One step closer to reality every day

Chapter 208 Do snakes eat starfish?
Feng Yi is holding a starfish.

The one I was throwing for fun has already been thrown far away, and another one is ready to continue tossing. After thinking about it, I still didn't swim far.

No longer going forward, Feng Yi simply grabbed the starfish and studied it.

I have seen this creature up close and from all angles in the small exhibition hall next to the dormitory area before, and there is an anatomical diagram of a starfish on the wall. Of course, Feng Yi is not curious about its structure.

What interests him is whether Hai Xing is afraid of him.

Marine organisms mainly rely on the transmission of chemical information in seawater to search and prey.Amino acids, nucleic acids, organic molecules, etc., which are difficult for people to see with naked eyes, can all be sensed through receptors.

Changes in the chemical information in the water cause them to behave differently.

Behavior is the most direct response of animals to changes in stimuli.

Feng Yi wanted to see if this starfish would be stimulated if he felt his breath?What behavior will occur?
Feng Yi didn't change his body shape, but the inhuman breath passed through the diving suit and radiated out with the sea water.

Through these, a close communication between "non-ordinary humans" and "marine creatures" will be carried out.

Although restricted by the diving suit, the information molecules emitted were not strong, but the reactions of the starfish were already obvious. The starfish around Feng Yi's body all made evasive behaviors and stayed away from his position.

Feng Yi was surprised.

It's strange that this group of starfish felt the signal for the first time in their lives, but they all made the same avoidance behavior.

Could this be the "fear engraved in DNA"?
Feng Yi looked at the starfish in his hand, his pupils turned into thin vertical lines, and then enlarged due to the light, but they were still vertical ellipses.Completely different from normal human eyes.

There is no one else here, and his eyes can change at will.

"I really want to see what other important information is hidden in their DNA."

Feng Yi thought to himself.Staring at the starfish in your hand, it seems that you want to explore the inside through their skin.

Just as he was thinking, the communicator rang.

Feng Yi came back to his senses and quickly connected.

"Feng Yi, where are you?" asked the diver over there.

"Me? Just take a look nearby." Feng Yi looked around and couldn't tell the exact location, but it wasn't too far away, right?
The two divers choked when they heard this.

God, "Look around casually"!
Do you have any devastating understanding of the word "nearby"? ! !
However, people are safe.Their suspended hearts were slightly lowered.

At this time, Feng Yi also realized from the diver's tone that he seemed to have exceeded the acceptable range of the diver this time.

I was too excited to swim in the sea, and I didn't pay attention to the distance in the eyes of normal people.

But an oversight is an oversight.

"I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention and ran away." Feng Yi apologized.

The diver's tone was slightly slow, and he asked, "How is your side?"

Feng Yi said: "Many starfish."

"Sure, they're still gathering. You're surrounded by starfish, doesn't it feel tense?" another diver laughed.

Feng Yi glanced around: "No, the atmosphere is quite... harmonious."

The harmony is so empty.

"In short, we get along fairly well," Feng Yi said.

As he was talking, he felt something strange in his hands, Feng Yi looked over.

Originally, he was holding a starfish in his hand, but now he only has one wrist of the starfish left in his hand.

Feng Yi: "???"

Aware of Feng Yi's silence, the diver over there worriedly asked, "What happened?"

"It's nothing." Feng Yi looked at the starfish that Xiao Suibu escaped from, and let go of the stump in his hand.

The diver originally wanted to tell Feng Yi not to stay away any longer, not to run after animals in the water, it is easy to get lost, and if something happens after running too far, there is no time to rescue him, so he was about to speak, so he heard Feng Yi continue over there:

"It's almost over on your side? I'll go back immediately."

"There's still some work to do, but it won't take long, you can come back. Do you need our help?" the diver asked.

"No, I'm swimming back."

"Don't get lost, find the right direction." Considering the face of the young expert, the diver changed his words, "Don't be in a hurry, safety is the top priority. Keep in touch."

"it is good."

Over there, after the two divers finished talking, they also chatted about Feng Yi.

"This expert seems unreliable."

"His attitude is not bad, unlike an expert I saw last time, who made a mistake and still clamored."

"Do you think he can come back smoothly?"

"not sure……"

As soon as the conversation started, there was a beep on the positioning instrument, and the target light spot appeared.

Feng Yi has already entered the range of one kilometer.

Seeing this, the doubts and worries in the hearts of the two divers subsided a little.

"It seems he didn't swim very far."

"The sense of direction is pretty good, and I didn't wander off."

Feng Yi, who was talked about by them, when he drove back within one kilometer, his speed was greatly reduced, as close as possible to the speed that normal humans can achieve.

But in the eyes of those two divers, it was still very fast!
"Is this guy a flying fish?!"

"He swims like this, can his body support it?"

When the two divers finished the work at hand, they thought it would take some time for Feng Yi to come back, and they were about to ask the expert group if they wanted to add some data, when they saw Feng Yi.

