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Bite of Crocodile

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photo:  Since they feed by grabbing and holding onto their prey, they have evolved sharp teeth for piercing and holding onto flesh, and powerful muscles to close the jaws and hold them shut. The teeth are not well-suited to tearing flesh off of large prey items as are the dentition and claws of many mammalian carnivores, the hooked bills and talons of raptorial birds, or the serrated teeth of sharks. However, this is an advantage rather than a disadvantage to the crocodile since the properties of the teeth allow it to hold onto prey with the least possibility of the prey animal escaping. Cutting teeth, combined with the exceptionally high bite force, would pass through flesh easily enough to leave an escape opportunity for prey. The jaws can bite down with immense force, by far the strongest bite of any animal. The force of a large crocodile's bite is more than 5,000 lbf (22,000 N), which was measured in a 5.5 m (18 ft) Nile crocodile, in the field; comparing to 335 lbf (...

Amazing natural camouflage (18 pics)

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Mother Nature gave those creatures an amazing gift - the best natural camouflage ever! Some of those lizards are very difficult to notice.                    

Messolonghi–Aitoliko Lagoons, Greece

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The Missolonghi-Aitoliko lagoons complex is located in the north part of the Gulf of Patras in the central west coast of Greece. It is one of the most important Mediterranean lagoons. It is a shallow area of 150 km2, extended between the Acheloos and Evinos rivers. It is protected by the Ramsar Convention and it is also included in the Natura 2000 network. The largest portion is the Kentriki Limnothalassa ("central lagoon") a shallow sea separated from the Gulf of Patras and the Ionian Sea by a chain of sand islands and is characterized as open type lagoon. To the north, the Aitoliko lagoon is connected to the central lagoon by a narrow “neck” and resembles a deep lake (depth 28 m) rather than a lagoon. The Anatoliki Klisova, Dytiki Klisova, as well as the western lagoons of the complex, namely Tholi and Palaiopotamos, are some shallow areas characterized as closed type lagoons. These communicate with the sea along channels and receives fresh water from the drainage p...