Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Random Thought of the Day

So there's this friend of mine who is really in to mucus.

No, not music, mucus.

You may think mucus is a weird thing to be bonkers about, but you just haven't seen the wonders of MAGIC MUCUS!

For example, the lungfish (a type of fish with a lung) can do this nifty little trick when all the water in its pond dries up; they burrow down into the mud and secrete a sac of (you guessed it!) mucus! This mucus sac solidifies, trapping moisture around their bodies. They can stay in this state of suspended animation for up to four years!!! That's some pretty cool mucus!


Ok, Here's another. Parrot fish secret a mucus bubble when they go to sleep each night. These are pretty big fish. Some can be up to a meter long (that's more than 3 feet, for all you non-metric users). So that's a lot of mucus! This isn't your average mucus bubble either. It holds the fish in place while it sleeps, it hides its scent from predators, serves as an intruder alarm system, has antioxidant properties that may heal damaged tissues, and protects against UV rays. I'd like to see YOUR mucus do that!



Ok, one more. You may already know this, but nudibranchs also have really cool mucus. Specifically, the Shaggy Mouse nudi (Aeolidia papillosa) uses its mucus to defend against the stinging tentacles of its favorite food: anemones!!! It secretes a layer of mucus over the tentacles of the anemone which relaxes the anemone's nematocyts (stinging cells) preventing them from firing their stinging barbs. The coolest part about these nudis is that they secrete a specific mucus for each type of anemone they eat!!! That's some really smart mucus!

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