There are millions of species here on planet Earth — and, mindblowingly enough, we still haven’t discovered the vast majority of them.
But for those that we have discovered, there are some pretty fascinating facts. So buckle up, because we’re about to go on safari…a safari of facts.
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Your dog loves your dumb baby talk.
I don’t know what it is about pets that makes us talk like high-pitched dummies around them, but here’s the best part: science says they actually like it . Yes, researchers found that, the higher the pitch, the more dogs liked it.
One in five mammals can fly.
No, that’s not a typo. Despite the fact that bats are the only mammals capable of flight, the stat is still true. That’s because, with more than 1,200 classified species of bats in the world, they account for about 20 percent of all classified mammals.
Naked mole rats are pretty unique.
They may be super ugly, but let’s look past that for a second. These little rats have some crazy characteristics: for starters, they’re resistant to most cancers . They’re also impervious to pain. On top of that, they’re mammals…but they’re also cold-blooded. Weird .
Birds can handle the heat.
Have you ever wondered why chili peppers are so visually striking and so spicy? It’s because the ingredient that makes them spicy, capsaicin, can’t be tasted by birds . Because they want birds to spread their seeds, chili peppers are spicy to ward off other animals.
We’re the only apes that can swim.
Despite the fact that humans are closely related to chimps, gorillas and other great apes, we’re the only ape that can swim . We shouldn’t feel too special, though: aside from apes and possibly giraffes, every other mammal can swim.
Birds can’t pee.
While mammals (that’s us!) convert nitrogen into a diluted solution and pee it out, birds have a more lightweight solution: they turn nitrogen into uric acid instead. It’s still waste, so they still get rid of it, but it basically leaves the body with their other waste.
The first whale was basically a big rodent.
Even though life on Earth came from the oceans, some ocean-dwelling species came to land first before going back into the water. One of these species, believe it or not, is whales. The first classified whale , Pakicetus , lived 50 million years ago and looked something like the image seem above.
Some creatures have a third eye.
Even though it isn’t readily visible, most species of lizard, frog, salamander and shark have a third eye, known as the parietal eye . It’s used to regulate their circadian rhythms and keep them at the right body temperature.
Automation killed dog jobs (and breeds).
Living in an increasingly mechanized society, it’s commonplace to see some jobs get taken over by machines. But there’s actually a breed of dog that went extinct because its job was no longer necessary. The turnspit dog helped move wheels for hundreds of years before machines took over its duties and it went extinct.
Sharks are the wiley veterans of the natural world.
It’s no secret that sharks existed during the age of the dinosaurs. But what’s even crazier is that sharks are older than trees. They actually predate the earliest trees by about 50 million years, and have survived four mass extinctions along the way.
Some mammals lay eggs.
Most of us think that laying eggs is what separates reptiles from mammals, but this isn’t exactly the case. Mammals in the Monotremes family — including the echidna and platypus — lay eggs rather than giving live birth.
Australia is full of kangaroos.
We associate kangaroos with Australia for good reason: rather than being endangered, ‘roos are thriving. Not only do they outnumber humans two to one , there are so many that the government has encouraged people to eat more kangaroo meat as a means of population control.
It’s super hard for pandas to conceive.
There are all sorts of panda breeding programs in the world, but these creatures are still endangered. Why can’t they just mate, right? Well, they can mate — but female pandas are only fertile once a year , and only for 24 to 36 hours during that time.
Sheep can mess you up.
It turns out that those docile-seeming, baa -ing sheep can be pretty nasty — at least if they’re owned by Thomas Jefferson. America’s third president had a Shetland sheep that lived on the White House lawn. During its life, it would attack and injure people, even killing a child.
