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Explore the fascinating world of animals and the mysteries that surround them in this intriguing video.
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00:00Harvard biologists have uncovered a truly bizarre frog species that sports extendable claws, much like those of a cat.
00:07This hairy frog breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture through its toe pads, likely when it feels
00:14threatened.
00:15Some salamanders push their ribs through their skin to create protective barbs, but scientists have seen nothing quite like this
00:22claw mechanism before.
00:23Nine out of 11 frogs in this genus have this feature, and most of them live in Cameroon.
00:30A bee's life doesn't have to end after it stings you.
00:33Some of them can carefully take out the stinger without passing away later.
00:37The bee starts circling around until it loosens and takes out the barbed stinger.
00:42After that, it just flies away without leaving any marks on your skin.
00:46Unlike wasps, which are carnivorous and can be aggressive, bees are mostly peaceful creatures.
00:52They either stay in their hive or move from flower to flower, helping to spread life on Earth because they're
00:58crucial for pollination.
01:00For bees, stinging is a last resort because it means demise for them.
01:04So they can choose not to do it to save themselves.
01:09You probably have heard that a salamander can regrow its tail if it loses it completely.
01:14Well, Mexican tetra, also known as the blind cave fish, goes further and can grow back its heart.
01:21Well, sort of.
01:22It won't get a new full heart overnight, but it can regenerate its tissues.
01:26Scientists decided it could be useful for us humans, as they're studying these fish, to see what's their secret and
01:33why not all animals can play the same trick.
01:38Thorny devil dragon lizard surely agrees with the proverb, two heads are better than one.
01:43The knob growing from its back serves as a false head to trick whoever is after it.
01:48They also have a special camouflage coloring and a scary spiny body for extra protection.
01:54And if it doesn't sound cool enough, they also drink with their feet.
01:59Now that's a handy feature when you live in the scorching hot desert.
02:02The water goes directly from their feet to their mouths through little grooves between scales.
02:09Meanwhile, some flies have eyes on stalks.
02:12It might sound strange, but those stalks are super useful.
02:15First off, they give the fly amazing vision.
02:18So good, they can even peek around corners.
02:21Secondly, these stalks can be used as tools to push away rivals.
02:25And the longer the stalks and the wider the eyes are set, the more attractive the male fly appears to
02:31females.
02:32It's like their way of showing off that they're strong and have good genes.
02:38Spiders have some seriously awesome biological tricks up their sleeves, or legs.
02:43Spinning giant webs of incredible strong silk to catch bad guys is a real superpower.
02:48And Darwin's bark spider is especially good at it.
02:52Scientists were curious about how strong this spider silk really is, so they put it to the test.
02:57They discovered that Darwin's bark spider silk is twice as tough as any other silk and ten times stronger than
03:04Kevlar, which is an ideal body armor material.
03:07The web can handle insane amounts of kinetic energy before breaking, ensuring that no tiny insect or villain can escape
03:15its web.
03:17The real hulk of the animal world is the male horned dung beetle.
03:22It is the strongest animal in the world.
03:24This little powerhouse can pull 1,140 times its own body weight.
03:29Its secret to success is its desire to find a partner.
03:33Female dung beetles dig cozy tunnels under piles of dung for mating.
03:38When more than one male shows up, the competitors lock horns and wrestle each other out of the tunnel.
03:43Smaller beetles also have a chance, though, as they can move faster and slip into the tunnel more easily.
03:50Meanwhile, an alpine ibex has the superpower of defying gravity.
03:55Yep, it can scale steep rock walls just to get a lick of salt to complement its vegetarian diet.
04:01It's like when you store in the nearest grocery store for some late-night snacks.
04:05Back in the animal world, ibexes use concrete as an unconventional salt lick.
04:10Animals can't live without salt.
04:12They need it for their nerves and muscles to function properly.
04:16Wild goats have these rock-climbing skills thanks to the elastic and rubbery pads on their hooves.
04:21They help them grip the rocks, and a hard, sharper outer hoof edge hooks into the tiny rough spots on
04:27the rock surface.
04:30Now, the pistol shrimp is just an inch and a half long, but it can snap its claws at a
04:34speed of 60 miles per hour.
04:36That creates a bubble in the water that forms a vacuum, and it sends a powerful water pulse that can
04:42stun prey.
04:43The snap is so intense that it generates a noise of 218 decibels, louder than a gunshot, and a temperature
04:50that is as hot as the sun surfaced.
04:52There's even a brief flash of light.
04:55Some scientists are thinking of creating a mechanical version of the pistol shrimp to use in medical practice or for
05:01a new type of compression engine.
05:05Now, if you go hiking in the trails of the Pacific Northwest, keep an eye on the ground and any
05:11decaying trees for some bright yellow spots moving along.
