Interesting organisms. The most unusual places where life has been discovered
The human body is a complex and intricate system that has been studied by the best minds for several millennia. And this is an extremely interesting fact, because, despite this, our body is capable of surprising even doctors, not to mention people without deep anatomical knowledge.
Brain
Impulses from receptors to the brain arrive at an amazing speed of 275 kilometers per hour.
To function, our brain needs energy comparable to the energy of an ordinary light bulb.
The electronic equivalent of the human brain's memory capacity can reach thousands of terabytes.
About 20% of the air from the bloodstream goes to brain function.
The brain is more active at night when we sleep than during the day when we are awake.
The higher your intelligence, the more dreams you see.
Neurons and brain tissue are capable of regeneration throughout our lives.
Different types of neurons transmit information at different rates.
The brain is unable to feel pain; it lacks pain receptors.
Four-fifths of brain tissue is fluid.
Nails and hair
Women's hair is on average two times thinner than men's; in addition, the thickness and coarseness of hair depends on race.
The beard and mustache grow faster than all other hair.
The average hair can support the weight of a hundred gram chocolate bar.
Toenails grow 4 times slower than fingernails.
Every day a person loses from fifty to a hundred hairs.
Blondes have the most hair, but they are thinner.
The nail on the middle finger grows the fastest, probably because it is the longest finger.
There is a lot of hair on the human body, as much as our closest primate relatives, but not all of it is so clearly visible.
One hair can remain in place for an average of three to seven years.
Human hair decomposes so slowly that it is virtually indestructible.
Before baldness becomes noticeable to others, a person loses more than 50% of his hair.
Internal organs
The heartbeat generates enough pressure to force blood to flow over a distance of 9 meters.
The small intestine is the most voluminous internal organ in the human body.
The surface area of one human lung is approximately one-fifth of a football field.
Stomach acid can dissolve thin blades.
The total length of the human circulatory system is 96,500 kilometers. For comparison: the circumference of the Earth is only 40,000 kilometers.
The gastric mucosa is renewed every three to four days.
Women's heart rates are faster than men's.
Scientists have counted about 500 useful functions that the liver performs.
The diameter of the aorta is the same as the diameter of a garden hose.
The left lung is slightly smaller than the right due to the fact that the heart is located on the left side.
A person is able to survive without a huge part of his internal organs, such as the spleen, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, stomach, kidney, lung and all the organs of the pelvic region. Of course, living without most of the internal organs is not easy, but it is possible.
The adrenal glands change their volume throughout a person’s life.
Basic body functions
The air flow during a sneeze moves at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
During a cough, the speed of air movement decreases to 95 km/h.
A full bladder is the size of a large grapefruit.
Almost 75% of feces consists of water.
Women blink twice as often as men.
Earwax is produced to keep the ears healthy.
There are about five hundred thousand sweat glands on the feet, which are capable of producing half a liter of sweat daily.
Over the course of a lifetime, a person secretes so much saliva that it can fill two Olympic swimming pools.
The average person experiences bouts of flatulence about 14 times a day.
Reproduction
The largest cell in the human body is the egg, and the smallest is the sperm.
Teeth begin to appear six months before the baby is born.
Fingerprints appear on the embryo at three months.
Pregnant women at the beginning of pregnancy have frequent dreams about frogs, house plants and worms.
Almost all babies are born with blue eyes.
On a comparative weight basis, a newborn baby is stronger than an ox.
One in two thousand babies is born with a tooth already grown.
Each of us spent half an hour of our existence in the form of a single-celled creature.
Most men experience erections several times a night.
Sense organs
After a heavy meal, hearing becomes worse.
About one third of humanity has perfect vision.
Unlike men, women have a more developed sense of smell.
If a product is not able to dissolve in saliva, we are not able to taste it.
A person can remember about 50 thousand different smells.
Even the slightest noise causes the pupils to dilate slightly.
Each person has their own scent that is completely unique; Only twins don't have it. Identical twins smell identical.
Old age and death
The ashes of a cremated body weigh on average 4 kilograms.
Nails and hair do not grow after death; they appear longer because the muscles and skin dry out.
By age 60, people lose about half of all their taste buds.
The size of the eyes does not change at all, but the nose and ears do not stop growing until death.
By the age of 60, more than half of men and slightly less than half of women begin to snore in their sleep.
A person remains conscious for 20 seconds after decapitation.
Disease
Most often, according to statistics, heart attacks occur on Monday.
A person can survive without food longer than without sleep.
An ordinary, mild sunburn can severely damage blood vessels.
