25 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Turtle | Amazing Facts 4U

1. Turtles have been on the earth for about 220 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.
2. Turtles are one of the oldest and most primitive groups of reptiles.
3. There are 327 known species of turtle alive today and many of them are endangered species.
4. Like other reptiles, turtles are cold-blooded animals.
5. The main difference between tortoise and turtle is that tortoise is primarily land animal while turtle mainly lives in the sea. Tortoises have large dome-shaped heavy shells while in turtles the shell is light, flat, and streamlined. In tortoise feet are short and sturdy with bent legs while turtles have webbed feet and have not legged, making them glide easily. Unlike tortoises, turtles don’t only eat vegetation but can feed on small fish, jellyfish, and insects.
6. Turtles can live for up to 50 years while tortoises can live for 150 years or more.
7. A group of turtles is called a bale.
8. Turtles are visually oriented creatures. They rely on sight to identify other members of the same species, food, and potential danger from predators.
9. The top domed part of a turtle’s shell is called the carapace, and the bottom underlying part is called the plastron.
10. The shell of a turtle is made up of 60 different bones all connected together.
11. Shell is actually an evolutionary modification of the rib cage and part of the vertebral column. And contrary to what many believe, a turtle can’t take off its shell and crawl out of it as it is part of the skeleton.
12. Turtles generally can perceive sounds in the 50 to 1,500 Hz range, compared to the typical human hearing range of 20 to 20,000 Hz.
13. Turtles and tortoises have their signature ability to retract their heads inside their shells when frightened.
14. Sea turtles excrete salt absorbed in seawater from their eyes, which is why they seem to cry.
15. The amazing fact is that sea turtles can go up to one year without eating or drinking.
16. Turtles don’t have vocal cords but they can still make noises.
17. The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle at 6 1/2 feet long and it can weigh as much as 800 Kg. The smallest turtle is the 4-inch-long Bog Turtle.
18. You can tell a turtle’s gender by the noise it makes. Males grunt and females hiss. Without this voice, it is difficult to find gender.
19. Amazingly some land turtles can actually outrun a human on level ground.
20. Turtles have good eyesight and an excellent sense of smell. Hearing and sense of touch are both good and even the shell contains nerve endings.
21. In turtles, the intestine is also used for respiration, as it takes in oxygen. That’s how they can stay underwater for so long.
22. You will find male sea turtles on land only during the breeding season. Otherwise, they never come to the land.
23. All turtles lay their eggs on land. When in the eggs, turtles take about 2 months to incubate.
24. In turtle, the temperature determines if the egg will develop into a male or female, lower temperatures below 29 degrees leading to a male and higher temperatures above 29 leading to a female.
25. Amazingly only one out of thousand baby sea turtles survive after hatching.

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20 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Starfish | Amazing Facts 4U

1. There are about 2,000 species of starfish. Starfish is also known as sea stars.
2. Starfish along with sea urchins and sea cucumbers are called echinoderms which have five-point radial symmetry i.e. Their body has five sections or multiples thereof arranged around a central disk.
3. The starfish is not a fish. It is an animal. They do not have gills, scales, or fins like fish have and they move quite differently from fish. While fish propel themselves with their tails, sea stars have tiny tube feet to help them move along.
4. Starfish can come in many colors. Some common colors are red, orange, yellow, and coral colors.
5. Depending on the species starfish can be between 4 to 11 inches big and weigh up to 5 Kg.
6. Starfish have no brains. Its mouth is on the bottom of its body, right in the center.
7. Starfish don’t have blood in the system. Instead of blood, starfish has a water vascular system, in which it pumps seawater through its sieve plate to receive nutrients.
8. Starfish has a tough covering on its upper side, which is made up of plates of calcium carbonate with tiny spines on its surface. This is useful for protection from predators.
9. Amazingly starfish cannot survive in freshwater.
10. Starfish has very small feet called tube feet. Each tube foot has a tiny suction cup at its tip which is used to walk and also to pump in oxygen. Thus starfish actually breathe through their feet!
11. Starfish cannot swim. They move across the ocean by hundreds of tube feet on their arms and body.
12. Starfish have eight eyes, one at the end of each leg which is actually a group of cells that are very sensitive to light which helps the starfish to view the movement and differentiate between light and dark. They don’t, however, see much detail.
13. With more than 80,000 arms, the Basket Starfish has the greatest number of arms.
14. The average lifespan of a starfish is 35 years.
15. Starfish are carnivores meaning they are meat-eaters. They eat clams, oysters, snails, and tiny fish.
16. Female starfish can make millions of eggs. Starfish release the eggs into the ocean never going back to care for them.
17. The amazing fact is that starfish can change gender from male to female or female to male at any time.
18. Amazingly, sea stars can regenerate lost arms. It can take up to a year for a lost limb to grow back. In fact, you can cut up a starfish into pieces and each piece will grow into a completely new starfish.
19. The starfish has two stomachs. The cardiac stomach eats the food outside the starfish’s body. When the cardiac stomach comes back into the body, the food in it is transferred to the pyloric stomach.
20. Starfish has an amazing method to kill an oyster. When an oyster senses that a starfish is near, it will quickly close its shell but the starfish wraps its arms around the shell and uses the suction cups on its tube feet to pry the oyster’s shell open. Starfish can actually pull its stomach out through its mouth as the oyster’s shell only opens a crack and, the starfish must slip its stomach into the shell and eat the oyster while it is still in its closed shell.

