazing work all seem to have some sort of advanced knowledge or degree in an art field, like illustration.
If the furry fandom made a legitimate effort to control itself, you probably wouldn't have people making fun of it all the time. If furries got out of their goddamn basements and socialized with "mundanes" half as much time as they spent on the internet, they would probably figure out that they can make friends just as easily, provided they aren't some kind of creepy manchild that defines "socialization" as sniffing the other person's butt before saying hello. It is also deliciously ironic that they use the word "mundane" to refer to people who aren't furries since they spend the majority of their lives online, living a lie, and wasting their meager government money (like social security checks) on fursuits they can't afford.
It's also boggling why furries are so quick to condemn society, some to abandon it in favor of an imaginative character. You say you want people to stop being sheep, but what makes you think this is new? People have always behaved like that, yourself included, because it helps you. People have the ability to create and to copy, and because of this we can better our species. Although Paris Hilton isn't the best example of an upstanding person, teen girls will try to be like her, and in doing so they have the chance to attract boys. Because their hormones are flowing like water, they will likely have sex and should contraceptives and abortion fail, they will likely end up with a child. By today's standards, this is disgusting. By ancient history's standards, this is common. By nature's standards, this is business as usual, and all because of emulation. It serves its purpose, no matter how silly or retarded it may seem in the face of current pop culture.
Watch the video: TOP 5 LION VS LEOPARD MOMENTS (January 2023).
What are some difficulties animals had to overcome to reproduce on land?
23.3: Metabolic Flux Analysis - Biology
Can I use commercial DNA loading dye for my RNA samples without degrading them?
Copyright 2023 \ Sheep vs. Furry animals...


"The service you gave was exceptional. Phone calls and questions were answered promptly. Unlike prior experiences, I never had to follow up to make sure things were moving forward in the mortgage approval process. Your company acted professionally, and the service level was exceptional."
"I have tried refinancing 4 times in my life and have to say that my experience with you was far superior to any other dealings I have ever had."
"I would like to thank you for everything your mortgage consultant did. He always had the answers to my questions and always had a positive attitude."
"So I'd like to tell Mid-American Financial that they have very strong, hard working, honest team members who can resolve so many people's financial problems. I'm very proud for everything you did for us."
"Your approach was very confident and professional. We really appreciate your attention to detail and found this entire process to be very educational."
"We would like to thank you very much for all the very outstanding work you did for us. It's good to know that someone can be professional and nice to deal with– Thanks again"
"We want to thank you so much for all the help and guidance that Mid-American Financial Group offered during our recent purchase. This was the first house we ever purchased and you gave us the advice that helped us find the loan that best fit our needs. Our experience with you was truly first rate!"
"I was very impressed with the customer service and the professionalism you displayed. You kept in great contact with us and got our refinance done FAST."
"Very honest and helpful throughout the entire process, and I will definitely recommend Mid-American Financial to all of my friends and family."
"Excellent, excellent, excellent, very good at what you guys do. Need more like you guys."


