| 1. |
- Bernath, Balazs, et al.
(author)
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How could the Viking Sun compass be used with sunstones before and after sunset? Twilight board as a new interpretation of the Uunartoq artefact fragment
- 2014
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In: Royal Society of London. Proceedings A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1364-5021. ; 470:2166
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Vikings routinely crossed the North Atlantic without amagnetic compass and left their mark on lands as far away as Greenland, Newfoundland and Baffin Island. Based on an eleventh-century dial fragment artefact, found at Uunartoq in Greenland, it is widely accepted that they sailed along chosen latitudes using primitive Sun compasses. Such instruments were tested on sea and proved to be efficient hand-held navigation tools, but the dimensions and incisions of the Uunartoq find are far from optimal in this role. On the basis of the sagasmentioning sunstones, incompatible hypotheses were formed for Viking solar navigation procedures and primitive skylight polarimetry with dichroic or birefringent crystals. We describe here a previously unconceived method of navigation based on the Uunartoq artefact functioning as a 'twilight board', which is a combination of a horizon board and a Sun compass optimized for use when the Sun is close to the horizon. We deduced an appropriate solar navigation procedure using a twilight board, a shadow-stick and birefringent crystals, which bring together earlier suggested methods in harmony and provide a true skylight compass function. This could have allowed Vikings to navigate around the clock, to use the artefact dial as a Sun compass during long parts of the day and to use skylight polarization patterns in the twilight period. In field tests, we found that true north could be appointed with such a medieval skylight compass with an error of about +/- 4 degrees when the artificially occluded Sun had elevation angles between +10 degrees and -8 degrees relative to the horizon. Our interpretation allows us to assign exact dates to the gnomonic lines on the artefact and outlines the schedule of the merchant ships that sustained the Viking colony in Greenland a millennium ago.
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| 2. |
- Blaho, Miklos, et al.
(author)
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Stripes disrupt odour attractiveness to biting horseflies: Battle between ammonia, CO2, and colour pattern for dominance in the sensory systems of host-seeking tabanids
- 2013
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In: Physiology & Behavior. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-507X .- 0031-9384. ; 119, s. 168-174
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As with mosquitoes, female tabanid flies search for mammalian hosts by visual and olfactory cues, because they require a blood meal before being able to produce and lay eggs. Polarotactic tabanid flies find striped or spotted patterns with intensity and/or polarisation modulation visually less attractive than homogeneous white, brown or black targets. Thus, this reduced optical attractiveness to tabanids can be one of the functions of striped or spotty coat patterns in ungulates. Ungulates emit CO2 via their breath, while ammonia originates from their decaying urine. As host-seeking female tabanids are strongly attracted to CO2 and ammonia, the question arises whether the poor visual attractiveness of stripes and spots to tabanids is or is not overcome by olfactory attractiveness. To answer this question we performed two field experiments in which the attractiveness to tabanid flies of homogeneous white, black and black-and-white striped three-dimensional targets (spheres and cylinders) and horse models provided with CO2 and ammonia was studied. Since tabanids are positively polarotactic, i.e. attracted to strongly and linearly polarised light, we measured the reflection-polarisation patterns of the test surfaces and demonstrated that these patterns were practically the same as those of real horses and zebras. We show here that striped targets are significantly less attractive to host-seeking female tabanids than homogeneous white or black targets, even when they emit tabanid-luring CO2 and ammonia. Although CO2 and ammonia increased the number of attracted tabanids, these chemicals did not overcome the weak visual attractiveness of stripes to host-seeking female tabanids. This result demonstrates the visual protection of striped coat patterns against attacks from blood-sucking dipterans, such as horseflies, known to transmit lethal diseases to ungulates. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 3. |
- Horváth, Gábor, et al.
(author)
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Experimental evidence that stripes do not cool zebras
- 2018
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In: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 8:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There are as many as 18 theories for the possible functions of the stripes of zebras, one of which is to cool the animal. We performed field experiments and thermographic measurements to investigate whether thermoregulation might work for zebra-striped bodies. A zebra body was modelled by water-filled metal barrels covered with horse, cattle and zebra hides and with various black, white, grey and striped patterns. The barrels were installed in the open air for four months while their core temperature was measured continuously. Using thermography, the temperature distributions of the barrel surfaces were compared to those of living zebras. The sunlit zebra-striped barrels reproduced well the surface temperature characteristics of sunlit zebras. We found that there were no significant core temperature differences between the striped and grey barrels, even on many hot days, independent of the air temperature and wind speed. The average core temperature of the barrels increased as follows: White cattle, grey cattle, real zebra, artificial zebra, grey horse, black cattle. Consequently, we demonstrate that zebra-striped coats do not keep the body cooler than grey coats challenging the hypothesis of a thermoregulatory role of zebra stripes.
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