Nature's Most Surprising Projectiles

no matter how much we may love Wildlife the natural world is undeniably violent the sharp teeth and Claws of carnivores are made to tear through flesh venomous fangs unleash deadly paralyzing toxins but when we think of dangerous projectiles we probably think of human conflict humans are the only animals in the world with the ability to throw an object and kill a Target projectile use by organisms other than humans is rare however it is not unheard of because the battle for survival is indeed a battle nature is endlessly inventive and some species have evolved their own version of ballistics some beetles can let out a barrage of toxic chemicals certain fish can shoot prey out of the air with a hundred percent accuracy and even mushrooms can send their spores flying at speeds unrivaled in the natural world there are in fact hundreds of creatures who have projectiles in their Arsenal whether it's for hunting self-defense or even procreation and these organisms have been sources of Wonder Fascination and confusion for centuries Earth is home to more than 400 000 species of beetle and they can be eaten by just about everything frogs toads shrews birds and even other insects like ants having so many predators means beetles have evolved some incredible defense mechanisms Charles Darwin experienced this first hand in 1846 when he was hunting on the forest floor for different Beetle species having found two beetles already he happened to see a third crawling under a piece of bark but his hands were already full he said I could not bear to give up either of my carrabbit beetles and to lose panagius was out of the question so that in despair I gently seized one of the carabids between my teeth went to my unspeakable disgust and pain the little inconsiderate Beast squirted his acid down my throat chemical defenses like the one Darwin experienced firsthand are key to more than 500 species collectively known as Bombardier beetles these beetles rely on benzoquinones toxic chemicals that are also used by millipedes daddy long legs and many other insects but Bombardier beetles do something completely unique they trigger a chemical reaction within their bodies that super heats the fluid and causes it to explode out some species are even able to aim their spray nozzle in nearly every direction including over their own backs they manage this Sensational act thanks to their unique physiology The Beatles have two internal Chambers with volatile chemicals in them surrounded by a flexible membrane connected by a valve one of the chambers contains hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone while the other contains peroxidases and other enzymes when the beetle feels threatened it initiates the mixture of those liquids triggering an intense exothermic chemical reaction the boiling hot spray is ejected in Rapid pulses up to 20 times before the chemicals are completely depleted and all this happens without the beetle sustaining any damage from the toxic chemicals or the explosive reaction and the chemical eruptions are extremely good at protecting The Beetles from predators a group of researchers looked at how one species of bombardier beetle fared against toads they allowed The Beetles to be swallowed then could hear an explosion from inside the stomachs of the Toads one species of toad vomited up to 34 percent of The Beetles and another species of vomited back up 57 percent whether the Beetles were in the Toad's stomachs for only 12 minutes or up to 107 minutes they all survived the experience and stayed alive for at least two weeks after that it's rare that any insect can survive being in stomach acid for very long but these beetles Managed IT by being covered in mucus another group looked at how Bombardier beetles fared against Japanese quail as it turned out most of the quail rejected consuming The Beatles in the first place even if they weren't sprayed however other birds like Jays do ingest the Bombardier beetles but only after causing them to eject their spray into the ground or into the bird's plumage Jays seem to be too smart to get sprayed directly but given how many Beetle species have evolved to be bombardiers it's clear that they're getting some serious benefits from these explosive abilities but in the animal kingdom not all projectiles are chemical and not all shoots so indiscriminately some animals are in fact so accurate with their shots they rival human Sharpshooters using explosive energy to scare off Predators is one thing but actually shooting down prey might sound like something else entirely like a skill only humans have mastered but as it turns out we're not the only ones to hunt prey with projectiles in fact it's not even something unique to mammals all along the watery Mangrove forests of the indo-pacific are schools of archerfish who have abilities that would give the best human Sharpshooters a run for their money with an average size of 12 to 18 centimeters and up to 40 centimeters in the very largest species these archerfish combine good eyesight a unique mouth shape and incredible brains to shoot Jets of water at prey as far as three meters above them in lab settings they can achieve a 100 accuracy in hitting their targets they're so good at manipulating water as a weapon that they're actually considered to be tool users the mechanics of their water darts are relatively straightforward archerfish have special grooves in their mouth and tongue that help Focus the water they contract their Gill covers to force water through that channel and the Jet can be 10 times their body length because the force is greater at the rear the front of the water stream becomes a blob that forcefully dislodges prey from spiders to small lizards as the prey Falls towards the water the archerfish are able to make a rapid calculation of where their prey will be and then shoot forward using a technique called a sea start their bodies curve inward and straightening propels them forward these physical abilities are impressive enough but for scientists the most incredible part of the archerfish is their brains first consider all the challenges they face in simply locating prey above water in Mangrove forests where most of these fish live the water might be murky or have ripples on its surface from the wind tree roots branches and leaves might obscure their view of the prey even when it clings to the underside of leaves but sometimes they'll shoot at prey on top of the leaves based solely on its silhouette and all of that is before calculating where the prey actually is light experiences refraction as it passes from air to water meaning the archerfish can't aim straight at the prey as they perceive it they have to calibrate their shot with this refraction in mind and they do a lot of shooting they explore anything novel as potential food as one group of field researchers wrote The Fish readily shot at cameras spherical pieces of bread parts of equipment objects printed on paper or the noses and eyes of experimenters but the fish quickly learned to identify prey based on the reward they get from insects falling into the water to be gobbled up but how exactly do these