AIthough Earth is our familiar home, it is also a weird and wonderful place. And the more we learn about the bizarre creatures we share it with, the weirder and more wondrous it becomes.
Are there really spiders who cook their own supper? Marine animals with exploding backsides? Caterpillars disguised as poo, or beetles that look like mini JCBS? Amazingly, the answer is yes.
Long and short of it
Let's start with those beetles. They are called giraffe weevils and live only in Madagascar (where, by the way, many of the local animals, including lemurs, have evolved to look unlike anything else on the planet). Scientists know of more than 400,000 species of beetle so far a staggering number, yet none of the others have necks quite like these red and black beauties. In male giraffe weevils, their jointed necks stretch so far that their tiny heads are four times taller than the rest of their bodies. You can see how they got their name, but what are those magnificent necks for? The answer is fighting. Rival male weevils neck-wrestle to impress females and win the chance to mate. By a curious coincidence, actual giraffes do the same thing! What about female weevils? Their necks are far shorter and they use them for rolling leaves to make their nests.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1642519507/1697199036/articles/zLiqSqoKq1697464833030/qfj5oK48i1697464921117.jpg]
Other animals use their body parts to help them adapt to their environment. Russia's saiga antelope has a nose so huge and droopy, it is almost a trunk. It looks a bit odd, but is ideal for life in dusty plains, since it filters dirt from the air. The antelope's massive hooter also heats up incoming air when it is cold, and helps cool air when it is hot, ensuring that the animal is always comfortable.
One of a kind
In every habitat, there are animals with adaptations that at first seem peculiar, but which actually make complete sense.
Take Australia's tawny frogmouth, whose plumage blends in perfectly with bark. The bird has another trick up its sleeve (or rather, wing). Should it be spotted by a predator, it simply opens wide. The sudden shock of seeing that gaping orange mouth is enough to give most enemies a fright. In eastern North America, there is a mole with a body part just as unique. It appears to have pink spaghetti stuck to its face, but the 22 wriggly tentacles are in fact a sensory organ. Meet the star-nosed mole, whose amazing "star" enables it to explore soil and water for prey-much like an eye and hand combined.
Thanks to 100,000 nerve endings, this incredible organ picks up masses of information. Location data is fired at the mole's brain so fast, the speedy predator takes barely 0.25 seconds to track and snaffle a worm and move onto the next meal.
The pink fairy armadillo is another mammal that's one of a kind. As it burrows in sand, the rare species is not glimpsed often, but its shell is as pink as a cooked prawn. Unusually, it isn't used for protection. Instead, it acts as a temperature-control panel. When the armadillo gets too hot, it floods the shell with warm blood to help it lose heat. If it feels cold the opposite happens - blood drains from the shell into the rest of its body to stop precious heat escaping. The bald uakari monkey's red-faced appearance is also caused by blood vessels running close to the surface. Scientists think that uakaris may be able to tell how healthy and fertile potential mates are just by looking at how brightly coloured their face is.
Deep divers
The deep sea has more than its fair share of weird inhabitants, because they have had to adapt to life in permanent darkness under a colossal weight of water. Many of the animals that live in great depths possess organs full of bacteria that produce blue or green light - flashing displays help them attract prey or communicate. To avoid being crushed by the pressure, some fish are soft and blobby, with squishy skeletons. One of the strangest f...
Are there really spiders who cook their own supper? Marine animals with exploding backsides? Caterpillars disguised as poo, or beetles that look like mini JCBS? Amazingly, the answer is yes.
Long and short of it
Let's start with those beetles. They are called giraffe weevils and live only in Madagascar (where, by the way, many of the local animals, including lemurs, have evolved to look unlike anything else on the planet). Scientists know of more than 400,000 species of beetle so far a staggering number, yet none of the others have necks quite like these red and black beauties. In male giraffe weevils, their jointed necks stretch so far that their tiny heads are four times taller than the rest of their bodies. You can see how they got their name, but what are those magnificent necks for? The answer is fighting. Rival male weevils neck-wrestle to impress females and win the chance to mate. By a curious coincidence, actual giraffes do the same thing! What about female weevils? Their necks are far shorter and they use them for rolling leaves to make their nests.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1642519507/1697199036/articles/zLiqSqoKq1697464833030/qfj5oK48i1697464921117.jpg]
Other animals use their body parts to help them adapt to their environment. Russia's saiga antelope has a nose so huge and droopy, it is almost a trunk. It looks a bit odd, but is ideal for life in dusty plains, since it filters dirt from the air. The antelope's massive hooter also heats up incoming air when it is cold, and helps cool air when it is hot, ensuring that the animal is always comfortable.
One of a kind
In every habitat, there are animals with adaptations that at first seem peculiar, but which actually make complete sense.
Take Australia's tawny frogmouth, whose plumage blends in perfectly with bark. The bird has another trick up its sleeve (or rather, wing). Should it be spotted by a predator, it simply opens wide. The sudden shock of seeing that gaping orange mouth is enough to give most enemies a fright. In eastern North America, there is a mole with a body part just as unique. It appears to have pink spaghetti stuck to its face, but the 22 wriggly tentacles are in fact a sensory organ. Meet the star-nosed mole, whose amazing "star" enables it to explore soil and water for prey-much like an eye and hand combined.
Thanks to 100,000 nerve endings, this incredible organ picks up masses of information. Location data is fired at the mole's brain so fast, the speedy predator takes barely 0.25 seconds to track and snaffle a worm and move onto the next meal.
The pink fairy armadillo is another mammal that's one of a kind. As it burrows in sand, the rare species is not glimpsed often, but its shell is as pink as a cooked prawn. Unusually, it isn't used for protection. Instead, it acts as a temperature-control panel. When the armadillo gets too hot, it floods the shell with warm blood to help it lose heat. If it feels cold the opposite happens - blood drains from the shell into the rest of its body to stop precious heat escaping. The bald uakari monkey's red-faced appearance is also caused by blood vessels running close to the surface. Scientists think that uakaris may be able to tell how healthy and fertile potential mates are just by looking at how brightly coloured their face is.
Deep divers
The deep sea has more than its fair share of weird inhabitants, because they have had to adapt to life in permanent darkness under a colossal weight of water. Many of the animals that live in great depths possess organs full of bacteria that produce blue or green light - flashing displays help them attract prey or communicate. To avoid being crushed by the pressure, some fish are soft and blobby, with squishy skeletons. One of the strangest f...
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The Week Junior Science+nature Uk (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 67