Nature
100 verified facts in this category.
- The immortal jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, can revert from adulthood back to its polyp stage when threatened by danger or starvation.
- The Greenland shark has the longest known lifespan of any vertebrate, living up to 400 years, with sexual maturity not reached until around 150 years of age.
- In a dried-out dormant state, tardigrades can survive the vacuum of space and pressures about six times those of the deepest ocean trench, and some species survive radiation doses hundreds to about 1,000 times what would kill a human.
- The wood frog can survive being frozen solid during winter, with up to 70% of its body water turning to ice, then thaw and resume normal activity.
- The mantis shrimp can punch with the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet, creating cavitation bubbles that reach 4,700°C—nearly as hot as the sun's surface.
- Mark Visser said he could hold his breath for 6 minutes and 4 seconds.
- The Hispaniolan solenodon injects toxic saliva into its prey through grooves in its lower incisor teeth.
- The research team found that the evolutionary changes in venom in three different geographic locations occurred around the same time that early humans appeared in the fossil record in those areas.
- A long-term hormone analysis of urine from chimpanzees in Uganda's Kibale National Park, involving females ranging from 14 to 67 years old, showed that female chimpanzees experience menopause at around age 50.
- Ball Island, located just off Lord Howe Island in Oceania, is uninhabited except for a population of Lord Howe stick bugs.
- Certain marine clams can live for more than 500 years.
- Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus had unique, loosely spiraling horns that came out of the sides of the skull.
- Honey never spoils; archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that was still perfectly edible.
- Wombat feces are cube-shaped, with researchers confirming this results from the unique elasticity of their intestines, not diet—helping mark territory without rolling away.
- The 1908 Tunguska Event, thought to have been caused by an asteroid about 50 meters in diameter, flattened 2,150 square kilometers of forest, an area equivalent to that of Tokyo.
- Bathydevius caudactylus is the first nudibranch known to live in the deep water column.
- The chiton Ferreiraella populi has eight armored shell plates and an iron-clad radula.
- The public naming campaign for the chiton began after YouTuber Ze Frank featured the species from the genus Ferreiraella in an episode of his 'True Facts' series.
- The carnivorous bivalve species Myonera aleutiana was found at depths between 5,170 and 5,280 meters, about 800 meters deeper than any previously known specimen of its genus.
- The mollusk species Veleropilina gretchenae was recovered from the Aleutian Trench at a depth of 6,465 meters.
- More than 30 vent mollusc species are not considered threatened because they live inside marine protected areas where mining is prohibited, including the snail Provanna exquisita in the Mariana Arc of Fire National Wildlife Refuge.
- Endemic hydrothermal vent molluscs are found at depths of up to 5,000 metres below sea level, around vents that can spew water over 450 degrees Celsius.
- Venom has evolved independently at least four times within eulipotyphlan mammals, more than in all other mammal groups combined.
- Solenodon venom consists of multiple kallikrein-1 serine proteases.
- Spitting cobras' venom contains an additional group of toxins called phospholipases A2, which together with cytotoxins create a synergistic effect producing instant pain.
- Spitting cobras can spray venom to a distance of up to 2.5 meters toward the eyes of a threat.
- The instantly painful defensive venom trait evolved independently in spitting cobras on three separate occasions.
- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- Blood Falls is a reddish seep that flows from the end of the Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney in Antarctica.
- Spider webs can be fine-tuned for vibration frequency in a manner compared to tuning a guitar string.
- Brazil's government has prohibited public access to Ilha de Queimada Grande, known as 'Snake Island,' due to the large number of snakes living there.
- Nepal's tiger population increased from 121 individuals in 2009 to an estimated 235 in 2018, nearly doubling in nine years.
- Without prior conservation interventions, the black rhino population would have been an estimated 296 in 2022.
- Black rhino numbers fell from about 100,000 in the mid-20th century to fewer than 2,400 due to unregulated hunting, poaching, and habitat loss.
