Misconceptions about animals

Misconceptions about animals.
There are no immortal animal
We are born to die.
However, we know that in fact the bacteria never die, unless, of course, they do not become prey or the victims of an accident. Nobody has seen bacterium died of old age. But all of this is hypothetical.
A creature that can truly be called immortal has been recently discovered. This is jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula, inhabiting tropical seas. It is 4-5 millimeters.
Living beings undergo several cycles from birth to death. Usually after reproduction a particular body loses the meaning of its biological existence and dies. But this jellyfish after reproduction process begins to return to its earlier stage of development. From mature individuals they again turn into cubs and repeat the cycle an infinite number of times.

Only insects have a lot of wings
Once upon a time there was a flying dinosaur Longisquama. It was an amazing dinosaur, because it could fly and had all four limbs. It was a small dinosaur – 15 centimeters in length, and looked like a lizard. This is the only case when a vertebrate animal has wings.

Are there herbivores with claws?
Chalicotherium lived about 30 million years ago. It looked like llama and ate the bark and leaves of trees. And it bent the branches and leaves with the help of huge claws on the front feet.

The chicken or the egg?
This is one of the most famous philosophical problems of mankind. But biologists have answered this question: “Of course, an egg!”.
It is known that birds evolved from reptiles, the first birds were more like winged lizards, because they had teeth and scaly tail. And all reptiles reproduce by laying eggs. Amphibians, and even earlier fish lay caviar – the same egg.

Pregnancy cannot be stopped
Armadillo is a small armored creature. It preys on insects, is able to dig burrows and to walk on the bottom of ponds. Armadillos live everywhere in South America and once lived in the North America, but disappeared 10,000 years ago. Surprisingly, the female armadillo can control its pregnancies. It can delay the development of the embryo for a period of up to two years!

All animals sleep
All living beings around us sleep. Sleep is a vital necessity, without sleep a living organism may die.
But there are creatures that do not sleep ever. They are ants. They live for 7-10 days. It develops to a certain level, then immediately starts working and does not leave its work until the death.

Blood is always red
Insects have white or colorless blood, molluscs have blue, but all chordates have red blood. Blood has a red color due to hemoglobin, which is composed of an iron compound.
But there is an exception – ice fish. It has translucent whitish blood because there are practically no red blood cells which contain respiratory pigment hemoglobin. But how do they breathe? There is more oxygen in cold water than in warm. This fish absorbs oxygen with the whole surface of the body. But when the temperature is +4 ° C ice fish just suffocates and dies.

Vertebrates have two eyes
Many species of fossil fish, amphibians and reptiles had the third eye. But only one species survives to this day – it’s tuatara, sphenodon punctatus, a lizard that lives in the archipelago near New Zealand. On the top of its head there is the third eye, which the lizard uses to monitor the sun.

Misconceptions about animals
Only insects can run on water
The frill-necked lizard lives in the northern part of Australia and New Guinea. It is a rather large lizard which reaches one meter in length, has a very long tail and a large skin fold around the neck. It hunts insects, smaller lizards and is very fond of birds’ eggs.
This lizard is able to run on water.

All animals can move their eyes
Deep-sea fish with the Latin name Macropinna microstoma, lives near the shores of North America at depths of 600-800 meters. It changes body position in space to see something. This fish has a transparent head, resembling a helmet spacesuit, and its internal parts are visible. Its eyes freely float in clear liquid inside the hood.

Misconceptions about animals
Animals do not self-harm
There are animals that change the anatomy of the organism, causing self-harm.
Freshwater newts in some cases transform themselves into a kind of hedgehog with their ribs out, to improve the protection against predators.
African frog Trichobatrachus robustus, from Cameroon, break their finger bones turning them into a kind of claw.

Misconceptions about animals
No one eats poisonous animals
There are two kinds of living creatures that eat poisoned food – hedgehogs and people. Hedgehogs have a natural mechanism that blocks the poison. People eat poisonous fugu because they invented a way to make it less toxic.

Only cephalopods have suckers
Some kinds of animals also have suckers. Madagascar sucker-footed bat, also called Myzopoda aurita, has suckers to sit on the smooth, leathery leaves of palm trees.

Misconceptions about animals
Animals eat plants
There are also plants that feed on animals. Nepenthes live in humid tropical climate of New Guinea, the islands of Oceania, and on the northern coast of Australia. This plant catches insects and even small mammals. Their trap looks like the kind of pitcher with a lid.

All land animals can jump
The only animal which does not know how to jump is the elephant. All the matter is in its weigh and four equal legs.

Bleeding is a sign of injury
If someone bleeds, it means injury, and any animal is eager to stop the bleeding, not to die.
But there are beings that voluntarily get rid of their own blood. One of them is horned lizard which shoots its own little poisonous blood when it is in danger.
Spathomeles moloch, which lives in the Australian desert, has a similar mechanism of protection.

The crocodiles are carnivorous and live in water
Most of them live in the rivers, but there are saltwater crocodiles.
Can you imagine a crocodile, which eats grass and dig burrows in the ground? These crocodiles once existed – fossil crocodile Simosuchus clarci. They lived about 100 million years ago and their remains were found in the sands of the Sahara.

Misconceptions about animals
Dragons do not exist
All the peoples of the world have legends about dragons. These mythical animals, surrounded by an aura of mystery, are powerful, winged creatures, extremely dangerous and live for many centuries.
But there are at least two species, which look like dragons. The first of them is a Komodo dragon. This lizard is the largest of the existing lizards in the world. Its body length is more than 3 meters.
Proteus anguinus looks like a tiny dragon.

Salamander is a mythical beast
The salamander is known in many nations of the world as the spirit of fire. In the Middle Ages it served as an ingredient to various alchemical potions, in particular – to the philosophical stone.
The real salamander lives in water and has phlegmatic character. They live almost all over the world. It is very similar to ordinary lizard and is the largest amphibian in the world – its length is one and a half meters, and weight is up to 30 kilograms.