#biomechanics

[montesmithart]

Biomechanical dragon 🌊

Commission for Wolfwings!

[legendaryorca]

a few days ago, I have found gunshot fish (it would be funny if gunshot fish was its common name since it doesn’t have one yet)

(it says I visit often)

this fish 1.2 cm in length can make 140 dB sounds (by striking its own swim bladder with its rib, if I understood correctly)

but due to how sound works and also how water affects sound it would be less louder from a distance

but still loud

they say specialized ribs and muscles allow the fish to not instantly die when it makes the sound, but I haven’t found much detailed explanation on how exactly they help the fish not shock itself to death with the sound

pistol shrimps have these funny organs called orbital hoods that serve as helmets to protect themselves from their own shockwaves made when they snap their claws, preventing brain damage. but I don’t see any possible organs in this fish that could shield itself from its own noise.

maybe it’s unnecessary because the pistol shrimp’s noise is much louder than D. cerebrum’s, at 210 dB but I still think 140 dB is still dangerous enough for a fish smaller than a penny (also this fish is smaller than most pistol shrimps)

yeah

[o-craven-canto]

Wing geometry of flying vertebrates

A diagram of the wing shape of flying vertebrates, including birds (black), pterosaurs (blue), and a bat (red). Based on JMV Rayner (1988), "Form and Function in Avian Flight", fig. 14D & 16D (link) and MP Witton (2008), "A new approach to determining pterosaur body mass and its implications for pterosaur flight", table 4 (link). The two axes represent wing loading (body weight divided by wing surface) and aspect (length-to-width ratio), independent from overall size. While the distribution of species is mostly continuous, there are "regions" corresponding to particular wing shapes and flight styles. Starting in the lower-right region of high loading and low aspect (small, short wings and heavy bodies) we find danger flyers like gamefowl (e.g. pheasants, turkeys) and, presumably, the pterosaur Dimorphodon. I call them this (replacing Rayner's uncharitable "poor flyers") as these species only fly in short bursts to escape ground-based predators. This is not a primitive trait: both gamefowls and Dimorphodon have ancestors that were more sustained flyers. If we keep wing loading high and increase wing aspect, we move upward into the divers: birds like ducks, grebes, puffins, and auks that dive into water to feed and so have relatively heavy bodies. Narrow wings help them acquire speed as they plunge into water. The highest wing aspect is found among marine soarers, of hich the purest example is the albatross (and the pterosaur Nyctosaurus, who has the highest wing aspect ever recorded). At the edges of this cluster, gulls transition between marine soarers and aerial predators, and gannets between marine soarers and divers. Aerial predators, who hunt in mid-flight, have low loading and mid-to-high aspect to be as fast as possible. Insectivores like swifts and swallows have narrow, swept-back wings, whereas bird-eaters like harriers and falcons have broader wings. Here we also find the tiny insectivorous pterosaur Anurognathus. Beneath, with the lowest wing aspect, we find thermal soarers, who fly long distances over land exploiting rising thermal currents. They tend to have broad wings with slotted ends, like storks and vultures. Here we also find the largest bats and giant azhdarchid pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus. Finally, near the center we find versatile, unspecialized terrestrial flyers like parrots and pigeons. Hummingbirds, with a unique hovering flight, appear near the divers, though for rather different reasons.

(see deviantArt page for picture references)

EDIT: replaced "saltuary flyers" (a calque on my Italian "volatori saltuari") with "danger flyers" as it turned out that "saltuary" is an extremely rare word in English. Thanks, @bluebelly-sun-serpentine!

[scienceguy22]

The oldest known operation was a leg amputation performed 31,000 years ago—and it worked!

A young boy, likely 8-12 years old, had a catastrophic leg injury that destroyed his lower leg. It came about either due to a crushing injury like a rock collapse, or he had suffered a severe animal bite, leaving the boy with a deep wound that damaged blood vessels beyond repair. The surgeons removed the leg because it was the only way to save the child's life—and save they did. The boy survived miraculously almost until the average life expectancy, which at that time was only 25-35 years. The boy lived another 6-9 years without his leg & died around 20. This operation took place in Liang Tebo Cave, East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia.

The surgeons used sharpened stone blades (likely razor-sharp flaked stone made from silica rock). These could be as sharp as modern surgical steel when freshly honed. They may have given the boy plant-based antiseptics as well as herbal sedatives during the operation. Keep in mind that such endeavors have never been attempted before & the next surgery would not occur for another 24,000 years: a trepanation (skull surgery). The Borneo amputation is so advanced that it doesn't fit the timeline—it's a medical outlier thousands of years ahead of its time. Remember, this is still the era commoners call the "Caveman" era. We call it the Pleistocene Era, which began 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. They were cave dwellers; societies were hunter-gatherers; they used stone tools; they still had Ice Age megafauna, & early Homo sapiens coexisted alongside Neanderthals.

The Borneo child's surgery was so sophisticated that it rewrote the history of medicine. It shows that cavemen had medical knowledge; they understood healing; they cared for injured children for years, & they performed surgery long before agriculture, cities, or writing. They had a wide cornucopia of herbal plants & potions to choose from because Borneo's rainforest is one of the most chemically rich ecosystems on Earth. Even today, Indigenous groups still use many of those same plants they used back then.

For example, turmeric is a natural antiseptic and is a strong anti-inflammatory, contains curcumin, & is used today on wounds. Ginger has pain-reducing & antimicrobial properties; cinnamon bark contains cinnamaldehyde, a powerful antimicrobial. Tea tree oil (Melaleuca species), its oils & leaves kill bacteria & fungi. Neem species have antibacterial & antifungal properties. Pain control was essential, so they likely used kava kava, which is a mild sedative that reduces anxiety & numbs pain. Betel leaf has psychoactive compounds & is widely chewed today in India & Indonesia, used as a wrapper for paan—a combination of areca nut, slaked lime, & catechu—a reddish-brown paste extracted from the acacia tree. (It's catechu, which stains teeth a horrid reddish-brown.)

They may have used kratom, native to Southeast Asia, which has opioid-like pain relief properties & acts as a mild sedative. It was very available in the region. They perhaps also used clove, which is rich in eugenol, a natural anesthetic & is still used today in dentistry. The child's bone showed no infection; there was full healing of the tibia/fistula. The leg was removed at the mid-tibia, roughly 12-14 inches (30-35 cm) below the knee. These tropical rainforest plants are extremely potent and necessary for a person undergoing amputation.

[a-dream-seeking-light]

Dan Quintana - Ozymandias H.R. GIGER - Brain Salad Surgery Tribute Group Show

[xtramothian]

Bunnypede details

bunnypede skeletal systems are quite different from what earth vertebrates have, it’s hard to consider them “vertebrates” given their biomechanics. Ancient ancestors of the Bunnypedes has a very simple skeletal system, a repeating length of paired riblike rings connected by a pair of perpendicular bones that bend in like an elbow

in winter, Bunnypede coats become much denser, resulting in noticeable fur and even hair on their legs, this recedes by spring and they become short coated as usual (asides from the tail nub I have yet to figure out what to do with)

They have weird closing ears too

Here’s a crappy visual of how the columns resists compression from all sides, I’m a lazy artist—

[le-tas-d-art]

“Landscape” by H.R. Giger, 1970

[unbfacts]

Engineers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have developed a synthetic “robot muscle” that mimics living tissue by detecting damage through embedded electronic skin and autonomously repairing itself.