Parrotfish Poop! | JONATHAN BIRD'S BLUE WORLD Extra скачать в хорошем качестве

Parrotfish Poop! | JONATHAN BIRD'S BLUE WORLD Extra

In this short Jonathan Bird's Blue World Extra, Jonathan discusses where sand comes from and you may be surprised to learn that a lot of sand is actually fish poop! Jonathan Bird's Blue World is an Emmy Award-winning underwater science/adventure program that airs on public television in the United States. ********************************************************************** If you like Jonathan Bird's Blue World, don't forget to subscribe! Support us on Patreon!   / blueworldtv   You can buy some Blue World T-shirts & Swag! http://www.blueworldtv.com/shop You can join us on Facebook!   / blueworldtv   Twitter   / blueworld_tv   Instagram @blueworldtv Web: http://www.blueworldTV.com ********************************************************************** Have you ever wondered where sand comes from? Sand is basically just fine particles of rock, which have been eroded away from larger rocks. The color of the sand on a beach is determined by what kind of rocks the sand came from. Around extensive coral reefs, coral rock is the source of the sand, so the beach is bright white like the rock it came from. Near volcanic islands like Hawaii, the sand may be very dark, having originated in dark basaltic rock from a volcano. And while much sand is formed by wind and waves eroding away the rocks, there is another most unusual source of sand in the tropics: the parrotfish. Parrotfish love to munch on live coral. Coral only has a very thin skin of living tissue over the limestone skeleton it produces. Parrotfish dine on the coral by scraping it away with extremely hard teeth. The parrotfish inevitably bites off quite a bit of the limestone as it feeds on the living coral. That limestone passes through the fish’s digestive tract and emerges out the other end as finely ground sand particles. Yes, you heard me right, parrotfish poop out sand! A lot of sand. One scientific estimate suggests that as much as 85% of the sand on a tropical beach is made by parrotfish. So the next time you are enjoying a great day at the beach, you can thank a parrotfish for all the free poop.