Posted on 03/24/2019 8:42:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Sea otters are unique for being the only marine mammal to use stone tools. They often use rocks to crack open shells while floating on their back, and also sometimes use stationary rocks along the shoreline as "anvils" to crack open mollusks, particularly mussels. A joint project including the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the University of California, Santa Cruz, among others, has resulted in a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary study published in Scientific Reports, combining ten years of observations of sea otters with archaeological methods to analyze sea otter use of such anvil stones, also known as emergent anvils.
Researchers spent ten years between 2007-2017 observing sea otters consuming mussels at the Bennett Slough Culverts site in California. Their analysis identified that mussels were the most common prey eaten at the site and were the only prey for which the sea otters used stationary anvil stones. The sea otters used such stones for about 20% of the mussels they consumed.
Interestingly, careful analysis of the stationary anvil stones using archaeological methods showed that their use resulted in a recognizable damage pattern that was distinguishable from what would be caused by human use. For example, the sea otters preferentially struck the mussels against points and ridges on the rocks, and struck the rocks from a position in the water, rather than from the land or from on top of the rock.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
It’s the paws that refreshes.
ROFL!!!
It’s your thread!!!
You’re nuts! :)
LOL
You’re nuts! :)
What about 'em? ;^D
"We did."
Dang, I can't believe I didn't come up with that. ;^)
A 10-year study by eggheads from three institutions to conclude otters bang food against rocks differently than do humans?! Of course, no taxpayer money went into this boondoggle.
Bring back the shrimp on treadmills.
/s
lol
So I had to go look that up.
WTF??
The Otters “Amazing Grace” (that’s the only track of theirs on this Waterbug sampler that’s, oh, never mind, it isn’t right here):
https://myspace.com/theottersband
The "eggheads" are actually your otter overlords. Oh, and who do you think *ate* those shrimp?!?
You otter be ashamed of yourself.
Ten years of getting paid to watch sea otters eat - this has got to rank high on the boring and useless meter. No doubt funded by the taxpayers who would have never spent a dime on this crap if they had a say on where their plundered money was spent. And even worse, I'm sure this is by no means the biggest waste of tax dollars (globull warming comes to mind).
This is nothing. Wait till they find the saucepan the otters used to cook their mussels in butter and garlic.
You should see the kinds of posts we get when the topic is beavers. And we have the best beaver articles by a dam site.
;^)
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