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60 Amazing Fascinating Facts About Penguin | Amazing Facts 4U

1. Penguins are one of about 40 species of flightless birds. Most flightless birds live in the Southern Hemisphere.
2. The earliest known penguin fossil is the Waimanu manneringi, which dates from about 60 million years ago. The fossil was discovered in Antarctica in 1980.
3. There are 18 species of penguin in the world.
4. Out of 18 species, 13 species are either threatened or endangered, with some on the brink of extinction.
5. The Erect crested Penguin (Eudyptes sclateri) has lost approximately 70% of its population over the last 20 years.
6. The Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) has lost over 50% since the 1970s.
7. The most common threats to all penguin survival are pollution, loss of habitat by human encroachment, commercial fishing, oil dumping,  and global warming.
8. The Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) is named after Ferdinand Magellan, who first saw them in 1520. Oil spills kill approximately 40,000 of them off the coast of Argentina every year.
9. All penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. Most penguins are found in South Africa, New Zealand, Chili, Antarctica, Argentina, and Australia.
10. Only two species, the Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and the Emperor Penguins, live on the frozen land of Antarctica.
11. Amazingly penguins are not found in the Northern Hemisphere.
12. A wild penguin typically lives between 15 to 20 years, spending approximately 75% of their lives in the water.
13. A group of young penguin chicks is called a “crèche.” A group of penguins in the water is called a “raft.” A group of penguins on land is called a “waddle.”
14. Penguin nesting areas are called “rookeries” and may contain thousands of pairs of birds.
15. The emperor penguin is the largest of the penguin species standing up to 4 feet and can weigh up to 45 Kg when mature.
16. Little Fairy Penguins (Eudyptula minor) are the smallest of all the penguins. They stand 16 inches high and weigh just 1 Kg. They live in the warmer waters around Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.
17. King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) are second in size only to Emperors. A King is almost 3 feet tall and can weigh nearly 16 Kg. Kings don’t waddle the way most penguins do. Instead, they run fairly quickly on their feet.
18. Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) can grow up to 30 inches tall and weigh up to 6 kg. They have a unique colorful orange bill, and a big tail.
19. The most rare penguin in the world is the Yellow-eyed Penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) have yellow cat-like eyes with only around 5,000 living in the wild. They live along the southeastern coast of New Zealand and nearby islands.
20. Penguins’ unique coloring is called counter shading. To predators looking down from above, the penguins’ black backs help them blend into the dark ocean. To predators looking up from underwater, the penguin’s white belly blends in against the light sky and snow.
21. Amazingly penguins only have one mate their entire life and “propose” by giving their mate a pebble.
22. Most penguin species breed during the spring and summer. Egg incubation varies from 1 month and 67 days, depending on the species.
23. Out of all the penguin and bird species, the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the only penguin breeding during the Antarctic winter. Air temperatures may reach -40° F (-40° C) and wind speeds may reach 89 mph (144 km/hr).
24. Most penguin species lay two eggs. However, Emperor and King Penguins, the two largest species, build no nest at all and lay just a single egg.
25. Even though penguins spend much of their lives at sea, they all return to land to lay eggs.
26. They warm their eggs on their feet and cover it with a flap of skin called a “brood pouch” during the incubation period.”
27. The amazing fact is that a father Emperor penguin withstands the Antarctic cold for 60 days or more during the incubation period without eating during which it loses a lot of weight.
28. When penguin chicks hatch, they are not waterproof, so they must stay out of the ocean. They depend on their parents to bring them food and to keep them warm until waterproof feather replace their delicate coats.
29. Emperor Penguins have the widest variety of vocalizations of all penguins. Scientists believe this is because they have no fixed nest site and must rely on vocal calls alone to find their chicks and mate.
30. A penguin’s normal body temperature is approximately 100° F (38° C).
31. Penguins are not sexually dimorphic, meaning male and female penguins look alike and are difficult to differentiate.
32. Chinstrap Penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) get their name from a thin black line that circles under their chin. Chinstrap Penguin colonies may reach up to one million penguins. They are among the boldest and most aggressive of all penguins.
