Animals

Thursday, 24 September 2026
27 facts about turtles
27 facts about turtles
The only vertebrates so armored
The first turtles appeared on Earth at the end of the Permian about 240 million years ago. Although the first ones had neither plastron nor carapace, ...

Did you know?

Javan leopard
It is one of the leopard subspecies.
There are eight subspecies of leopards in total: African, Indian, Javan, Arabian, Amur, Indochinese, Sri Lankan, and Panthera pardus tulliana (native to Turkey and the Iranian Plateau).
Sperm whale
Sperm whales lead a nomadic lifestyle.
In July, they separate the sexes. Males can then be found off the coast of Norway, and females in ar ...
Sea lamprey
Their skeleton is made of cartilage instead of bone.
Sea lampreys belong to the class of Chondrichthyes, which make up a minority of all living fish. Of the nearly 35,000 species of fish, there are about 1200 cartilaginous species only.
Adder
Adults feed on insects, lizard frogs, small mammals, and bird chicks.
Young adders mostly eat insects, snails, earthworms, young amphibians and reptiles. The viper attacks its prey by injecting its venom and then eats the dead one.
Hammerhead sharks
Hammerhead sharks swim at a slight angle, due to differences in their fins length.
Their pectoral fin is shorter than their first dorsal fin, and tilting allows them to use longer fin to swim efficiently.
Slow worm lizard
It can be distinguished from snakes by their movable eyelids and the presence of ear holes.
Turtles
They do not mate in long-term relationships, and rarely form social groups.
Usually, during mating season, males fight with each other with aggression being more common among terrestrial species.
Southern cassowary
It is the heaviest bird in Australia and the third heaviest in the world.
Heavier than it are only the Common ostrich and the Somali ostrich.
Alpaca
A typical family group consists of a dominant male, several adult females, and numerous offspring.
An alpaca's gestation period is approximately 335-340 days, and usually one offspring is born, weigh ...
Sea otter
Males are larger, usually weighing between 22 and 45 kg, but individuals weighing 54 kg have been reported.
Females weigh about ⅓ less. The length of an adult male can vary from 1.2 to 1.5 m, while females rarely reach 1.4 m.