Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I'm blogging on elephants?

Yea, it's true, I'm blogging on the feet of elephants. But, this is entirely too interesting for you to click out now. Check this out-



Did you know?
-The elephant´s foot is formed in such a way that it is essentially walking on tiptoe, with a tough and fatty part of connective tissue for the sole
-This spongy "shock absorber" helps an elephant to move silently
-The sole of the foot is ridged and pitted; this contributes to the sure- footedness of the elephant for a large variety of terrain.
-An elephants five toes are buried inside the flesh of the foot.
-Not all toes have toenails.
-The circumference of the forefoot is approximately equal to half the the shoulder height!

Don't think I'm too crazy yet. Today in Biology, my friend and I were listening to our professor talk about these feet of elephants and this crazy tissue they have. A great proportion of the foot is composed of fibrous, fatty tissue. The tissue--acting as a shock absorber-- has elastic properties which help the elephant maintain its grip on the ground and move silently.
The reason that elephants can walk so quietly is in part due to the "elastic spongy cushion" on the bottom of the foot smothering any objects beneath itself. This causes most noises (including the cracking of sticks) to be muffled. Immediately, we turned to each other and were like... Dude, God is so creative. I mean he uniquely created only an elephant to have this pad of protection to help the comfort ability and structure of such a large animal. Creative? I think so! Just some fun stuff for you today!! We serve such a creative God!!
Thanks for pointing that out Auburn.


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