I’ve been totally obsessed (after learning this the other week) with the fact that the male platypus is venomous. Not lethal to humans, but can cause severe, persistent pain that is unresponsive to morphine. :eek:
Most types of armadillos have litters of four monozygotic babies (identical quadruplets). They don’t naturally carry leprosy (as often rumored), but they’re often used in the study of it, due to being a good host for the bacteria and the whole monozygotic young thing.
Well, they were named after the word for dogs. I’ve seen several citations that the “dogs” in question might have been:
a) actual wild dogs found on the island,
b) and extinct species of seal that the Romans called “dogs” (however that looks in Latin), lacking a native word for them,
c) the “Canaria” tribe, named because of their poor “table manners” that were said to resemble dogs.
I don’t personally have enought of a history background to know which, if any, of these is correct, though.
Carrion flowers: showy blossoms with the stench of rotting flesh!!! Have evolved to attract insects that like the smell of dead animals.
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0602.htm
The site has photos/illustrations of the two examples I mention below.
Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is taller than a man and the whole plant weighs over 100 pounds. Not the world’s largest flower since technically it is made of many small flowers. If you’re lucky, you can see this plant come into bloom (a rare occurrence) locally - two of them have flowered in the greater LA area since I live here. Unfortunately, I missed it both times. But next time I swear I will be there!
The stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldii) is the world’s largest single flower, a rare and endangered species found only in Sumatra and Borneo. A single blossom is up to 3 feet in diameter and weighs up to 25 pounds. A single female flower produces up to four million seeds.
That’s adorable.
My own fact: baby platypi are not called puggles. http://www.australianfauna.com/platypus.php
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the old days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
Emus cannot walk backwards.
A zebra is white with black stripes.
The human body contains 70,000 miles of blood vessels.
The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.
Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”.
The placement of a donkey’s eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at the same time.
A full moon always rises at sunset.
It’s also widely claimed (although this would need some fact-checking) that it is the only coat of arms whose animals are routinely eaten by the locals.
Let’s see:
[ul]
[li] US, Bald Eagle. Not routinely eaten[/li][li] UK, Lion and Unicorn. Sort of a no-brainer[/li][li] New Zealand, European woman and Maori Chieftain. Not “eaten” in the literal sense[/li][li] Canada, Lion and Unicorn. See UK.[/li][li] South Africa, elephant tusks and the secretary bird. I’m guessing not routinely eaten.[/li][/ul]
So at least for the major English-speaking nations it appears to be true.
Also, canaries were originally green. The yellow canaries you see are all descended from a mutant.
All domestic hamsters are descended from a pair caught in China a little over (I think) a hundred years ago.
Polar bears do not have white fur. The hairs are actually transparent and hollow. In some zoos in warm climates, the bears get a greenish tinge because of algae living inside the hairs. Also, their skin is black.
The longest mountain chain in the world is the mid-oceanic mountain range, almost entirely underwater, and more than 20,000 miles long.
The big island of Hawaii is actually the tallest mountain on Earth, reaching from the bottom of the ocean to more than 13,000 feet above sea level for a total of 33,500 feet.
All currently living cheetahs are so closely related that you can give a cheetah a skin graft from any other cheetah and there’s a good chance that its immune system will accept it.
An octopus can squeeze itself through any opening big enough for its beak, the only hard part of its body. Imagine being able to go through any space bigger than your teeth!
You breathe through one nostril for half an hour, then it swaps over. Cover one nostril with your finger, and you can easily breathe through the working one, you’ll get suction if you cover the one in use.
Finish it! Arabs use Indian numerals, Westerners use Arabic numerals.
Maybe they just ate 'em all.
Uranus is a gas giant. (Would an Aspie get that one?)
The only isotope that does not contain neutrons is the most common one in the Universe, protium – Hydrogen-1. The only other stable isotope that is over 50% protons is the extremely rare Helium-3. Everything else is made up of at least half its weight and number of particles in neutrons.
Oh yes, he gets everything and can process four or five conversations at once and hear it all. The laughter depends really, sometimes things are WAY funny with tons of laughs, and sometimes its crickets. But he gets it all 