In 1909, the American Museum of Natural History sent zoologist Herbert Lang and his assistant James Paul Chapin to Central Africa to collect rare African animals for the museum. In total, the expedition collected dozens of tons of specimens and more than nine thousand photographs, including the helmeted shrew (qú) shrew (jīng) (Scutisorex somereni), which is really remarkable. Lang's account of this animal is one of the most memorable records of the expedition.
Lang's African exploration photographed the helmeted shrew | Wikimedia Commons
In Congo, which was then part of Belgian territory, the indigenous Mangbetu showed Lang the "divine power" of the helmeted shrew: a 70-kilogram man stepped on a live helmeted shrew on one foot, pressed his entire weight on its back, and stood for a few minutes before coming down. The helmeted shrew shook its body, pulled out its legs and ran, seemingly unharmed!
Helmet shrew specimen, note its skeleton | Peter Spelt / Wikimedia Commons
Because of this super ability to resist pressure, the Natives called the helmeted shrew a "hero". Tribal medicine men burned helmeted shrews to ashes as amulets, and indigenous people were required to bring their ashes with them when they engaged in dangerous activities, such as fighting wars or hunting elephants. They believed that this small animal would pass on the ability of the knife and gun to people.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > super spine that is invincible to pressure</h1>
Shrew is a collective term for a group of small mammals that look like rats. Originally belonged to the order Carnivorous, now belongs to the true blind lack of order, because of the small body, fast heat dissipation, and huge amount of food. The helmeted shrew lives in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and it has black-gray fur and weighs about 90 grams, which is considered to be a large size among the shrews. Apart from the warmer dry meals, the shrew seems to have nothing special about it, but the helmet shrew is different.
小鼩鼱（Sorex minutus） | philip hay / Flickr
The scaly-footed snail introduced yesterday wears iron armor, but most of it is a by-product of its metabolism, and the helmet shrew has real "hard kung fu". From the middle of the thoracic spine to the end of the lumbar spine, its vertebrae became so large that the vertebrae swelled to three times the width of a homogeneous animal, and many small spiny protrusions of dense bone protruded from the vertebrae. These spines extend back and forth and are tightly intertwined. All mammalian bones are connected by soft tissues (such as the synovial membrane between joints, and the intervertebral discs that always like to protrude), only the spine spine spines of helmet shrews are directly connected to bones.
This huge spine accounts for 4% of the weight of helmet shrews (small mammals are generally only 0.69 to 1.58%). In addition, it has 11 lumbar vertebrae, compared to only 5 lumbar vertebrae in the general mammals. Its spine is incredibly strong, and its ability to resist axial torsion is 5 times that of a typical small animal vertebrae. In addition, its ribs are thick and its back muscles have also been specialized, helping the helmeted shrew to improve its ability to resist pressure, and a person who steps on it will not be "stressful".
The vertebrae of the helmet shrew contrast with the spine of the common musk shrew subfamily Crocidurinae | Wikimedia Commons
In general, the back of the shrew is soft and flexible, and the back of the helmet shrew is stiff, usually maintaining a hunched state. The spine is "locked" by small spines and cannot be bent to the side. But the helmeted shrew's back still retains the ability to curl back and forth, and can turn 180° in a narrow cave.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > back of the superhard "lift bar" expert</h1>
What is the use of the super pressure resistance to the helmet shrew? Unlike the all-round protection of the turtle shell, the shrew's spine can only withstand top-down pressure, and this buff does not work much for anyone except Mario, who runs with one foot. Zoologist Jonathan Kingdon speculates that the helmeted shrew lives on a damp and swampy surface, with a hard arched spine that ensures that the shrew's body is always bowed and lifted off the ground so that it does not get muddy. Anti-stress is just a byproduct of strengthening the spine.
In order to get less mud and turn yourself into an arch bridge, popular science writers should not believe in constellations, but the author still can't help but ask: "You are all Virgos, right?" ”
In order to prevent the uncle who repaired the water pipe from the sky, | Super Mario
In 2012, a team of researchers led by William Stanley discovered a new helmeted shrew in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has eight lumbar vertebrae, which is less than the first helmet shrew. Since the helmeted shrew has the nickname "Hero", they named the new species Thor Hero Scutisorex thori. Thor is the Thor of Norse mythology, but when the gang named it, they probably thought of Marvel's sledgehammer.
For the use of helmet shrew shrew spine, Stanley came up with a completely new idea. Inspired by team member Lynn W. Robbins, he discovered helmeted shrews living in palm groves years ago. Between the trunks of palm trees and the dead petioles, large insect larvae are often hidden, and locals often look for dead leaves in the woods to catch protein and eat. If the shrew burrows under the leaf stalk, arches its back upwards, and strengthens the attachment muscles of the super spine, it can pry the petiole up, catch the larvae, and get a meal that is difficult for other animals to match.
Look closely at the shrew's spine and ribs, from top to bottom, the first is the African Crocidura olivieri, the second is the helmet shrew, and the third is the Thor hero shrew | William T Stanley et al. / Biology Letters (2013)
Will "lifting bars" be used for super spines? Truth be told, we know very little about the helmeted shrew, and no one has even seen it actually pick up palm leaves. Small, stealthy animals are inherently difficult to observe, and the main distribution of helmeted shrews is politically unstable, and it is too dangerous to conduct research. The truth about this super vertebrae is still in the fog.
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]