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Animal Slime, Goo, Snot & Other Mucus

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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There's good news for fans of two recent books on zoological grossness mentioned here on our forums:

Does It Fart?
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/animal-flatulence-farts.62111/

True Or Poo?
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...book-on-filthy-animal-facts-falsehoods.64889/

The same authors (Caruso & Rabaiotti) have written a third book entitled Believe It Or Snot - focusing on odd animal slimes, mucus, etc.

The Scoop on Slime — Hyenas Squeeze It from Their Butts and Parrotfish Sleep in Snot Balloons

... In their new book, "Believe It or Snot" (Hachette Books, available Oct. 22), authors Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti team up again with illustrator Ethan Kocak to bring readers the secrets of the ooze, showcasing the slimiest, most-mucous-laden organisms on Earth.
Click to expand...

https://www.livescience.com/believe-it-or-snot-book.html
 
Here are some selected tidbits from the Live Science article cited above ...

For example, humans can produce snot in copious quantities, but other mammals far surpass us, even when we're at our snottiest. In sea lions, mucus keeps their eyes and nasal tissues moist, but the animals' sneezes are sloppy and snot-spraying, and they can launch coughed-up mucus across "great distances" ...

Another slimy mammal is the hedgehog, which churns up a slippery, foul-smelling froth from its own saliva that it then uses to coat its body, possibly to deter predators or to mask its scent.

Hyenas may be grosser still where slime is concerned, as they secrete a substance dubbed "hyena butter" (it's even less delicious than it sounds). This smelly, so-called butter is made in hyenas' anal glands, and the animals distribute it by rubbing their butts on trees and branches to mark their territory ...

However, slime production in mammals is just a drop in the bucket compared with fish and amphibians ...

Parrotfish, a group of 95 species in the Scaridae family, are not only covered in a layer of mucus, as are all fish; they also belch out mucous sacs every night and sleep encased in the gooey snot bags, which help shield them from parasites. ...
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Mucus seems to be so useful to all the animals that produce it (including us ... ) that it has evolved and re-evolved multiple times in multiple ways. Furthermore, it appears that common gene repetitions that emerge and persist tend to promote even more - and more diverse types of - mucus.
Mucus Is So Handy That We Evolve It Over And Over Again, Finds Study

The animal kingdom is practically dripping in mucus.

Amphibians, snails, and slugs are among the more famous masters of mucus, but even the loneliest microorganism can ooze a viscous slime from time to time.

In our own species, mucus is produced in the mouth, the nose, the throat, the lungs, the gut, the cervix, and the urinary tract, all for a variety of purposes.

Yet the origin of the world's slime is a mystery.

Despite the many similarities between mucuses, many forms have evolved in parallel and not in a branching, tree-like way.

Across glands and between mammals, a small study has found many mucus genes do not in fact share a common ancestor.

This is unusual because most genes with similar functions originate from a shared ancestral gene that is passed down through the generations because it bestows benefits to survival.

Even in our own species, the genes that encode for mucus proteins belong to several families. One secretes gel-forming mucus proteins, while another produces mucus proteins bound to a cell's membrane. There are also 'orphan' genes that encode for mucus production that don't quite fit anywhere else.

Each of these separate lineages probably evolved independently, and researchers now think they've figured out where they came from.

When comparing mucus-encoding genes, known as mucin genes, across 49 mammal species, the team found non-mucin proteins can evolve into slimy, mucin proteins when short repeated chains of amino acids (protein building blocks) are added again. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/mucus-is-so-handy-that-we-evolve-it-over-and-over-again-finds-study
 
I was once told that if you hadn't got any antiseptic cream available for a cut slug slime would do and that it was an ancient folk remedy. I never put it to the test. :) However just looked it up and found this:-

Used since ancient times for human health, snail and slug mucus is still very important in traditional and folkloristic medicine. Moreover, recent research has investigated the protein and components in the mucus and its antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activity.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...antibiotics/&usg=AOvVaw0V7bKy7TbhFAfdyDG1FKTT
 
Forever blowing bubbles ... of snot.

On a hot day in the Australian outback, a koala hugs the cool branches of a eucalypt, while a wombat hides underground in its burrow, and a kangaroo spits on its wrists to chill its blood vessels. Nearer the coast, a fur seal on the rocks pees on its flippers.

The echidna is different. It doesn't sweat, pant, lick, or urinate on itself to cool down. But what it can do is blow wet bubbles of snot out of its nose. And that skill has been seriously under-appreciated.

Researchers at Curtin University in Australia have shown this spiny monotreme uses booger-y exhalations to bring down its body temperature. The findings are based on the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), but there's a chance the cooling technique is used by other echidna species, too.

"Echidnas blow bubbles from their nose, which burst over the nose tip and wet it," explains ecophysiologist Christine Cooper from Curtin University in Australia.

https://www.sciencealert.com/echidnas-blow-bubbles-of-snot-to-stay-cool-in-the-australian-outback
 
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