Wake me up
One thing that amateur biologist like to do is to label things with their limited knowledge. We think we can signs of evolution on living animals. We think we can explain any animal behaviour by projecting our understanding of humans.
One of the things that a few people like to do is to term animals as nocturnal (Eg. Owls or bats. AKA creatures of darkness. One advantage of darkness is camouflage ) or diurnal (Eg. Chickens or reptiles that like to warm themselves in the sun). It turned out that things were not so simple as there were animals that were active at dawn and dusk. So we learn a new word called crepuscular. This covered animals that were active at dawn and at dusk.
Unfortunately, this new term ended up labelling animals both active only at dawn or at dusk. So now we have matutinal for those dawn activists and vespertine for those animals that are more active at dusk.
For those animals that are not clock watching, we have cathemerality. That is for animals that work round the clock in short bursts of activity. We primates are one of them when we do things when it suits us. Like hunting at night when it is cooler, doing things before the heat of the sun is scorching. Then returning to work after the heat of the sun is lessened.
Not every animal needs sleep like humans. But that is another topic for tomorrow.
One of the things that a few people like to do is to term animals as nocturnal (Eg. Owls or bats. AKA creatures of darkness. One advantage of darkness is camouflage ) or diurnal (Eg. Chickens or reptiles that like to warm themselves in the sun). It turned out that things were not so simple as there were animals that were active at dawn and dusk. So we learn a new word called crepuscular. This covered animals that were active at dawn and at dusk.
Unfortunately, this new term ended up labelling animals both active only at dawn or at dusk. So now we have matutinal for those dawn activists and vespertine for those animals that are more active at dusk.
For those animals that are not clock watching, we have cathemerality. That is for animals that work round the clock in short bursts of activity. We primates are one of them when we do things when it suits us. Like hunting at night when it is cooler, doing things before the heat of the sun is scorching. Then returning to work after the heat of the sun is lessened.
Not every animal needs sleep like humans. But that is another topic for tomorrow.
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