Question: what enviornment or animals interest you the most

Sive Finlay answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Hi Dara,

Well I have to say Madagascar and tenrecs because that’s what I’m studying! But aside from them, there are lots of cool environments and weird animals which are really interesting. For example, I’ve always been fascinated by deep sea hydrothermal vents which are places on the seafloor where hot gases and molten rock are released into the water. They’re extreme environments with water chemistry which would be toxic to many creatures and extremely high temperatures. The animals that live there have some incredible adaptations. For example, Riftia are giant tube worms which live around hydrothermal vents. There’s no sunlight where they are and very little “normal” food available so they have evolved to have a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with some very specialised bacteria. The bacteria live within the worms and make their own food by a process called chemosynthesis. They convert molecules which are released from the vents into organic compounds which the worms use as their food!
Every animal and environment has something interesting about them – not just the extreme deep sea ones. Do you have any favourites?
Sive