05:14These are the keels of a dark centipede about 2 inches long.
05:18If you pick one up, it will curl into a spiral and release hydrogen cyanide, giving off a strong almond
05:25scent.
05:25This amount isn't enough to seriously mess up a human.
05:29It can just stain your skin or give you an uncomfortable feel if you're sensitive.
05:33So be sure to wash your hands after handling one.
05:36But the same amount can take down a bird or a rodent.
05:41Speaking of birds, crows can count vocally up to 4.
05:45They're a lot like human toddlers when it comes to learning to count and quickly identify the number of objects
05:51they see.
05:51Scientists trained 3 carrion crows to make a certain number of calls between 1 and 4 when they showed them
05:58a specific symbol or audio cue.
06:00All 3 birds mastered the task like pros, with some minor mistakes like 1 caw, too many, or too few.
06:08Crows can also plan ahead and communicate with each other in a structured way.
06:14Cowbirds, on the other hand, have secret passwords they use to recognize each other.
06:18They're a type of parasite bird, something like a cuckoo, and they lay their eggs in other bird species' nests.
06:25This means the little cowbirds can't learn their real parents' calls and would have trouble as adults to find a
06:31mate of their kind.
06:32That's why they have an inner mechanism where they recognize their species' singing like some sort of secret password that
06:39only they know.
06:42Meanwhile, ghost crabs growl when they're around creatures they don't like or find threatening.
06:48They first show claws to intruders in their personal space to make them feel unwelcome.
06:53If that's not enough, they'll go for fearsome growling noises, like dogs.
06:58That sound is coming from rubbing their three-enlongated hard teeth inside their stomach.
07:03Teeth in your stomach, hmm.
07:05Ghost crabs make the same noise when they're grinding up food.
07:10When a puffin feels like it could use a good scratch, nothing can stop it from solving the problem.
07:16Researchers notice these birds pick up a small wooden stick to itch themselves.
07:20The authors think puffins might need sticks to knock off seabird ticks.
07:24Looks like it's more effective than using its own beak.
07:29There's an Indian elephant named Koshik who lives in South Korea and can imitate words just like parrots do.
07:36Koshik can pronounce the Korean words for yes, no, sit, lie down, and for other words.
07:42He puts his trunk inside his mouth and shakes it while exhaling to change the tone and pitch of the
07:48sounds he produces.
07:49If you can whistle with your fingers in the mouth, it's a lot like that.
07:58There once was a kingdom where the ancient Egyptians traveled to buy gifts for pharaohs, sort of like an ancient
08:04shopping mall.
08:05This kingdom, named the Land of Punt, was rich in luxury goods, including gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, and
08:14exotic animals like leopards and baboons.
08:17All of these sound like great gift ideas to me.
08:19The Land of Punt was an especially important trading partner for Egypt for over a thousand years.
08:26But if you plan to go there, the bad news is that it hasn't survived to these days, and nobody
08:32knows for sure exactly where Punt was located.
08:35We only know about it from records.
08:37The most famous of them were left on the walls of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, who had sent an
08:42expedition to Punt.
08:44Scientists have been trying to find the exact location of this rich land for over 150 years.
08:49It could have been southeast of Egypt, in a coastal region south of it along the Red Sea, Gulf of
08:55Aden, and the Indian Ocean.
08:56Or it could have covered the Horn of Africa, and the area across the sea in southern Arabia.
09:02Now researchers were finally able to narrow down the possible locations thanks to a study of baboon mummies.
09:10Ancient Egyptians admired baboons, and even thought they were related to the deity of the moon in wisdom.
09:17One species, the sacred baboon, was often shown in wall paintings, sitting with its tail curled to the right, and
09:24was mummified in this position.
09:26Another type, the olive baboon, was wrapped up in one giant cocoon.
09:31Both types were found in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.
09:34But if you remember geography lessons, baboons just don't wander around Egypt.
09:39So they must have been brought there through trade with other regions.
09:44Primatologists, Egyptologists, geographers, and geochemists look at the mummified baboons from two different time periods in ancient Egypt.
09:51Some were from the New Kingdom period, and others were from the Ptomaic period.
09:56The scientists did some more hard work and analyzed tissues from 155 baboons from 75 separate places in eastern Africa
10:05and southern Arabia.
10:07Those were all areas that they thought could be the ancient land of Ptoma.
10:11They measured oxygen and strontium in the baboons' bodies.
10:15When animals drink water and eat plants, their teeth, hair, and bones show a geographic signature of where they've lived,
10:22thanks to these elements they contain.
10:23Scientists used a special method called isotopic mapping, and found out that the New Kingdom baboons they analyzed came from
10:32a location in Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Somalia.