"Are you okay? Go to the boat to rest first." A diver said.

"No problem, shall we start to deploy the net now?" Feng Yi still looked normal.

"Is it all right?"

"No."

"Okay. If you have any discomfort in your body, you must say it, don't hold back!"

"Understood!" Feng Yi made an OK gesture.

Seeing that Feng Yi was really fine, the two divers stopped talking and started their second mission in the afternoon.

After Feng Yi came back, he became more honest. He would help the divers as they said.

His cooperation in this way really put out a lot of strength, and the two divers didn't care about Feng Yi's running far before.

Young people, it's normal to act a little extravagantly. Anyway, they didn't cause trouble, and they had nothing to lose.And Feng Yi also knew that he was wrong, just pay attention next time.

Mission complete, the two ships returned.

After returning to the voyage, there is still a lot of work to be done, but there are special personnel in charge of those, and Feng Yi will not mix them up and interfere with other people's efficiency.

Everyone was still on the coast, didn't go back to the dormitory, and Feng Yi didn't go back immediately, but he couldn't do it if he was idle, he wanted to talk to someone.

On the expert group side, Professor Ding and several other people were chatting about starfish-related topics, Feng Yi listened for a while, and left consciously.

The fields of expertise are different, and the focus of attention is also different.

Also talking about starfish, a few people over there are discussing body wall polysaccharides and in vitro antioxidant activity.

As for Feng Yi, he only knows whether it can be eaten here and whether it can be eaten there.

Not to be ashamed to go there, Feng Yi looked around and found Professor Li who was quietly staring at the sea and thinking about something.

This professor is actually not a serious type, but has a temperament of worrying about the country and the people.

Professor Li's research on marine ecology is related to marine ecology, but he knows more about starfish than Feng Yi.

Feng Yi walked over, "Teacher Li."

The melancholy in Professor Li's eyes subsided, and his attitude towards Feng Yi, a junior, was calm, "What's wrong?"

Feng Yi said: "I have a question. Do snakes eat starfish?"

Surprise flashed across Professor Li's face, as if he didn't expect Feng Yi to ask such a question.

However, Professor Li replied patiently, "No."

After a pause, Professor Li added: "Strictly speaking, I can't say for sure. Starfish live in the sea, and their growth stage has a larval stage. There may be some kind of sea snake that I don't know that will prey on them. But the adult stage Starfish, so far I haven't seen any snakes interested in them."

Starfish larvae do not grow as they do now. Starfish in the crest larval stage look small and weak.

Professor Li said: "Starfish have more natural enemies in the larval stage, and the number of natural enemies in the adult state is greatly reduced. Therefore, when we consider the prevention and control methods of starfish, we will also start to deal with them in their larval stage and formulate elimination strategies."

Feng Yi asked: "That is to say, there is no predation relationship between the snake and the adult starfish?"

Professor Li thought for a moment, and said: "Whether snakes eat adult starfish, we can analyze it from the perspective of snake eating. Leaving aside the toxicity, adult starfish have flat bodies with spines, and the toughness of the calcium bone plate is not strong. , for small snakes, it is difficult to swallow them. From the perspective of energy conversion, even if there are snakes that can swallow them, a starfish can not provide them with much energy.

"Also, my research on snakes is limited, but I have also heard that snakes have the ability to judge the head and tail of their prey. When swallowing food, they will start from the head. I can't imagine how a snake swallows a starfish and finds the head. ?"

Professor Li looked at Feng Yi, "So, based on all these, I speculate that no snake would be stupid enough to eat it."

Feng Yi nodded, pondering in his heart:
There is no predation relationship between snakes and starfish, and they are not natural enemies of starfish.

But the starfish were afraid of me, to the extent that the crowd shunned me.

Therefore--

I have nothing to do with snakes!

It has nothing to do with snakes on land or in the sea!

So, those starfish are only afraid of me.

Feng Yi's thoughts turned around in his mind, and he said, "I saw... when someone grabbed Haixing, Haixing broke a wrist."

Of course he wouldn't say what he did!
Recently, there are so many boats fishing for starfish, and people come and go, and the question is "I saw it by accident".

Professor Li didn't doubt either.

"The kind of self-cutting behavior you mentioned belongs to the starfish's self-cutting behavior, which is a common body reaction in the relationship between predators and predators. The broken wrist will grow back." Professor Li said.

"You mean, it sensed the threat from a predator, so it cut off a wrist? Similar to the gecko's way of sacrificing a part to preserve the whole?" Feng Yi asked.

"Almost. But if in the sea, apart from predators, they will also exhibit this behavior when they feel oppressed by the external environment, such as rising water temperature, environmental pollution, parasite or microbial infection, etc. that make them When the body is damaged, there will be self-cutting behavior."

"That's it."

Feng Yi thought, the starfish that cut itself in his hand, was it "fear engraved in DNA" or something else?

Is it accidental or inevitable?

It is not difficult to verify.

Catch a few more.

(End of this chapter)