From hand-holding otters to a planet whose day outlasts its year, here are 20 facts that sound completely made up – but are true!
Some facts sound so unlikely that you’d swear someone invented them. Yet every one of these has science behind it. So, read on, and prepare to impress everyone at your next quiz night.
Amazing Animal Facts
1. Butterflies taste with their feet
Taste receptors on their legs help them identify suitable plants, including places to lay their eggs.
2. Some penguins propose with pebbles – sort of!
Pebbles are extremely important nesting material for several penguin species, and birds may offer them to potential mates.
3. Sea otters sometimes hold hands while resting
They may link paws as they float together in groups, helping prevent themselves from drifting apart.
4. A giraffe has the same number of neck vertebrae as a human
Just seven – theirs are simply enormously longer!
5. Greenland sharks may live for centuries
Research suggests some individuals could reach around 400 years old, making them the longest-lived known vertebrates.
6. Elephants can’t jump
Their enormous weight and leg anatomy aren’t designed to get all four feet airborne in a jump.
7. Goats have rectangular pupils
Their unusual horizontal pupils give them a wide field of vision, useful for spotting predators.
8. Some turtles can breathe through their bottoms
Certain freshwater turtles can absorb oxygen through specialised tissues around the cloaca while underwater.
9. Crocodiles really do swallow stones
Stones found in their stomachs may help with digestion or buoyancy, although scientists still study exactly why they ingest them.
10. Bees can learn to recognise human faces
Experiments show honeybees can learn complex visual patterns resembling facial recognition, despite having tiny brains.
Your Body, Our Planet and Beyond
11. Your brain itself can’t feel pain
Brain tissue has no pain receptors, although the tissues and blood vessels surrounding it certainly do.
12. Your nose doesn’t breathe equally through both nostrils all day
Your body naturally alternates which nostril has greater airflow, in what’s known as the nasal cycle.
13. You blink thousands of times every day
Most of the time, your brain handles the brief visual interruptions so smoothly that you barely notice them.
14. The DNA in one human cell would stretch about two metres
If you stretched out the DNA in just one human cell, it would be roughly two metres long. It’s packed incredibly tightly inside a microscopic nucleus.
15. Earth isn’t a perfect sphere
Its rotation causes it to bulge slightly around the equator and flatten at the poles.
16. Lightning is hotter than the surface of the Sun
A bolt of lightning can heat the surrounding air to temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. The rapid heating causes the explosive expansion we hear as thunder.
17. The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth
It’s receding by roughly 3.8 centimetres each year.
18. Most of Earth’s volcanic activity happens underwater
Huge volcanic systems lie beneath our oceans.
19. A pineapple isn’t one single fruit
It’s a collection of many individual berries that fuse together as they grow.
20. A day on Venus is longer than its year
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once, but only about 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun. Now that sounds made up!
We hope you enjoyed reading these facts that sound made up but are true. Click here for more Do You Know? articles.
