{"id":10429,"date":"2012-05-15T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=10429"},"modified":"2012-05-03T00:31:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T07:31:43","slug":"porcupine-quills-are-just-extremely-enlarged-hairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/porcupine-quills-are-just-extremely-enlarged-hairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Porcupine Quills are Just Extremely Enlarged Hairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/porcupine-facts.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10561\" title=\"porcupine-facts\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/porcupine-facts.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"559\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/porcupine-facts.jpg 559w, http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/porcupine-facts-340x487.jpg 340w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A porcupine&#8217;s quills are just extremely enlarged specialized hairs that have unusually (compared to other mammals) thick layers of keratin, which is the main structural component of hair and finger nails, among other things.\u00a0 These thick layers of keratin make porcupine quills extremely rigid and good for poking things.<\/p>\n<p>A Cat&#8217;s whiskers are also just specialized hairs.\u00a0 With cats, these hairs are attached to nerves allowing them to work as extremely sensitive sensory receptors.\u00a0 The nerves at the base of the whiskers are actually sensitive enough to be able to pick up even small air movements which vibrate the whiskers.\u00a0 They are so sensitive that cats can even pick up air movements indoors, such as air flowing around furniture, which lets the cat know there is an object there, even when it is pitch dark. This is essential for cats because they are far sighted and have trouble seeing things clearly close up.<\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Difference between fur and hair\" href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/02\/there-is-no-difference-between-fur-and-hair\/\">There is No Difference Between Fur and Hair<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"What happens when a cat's whiskers are damaged or cut\" href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/what-happens-if-a-cats-whiskers-are-damaged-or-clipped\/\" target=\"_blank\">What Happens if a Cat&#8217;s Whiskers are Damaged or Clipped<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegozoo.org\/animalbytes\/t-porcupine.html\" target=\"_blank\">Porcupines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keratin\" target=\"_blank\">Keratin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hair\" target=\"_blank\">Hair<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A porcupine&#8217;s quills are just extremely enlarged specialized hairs that have unusually (compared to other mammals) thick layers of keratin, which is the main structural component of hair and finger nails, among other things.\u00a0 These thick layers of keratin make porcupine quills extremely rigid and good for poking things. A Cat&#8217;s whiskers are also just specialized hairs.\u00a0 With cats, these [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[689],"tags":[642,735,2464,2463,2089,1112,2542,2524],"class_list":["post-10429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quick-facts","tag-animal-facts","tag-cat-facts","tag-know-it","tag-now-you-know","tag-porcupine-facts","tag-quick-facts-2","tag-what-porcupine-quills-are-made-of","tag-you-should-know"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10563,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429\/revisions\/10563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}