Creatures
The living things that break the rules we thought biology had.
11 articles
CREATURESThis single cell moves two hundred times faster than you can blink.
A single cell called Spirostomum ambiguum contracts to a quarter of its length in under five milliseconds, roughly 200 times faster than a human blink, with no muscles, no brain, and no nerves at all.
CREATURESThis scorpion grew to about a meter long, in a world that hadn't grown its first tree yet.
About a meter long, with claws longer than a table knife, Praearcturus gigas patrolled shallow coastlines 415 million years ago, and its fossil sat mislabeled as a giant crustacean in a museum drawer for more than 150 years.
CREATURESThis dinosaur was not running. It was just walking, and its footprints prove it.
A trail of prints from an adult T. rex, each one longer than your forearm, shows the largest predator to ever walk North America moving at an almost casual pace, sixty six million years ago.
CREATURESScientists Had to Change the Definition of a Mammal Because of This Animal
A furred animal with a duck's bill, venom and eggs convinced London's naturalists it was a hoax. Proving otherwise took most of a century.
CREATURESThis Shrimp Snaps Its Claw So Hard That the Water Itself Flashes With Light
A claw the size of a fingernail can boil seawater, stun a fish and make a flash of light the shrimp cannot even see. The physics is stranger than the legend.
CREATURESThis kangaroo has never lifted a weight in his life.
Roger crushed metal buckets for fun and never saw a gym. Those arms are not for lifting.
CREATURESThis is a cockatoo squid
It is the size of your hand and you can see straight through it. Its family tree has a surprise at the other end.
CREATURESThis is a longhorn cowfish.
A box with horns that cannot bend its body. The dangerous part is not the horns.
CREATURESThe Butterfly That Has a Compass But No Map
It has a compass. It does not have a map. It arrives anyway.
CREATURESTonight while you sleep, something will crawl on your face.
Nearly every adult alive is carrying them, they wait for darkness before they move, and you were given yours in your first week of life.
CREATURESThe Deep
Over a thousand new species in a single year, and an estimated nine out of ten still have no name at all.