33. Chinstrap penguins are the most populous penguins with a total population of over 13 million. They live on icebergs off the coast of Antarctica.
34. Chinstrap Penguin’s exceptionally loud cries have earned them the nickname “Stonecracker” penguins.
35. Amazingly larger penguins, such as Emperor Penguins, can dive as far as 1900 feet for as long as 22 minutes, making it the deepest-diving non-flying bird and the longest submerged bird. It has solid bones rather than air-filled bones, which eliminates the risk of barotrauma. Their heart rate slows to 15-20 beats per minute and non-essential organs shut down during long dives.
36. Penguins often slide on their tummies over ice and snow. This is called tobogganing. It is an efficient way to travel as Penguins travel faster by tobogganing than by running.
37. Penguins routinely dive to depths between 300 and 500 feet. They can stay under water for 20 minutes before coming to the surface to breathe.
38. Penguins are carnivores that catch-all their food live in the sea. They eat mostly fish and squid. They also eat crustaceans, such as crabs, shrimp, and krill. A large penguin can collect up to 30 fish in one dive.
39. Amazingly penguins do not have teeth. Instead, they use their beak to grab and hold wiggling prey. They have spines on the roof of their beak pointing backward to help them get a good grip. Penguins even have spines on their tongues.
40. Penguins swallow pebbles and stones as well as their food possibly to grind up and digest their food. The stones may also add enough extra weight to help penguins dive deeper.
41. Most penguins can swim 5 to 6 miles per hour, and some can have bursts of speed of up to 16 mph. They can walk between 1.7 mph and 2.4 mph.
42. Penguins’ eyes work better underwater than they do in air. Scientists believe penguins are extremely short-sighted on land.
43. When Adelie penguins hop off the ice and into the ocean, they speed amazingly from 0 to 16 mph in less than one second. This protects them from leopard seals that swim at an average speed of 4 mph.
44. The fastest underwater swimming bird is the Gentoo Penguin, able to swim up to 22 mph (36 km/h).
45. In 2012, scientists discovered that a primary reason penguins can swim so fast is that they have a special “bubble boost.” When penguins fluff their feathers, they release bubbles that reduce the density of the water around them. The bubbles act as lubrication that decreases water viscosity and helps to increase speed.
46. Amazingly the penguin is the only bird that can swim but cannot fly.  It is also the only bird that walks upright.
47. Penguins swim so fast that they can leap to heights as high as 7 feet (2 meters) above water. The technique they use to cut through waves like dolphins or porpoises is called “porpoising.”
48. The fact is penguins cannot walk backward. They are too top-heavy and their feet are too small to support their weight while walking backward.
49. Amazingly penguins are able to drink salt water due to the presence of a special supraorbital gland within their bodies that filters excess salt from their bloodstream allowing them to live around salt water bodies and survive.
50. Penguins’ feathers are packed together four times as densely as flying birds’ (About 70 per square inch), to keep water out and to trap a layer of air next to their skin.
51. The Emperor Penguin has it even denser (About 100 feathers per square inch). It is this, rather than their thin layer of blubber, which keeps them warm, rather like a Thermos flask.
52. Penguins spend several hours a day caring for their feathers to keep them waterproof. For extra protection, penguins spread oil on their feathers. The oil comes from a special gland near their tail feathers.
53. Penguins molt or lose their feathers, once a year. They always molt on land or ice and until they grow new waterproof coats, they are unable to go into the water. Molting may take weeks, and most penguins lose about half their body weight during this time.
54. Amazingly penguins’ eyes work better underwater than they do in the air, giving them superior eyesight to spot prey while hunting, even in cloudy, dark, or murky water.
55. Penguins are highly social, colonial birds that form breeding colonies numbering in the tens of thousands. They have used the same nesting grounds for thousands of years.
56. Some penguin colonies in Antarctica are huge and can contain 20 million or more penguins.
57. Amazingly each penguin has a distinct call, which allows individual penguins to find their mates and chicks even in the largest groups.
58. Penguins exhibit remarkable community features, during the cold Antarctic winters where temperatures can go as low as -60 Celsius (-140 degrees Fahrenheit). Penguins have been observed huddling in groups for warmth. Amazingly one penguin stands in the middle while the others crowd around it, once it is warm, it moves to the outside and a new penguin takes its place.
59. Penguins typically are not afraid of humans.
60. More than 30 countries have featured the Emperor Penguin on their stamps.

