When I was young I would say, "Do you know what bothers me?" And my father would respond, "Many, many things." Here are just a few of them. These fall under the people incorrectly categorize animals section.
#3 Dolphins are not Fish
Living in the ocean doesn't make you a fish any more than living in Decator makes you a Democrat. Dolphins have no gills, give live birth and nurse their young. They don't come up to the surface to sing and dance (despite what Doug Adams would have us believe) it is to breath. You know why? They are mammals!
#2 Koalas are not Bears
Dolphins are mammals. So are bears. However, Koalas are not; they are marsupials. They give early births, have pouches and do other marsupial type things like... I don't know, have grasping forepaws or something. At any rate, they are not bears.
#1 Daddy Longlegs are not Spiders
The Harvestman (the Daddy's Christian name) is pure evil, but it is not a spider. It has eight legs, but so does an octopus, a scorpion and a tick. Most Harvestmen have only 1 body section where as a spider has two. They are moth arachnids, so it may not seem like a big deal. But, the harvestman is my arch nemesis, and he is not to be misunderstood.
Friday, December 05, 2008
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4 comments:
Hmmm.....
I agree about the dolphin thing....it bugs me when I hear mom's describe dolphins to their preschoolers like, "look at the fishy".
LOL
As for the daddy long legs....I think I read somewhere that they're actually quite venomous - but something about how their "fangs" aren't big enough to sink into flesh, or their legs are too long for them to reach human flesh....soemthing along those lines??
Maybe you could enlighten me...since you're the expert on them. :)
I have heard the same as Tammi about the venomous deal.
Maybe its just me reading it wrong, but marsupials are mammals and fish are not.
Tammi: I've read that daddy longlegs are venomous as well. (That doesn't make them spiders, of course.)
Danny: Thanks for the correction. Here is a clarification for you.
Both dolphins and bears are in the class mammalia. The koala (though part of the mammaila class) falls under the infraclass of marsupialia branching out from the other mammals out there. Thinking it would be too confusing to get into the sub- and infraclass systems, I just opted to make the distinction.
The point is that koalas are not bears. Koalas are marsupials. Bears are not marsupials. Though marsupials are mammals, they are set apart from the rest of the class. It annoys me when people say Koala Bear... 'cause there's no such thing.
Just FYI, living in Decatur DOES make you a Democrat
;)
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