Facts About Nature

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Stegosaurs did not survive until the K-T Extinction Event.

The last stegosaur, Wuerhosaurus, died in the early Cretaceous.

Scientists still aren't sure what the largest dinosaur ever was.

Officially, the largest dinosaur ever was Argentinosaurus. It was 115 feet long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentinosaurus

That being said, Amphicoelias may have been larger. Amphicoelias is only known from a single, very large backbone. The backbone appears to be that of a Diplodocid, but much larger. If Amphicoelias had the same body proportions as a typical Diplodocid, this means it was 190 feet long ... though this is assuming that the rest of the body was in proportion.

One of the greatest unsolved mysteries in modern science is the mystery of Tullimonstrum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullimonstrum

Tullimonstrum was a carnivorous, aquatic animal that lived 300 million years ago, in what is now Illinois. Scientists have never found any close relatives of this animal, and so its place in the tree of life remains unresolved. Scientists still disagree over whether or not it was vertebrate.

Another prehistoric creature that I really like is Nothosaurus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothosaurus

As you can likely tell, it was a more primitive relative of plesiosaurs.

Interestingly, some other members of the Nothosauroidea clade developed flippers independently of plesiosaurs. Lariosaurus is a prime example of this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lariosaurus

I'm not exactly certain how nothosaurs reproduced. It is known that plesiosaurs were viviparous, but nothosaurs were more basal members of the sauropterygia clade, which had more in common with terrestrial pantestudines. Thus, the nothosaurs may have laid eggs on land, as does a modern sea turtle.

The eggs of sharks are often contained within screw-shapes egg cases. This allows the eggs to fit within rock crevices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_case_(Chondrichthyes)

Of course, not all sharks lay eggs. Some sharks are viviparous.

In some simple animals, there is no brain, no body cavity, no respiratory system, no circulatory system and no anus. Waste just comes back out the mouth. Gnathostomulids are a good example of this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnathostomulid

Opossums originated in South America, and continue to be more diverse in South America. The ancestors of the Virginia opossum made it to North America after the Great American Interchange.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Interchange

Terror birds and toxodons also migrated north after the Interchange, but they were later killed off by the ancestors of Native Americans.

The spectacled bear doesn't look like much today, but one of its prehistoric relatives was one of the most horrifying bears ever to exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-faced_bear

There used to be a fully terrestrial crocodile on Efate called Mekosuchus, but it was hunted to extinction by ancient humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekosuchus

Gannets an swim almost as well as they can fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8vaFl6J87s

Yeah. No facts in this post. I just want to post this wonderful video of frigatebirds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlyxR5YY0ww

Many male mammals (including male humans) have testicles that hang in a scrotum because sperm will die if they are too close to human body temperature.

Animals with a low body temperature (such as reptiles) will generally have internal testes, as a scrotum is unnecessary.

Random Facts About Lobsters:

- The American lobster is the largest arthropod alive today.
- Female lobsters glue their eggs to their legs to protect them.
- Lobsters are predators that eat bivalve mollusks, starfish and bristle worms. Sometimes they will also consume herring.
- Many lobsters start out blue, but turn bright red when they are cooked.
- Fossil lobsters date back to the early Cretaceous.
- Lobsters have two bladders.
- When a male lobster detects a fertile female or a rival male in its territory, it urinates into the water around it, in order to announce its presence. Lobsters communicate by peeing.
- A lobster's two pincers are different. One is larger, and is used for crushing exoskeletons. The other is smaller, and is used for tearing flesh. The larger claw can be on either side ... so lobsters can be either "right-handed" or "left-handed".
- Lobsters have an open circulatory system. Instead of blood and lymph, they have a hybrid body fluid called hemolymph. The hemolymph of a lobster turns blue when it is exposed to oxygen gas, whereas human blood turns red in these circumstances. This is because the hemolymph of a lobster uses hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin as an oxygen transport system.

Random Facts About Walrus

- Prehistoric stem-walrus can be traced back to the middle Miocene. On of the earliest proto-walrus known to science is Imagotaria.
- Walrus will often pull themselves out of the water using their teeth.
- The origin of the word "walrus" has been lost to time, though many linguists suspect that "walrus" comes from "horse-whale".
- Walrus are predators that eat clams.
- In any group of walrus, the strongest males with the largest tusks tend to dominate.
- Walrus could be found as far south as San Francisco Bay during the last ice age.
- Walrus have very odd sleep patterns indeed. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29616122/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/walruses-are-worlds-most-unusual-snoozers/#.Wx7dPtJzbIU