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15 Interesting Facts about Sea Animals | Amazing Facts 4U

1.  Interesting Facts about Sea Animals is up to 1 million species live in the world’s oceans. 2/3 rd are yet to be described.
2. The giant crab of Japan can be as large as 12 feet across.
3. It’s amazing that a shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
4. Amazingly sharks lose more than 6000 teeth a year and lost teeth can be replaced within 24 hours.
5.  Interesting Facts about Sea Animals is The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.
6.  Interesting Facts about Sea Animals are Sharks & Rays never get sick. They are immune to every disease including cancer possibly due to the absence of bone.
7. Amazingly the giant squid is the largest creature without a backbone. It weighs up to 2.5 tons and grows up to 55 feet long.
8. At 15 inches the eyes of giant squids are amazingly the largest on the planet. No one knows how squids can change color!
9. Squids can fly! Squids actually take in water and expel it, using it for propulsion that makes them up to 5 times faster on air than on the water!
10. Sea otters have the thickest fur of all animals. Otters hold hands when sleeping so they don’t drift away from each other.
11. Manatees are mammals and must surface to breathe every 5 to 10 Minutes or they will drown.
12. Amazingly manatees are the only completely herbivorous marine mammal in the entire world.
13. It’s amazing that an oyster can take five years just to make one pearl.
14. The oyster is usually ambisexual. It begins life as a male, then becomes a female. It may go back and forth many times.
15. The amazing fact is sea sponges can be broken down to a single cell and reassemble themselves!  Essentially, one sea sponge could turn into multiple sea sponges within a matter of hours, can pass through a sieve, and then reassemble!

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25 Amphibians Facts that will surprise you | Amazing Facts 4U

1. Amphibians are cold-blooded animals that can stay both in water and on land.
2. Turtles have been on the earth for more than 200 million years. Amazingly they evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.
3. Sea turtles excrete salt absorbed in seawater from their eyes, which is why they seem to cry.
4. The shell of a turtle is amazingly made up of 60 different bones all connected together.
5. Most tortoise species can live up to more than a hundred years of age.
6. One can determine the sex of tortoise amazingly by their tail. Male tortoises have long tails whereas females have short tails. Male tails are kept tucked to the side.
7. Giant tortoises keep growing their whole lives.
8. It’s amazing that tortoises drink water through their noses.  Also, tortoises do not have teeth.
9. The adult tortoises can survive for many years without access to the water.
10. Adwaita, the giant tortoise was documented to have lived amazingly for about 255 years! It was originally owned by General Robert Clive of the East India Company. It died in 2006 in an Indian zoo. Scientists carbon dated his shell to around the year 1750!
11. It’s amazing that sea turtles can go for many months without eating or drinking.
12. Turtles don’t have vocal cords but they can still make noises.
13. The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle at 6 1/2 ft long and it can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds.
14. The fact is you can tell a turtle’s gender by the noise it makes. Males grunt and females hiss.
15. Some land turtles can actually outrun a human on level ground.
16. In turtles, amazingly the intestine is also used for respiration, as it takes in oxygen. That’s how they stay underwater for so long.
17. You will find male sea turtles on land only when they hatch out; otherwise, they never come to the earth’s surface. Only one out of a thousand baby sea turtles survive after hatching.
18. When the frog blinks, its eyeballs are pushed downwards creating a bulge in the roof of its mouth which squeezes the food inside the frog’s mouth down the back of its throat.
19. The amazing fact is the poison arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.
20. Frogs never drink. They absorb water from their surroundings by osmosis.
21. A frog (Amphibians) can taste its food by touching it with its eye.
22. Amazingly the bee frog of Africa is no bigger than a bee.
23. Unlike a frog, a toad cannot jump.
24. Texas horned toads can shoot blood out of the corners of their eyes.
25. Salamander’s breath through their skin.

