Animals

Sunday, 22 March 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, ...

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Sand lizard
It is found throughout most of Europe and parts of Asia.
It lives on the British Isles, in central Europe, western Russia and northwestern China. It does not occur on the Iberian Peninsula.
Platypus
Platypuses live up to 11 years in the wild and up to 17 in captivity.
Corn snake
Young hatchlings are 25 to 38 centimeters long and reach maturity within the first three years of life.
Manatees
Manatees chew their food with strong molars.
The young manatee is born with two vestigial incisors it loses as it matures. If the molars fall out, new teeth grow in their place.
Bird of Paradise
There is no information on the lifespan of birds of paradise in the wild.
In captivity, they survive about 30 years.
Adder
There may be 5 to 15 young in a litter of the puff adder.
Mating usually begins in late April or early May and birth occurs in August or September. Freshly hatched reptiles gain complete independence.
European mole cricket
Males, especially during warm spring evenings, make characteristic "crunching" sounds.
This is to lure females and to increase the loudness of the sounds they make, they build a special resonating chamber underground.
Grey heron
It is not an endangered species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the gray heron as a species of least concern. The population is estimated at 790.000. up to 3.7 million adults.
Axolotl
Axolotls spawning season is in February.
Females can lay up to thousand eggs that hatch within two or three weeks. "Parents" do not tend to their offspring.
Crustacean
The world's smallest crustacean is Stygotantulus stocki.
These are parasites that live on copepods. The body length of representatives of this species does not exceed 0.1 mm.