The Best Interesting Random Facts
Dingoes are wild dogs native to Australia the size of English setters, and hunt wallabies, sheep, rabbits, and anything else they can catch and drag away. In 1998 a dingo was accused of dragging a baby a few feet toward the bush before being chased away by the infant’s parents. In a celebrated murder case […]
No marsupial species are native to Europe, Asia, or Africa. It was once thought modern placental mammals evolved from marsupials, but recent fossil evidence disputes this assumption. The earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years ago. On many continents placental mammals were much more successful and no marsupials […]
The Giant Panda, also known by its scientific name Ailuropoda melanoleuca, which means “cat-foot black-and-white”, is a bear that is native to the Western regions of China. The bear has characteristic black patches around its eyes, ears, and around its body and front limbs. Not many people can agree on the origin of the Panda’s […]
In 1845, some astronomers believed that the only explanation for Mercury’s confusing and erratic orbit of the sun would be the presence of gravitational pull from an unseen nearby planet, which they named “Vulcan.” French mathematician Le Verrier, who came up with the hypothesis to explain Mercury’s orbit, died in 1877, still convinced of having […]
Deep sea fish are fish that live below the photic zone of the ocean. The most common deep sea fish is the lanternfish, and others include the flashlight fish, bristlemouths, anglerfish, viperfish, and cookiecutter shark. The photic zone extends only a few hundred meters below the ocean surface, and is also an extremely hostile environment, […]
Footballs aren’t really made of pigskin anymore. However, pigs are used for a wide variety of products beneficial to humans, particularly in the field of medicine. Pigskin, for instance, is placed as bandages on severe burns to protect skin while it grows and heals. The valves from pig arteries can be transplanted into humans with […]
To refresh your memory, Babe was a 1995 film that tells the story of a pig that wants to be a sheep dog. The film is based on the book The Sheep-Pig and filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia. Babe was also a box office success, was very warmly received. All forty-eight piglets used […]
There aren’t any Fightin’ Emus at EMU, nor are they the mascot of the other significant EMU, Eastern Mennonite University. That’s too bad, because the name would sort of make sense, and not just because of the EMU initials. After all, Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti is overshadowed by its larger, more prestigious relative, the […]
Beginning in the Stone Age and up through the early 20th century, there have been tribes of head-hunters in different parts of the world. These people believed that a man’s soul was located in his head, and by capturing the heads of their enemies, they would benefit their own people, increase their cattle, and improve […]
In the thirteenth century, the Chinese invented dark glasses to be worn by judges so that none in the courtroom could read their eyes. The narrowly slit Eskimo goggles are prehistoric and are a protection against snow-blindness, not the direct sun. Modern sunglasses were a consequence of twentieth-century flight, designed by the American Army Air […]
“Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto aurous” is a rather highfalutin way of saying “All that glitters is not gold,” but without a dictionary you’d never guess it. “Look it up in the dictionary” is a piece of advice foreign to few ears, but did you realize that until the eighteenth century […]
Cookies or biscuits contain much more sugar and salt than bread like baguettes, which is the main reason why they become soft if left out. The finely divided sugar and salt are hygroscopic and soak up moisture from the atmosphere, the osmotic pressure in a sweet biscuit is quite high. The dense texture of a […]
Oatmeal comes from a grain called oats, one of the most important grain plants on earth. An oat plant grows from two to five feet high, and looks something like wheat. Its branches end in clusters of seeds, just as wheat does, and these seeds are called oat grains. The main use of oats today […]
The rhubarb is a plant that was known to the ancient Greeks, and it was they who named it. The general theory explaining its source is that the plant was native to the regions along the river Volga, then known as the Rha. This, of course, was territory foreign to the Greeks, and was therefore […]
Some elephants are still used as transportation in India and Asia, but not nearly as many as in the past. This is primarily because most forests have been cut away, reducing the number of elephants needed for logging, a once dependable job for the beast. Also, motor vehicles are rapidly displacing elephants as transportation in […]