Almost 90% of diseases can be either caused or complicated by stress.
Muscles and bones
To smile you need to use 17 muscles, and to frown - 43.
In the morning we are 1 cm higher than before going to bed, due to the fact that the vertical position contributes to pressure on the spine.
At birth, the number of bones is 300. Over time, some of them fuse, and in an adult there are fewer of them - 206.
The hardest bone is the jaw.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
To take one step, a person must use 200 different muscles.
The tooth is the only part of the body that cannot heal itself.
It takes twice as long to lose newly acquired muscle mass as it does to gain muscle mass.
Bone is stronger than some steel alloys.
Of the 206 bones in the human body, 52 are in the feet.
Cells
About 16 million bacteria live on every square centimeter of skin.
The outer skin of a person is renewed every 27 days.
Every day the human body produces 300 billion cells.
About 300 million cells die every minute in our body.
We shed about half a million pieces of dead skin every hour.
The imprint of a person's tongue is as unique as fingerprints.
There is enough iron in the human body to fuse a nail 7 centimeters long.
The most common blood type is first. About half of the world's population has this type of blood.
The color of the lips is so bright because the capillaries in them are located directly under a thin layer of skin.
Miscellaneous
The size of a baby's head is 25% of the length of his entire body. The size of an adult's head is only one-eighth of its height.
The colder your bedroom, the more likely you are to have a nightmare.
Tears and mucus contain an enzyme that can destroy the membranes of many bacteria, thus protecting us from infection.
In half an hour, the human body produces enough energy to bring 4 liters of water to a boil.
Our ears produce more wax when we are scared.
It is impossible to tickle yourself.
Arm span usually matches height.
Humans are the only representatives of the animal kingdom capable of crying due to emotions.
According to statistics, right-handers live 9 years longer than left-handers.
Women burn calories slower than men.
Koalas and primates also have unique fingerprints.
The depression between the nose and upper lip is called the philtrum. Scientists have not yet determined what it is for us.
1.Star-nosed or star-nosed- a mammal of the mole family. This animal lives in North America and, as you can see, has very repulsive-looking growths on its face around its nostrils. This is a very powerful organ of touch, which allows the star-nosed fish to examine about a dozen small objects per second.
2. Giant isopods is a genus of isopod crustaceans that includes approximately 15 equally fearsome species. Isopods are related to woodlice, but significantly exceed the latter in size: they reach an average of 50 cm in length.
3. Naked mole rat- a legendary rodent that is not afraid of pain, does not age and lives for about 30 years. There are great hopes for the mole rat: perhaps this strange animal will help humanity defeat the aging process.
4. Blob fish is a deep sea fish that lives off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. The sad fish with human features is quite harmless: it feeds only on what falls into its wide-open mouth. The dimensions of such a “drop” are approximately 30 cm in length.
5. Mealworms- the larval form of a large flour beetle. You may well encounter them in real life if you store large deposits of flour incorrectly. In some countries, mealworms are eaten.
6. Amazonian Inia- representative of a group of river dolphins. The mammal lives in the Amazon River and its tributaries. You won't find inia in the aquarium - river dolphins are aggressive and difficult to train. It's probably for the best.
8. Lesser Belttail- a type of lizard that lives in rocky or desert areas. These lizards curl up into a ring when they see danger.
9. purple frog- an unusual species that people only recently learned about. In 2003, they were discovered in the Western Ghats mountains in India. The habitat of the purple frog is only 14 km 2. These creatures live underground and practically never come to the surface.
10. Giant nodule is a species of centipede that reaches 38.5 cm in length and has approximately 256 legs. These creatures live in tropical and subtropical Africa. They are often kept as pets.
Despite the fact that our planet has been developed by humans quite well, we do not know everything about our home. Every year, scientists discover new species of animals and plants, some of which are very unusual. Such organisms live both in the ocean and on land, but not everyone notices the amazing things under their feet.
In continuation - a description of animals that were discovered really recently, last year and this year. All names are given in Latin, so that if you want to know more about these animals, it will be easy to find information on the Internet.
Cebrennus rechenbergi
This is a somewhat strange-looking spider that lives in the heart of the Moroccan desert. Its defense against enemies is unique: if something goes wrong, the spider begins to tumble. At the same time, he moves quite quickly. If the spider is lucky, its movement will also be accelerated by the wind. True, here the spider needs the wind to blow from the enemy, and not towards him.