text:
Arsenal Detroit on Gooner.com
What The Hull Was That?
"The Galavanting Gooner: Episode 6"
This game has left me with very mixed emotions. There is an element of relief in that we didn't lose and with the equaliser coming so late, there was bound to be a sense of that. But let's be frank, it was not even close to good enough and there are no excuses for such a sub-par performance. I really don't know what was wrong with us. I feel that the whole game was typified by the Ox. I have never seen him play even close to that badly. I think I counted six occasions where he straight passed the ball out of play. I can't wrap my head around it, he was so solid on the international break and, despite the poor opposition, looked like a real world class player. I can only hope and pray that it was just a very very off day that he will be desperate to rectify in midweek. The whole team looked disjointed and if we had been playing better opposition we would have been well beaten. Thank god that Hull were so terrible, otherwise my weekend would have been even more gloomy. It is becoming all too familiar and the draw did not do much to hide the poor start we have had to the season. I already feel that the league is well beyond us, and only cause of other teams poor results we temporarily lay in 6th place (a miracle in itself).
Of course we can argue that we were hard done by. An unbelievable no call means there first goal should have never stood. But these things will happen over the course of a season and an unjust goal should not be enough to derail us at home like that. We should have more than enough to deal with that and overcome adversity. I was worried about the defence today. The BFG could have done much better to prevent the second goal, but also could have benefitted from a call to let him know the guy was there. However all in all they did quite well and Bellerin looked like a seasoned pro, fair play to him for that. It was the sloppiness that killed us today and I hope it is something that we can fix and quickly!
Let's focus on the positives for a bit. Sanchez, wow, what a player we have there. His work rate is second to none, and all the other players should be following his lead, setting such a great example. On top of that he is and unquestionable talent and if Costa did not exist, he would be being touted as the signing of the summer. Not all the other players can feasibly aspire to his level of raw talent, but they can replicate his work rate if they want to. Welbeck is one play whose work rate you cannot question. He had a great game today in both attack and defence (apart from that one moment where he fell over the ball). His goal was maybe my favourite of the season so far. Incredible assist from Sanchez and then such a cool finish, on his left foot too. Five goals to his name for club and a further three for country since he signed for us. I am sorry Van Gaal, but you were talking shit, that boy can net. You should concentrate more on you player's abilities and less on showing them your hairy balls. Jack was pretty solid again, I am praying it was just an impact injury and not anything worse.
Looking to mid-week, I am hoping that Theo's return will inject some urgency into our attack and that the boss can galvanise the boys and put this performance behind us.
Up the Arsenal!!!
Contact Gooner.com
Follow Gooner.com by Email
Older Blogs May 14 (1) Mar 01 (1) Jan 31 (1) Jan 27 (1) Jan 18 (1) Jan 14 (2) Jan 09 (1) Oct 30 (1) Oct 25 (1) Oct 22 (1) Oct 21 (2) Oct 16 (1) Oct 06 (1) Oct 05 (1) Oct 01 (1) Sep 24 (1) Sep 21 (1) Sep 18 (1) Sep 17 (1) Sep 13 (1) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 17 (1) Jul 27 (1) Jul 26 (1) May 31 (1) May 25 (1) May 21 (1) May 13 (1) May 07 (1) May 05 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 25 (1) Apr 24 (1) Apr 19 (1) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (1) Apr 06 (1) Apr 05 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 21 (1) Mar 19 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) Mar 04 (1) Feb 26 (1) Feb 22 (1) Feb 16 (1) Feb 10 (1) Feb 07 (1) Feb 02 (1) Jan 26 (1) Jan 18 (1) Jan 12 (1) Jan 05 (1) Jan 02 (1) Dec 31 (1) Dec 29 (1) Dec 21 (1) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (1) Dec 11 (1) Dec 08 (1) Dec 06 (1) Dec 04 (1) Nov 29 (1) Nov 27 (1) Nov 25 (1) Nov 22 (1) Nov 10 (1) Nov 05 (1) Nov 03 (1) Nov 01 (1) Oct 29 (1) Oct 25 (1) Oct 24 (1) Oct 23 (1) Oct 18 (1) Oct 05 (1) Oct 02 (1) Sep 27 (1) Sep 24 (2) Sep 20 (1) Sep 16 (1) Sep 14 (1) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (1) Aug 27 (1) Aug 23 (1) Aug 20 (2) Aug 16 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 10 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 04 (1) Aug 02 (1) Jul 31 (1) Jul 28 (1) Jul 23 (1) Jul 14 (1) Jul 11 (1) Jul 10 (1) Jul 02 (1) Jun 13 (1) May 18 (1) May 15 (1) May 12 (1) May 04 (1) Apr 28 (1) Apr 21 (1) Apr 15 (1) Apr 12 (1) Apr 06 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 23 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 09 (1) Mar 01 (1) Feb 23 (1) Feb 20 (1) Feb 16 (1) Feb 12 (1) Feb 09 (1) Feb 01 (1) Jan 27 (1) Jan 25 (1) Jan 19 (1) Jan 14 (1) Jan 06 (1) Jan 02 (1) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (1) Dec 27 (1) Dec 24 (1) Dec 19 (1) Dec 15 (1) Dec 11 (1) Dec 07 (1) Nov 30 (1) Nov 26 (1) Nov 10 (1) Nov 09 (1) Nov 06 (1) Oct 31 (1) Oct 26 (1) Oct 19 (1) Oct 06 (1) Oct 03 (1) Oct 01 (1) Sep 27 (1) Sep 21 (1) Sep 15 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 02 (1) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (1)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How do I get into this tube? In Unmechanical, you control the most adorable little robot ever as he bumps his way through puzzles of varying difficulty.
Problem is, I'm stuck at a mere 5 minutes into the game!

I already picked up the little glowy orb and dropped it into the open tube, which I assumed would open the red, closed tube. But it didn't.
How do I open this red tube?

A: Well, as it turns out, putting the glowy orb into the open tube does open the red, closed tube.
It can apparently bug out when lowering the glowy orb, which is exactly what happened in this case. If this happens, simply quit to the Main Menu and select Continue. You'll be placed at a checkpoint just before this bit, and the glowy orb will be back where you originally found it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home Arts The Good, the Bad, the Weird
Photo still from "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", by director Kim Jee-Woon. IFC Films.
This macho-mad movie includes an icily gorgeous bounty hunter (who shoots while standing up on his horse), an attractive but demonic gang leader with a hideous temper, and a goofy train robber on a motor scooter (miraculously dodging every bullet flying directly at him). Together, these three are the good, bad, and weird.
Although ostensibly about finding a treasure based on a map, the film features characters so definable you won't need any diagram to figure out who's who. Do-Won (Jung Woo-Sung) is easily ID'd as the good guy because of his clean-cut sexy looks. As he swaggers in his long overcoat, toting an even longer rifle, he reveals a delicately shy smile. Meanwhile, Chang-Yi (Lee Byung-Hun) wears trendy black threads along with a perpetual sneer, and a lock of hair that hangs annoyingly over one eye. Unmistakably, the weird one is thief Tae-Goo (Song Kang-Ho). Reminiscent of an early Jackie Chan, he's the comic relief for the gruesome bloodbath that dominates most of this movie.
For the squeamish, this film also offers up a history lesson. Set in 1930's Manchuria, it touches on past politics of the region and various ethnic groups that jockeyed for positions of power then. Especially notable is the casting of homely actors as enemy Japanese soldiers. Juxtaposed against the pretty faces of the Korean cowboys, their ugly mugs are conspicuous.
Colorful costumes and locations exhibit authenticity, but actresses' limited roles reflect the sexist attitudes of those times. Other than a beloved grandmother, women are portrayed as eye-candy tramps not to be trusted.
Opens May 7 at the Varsity Theater, 4329 University Way NE., Seattle, WA 98105-5808.
Previous articleLifetime Achievement Award – Sharon Maeda
Next article2010 APA Heritage Bash Community Roast Awards
'A Tray of Togetherness' is a celebration and offer to take away any bitter aftertaste from the previous year