Since we're out of school today due to snow, I'm going (and have been doing) all sorts of things that are usually unavailable due to time constraints.
Today I'd like to search for distinctive features of animals, such as the rosette's being one of both jaguar and guinea pig, though very different rosettes from each other.
Problem is, I can't set up the search successfully. I get practically nothing when I try "distinctive features of animals" nothing, in fact. I think I only had one hit with "features of animals."
Please make suggestions about how to set up the search if you have a minute. I'd like to read about features such as hollow and solid horns--and split hooves--and as many interesting features as possible on some site out there that is bound to exist. I just don't know how to find it.
Thanks!
TE
I just had a request by PM about the characteristics of rosettes. I understand that even some invertebrates are identified by their rosettes.
The guinea pig rosette is the little swirl of hair you see on its forehead.
The jaguar rosette, also found on the leopard, is the circle of spots that look rose-like. The jaguar rosette is distinguished from that of the leopard by the central spot that is most often not there in the leopard, although the spot is often not in all of the jaguar's rosettes.
I have *spotted photographs of so-called *leopards on the internet that I knew weren't because of the preponderance of central spots in the rosettes. I knew I was looking at a jaguar instead.
These fine points of distinctive features really do make animal-watching fun, and I sure as heck would love to find a website devoted to such knowledge for the general observer.
the ones i know are so well known, i feel i am wasting your time..
Whales: modern scientist find that whale have distincive tail fins. to identify individuals, they look at their tails
Zebra tend to have slightly assymetrical stripes, the right side, is the one that is used to identify them.
and in human, several 'characteristics' remain largely unchanged from infancty to adulthood, the folds and shape (lobed/not lobed) are one of the most obvious.
(ear are also use as 'visual indicators' for infants health.
some kidney, heart and other internal disorders can be diagnosed/predicted/indicated by how the ears are form, and by how they are positioned on the head.)
personally i got to know all the elephants at the bronx zoo (a small herd of 15) by looking at their ears..
Tus (one of the matriarchs) had very symetrical ears.
happy and grumpy, (twins!) were easy.. happy had very similar patches of pink skin on both ears, (a pair of pink earings) grumpy had one ear almost fully dark, and one ear with a pink patch.. (she was missing an 'earing'--various other 'flags' or patches of different color pigment, small detail about the shape of the ear could be used for all the elephants.
we went to the zoo about 3 to 4 times a year, and one of the elephant keepers was impressed at how many elephants i had learned 'by name'. i don't know how they keepers kept track by ears worked for me.
of troy, you're computer-savvy. Would you have any idea how to narrow or expand a search to pull up a site that specialized in animal feature identification? It would be great to track down many animals by features. Maybe it is such a huge task that it's not out there, but even if I could do it by family, that would be a start.
WW, I typed animal characteristics into Google and it gave me nearly 4½ million hits; then I typed unique animal characteristics and still got over a million. I can't tell from a glance at the first page whether any of them are just what you're looking for. I have an idea that there is an idea somewhere in the back of my mind; if it forms into something act-on-able, I'll give it a try.
Meantime--if you're truly just after the information, is there an expert you could call? Someone at a university, or a zoo, maybe?
Thanks, Jackie. I'll follow your lead.
No, I don't want to call anyone. I just want to read through some interesting sites to learn more interesting distinctive features of various animals. Looks as though I'll need to narrow my search by following your lead. Again, thanks. My looking for distinctive features rather than characteristics was the problem.
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/animals/photo/6638.htmlHere's a good picture of a jaguar in which you can clearly see the rosettes with the center spot also clear. Definitely not a leopard.
rosettes +animals +pictures +wild > 950 ghits
Always good to ghit those ghits!
What a managerie that was, Father Steve. Chickens, dragons, needlefish, cats (+ cat diaries)... The last link didn't exactly work, by the way. Thank you. My phone's out of order.
Edit:
Addition: Here is a link Dr. Bill sent me that has wonderful photographs of jaguars captured by an amateur photographer, but self-called computer geek:
http://www.northrup.org/Photos/jaguar/Thank you, Dr. Bill.
>Whales: modern scientist find that whale have distincive tail fins.
But is that by design, or is it just a fluke?
by design, or is it just a fluke? ...And to think I blew you a kiss...[smacking forehead e]
