Durability and endurance to pain and injury ~

[Supercommunist]

we noted a crocodile resting at the Millik talav with its right shoulder torn apart. We gave up the crocodile as dead, when we saw it on the second day at a different spot in Millik talav with the deep red gash still showing. We were a group of seven Kishor Rithe, Dr Dharmendra Khandal, Dr Rudy Rudran from the Smithsonian Institution, US, his wife, and Nanda Senanayake and his wife.

www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-variety/tourism-tribals-thrive-except-the-tiger/article2193526.ece

Sunday night Ms. Shirley, just south of DFC, called ACES that a large croc that was residing under her front steps was back. ACES team raced to the location and within minutes Vince Rose, ACES Animal Behaviorist, snared the six-foot reptile. Amazingly enough, the croc was fairly healthy despite its severely broken lower jaw. The injury appears to be several years old and very possibly inflicted by man. Other than being slightly underweight, and having a hungry, growling tummy, the croc was extremely feisty and compensated for the injured jaw with an extra strong tail. The crocodile had become problematic the usual way, being fed by humans

www.sanpedrosun.com/environment/2011/07/24/crocodile-chronicles-part-iv/

[Supercommunist]

[Supercommunist]

crocodilian.com/cnhc/potm-sep09.html

September's Pic of the Month (actually two) comes from Cherie Chenot-Rose at ACES (American Crocodile Education Sanctuary) although her husband Vince took both pictures. They show what appears to be a dramatic fight over territory broken up by the resident male. These are wild crocodiles that live in the canal at ACES, and a new female (approx. 9 feet long) wandered into the canal looking for a place to lay her eggs. She came to blows with the resident female, a 10 feet long crocodile known as Mama Croc by the ACES team. During this altercation (top photo), a large male by the name of Stubby (12 feet long, not including half of his tail that was chopped off by poachers, and half-blind from a gunshot or spear wound) swam across to join Mama Croc in ejecting the intruding female. Although the female was eventually driven out of the territory, she succeeded in laying a half-hearted nest which she didn't cover up, a task left to the hard-working ACES team.

[Vodmeister]

[Infinity Blade]

How did the croc in the second photo obtain that injury?

[Supercommunist]

italyhouse.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw/

[malikc6]

Yeah reptiles don't bleed out as fast and mammals. They also tend to have stronger skin. Mammals surviving brutal injuries always fascinates me, but it doesn't surprise me if its a reptile like a crocodile since they have been here for millions of years, and are also immune to many viruses, bacteria, and various other toxins.


Matter a fact, someone make a thread about the immune system of animals. I may do it though.

[Supercommunist]

Researchers found numerous injuries on the skull that occurred during life. Although not all of them can be attributed to bites, several are close in shape to the teeth of tyrannosaurs. In particular one bite to the back of the head had broken off part of the skull and left a circular tooth-shaped puncture though the bone. The fact that alterations to the bone's surface indicate healing means that these injuries were not fatal and the animal lived for some time after they were inflicted.

Seeing as Stan the tyrannosaurus also survived similar injuries to the head, I think its safe to say that tyrannosaurs are extremely durable creatures.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150409083201.htm

Speaking of Stan,

Pathologies are evidence of injury or disease. Stan's fossil skeleton exhibits various pathologies. Several healed puncture wounds in his skull and on a rib suggest that T.rex fought each other as he had certainly not bitten himself! One terrible injury gave Stan a very stiff and painful neck and, probably, horrible headaches. Two of his neck vertebrae were fused together and a great deal of extra bone had grown around the injury. In other words, Stan survived!

Stan's skull preserves a number of pathologies, or healed injuries. The cheeks (jugals) and lower jaws reveal the presence of irregular openings that are not duplicated on the opposite side. One possible explanation for these holes is that they were puncture wounds received in battles with another T. rex. Smoothed edges around the holes indicate that the wounds healed in time. Perhaps the most interesting pathology is found at the back of the skull on the bones that make up part of the braincase. A portion of the top of the crest, where the powerful neck muscles once attached is missing. Below this we find a round hole that is a perfect match for a tooth from the lower jaw of another T.rex. Despite very serious injuries, Stan healed and lived to fight another day.

www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/yourvisit/galleries/stanthetrex/

[Infinity Blade]

Hyena injured by a lion.