- A global assessment found that 79% of temperate slipper orchid species in North America, Europe, and temperate Asia are threatened with extinction, mainly due to habitat destruction and over-collection.
- The Yarkon Bream (Acanthobrama telavivensis) improved from Extinct in the Wild to Vulnerable after 120 of the last wild fish were placed in captive breeding, followed by the release of 9,000 laboratory-born fish into restored habitats in Israel in 2006.
- 94% of the world's 101 surviving lemur species are threatened with extinction, according to an IUCN Red List update.
- The last wild Guam Rail was killed by the accidentally introduced Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) in 1987.
- The Guam Rail (Hypotaenidia owstoni) is the second bird in history to recover after being declared Extinct in the Wild, following the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus).
- Conservation measures improved the status of 13 animal species worldwide in 2018, but in every 2019 assessment where a species' status changed, the species declined.
- The white-winged flufftail was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered in South Africa's 2025 regional Red Data Book after improved surveys found more birds there; it remains Critically Endangered globally and breeds in Ethiopia and South Africa.
- Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois are among the states with the highest numbers of people at earthquake risk, according to USGS data.
- A range-wide reassessment found continued adult population and density declines of about 90% over three generations in four of the five G. agassizii recovery units.
- According to researcher Felisa Smith of the University of New Mexico, 80–90% of large herbivores' methane emissions are released through burps rather than flatulence.
- The Younger Dryas cold period began in less than 100 years and lasted roughly 1,300 years, occurring approximately 12,900 to 11,600 years ago.
- The deep Atlantic contains some of the world's oldest and most spectacular cold-water coral reefs and deep-sea sponge grounds, which depend on ocean currents to deliver food and disperse offspring.
- The sea just south of Greenland has remained relatively cool compared with the rest of the North Atlantic.
- About 94 percent of the plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are microplastics smaller than a grain of rice.
- Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood; two hearts pump blood to the gills while the third pumps it to the rest of the body.
- In 2018, conservation measures improved the status of 13 animal species worldwide, but in every 2019 assessment where a species' status changed, the species declined.
- Humpback whale populations along Australia's east and west coasts are now estimated to be about 50% larger than they were before commercial whaling.
- The Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste were never connected to the Asian mainland during the Paleolithic era.
- The Neoesclerocalyptus specimen weighed around 400 kilograms, stood about 90 centimeters tall, and measured 1.30 meters in total length including skull, shell, and tail tube.
- The 4,805.59-meter altitude of Mont Blanc recorded in 2023 was the lowest measurement since 2001.
- Bathydevius caudactylus is only the third known instance of bioluminescence evolving in nudibranchs and the seventh known instance among gastropods.
- MBARI researchers first observed the 'mystery mollusc' (Bathydevius caudactylus) in February 2000 during a dive with the remotely operated vehicle Tiburon offshore of Monterey Bay at 2,614 meters (8,576 feet) deep.
- Ferreiraella populi was first found in 2024 in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench at a depth of 5,500 meters.
- The heaviest oceanic manta rays can weigh up to about 3,000 kg.
- Oceanic manta rays' pectoral fins commonly span up to about 7 meters, with the largest recorded individuals reaching roughly 8.8 meters.
- Humphead wrasses can weigh up to 191 kg (over 400 lbs).
- The humphead wrasse is also called the Napoleon wrasse because the bump on its head resembles the two-pointed hat worn by French Emperor Napoleon.
- The Indian Ocean snail Lirapex felix is classified as critically endangered due to mining activity.
- Unsweetened, dry cocoa powder can contain up to approximately 200 mg of caffeine per cup.
- Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and tufted capuchin monkey (Sapajus apella) infants can take several years to master nut cracking, a skill learned while observing their mothers.
- Queen bees are approximately twice as large and live about 10 times longer than worker bees.
- The Yucatan lowlands have no rivers, making freshwater storage systems particularly important there.
- Solenodons and venomous shrews diverged from a common ancestor more than 70 million years ago.
