Flying plankton
Copepods, a small type of plankton that drift in the sea, live close to the ocean’s surface where they are conspicuous targets for hungry fish below. But these little crustaceans have a surprising evasive maneuver: they jump out of the water and into the air to escape predators, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and colleagues used high-speed video recordings to track copepods, and found that those that break the water surface travel significantly farther than those attempting to escape underwater. This “flying” evasion helped copepods to more successfully evade predators.
Strongest bite
Who would win a fight—a crocodile or Tyrannosaurus rex? According to a report in a recent issue of Biology Letters, the T. rex bit down with as much as 12,800 pounds of pressure on a single back tooth. That could ...
