Is the king's footworm defecation again after two years, causing a sensation
? Is reducing the metabolic rate the ultimate secret of longevity?
Our reporter Ma Aiping
What was it like being surrounded by people watching bowel movements and cheering enthusiastically? Recently, this treatment fell on an animal called King's footed insect. There is no other reason, just because they are too suffocating.
A few days ago, several king topods in the Toba Aquarium in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, Japan conducted "metabolism" again after two years, which aroused the attention of the local media and the public.
A slow digestion rate represents a slow rate of metabolism. A few king king footed beetles only have a bowel movement every two years, which shows how slow the metabolic rate of this species is. Is reducing the metabolic rate the ultimate secret of longevity?
The frequency of defecation of the king king footed worm is extremely low
The strange creature king from the bottom of the sea has the foot worm, perhaps one of the most creepy insect-shaped creatures-they have two pairs of tentacles, the black compound eyes are composed of 4,000 flat small eyes, and their mouths have four sets of jaws , Quietly folded together on weekdays, like the same bud to be placed.
"The king footfoot is a marine creature similar in appearance to the tidal bug, with a body length of up to 50 cm (similar to a domestic cat). It is the largest body of isopods and is relatively rare among deep-sea animals. They usually live in The deep ocean of the Atlantic Ocean feeds on the wreckage of other marine organisms," said Xia Yu, a researcher at the Frontier Research Center for Immunology at Osaka University.
There are still many unsolved mysteries about the diet and ecology of the king's footed worm, and even its frequency of defecation is still inconclusive.
"The feces they discharge are water-soluble. If the food is completely digested, we don't know when the bowel movements occur. However, under normal circumstances, there will always be food residues in the feces that are not fully digested. People You can know their defecation by observing these residues," Xia Zhi said.
According to the Asahi Shimbun report, the frequency of bowel movements of the king king footed worms kept in the Toba Aquarium is extremely low, and there will be a special person to record every time. The sensational defecation of the king's footed footworm was observed again in the aquarium after two years.
The Toba Aquarium has been raising King's Toads since September 2007. Since July 2013, new partners have been added, and there are currently 5 in total. The last time the staff observed their bowel movements was on April 23, 2018, and they did not contain undigested food.
According to the museum, the defecation of the king's footworm was confirmed on May 12. Because the undigested fish scales contained in the feces are not what the aquarium feeds on, nor are the surrounding fish left behind, the staff judged that these fish scales should have been eaten before entering the museum.
"Although I don't know which defecation is specific, it is enough to prove that they are a kind of organism with a very slow metabolism, and the speed of eating or defecation is relatively slow." Zhang also said.
It is reported that the king-footed beetles raised in the museum basically do not eat bait. In November 2019, he joined the giant king foot beetle called "No.29", and it has been confirmed that he has only eaten bait twice so far. In addition, it was called "No. 1" in September 2007. After eating the bait for the last time in January 2009, it has not been eaten for 5 years and has died.
The metabolic level of warm animals is significantly higher than that of warm animals
What important role does metabolism play in life activities? What are the characteristics of metabolism between different kinds of animals? What is the relationship between the metabolic rate and the animal itself?
The "metabolism" is explained in the popular science science encyclopedia of China-it refers to the exchange of substances and energy between the body and the environment and the self-renewal process of substances and energy in the organism, including anabolism (assimilation) and catabolism (alienation) ).
Assimilation allows organisms to continuously ingest nutrients from the outside and process them into their own substances; while alienation is the body's continuous decomposition and oxidation of its own substances to produce energy for the body's needs and to expel toxic substances produced in metabolism in vitro.
It can be said that metabolism is the basis of all life activities. However, there are significant differences in the level of metabolism between different animals.
"The regulation of the basal metabolic level of animal organisms is involuntary. Studies have shown that the energy consumption of warm-blooded animals is much higher than that of temperature-warming animals, such as wolves and crocodiles of equivalent weight, and the basal metabolic rate of the former is about 7 times that of the latter." China Jiang Tao, a senior engineer at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily that theoretically speaking, the stronger the metabolic activity, the stronger the animal’s ability to compensate for changes in the external environment’s temperature, which will affect the external environment. Changing stimuli are more tolerant.
Jiang Tao explained that the maintenance of body temperature above the ambient temperature is achieved at the molecular level by an energy-consuming biochemical process-an empty cycle formed by protein synthesis and degradation (no net matter is generated), which will be continuously released Out of heat.
In Hollywood blockbusters, there are often scenes of monsters growing up quickly. "And regardless of the need to consume food that is several times the body weight at the same time, just such rapid protein synthesis, the heat generated may fear that the organism will be cooked immediately." Jiang Tao said, in the eyes of biologists, biological Instantly multiplying her size is a joke.
Complex and advanced neural activities are also highly dependent on stable temperature, so with the high degree of intelligence evolution, humans have also evolved stronger metabolic levels and more developed body temperature maintenance capabilities. One evidence is that human sweat glands are far more than ordinary Higher animals are developed.
"In a sprint, humans are far from rabbits, sheep, deer, let alone cheetah opponents, but if they compete in marathons, they are not human opponents. It is not that humans have stronger muscles and cardiopulmonary functions, but because humans are Too high control ability is more powerful." Jiang Tao said.
Is the metabolic rate really related to longevity?
Previously, some scientists believed that the metabolic rate is an important indicator that determines the lifespan of species. Animals with higher metabolic rates have relatively shorter lifespans. At the age of two, animals with a low metabolic rate may only be "yellow mouth children", but animals with a high metabolic rate may be close to the old age.
"Species size and metabolic rate usually have a specific correlation. Because to maximize the use of energy, but also to consider heat dissipation (the larger the body size, the harder it is to dissipate heat), animal evolution generally follows the "three-quarter law", that is, the larger the body size , The slower the relative metabolic rate, and proportional to the third-quarter power of the body." Xia Zhi said.
For example, if a cat weighs 100 times as much as a mouse, then the cat's metabolic capacity is only 32 times as large as that of a mouse in the same time (100 times the third quarter), not 100 times. This is the famous Kleb's law.
"Among the temperature-changing animals, the deep-sea animals represented by the king-footed footworms have implemented energy conservation and emission reduction to the extreme." Xia Zhi said.
The summer solstice explained that in general, the smaller the animal's body size, the shorter the life span. For example, the life span of a domestic cat is only ten years. However, the more common observations at present are that the life span of the giant kingfoot is 40 to 60 years. Relative to their size, they can be said to have a very long life. Moreover, not only is the king podiata, most of the slow metabolizing species have a life span of several decades or even hundreds of years.
This makes one wonder if humans also have a low metabolic rate, can they prolong their lives?
"In a way, this is indeed the case. In addition to the "human freezing" technology we have seen in science fiction (existing experimental research), there are also some corresponding studies in daily scenes." Xia Zhi said.
For example, many studies have shown that there is a correlation between the energy metabolism in cells and the length of life. Some biologists have confirmed that after reducing caloric intake to 70% of normal levels without causing malnutrition, all the species involved in the study, including yeast, worms, flies, dogs and rhesus monkeys, have a long life Has been extended to varying degrees.
Some scientists speculate that restricting calorie intake can reduce resting metabolism and exercise metabolism, thereby widely preventing age-related diseases, including cancer, diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
"However, there are still many scholars who question the view that restricting caloric intake can extend the life of the "frozen age". But even if it is not considered from a metabolic perspective, the positive effect of low-calorie diet on health is undoubted." Xia Zhi said, " All kinds of creatures are living on their own territory in their own way. Research on these creatures will eventually help us better understand life."