Torquigener albomaculosus
Quite a long time ago, scuba divers began to record the appearance of strange circles at the bottom of the East China Sea. Moreover, the circles could be very large and almost perfect. At the same time, the circles were also decorated with ornaments, which could be very different. Scientists have been puzzling over for some time what could be the author of these circles, and theories about aliens, mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea, etc. have appeared among ordinary people.
The reason turned out to be simple - a small fish, a male, makes circles, attracting a female.
Dendrogramma enigmatica
This creature is difficult to classify. Scientists have decided that this species is a cross between ctenophores and coelenterates. In addition, representatives of Dendrogramma enigmatica quite closely resemble some extinct species of animals that lived in the seas and oceans more than 600 million years ago.
Deuteragenia ossarium
A wasp that worries about the safety of its offspring. When laying eggs, the female begins to hunt spiders of a certain species. She places each spider she catches in a hole in the ground, where she lays an egg. In addition, she covers the clutch with the bodies of other spiders, at least 13 in number.
Phryganistria tamdaoensis
A very unusual stick insect, whose body length reaches 23 cm. This stick insect is not the largest in the world. However, the fact that no one discovered it until recently speaks volumes. In particular, it tells us that scientists still have something to discover; there are still many animals and plants hiding from humans.
Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum
Another strange creature that scientists attributed to sea slugs. The size of this animal is not so small - its body length reaches 28 cm in length. The slug lives on the Japanese islands and is quite rare.
Limnonectes larvaepartus
These frogs surprised scientists by the fact that they do not lay eggs, but give birth to tadpoles. There are now 6,455 species of frogs, and only a very few species have internal fertilization. Such frogs are very rare, and they are found in Indonesia, on the island of Sulawesi.
Animals are creatures familiar to each of us. After all, we are also members of the animal kingdom. In addition, we share the planet with an extraordinary diversity of other fauna, relying on animals, learning from them, and even forming friendships. But do you know all the nuances that distinguish an animal’s body from the body of other living beings, for example, plants or bacteria? In this article, you will find 10 interesting facts about animals and how they differ from other life forms that inhabit our planet.
Fact #1: The first animals appeared about 600 million years ago
The oldest evidence of life suggests that the first animals appeared on the planet more than 600 million years ago. The earliest fossils of ancient organisms are called stromatolites. Also, the first animals belonged to the Ediacaran biota, a group of tubular and flat creatures that lived between 635 and 543 million years ago.
Fact #2: Animals rely on other organisms to produce energy
Animals need food to support all functions of life, including growth, development, movement, metabolism and reproduction. Unlike plants, they are not able to convert sunlight into energy. Animals are heterotrophs, meaning that they cannot produce their own food and must instead feed on other living organisms to obtain energy to sustain life.
Fact #3: Animals can move
Unlike plants, which are attached to a substrate, most animals are mobile (able to move in space) during a certain period or entire life cycle. For most species of fauna, the ability to move is obvious: fish swim, birds fly, mammals walk, run, jump and swim. But in some animals, movements are not significant or are limited to specific periods of life. They are called sessile. Sponges, for example, are sedentary for most of their life cycle, but during the larval stage, they are free-swimming animals.
In addition, it has been proven that some species of sponges can move at very slow speeds (a few millimeters per day). An example of other sessile animals that move short distances is barnacles.
Fact #4: All animals are multicellular eukaryotes
All animals have organs that are formed from several cells, in other words, they are multicellular. In addition to being multicellular, animals are eukaryotes—their bodies are made up of eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells are complex cells whose internal structure (nucleus and various organelles) is enclosed in their membranes. The DNA in such a cell is linear and organized in .
With the exception of sponges, animal cells are organized into tissues that perform different functions. Animal tissues include: connective, muscle, epithelial and nervous tissues.
Fact #5: Animals diversify into millions of different species.
The evolution of animals, since their first appearance some 600 million years ago, has resulted in an extraordinary number and diversity of life forms. As a result, animals have evolved into many species, differing in their movement in space, obtaining food and perception of the environment.
Fact #6: The Cambrian Explosion Became the Basis of the Animal Kingdom
The Cambrian Explosion (570 to 530 million years ago) was a time when the rate of emergence of new animal species was the fastest in history. During the Cambrian Explosion, early organisms evolved into many different, more complex forms. During this period of time, all the basic forms of body structure that are still observed in modern animals were formed.
