Facts About Nature

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Horned lizards can squirt blood from their eyes.

All arthropods have a variation on the same basic body plan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropod_head_problem

Vertebrates are not the only creatures which possess an internal endoskeleton.

Some cephalopods have a spiral shell on the inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirula

Female water fleas can also reproduce without intercourse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladocera

Water fleas can be found in fresh water all over the world. They swim with those little arms. They also make good fish food.

Lampreys and hagfish are an all-important evolutionary relic. They are the last remaining jawless fish, and they resemble the earliest vertebrates.

All of the other jawless fish lineages died out a long time ago.

Myllokunmingiidae - Came and went in the early Cambrian.
Haikouellidae - Also came and went during the early Cambrian.
Pteraspidomorphi - Died in the late Devonian.
Cephalaspidomorphi - Also perished in the Devonian.
Conodonta - Somehow managed to survive into the Triassic, but died in the late Triassic.

The most basal, primitive insects alive today are the jumping bristletails. They date back to the Devonian.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeognatha

Peter Benchley (the author of Jaws) become an environmentalist later in life because he felt that he had damaged the shark population with his book.

I think that sharks are absolutely beautiful. It's a shame that they have such a nasty reputation.

The most evolutionarily primitive carnivoran alive today is the African Palm Civet. It is placed within its own family, as it is so different from other civets.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_palm_civet

Coyote Peterson is the most badass person alive today.

That's also a fact.

I learn about the oddest things when I browse Wikipedia.

Look! I found an entire family full of animals that nobody has heard of!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viverridae

Female sawfish give birth to live young.

Prehistoric horses still had individual toes.

Sometimes, animals are discovered in the fossil record ... and are later found alive.

For example, Monoplacophora fossils were discovered before living specimens were discovered.

I love this funky lizard.

Was into animals when I was a kid, and actually knew of this.

Meerkats are actually a type of civet. Civets are cousins of the cat family (cats seem to have evolved from civet like ancestors).

Polecats and skunks are sometimes erroneously called "civets".

Aren't they a type of mongoose?