fish tell the difference between a fluttering leaf and an insect stretching its wings scientists aren't entirely sure but in laboratory experiments comparing the visual abilities of archerfish against humans the two species performed equally well somehow these fish are able to distinguish many different targets from their background and shoot to bring them down and their brainy abilities don't stop there the fish can distinguish between smaller and larger numbers even when that difference is relatively small like three versus four researchers also set up a test in which the fish were trained to respond to images of specific human faces and then tested by shooting water at the required face the researchers found the fish had an accuracy of up to 89 percent even though they don't have the brain structure we normally associate with that ability they even rely on social learning to hone their shooting skills becoming better at aiming over time and with more experience in fact they're so good at social learning that in Labs the fish are able to become very good at a new task just by watching another fish perform it without doing any practicing of Their Own but despite their incredible Sharp Shooting Archer fish still mostly eat aquatic prey though they sometimes use their water jets to dislodge Crustaceans or small fish buried in the underwater sediment depending on their location aerial prey might make up to 25 percent of their diet given this relatively small percentage why did they evolve the ability to hunt with water in the first place scientists still aren't sure but hypothesize that it has to do with the fluctuating conditions of Mangrove forests it's also possible that Ariel prey provides nutritional components that they don't get from their aquatic diet it's an ongoing question but archerfish do prove that social skills tool use pattern recognition and Counting don't belong to primates alone but in fact projectile use doesn't even belong solely to the world of animals organisms that can't even move themselves are capable of some of the fastest projectiles that Evolution has ever crafted we've already seen that organisms as different as insects and fish have found ways to incorporate ballistics into their survival strategies but perhaps one of the most surprising examples of natural explosions are in fungi they themselves may not be mobile like other life forms but they still manage to generate some of the fastest motions in the natural world also that their spores can spread as far as possible two Genera of fungus in particular have mastered the art of high-speed motion despite holding perfectly still and those are the spherobolus and pylobolus fungi more commonly known as artillery fungus and dung Cannon fungus both types of fungus grow on a variety of surfaces from wood chips to Leaf litter to animal dung and both have relatively small fruiting bodies that grow towards light the main difference comes in their two strategies for ejecting spores as far as possible for both types of fungi distance is crucial because they can't move on their own they need a way of getting their spores beyond the surfaces that they've already colonized this is especially important for the pylobolus fungi which needs to get past the zone of repugnance the dung it often colonizes that's because part of its life cycle occurs in the guts of animals so it needs to spread its spores across grasses that an herbivore will munch on in order to move as far as possible Pilobolus relies on fluid pressure as the stock carrying the spores grows fluid begins to swell below the Spore the pressure builds forming a bubble behind the Spore until it finally bursts ejecting the Spore at incredibly high speeds up to 210 meters per second which is nearly as fast as a bullet the Sphero Bullis fungi use a different strategy to scatter its tiny spores in the spring and Autumn when temperatures are less than 25 degrees Celsius tiny buds start pushing up towards the light the spherical fruiting body is Tiny with a diameter of just two millimeters but at the center it holds as many as 10 million spores all around the spores are layers woven like a jacket which slowly peel open as the Spore gets ready to burst free but instead of erupting like Pilobolus the artillery fungus spores are ejected by a cup that suddenly pops upward like a tiny trampoline and what triggers this eversion is osmotic pressure created by the conversion of glycogen to sugars the spores can travel up to six meters in distance and emit a tiny popping sound when they explode out while the serebolis has an impressive Spore flinging capacity it's become something of a nuisance for homeowners the brown and black spores stick to vinyl siding windows and cars and can be challenging to remove but ultimately the fungi are harmless and an incredible example of Nature's ingenuity it's easy to assume that humans hold a monopoly on inventiveness especially when it comes to things like weapons but as should be clear the natural world finds plenty of ways to upend our expectations our cleverness has helped us develop plenty of strategies for manipulating our environment but sometimes Evolution can help organisms pull off some of the same tricks to truly understand just how incredible some of these Feats of ballistics are in the animal kingdom I took a quick course on brilliant.org to wrap my head around the mathematics behind accurate target shooting when researching this video my mind was so blown by the archerfish's 100 accuracy that I wanted to know more about how this could be possible the classical mechanics course on brilliant has a section about projectile motion so I dug right in the course was challenging but brilliant doesn't penalize you or impede your progress instead they give you an in-depth explanation to guide you to the right answer so you can learn from your mistakes it's easy to learn in this low pressure environment and most importantly it's easy to learn by doing after I finished the course I was even more impressed by The archerfish Who does what they do without the help of the internet or courses like the ones on brilliant my favorite part of brilliant is the interactivity seemingly daunting courses like computer science are broken down into fun and engaging lessons with animations and interactive challenges making it all so much more understandable it's so hard to absorb information from textbooks and college lectures sometimes with brilliant it's fun and almost feels like a game and their courses are for everyone whether you're looking to brush up or to dive deep into math science or computer science to get started for free visit brilliant.org real science or click on the link in the description and the first 200 people will get 20 off Brilliance annual premium subscription and if you're looking for something else to watch right now you can watch our previous video about the insane biology of humans or watch real engineering's latest video about the incredible engineering of the f-35b

Channel: Real Science

Views: 255,780

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Id: ES5_nqeThR4

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 28 2023