When the Dutch settlers came to the New World in 1626, they wanted to build a town on the island called “Manna-Hattin,” at the mouth of the Hudson River. So Peter Minuit, representing the Dutch West India Company, approached a group of Indians on the island and traded the land for some beads, cloth, and […]
Intelligence is not easy to measure even within a single animal species like ours, which is able to communicate and willing to sit through IQ tests. It’s even harder when judging between species. What tests would you put each species through? For example, when comparing cats and dogs, it’s true that a dog is easier […]
The word “Mush” does not mean “Mush that snow down, boys!” when giving orders to sled dogs. Although it is one of the more interesting theories we’ve heard regarding the origins of the term. Usually people assume that mush is an Americanized version of an Inuit word, but it’s not. It actually comes from French-speaking […]
Hippopotamuses do indeed communicate with each other, and they do so rather loudly. Hippos appear to communicate verbally, through grunts and bellows, and it is believed that they may practice echolocation, but the purpose of these vocalizations is currently unknown. Hippos are able to hold their head partially above the water and send out a […]
That’s like asking how you got into your skin. The turtle is born with its shell on. A turtle’s shell is part of its body, half on top attached at the sides to the half underneath. The shell has two layers: the outer layer is a shell of hardened skin tissue, and the inner layer, […]
Sharks are fish that date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs. There are over 440 species of Shark and some like the whale shark, which can reach 39 feet, feed only on plankton and small squid. Sharks were called “sea dogs” by sailors until the 16th century. After […]
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, nearly tasteless protein derived from the collagen extracted from the boiled bones, connective tissues, and organs of animals such as domesticated cattle, pigs, and horses. The word gelatin is spelled “gelatine” in some countries and comes from the French word “gélatine”, which means “clear jelly-like substance”, and Latin word “gelare”, […]
White tigers have white or almost white fur, and their unique coloration is caused by a recessive gene. There aren’t many white tigers left in the wild due to over-hunting of their pelts, and they are considered an endangered species. White tigers are a rare sight, and their eye-catching whiteness puts them at a disadvantage […]
Legend has it that whenever the French-speaking Mary, Queen of Scots, wasn’t feeling well, she would insist on a medicinal concoction made with boiled oranges. The orders the kitchen received were that Marie was malade, which is French for “sick,” leading to “Marie malade,” or marmalade. This, of course, is untrue. Marmalade is from the […]
A cobweb is a spiderweb. The word cob comes from the Middle English word coppe for spider. Apart from that, there is also a group of spiders specifically called “cobweb spiders.” Cobweb spiders build messy webs in corners and usually have a bulblike body and clawlike legs. Black widows fall into this category.
The wolverine, also known as glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or its scientific name Gulo gulo, is the largest species of the weasel family. It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, and looks more like a small bear than other mustelids. Wolverines are aggressive, badger-like animals that can kill prey many times their size, and can […]
Lobsters are a little different from humans and mammals, being that they’re crustaceans n all. Many lobsters live up to 50 years and even more in some cases. Some scientists have even claimed that they could effectively live indefinitely. They start out looking like tiny bugs, smaller than crickets, and they grow and molt all […]
Giraffes are herbivores and love to browse and eat the twigs of Acacia trees, and they also eat grass and fruit. The giraffe has developed a specially-adapted tough tongue and lips due to their diet, which may occasionally include tree thorns. As a ruminant, the giraffe first chews its food, then swallows for processing and […]
The word Butterfly is definitely not another word for “flutterby.” Butterfly comes from the Old English word buterfleoge, meaning “butter/flying creature.” Some linguists speculate that maybe the buter refers to the butter-yellow color of some European butterflies. However, that doesn’t make a lot of sense; plenty of colors besides yellow are represented in the butterflies […]
Bear cubs and humans cubs are built in kind of the same way: they’re sturdy, fairly well balanced, and capable of walking upright. In addition, they both put their heels down first when they walk. So for trainers at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where bears have been performing since the turn […]
