50 More Facts About Fascinating Plants & Animals Species – Part 2

Despite literally meaning "thousand feet," no millipede species was known to have a thousand feet until the discovery of a species in 2020, which was named Eumillipes, meaning "true thousand feet."

2. Much of the United States, as far north as New York, was once home to a species of parrot called the Carolina Parakeet. Most Americans today believe that parrots are only native to tropical climates because humans caused the extinction of the Carolina Parakeet by 1918 (it was declared extinct in 1939).

3. Before human settlement, New Zealand had no land-based mammals apart from three bat species.

4. The diabolical ironclad beetle (Nosoderma diabolicum) is a species of beetle that has one of the toughest exoskeletons among all insects. It can endure forces up to 39,000 times its body weight, making it impossible to insert an insect pin without drilling a hole first.

5. Domesticated rabbits cannot crossbreed with wild rabbits because they are different species.

Not only do bats make high-pitched sounds for echolocation, but many bat species also sing. A team of scientists that analyzed one species' song translated it as a sequence that opens with a hello, then a gender identification, followed by some geographic information, and concludes with a "let's talk" section.

7. Scientists discover an average of 18,000 new species of life every year.

8. The House Sparrow, the most widely distributed wild bird, is native only to Eurasia. Elsewhere, humans have introduced them, and they have become invasive species, often considered pests and not protected by law.

9. Charles Darwin predicted the Madagascan hawkmoth, a species of hawkmoth with a proboscis nearly 30 centimeters long, in 1862 after observing a sample of an orchid specimen with an extremely long nectar tube. Scientists finally discovered this species in 1903.

10. Stalking predators, whether mammals or birds, tend to have yellow or light-colored irises, whereas predators that run after their prey and prey species themselves tend to have dark eyes.

There are male-only species of clams that reproduce by having their sperm fertilize the eggs of other clam species, thereby excluding most of the egg's DNA.

12. Praying Mantises have never been an endangered species, and it has always been legal to kill them in the United States. The contrary claim has been an urban legend circulating since the 1950s.

13. The Death Camas plant is so toxic that it has only one known pollinator. A specialist mining bee visits the plant, tolerating its toxins, while others are fatally poisoned. The toxic bulb in one species, Toxicoscordion venenosum var. venenosum, is highly poisonous.

14. After 15 years of searching, a man found a species of Australian Nocturnal Ground Parrot believed to have been extinct for 100 years. His search began when he found a feather of this bird on a truck and traced it back to the farm of an old Indigenous gentleman.

15. A drunk man in Thailand beat the last living specimen of Schomburgk's deer to death, resulting in the extinction of this deer species.

None of the native bee species in Australia are true honey bees. Social species of native bees do produce honey, but not much, as they are relatively primitive bee species. The bees that do produce honey store it in small resinous pots, resembling bunches of grapes.

17. Almost all shells open on the right-hand side, with the exception of a few snail species whose shells open on the left. If you find a shell that opens on the left (as long as it's from a normally right-hand species), you have a rare shell, sometimes highly sought by collectors.

18. The Mangalitsa pig possesses wool resembling that of a sheep.

19. Males of some animal species (primates, reptiles, rodents, etc.) deposit a "mating plug" to seal the vagina, ensuring the survival of their sperm over those of other males. However, L. mariana spiders require secretions from both sexes to form the functional plug, allowing female spiders to choose the father of their offspring.

20. Certain species of wild oats can "walk." They have a pair of 'legs' called awns that flex and make the seeds crawl around to find an ideal place to plant themselves.

There are at least five species of sharks living in the Thames Estuary (which runs through London), and one of those species is venomous.

22. The Darwin's bark spider is one of the few non-mammalian species that engage in oral sex, with male spiders salivating onto the female's genitalia before, during, and after copulation.

23. Approximately 16% of wild birds have been known to hybridize with other bird species. The mallard, for example, can hybridize with at least 40 other species. This extent of hybridization calls into question the modern definition of "species."

24. The common chicken does not exist in the wild. Humans domesticated the common chicken from the "Red Junglefowl," another species of bird that inhabits South Asia. They resemble chickens, but they live in trees and can actually fly.

25. Lake Tanganyika, the oldest and deepest lake in Africa, harbors over 300 species of fish, with 95 percent of those species found exclusively in the lake.