- The study found that on islands with more space and more competition, rattlesnake venom became more specialized rather than more complex.
- Harmonia axyridis was imported to North America in the early 1900s to control pest populations.
- Between 10 and 12 million birds pass through the Wadden Sea annually on major migratory flyways.
- Cat urine glows under a black light.
- The endangered nabarlek, Australia's second-smallest rock-wallaby, was detected in a region where it had not been seen for 50 years.
- The Irish elk shed its giant antlers every year, similar to modern deer species.
- The Irish elk ranged across northern Eurasia, from Siberia to Ireland, despite its name suggesting an Ireland-only range.
- Bonobos and chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor as recently as approximately 850,000 years ago.
- Peru's anchoveta, a fish about 14 centimeters long, supports one of the world's largest fisheries but can be decimated in population by warm El Niño waters.
- During the 1997–1998 El Niño, dry weather in Indonesia kept fires burning for months into the wet season because monsoon rains that would normally extinguish them did not arrive as expected.
- A marine heat wave nicknamed 'The Blob' lasted three years and disrupted ecosystems and fisheries along North America's Pacific coast.
- WWF reported that 234 new species were discovered in the Greater Mekong region.
- One of the frog species rediscovered in Haiti is the Macaya burrowing frog, scientific name Eleutherodactylus parapelates.
- In January 2011, scientists from Conservation International and the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group reported the rediscovery of six species of frogs in Haiti's tropical forests.
- Chile created a national marine reserve (associated with the Desventuradas Islands) that is the largest such reserve in the Americas.
- The Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility lies 400 miles (640 kilometers) from the North Pole in the direction of Alaska.
- Conservation interventions accounted for a 'conservation legacy' of 6,191 black rhinos in 2022.
- Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) are listed as Least Concern.
- The Brazilian Three-banded Armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus), the 2014 FIFA World Cup mascot, declined by more than one-third over 10 to 15 years after losing 50% of its Caatinga dry shrubland habitat.
- The Endangered Freckled Cypripedium (Cypripedium lentiginosum) orchid has fewer than 100 individuals remaining, found in south-eastern Yunnan, China, and Ha Giang province, Vietnam.
- Governor Laffan's Fern (Diplazium laffanianum) is classified as Extinct in the Wild, having last been seen in 1905 after human habitat destruction and introduction of invasive species.
- The Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica), Japan's most expensive food fish, is listed as Endangered due to habitat loss, overfishing, migration barriers, pollution, and changes to oceanic currents.
- Dominica's Imperial Parrot (Amazona imperialis) declined from Endangered to Critically Endangered after Hurricane Maria in 2017, with fewer than 50 mature individuals estimated to remain in the wild.
- Almost 25% of all known eucalypt species are threatened with extinction, with 812 of the 826 species assessed occurring only in Australia.
- More than 750 Echo Parakeets (Psittacula eques) now live in the wild in Mauritius, leading to their reclassification from Endangered to Vulnerable in the 2019-3 IUCN Red List update.
- After a 35-year captive-breeding programme, the Guam Rail became established on neighbouring Cocos Island while remaining classified as Critically Endangered.
- Wild Northern bald ibis breeding pairs in Morocco fell to 59 in 1997 and rose to 147 in 2018, and reintroductions have returned the species to parts of its former range, including the Alps.
- The fin whale population has doubled since the 1970s due to reduced catches in the North Atlantic and international bans on commercial whaling.
- The California Channel Island fox population increased from about 1,500 individuals to about 5,500 after the National Park Service removed golden eagles, bred and reintroduced foxes, and inoculated them against disease.
- Leatherback sea turtle populations are declining in the Pacific Ocean but recovering in the Atlantic Ocean.
- The okapi, popularly known as the 'forest giraffe,' is more closely related to giraffes than to zebras.
- Tuna can swim at speeds approaching 40 miles per hour.
- The southern bluefin tuna's IUCN conservation status improved from "critically endangered" to "endangered."