Dimdima
Online Children's Magazine from India
Dimdima
Online Children's Magazine from India
Spiny lobsters produce sounds similar to a violinist pulling a bow across the instrument’s strings. While violinists play for pleasure, spiny lobsters “play” when they are under stress.The lobsters make music to scare off potential predators.
Unlike other lobsters, spiny lobsters, which live in sub-tropical and tropical oceans, do not have claws. They protect themselves with their hard exterior skeleton and spiny antennae. But when the lobster moults, or sheds its outer shell, it is vulnerable, since the new one takes a few days to harden. So it has evolved an unusual defense mechanism. The spiny lobster has two structures, called files, which sit just below its eyes.
Resting directly underneath each file is a soft, leathery piece of tissue called a plectrum that acts like a violinist’s bow. With one muscle contraction, the lobster pulls the plectra over the files. Since each file is covered with hundreds of microscopic structures like shingles on a roof, one movement of the plectrum produces a loud continuous sound that startles an attacker, allowing the lobster to escape.
Last updated on :11/9/2004
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Dimdima is the Sanskrit word for ‘drumbeat’. In olden days, victory in battle was heralded by the beat of drums or any important news to be conveyed to the people used to be accompanied with drumbeats.
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
K. M Munshi Marg,
Chowpatty, Mumbai - 400 007
email : editor@dimdima.com
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
505, Sane Guruji Marg,
Tardeo, Mumbai - 400 034
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Dimdima.com, the Children's Website of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan launched in 2000 and came out with a Printed version of Dimdima Magazine in 2004. At present the Printed Version have more than 35,000 subscribers from India and Abroad.