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29th October 2015
N e w s a d e m ic .co m ™
- British English edition
page
5
Morgan le Fay. (Fay is an old Eng
lish word for fairy or spirit.) In Ital
ian she is known as Fata Morgana.
The Strait o f Messina is a narrow
sea channel. It separates the large is
land o f Sicily from the Italian main
land. Fata Morgana images are fre
quently seen near this sea channel.
In ancient times, sailors would say
that they had seen ghostly castles or
islands floating above the sea. The
sailors believed that these images
were witchcraft. They were cre
ated to tempt, or lure, them to their
deaths. The sailors called the images
a Fata Morgana.
An example o f a Fata M organa m irage
One well-known story that may
have originally come from a Fata
Morgana is the
Flying Dutchman.
The
Flying Dutchman
is a legend
ary ghost ship that can be seen
flying through the sky. Sailors be
lieved that if they saw the
Flying
Dutchman
a terrible disaster or ac
cident was about to happen. The
Flying Dutchman
is the name o f a
famous opera written by the Ger
man composer, Richard Wagner
(1813 - 1883). It is based on the
legendary ghost ship.
Many Chinese people in Jiangxi
and Foshan thought that they had
seen an alien city in the sky. Others
believed that the city in the clouds
was a brief glimpse o f a parallel uni
verse. However, scientists said the
ghostly buildings in the sky were
likely to be a reflection o f a city on
the ground. □
S
l e e p in g
c r o c o d iles
Several animals are known to keep
one eye open when they sleep. Some
birds and reptiles do. Dolphins and
walruses are other examples. Keep
ing one eye open is called unihemi
spheric sleep. Australian researchers
have recently completed some tests
with saltwater crocodiles. These
confirmed that crocodiles also sleep
with one eye open.
Crocodiles are large reptiles.
Fossils show that crocodiles have
lived on the Earth for millions of
years. O f all the Earth’s reptiles,
crocodiles and alligators have prob
ably changed the least since the di
nosaurs disappeared. This happened
about 66 million years ago. Today,
crocodiles are found in Africa, Asia,
the Americas, and Australia. Most
spend more time in the water than
they do on land.
Even though they are related,
crocodiles and alligators are differ
ent. Crocodiles have longer heads.
When compared to an alligator, a
crocodile’s snout and jaw is a dif
ferent shape. Alligators live only in
the USA and China. They are found
in freshwater swamps, rivers and
lakes. Some crocodiles live in fresh
water. Yet most are found in brack
ish coastal waters. Brackish water
has more salt in it than fresh water,
but less salt than seawater.
There are fourteen species of
crocodile. The biggest is the saltwa
ter crocodile. These crocodiles live
in South East Asia, the east coast of
India and along Australia’s north
ern shoreline. Saltwater crocodiles
can be over seven metres (23 feet)
long and weigh as much as 1,000
kilograms (2,200 pounds). The
saltwater crocodile is the w orld’s
largest reptile and one o f its most
dangerous predators.
For their experiment the re
searchers used three young, or juve
nile, saltwater crocodiles. The small
crocodiles were placed in a large
aquarium, or tank. The researchers
said that using older, bigger croco
diles would be too dangerous. Infra
red cameras were set up to record
the crocodiles’ movements 24 hours
a day. Infrared is a type o f light that
humans cannot see. These cameras
can ‘see in the dark’.
Saltw ater crocodile
When one o f the researchers
stood close to the tank, the sleep
ing crocodiles watched them with
one eye. Their other eye remained
closed. After the researcher left the
room, the crocodiles kept their open
eyes looking at the door. Differ
ent animals seem to keep one eye
open for different reasons. Birds
do it to watch out for signs o f dan
ger. Dolphins and walruses live
in large groups. They keep an eye
open while sleeping to make sure
that their group stays together. The
researchers say that crocodiles prob
ably keep one eye open for both of
these reasons. Yet, unlike the oth
ers, they are also on the lookout for
other animals to attack and eat.
The researchers now want to
know if half o f a crocodile’s brain
shuts down, or goes to sleep, when
it has one eye open. To find this
out they will need to do more ex
periments. In these the crocodile’s
brain will have to be scanned.
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