[full]

Dogs deserve a shout out here too, granted they are often not involved in fully wild encounters, but to recieve all  the punishment they  receive and still not lose vigor is mightily impressive all the same.

It should also be noted that dogs have tougher, looser hides than wolves do. Indigenous peoples much prefered using dog skin over wolf skin. 

[Venomous Dragon]

Oct 20, 2015 23:35:54 GMT 5 full said:

Dogs deserve a shout out here too, granted they are often not involved in fully wild encounters, but to recieve all  the punishment they  receive and still not lose vigor is mightily impressive all the same.

It should also be noted that dogs have tougher, looser hides than wolves do. Indigenous peoples much prefered using dog skin over wolf skin. 

I didn't know that about dog skin, interesting.

[full]

Oct 21, 2015 1:56:40 GMT 5 Venomous Dragon said:

Oct 20, 2015 23:35:54 GMT 5 full said:

Dogs deserve a shout out here too, granted they are often not involved in fully wild encounters, but to recieve all  the punishment they  receive and still not lose vigor is mightily impressive all the same.

It should also be noted that dogs have tougher, looser hides than wolves do. Indigenous peoples much prefered using dog skin over wolf skin. 

I didn't know that about dog skin, interesting.

Yeah man, Coppinger recorded it:

"Dog skin is generally thicker than wolf skin, but in some breeds, like the Saints it is extremley thick. Eskimos tell us that dog skin pants far outlast wolf skin pants, and dog skin doesn't tear when you sew it". 


Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution, pg.55

I've seen others comment on it too.

I really couldn't tell you why, I mean it would make sense in breeds extensivley used for hunting and fighting or breeds with excessive flews and skin coverage (like St.Bernards), but why it would crop up in Nordic breeds...who knows? Maybe just another byproduct of domestication.

[Venomous Dragon]

Oct 21, 2015 2:50:12 GMT 5 full said:

Oct 21, 2015 1:56:40 GMT 5 Venomous Dragon said:

I didn't know that about dog skin, interesting.

Yeah man, Coppinger recorded it:

"Dog skin is generally thicker than wolf skin, but in some breeds, like the Saints it is extremley thick. Eskimos tell us that dog skin pants far outlast wolf skin pants, and dog skin doesn't tear when you sew it". 


Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution, pg.55

I've seen others comment on it too.

I really couldn't tell you why, I mean it would make sense in breeds extensivley used for hunting and fighting or breeds with excessive flews and skin coverage (like St.Bernards), but why it would crop up in Nordic breeds...who knows? Maybe just another byproduct of domestication.

well if i recall correctly dogs are not descendants from modern wolves but instead share a common ancestor, perhaps the thicker skin is something they retained from their wolf offshoot ancestor.

[Infinity Blade]

Very interesting Full Throttle!

---

Although it's rather unrelated to the thread, I was a bit confused on the dog origins part; I thought domestic dogs were descended from C. lupus, but then I looked things up and found that yeah, they do seem to have a common ancestor instead. Apparently, said common ancestor was this canid that gave rise to the dog, grey wolf, and the extinct 'Taymyr wolf'.

Well, you know what they say; you learn something new every day.

References:

"Ancient Wolf Genome Reveals an Early Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds" (Skoglund et al., 2015).

[Venomous Dragon]

Oct 21, 2015 5:45:54 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

Very interesting Full Throttle!

---

Although it's rather unrelated to the thread, I was a bit confused on the dog origins part; I thought domestic dogs were descended from C. lupus, but then I looked things up and found that yeah, they do seem to have a common ancestor instead. From what I got, the common ancestor was this 'Taimyr wolf'.

Well, you know what they say; you learn something new every day.

References:

"Ancient Wolf Genome Reveals an Early Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds" (Skoglund et al., 2015).

yes its thought that the genetic closeness of dogs and wolves is actually the result of constant admixture between the two after diverging.
this does potentially mean that one could and perhaps even should argue that dogs deserve status as a separate species, Canis familiaris.
i find canine taxonomy quite compelling and in need of revision but that's probably something that should be discussed in another thread.