Exploding Ants
Amazing Facts About How Animals Adapt
1st Edition
Published on 8. April 2014
40 pages
978-1-4814-1797-6 (ISBN)
Description
A wasp lays its eggs under a caterpillar's skin so that its young can eat the caterpillar's guts as they grow. A young head louse makes its home on a human hair and feasts on human blood. Frogs use their eyeballs to help swallow their food.
From small worms that live in a dog's nose mucus to exploding ants to regurgitating mother gulls, this book tells of the unusual ways animals find food, shelter, and safety in the natural world.
If animals all ate the same things and lived in the same places, it would be impossible for all of them to survive. So they specialize. Some animals eat the bits that others leave behind, such as skin and mucus. They find all kinds of unusual places to shelter, including the cracks and holes in another creature's skin or its internal organs. They use their own bodies to protect themselves from predators by imitating unsavory items such as bird droppings and even by blowing up.
These habits that may seem disgusting to us are wonderful adaptations that make it possible for a great variety of creatures to live and thrive on Earth. Read about them and marvel at the amazing ways animals adapt to the natural world.
From small worms that live in a dog's nose mucus to exploding ants to regurgitating mother gulls, this book tells of the unusual ways animals find food, shelter, and safety in the natural world.
If animals all ate the same things and lived in the same places, it would be impossible for all of them to survive. So they specialize. Some animals eat the bits that others leave behind, such as skin and mucus. They find all kinds of unusual places to shelter, including the cracks and holes in another creature's skin or its internal organs. They use their own bodies to protect themselves from predators by imitating unsavory items such as bird droppings and even by blowing up.
These habits that may seem disgusting to us are wonderful adaptations that make it possible for a great variety of creatures to live and thrive on Earth. Read about them and marvel at the amazing ways animals adapt to the natural world.
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Book
04/1999
Simon & Schuster Ltd
€19.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Dr. Joanne Settel is an award-winning writer of science books for children, including Your Amazing Skin from Outside In and Your Amazing Digestion from Mouth Through Intestine. Dr. Settel's book Exploding Ants: Amazing Facts About How Animals Adapt was listed as one of the Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 by the Children's Book Council. Dr. Settel has a PhD in biology. She is a professor emeritus at Baltimore City Community College, where she taught courses in biology, anatomy, and physiology. She lives with her husband in Maryland, where she enjoys hiking, playing bridge, and gardening. Visit her online at JoanneSettel.com.
Content
- Intro
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Why Animals do Gross Things
- Fooled Ya
- A Disgusting Disguise
- Fatal Flashes
- Murderous Nest Mates
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- The Brainwashers
- Caterpillar Guts for Breakfast
- Swelling, Expanding, and Exploding Bodies
- Living Honey Jars
- Exploding Ants
- Ballooning Birds
- Dog Mucus and Other Tasty Treats
- A Very Slimy Supper
- Parasite Pickers
- A Mouthful from Mom
- Sucking Blood
- Bursting with Blood
- Sticking Around
- A Little Blood Between Neighbors
- An Underwater Bloodsucker
- Getting it Down
- A Ball of Bones
- Big, Big Gulps
- Gulping Eyeballs
- The Mating Game
- A Smelly Proposal
- A Permanent Connection
- Selected Readings
- About Joanne Settel
- Glossary
- Index
- Copyright