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22 Amazing and Awesome Crocodile Facts | Amazing Facts 4U

1. Amazingly crocodiles live on Earth for 240 million years. They appeared at the same time when dinosaurs appeared.
2. The largest crocodile species is the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), encountered from India to northern Australia and Fiji. In can reach 7 m (23 ft) in length and 1 tonne in weight!
3. Crocodiles can live up to 80 years!
4. The amazing fact is that crocodiles have brains no larger than a cigar .
5. A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth and it can’t stick it out.
6. Amazing fact is that crocodile babies don’t have sex chromosomes. Sex of crocodiles is determined by the incubation temperature. Temperatures below 31.7 degrees Celsius ( 89 Degree F) produce females. Any temperature above that, right up until 34.5 degrees Celsius ( 94 Degree F) produce males and then temperatures above 34.5 degrees Celsius ( 94 Degree F) produce female hatchlings once again. Thus there’s only about a 3 degree Celcius range in which males are produced.
7. Amazingly crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper and also to ensure faster grinding of the food in their stomach.
8. Each crocodile jaw carries 24 sharp teeth meant to grasp and crush. Amazingly crocodiles can’t chew.
9. To escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaw, push your thumb into its eyeball . It will amazingly let you go instantly.
10. The digestive system of crocodile is amazingly strong that it can digest steel , feather , bone etc.
11. Crocodiles can swim at 25 mph just with the help of their powerful tail.
12. The eyes, nose and ears are high up on the top of the skull, so that the crocodile can be almost completely submerged, yet amazingly it can still hear, see and breathe.
13. The crocodile is surprisingly fast on land. If pursued by a crocodile, you should run in a zigzag motion since the crocodile can’t change direction suddenly. The fastest Crocodile can run at speed of 28 miles an hour which is equal to a fastest man.
14. Many times crocodiles stay on the river banks mouth wide open.  Fact is that it isn’t an aggressive posture, but a way to cool off. They sweat through the mouth as they don’t have sweat glands.
15. If you turn on a lantern at night in waters populated by crocodiles, you will amazingly see pairs of shiny red dots. These are the crocodiles’ eyes which have a layer called tapetum behind their retina, containing crystals that reflect light and make possible the night vision.
16. Amazingly 99% of the crocodile offspring are eaten in the first year of life by other predators including other crocodiles.
17. The muscles that close a crocodile’s jaws are capable of generating enormous power, yet the muscles that open the jaws have amazingly little strength. Even a thick rubber band around the snout of a crocodile is sufficient to prevent it from opening its mouth.
18. Crocodiles and alligators are not the same. Crocodiles are larger, have V-shaped jaw and some of their teeth can be seen even when the jaw is fully closed. Alligators are smaller, they have U-shaped jaw and their teeth are not visible when jaws are closed. Alligator lives in freshwater environments while crocodiles can handle salty environments.
19. Alligator and crocodile teeth are hollow. The new tooth grows inside the old one in order to be ready once the old tooth is lost.
20. Amazing fact is that an alligator has 80 teeth in it’s mouth at one time. It can go through 3000 teeth in a lifetime.
21. An alligator cannot move its tongue, and must raise its head to swallow.
22. Alligators can go without food for up to 3 years! Their brain weighs only 8 or 9 grams, which means it can fit in half a tablespoon!

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