Facts About Nature

Post Reply New Topic

In this thread, we share interesting facts about the natural world.

The desert rain frog (Breviceps macrops) goes through its tadpole phase while still in its egg, so it already has the ability to survive on land when it hatches. Prehistoric Reptiliomorphs, which were ancestral to modern amniotes, likely had a similar reproductive method.

Springtails aren't insects. They are entognaths, which are a separate category within Hexopoda.

When a wasp stings you, it will emit a pheromone that tells all other wasps from the colony to come and attack you as well.

Snakes can't see very well, so they use their tongue to 'taste' the air around them. This then sends signals to their brain which is better for mapping out their immediate environment, kinda like infra-red. The little holes you see on the side of their snout are also there to help them map out their environment, like sensors.

40 million years ago, in Jamaica, there was a manatee with hindlimbs.

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

What transitional forms don't we have?

The dolphin used to look like a feline and was a land mammal

http://understanddolphins.tripod.com/dolphinevolution.html

There used to be a giant lobe-finned fish as large as a crocodile.

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



Just imagine how terrifying this fish must have been when it lunged out of the water and then used its massive fangs to paint the water red and tear flesh from bone.

Hyopsodus was one of the earliest perissodactyls ... though it looked almost nothing like its modern relatives.



This shows us that nearly all mammals can trace their ancestry back to shrew-like organisms.

The naked mole-rat, or sand puppy...

can live to be over 30 years old
has a social structure similar to bees:
one queen, a few virile males & lots of female workers
is native to Ethiopia, Kenya, & Somalia
subsists on a diet of roots & tubers
eats its own poo to better absorb nutrients

Here is another prehistoric perissodactyl - Phenacodus.



It's so beautiful!

The European robin and the American robin are not closely related.

The European robin is a species of old world flycatcher. The American robin is a species of true thrush.

jon85, a picture speaks 1,000 words!

A loon cannot easily walk on land because its legs are so far back on its body.

Opossums have such a low body temperature that rabies cannot survive in their bodies.

A female opossum has two wombs. That's where we get the scientific term "Didelphis", meaning "two wombs". The male opossum can impregnate both at the same time with his forked penis.

American opossums and Australian possums are not closely related.

Captive opossums, on average, live for about 4 years. Wild opossums have even shorter lifespans. They age and die like mammalian mayflies.

A lot of people just see opossums as "normal" animals ... but even the "normal" animals are full of wonders and natural beauty.

Miacis, which lived all over the world during the Eocene, may have been ancestral to all carnivoran mammals.

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