Fact No. 7: Sponges are the simplest animals on the planet
Sponges are the simplest of all animals on Earth. Like other fauna, sponges are multicellular, but this is where the similarities end. Sponges lack specialized tissues that are present in all other animals. The body of the sponge consists of cells embedded in a matrix. Tiny spiny proteins called spicules are scattered throughout this matrix and form the support structure of the sponge. They have many small pores and channels distributed throughout their body that serve as a filter system, allowing them to sift out food from the water stream. Sponges have been different from all other groups of animals since the beginning of evolution.
Fact #8: Most animals have nerve and muscle cells.
All animals except sponges have specialized cells called neurons. Neurons, also known as nerve cells, send electrical impulses (signals) to other cells in the body. Neurons transmit and interpret a wide range of information such as the welfare, movement, environment and orientation of the animal. In vertebrates, neurons are the building blocks of the advanced nervous system, which includes the animal's sensory system, brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves.
The nervous system of invertebrates consists of fewer neurons than that of vertebrates, but this does not mean that it is simplified. It is effective and highly successful in solving the survival problems these animals face.
Fact #9: Most animals are symmetrical
Most animals, with the exception of sponges, are symmetrical. There are different forms of symmetry in different groups of animals. Radial symmetry, present in cnidarians such as sea urchins, and some species of sponges have a type of symmetry in which they can be divided into similar halves, taking into account more than two planes running the entire length of the body.
Echinoderms, such as starfish, have five-ray radial symmetry.
Another type of symmetry that predominates in many animals is bilateral symmetry. With this type of symmetry, the animal's body can be divided along the sagittal plane (the vertical plane that extends from the head to the rear and divides the animal's body into right and left halves).
Fact #10: The largest animal on the planet is the blue whale
The blue whale is a marine mammal that weighs more than 200 tons and is the largest living animal on Earth. You can also check out the list of others.
In nature, there are certain species of animals that have managed to perfectly adapt to specific living conditions, but there are examples that simply amaze us with their vitality.
They are practically invulnerable. In the process of evolution, they have learned to withstand sudden climate changes and temperature changes, as well as many other conditions that would be fatal to other species of animals.
Let's look at five examples of animal leaders in matters of survival.
Immortal jellyfish
A species called Turritopsisnutricula is better known as the immortal jellyfish. Upon reaching sexual maturity, the jellyfish returns to the initial polyp stage, after which it begins to mature again. This process can continue an infinite number of times. Thus, the creature ages up to a certain stage, and then becomes younger again, and then everything repeats again.
Scientists from all over the world are studying the phenomenon of this animal and trying to understand and apply this feature to humans.
Hydra
These creatures are similar in their adaptability and survival to immortal jellyfish. Scientists have not yet discovered the mechanisms of their aging. Many studies devoted to their study have not unraveled the mystery of this feature. It is only known that the special chambers of the hydra’s body can easily die off, and then be replaced by new chambers. Thus, the process of removing toxins, as well as restoring defects, is simplified and improved.
Lang fish
The main secret of the invulnerability of this small fish lies in its lungs. Thanks to them, the creature is able to survive long periods of severe drought, which can last up to one year. Fish can burrow into dry mud and hibernate during an unfavorable dry period, such as summer, and survive it without receiving nutrients. By chance, an amazing experiment was conducted that demonstrated the amazing vitality of the lang fish. Once during transportation, the container with dirt in which the fish was located was lost. It was found only six months later, and by that time the mud had turned into a dry monolithic block. After the mud was slightly diluted with water, it became clear that the fish was alive and continued to breathe with its miraculous lungs six months later, no matter what.
This animal is called a water bear, although it has nothing in common with it. It also has an amazing ability to survive in very extreme environmental conditions. This microscopic creature lives in water, and it can only move slowly. The length of the tardigrade is only one and a half millimeters. Its habitat is very vast and varied, it can be found in equatorial waters, as well as in distant polar regions.
This creature managed to adapt to a wide variety of weather conditions. Tardigrades can survive temperatures of 273 degrees Celsius below zero and up to 151 degrees above zero. The animal also withstands colossal doses of radiation - up to 1000 times higher than the maximum permissible level for other living beings on the planet. The tardigrade is capable of being without water for a long time, up to ten years. In 2007, an experiment was carried out; tardigrades, being placed in a complete vacuum, were in low orbit. These amazing creatures all returned to Earth alive.
Wood weta
This huge insect, similar to a grasshopper and a cockroach, lives in New Zealand at the same time. But it can also survive in much colder climates. This is all due to the properties of his blood, which contains a special protein that prevents the blood from stopping its functioning. The blood will maintain life in the body, but the heart and brain will be turned off, thus the insect will turn into a zombie. But when you enter a zone of higher temperatures veta thaws, and the organs begin their work again.
