Animals

Sunday, 17 May 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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Horseshoe crab
Horseshoe crabs breathe using book gills.
This organ is made of gills covered with large surface area for absorbing oxygen. It's located in the rear part of the animal body between the legs and the telson.
Ball python
Female coils around the eggs for the whole incubation period.
It is unusual behavior for snakes.
Kiwi bird
Kiwi are sexually dimorphic.
Females are approximately 20% larger than males.
Brittle stars
The mouth is located on the underside of a disc.
They are equipped with five toothed jaws and are used for both food intake and excretion. Each jaw is made of skeletal plates and one of them hosts the madreporite.
Alligator snapping turtle
It is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.
Spiders
Work is underway to use the venom of some spiders to create an ecological pesticide.
Such a toxin would be able to protect crops from harmful insects without polluting the natural environment.
Hippopotamus
The Nile hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) name comes from ancient Greek and means "river horse" (ἱπποπόταμος).
Bull snake
It takes around 60 days for bullsnake to hatch.
Newborn snakes are 25 to 43 cm (10 to 17 in) long.
Javan hawk-eagle
Javan hawk-eagle is monogamous.
There are an estimated 325 Javan hawk-eagle pairs in the wild.
Dik-dik
It inhabits Africa.
Its natural habitat is two areas in Africa - the eastern and southern parts of the continent - from ...