10:35Five mummified baboons from the Ptomaic period had strontium levels that matched those found in Egypt.
10:42So ancient Egyptians might have had a special place to breed and keep baboons, probably in Memphis, a city in
10:49Lower Egypt, not Tennessee.
10:52Meanwhile, paleontologists from New Zealand got lucky, as some boulders had split open from the tide and revealed fossils of
10:59the largest penguin that has ever lived on Earth.
11:02The scientists used laser scanners to make 3D models of the ancient penguin bones.
11:07They compared these bones to the flipper size of modern penguins and did some math as to how much the
11:13old penguins might have weighed.
11:14Today, the biggest penguins, emperor penguins, weigh between 55 to 100 pounds.
11:21Researchers think that the penguins from the past that they found weighed around 340 pounds, real giants in the penguin
11:28world.
11:29These huge flightless birds lived in the oceans around New Zealand more than 50 million years ago, after the dinosaurs
11:36went extinct.
11:37They totally took advantage of their big bodies to stay warm in the cold water.
11:41They might have even traveled the world thanks to it.
11:45And they'd scare off any predators.
11:47But they didn't have any.
11:48The asteroid that took down the dinosaurs also got rid of most big marine reptiles.
11:53And the ancestors of seals and whales were still living on land.
11:59Back in 1992, four farmers in China were draining water from their ponds and accidentally bumped into a ship full
12:06of gold and ancient statues worth millions.
12:10Just kidding.
12:11They actually found the Longu Caves.
12:13Those are 24 big caves created by people a long, long time ago.
12:18Even though they are so large and well-made, no one knows who built them, why they were built, or
12:24how they were built.
12:25Experts think the caves are at least 2,000 years old.
12:29But they don't understand why these caves aren't mentioned in any historical records.
12:33All of the Longu caverns look the same and are connected to each other.
12:38Each cave has one entrance connected to a vertical shaft with a carved staircase.
12:43Rain and water from the surface can flow into the caves through these stairs.
12:46To manage this water, the caves have special grooves, channels, and a system to catch the water at the bottom.
12:52So it looks like the ancient builders were real pros when it came to drainage and water management.
12:58Maybe my town could learn a lesson from them as it turns into Venice after every heavy shower.
13:03Anyway, the caverns were built below a hill, named after a bird that is one of the most respected creatures
13:09in Chinese mythology and culture.
13:11It symbolizes all the best things, like high virtue, grace, and the union of yin and yang.
13:17Scientists think there could be a connection between the caverns and the bird.
13:22But it's just a theory so far.
13:26Experts from the National Institute of Ocean Technology in India were doing their routine pollution surveys
13:32when they found some structures that looked like a city underwater.
13:36Using special sonar technology, the team found big geometric shapes on the ocean floor.
13:41They brought up different items from the site, like pottery, beads, sculptures, parts of walls, and even human bones and
13:49teeth.
13:50They thought the ruins belonged to a civilization older than the Bronze Age-induced valley civilization,
13:56which is the earliest urban culture of the Indian subcontinent that we know of so far.
14:00But not everyone joined in on celebrating this awesome discovery.
14:04Some archaeologists refused to believe it and thought it could be some computer tricks.
14:09And even when they saw hundreds of artifacts from the ocean floor,
14:13they said an ancient river could have brought them there from someplace else.
14:17The team that discovered the underwater site decided to prove they were right.
14:22They chose a piece of wood as their main evidence.
14:24They tested it and found it was 9,500 years old.
14:29That could be the age of the entire site.
14:32Skeptics still insist that we can't rewrite all human history because of one piece of wood.
14:37Even 23 years since the discovery, no one is sure about the final answer.
14:42This is partly because it's hard to explore the site.
14:45It's in extremely dangerous waters with strong currents and riptines.
14:50During the cool Antarctica's summer, from late November through January,
14:55geologists from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee climbed the frozen slopes of the McIntyre Promontory
15:01in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.
15:03High above the ice fields, they looked through the mountains' gray rocks for fossils
15:08from when the continent had green forests.
15:10By the end of their trip, the geologists found fossil pieces from 13 trees.
15:15These fossils show that the trees are over 260 million years old.
15:20This means the forest grew at the end of the Permian period
15:23before the first dinosaurs even appeared.
15:27More than 90% of all species on Earth disappeared back then,
15:31including the polar forests.
15:32These trees would have been very tough if they grew in Antarctica and could have survived.
15:37But a huge increase in gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, must have taken them down.
15:43This Antarctic forest is a terrific way for us to see what life was like before the extinction,
15:49and we might even understand what caused it.
15:52It also shows us how plants were different back then from those we are used to now.
15:57For morebie, as prejudiceใใใพใ,
15:58this is also how plants were different,
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