Hey guys welcome back, I'm Bob from W5L.
From mind control to invisibility, here are 20 of the most bizarre animal superpowers
that actually exist!!!!
20.
Indestructibility Wouldn’t it be amazing if nothing could
kill you?
Well the Tardigrade, also known as the Water Bear is virtually indestructible.
It may be only a millimeter long, but it is the toughest organism on Earth.
They can survive temperatures as low as -328 F and as high as 302 F. Not only that, they
can go without food or water for over a century, survive outer space without a special suit,
high salinity, lack of oxygen, and even radiation up to 570,000 roentgens.
Just 500 roentgens would kill us measly humans.
You might think that a creature that can survive all that must be an animal out of a horror
movie, but that’s not the case.
Water Bears actually look like a big fluffy teddy bear that has been shrunk down to a
size smaller than a grain of rice.
It hardly seems fair that they get to be cute and have a great superpower.
19.
Invisibility Invisibility has been seen in comic books
for years, and the Cuttlefish is following that lead.
More successful than a musician, the cuttlefish is a shapeshifting and camouflage master of
the ocean.
They can blend in with almost anything aquatic and shapeshift to mimic it’s inspiration
better for further disguise.
So how do they do it?
Well this sneaky little thing has sacs that contain pigment called chromatophores in their
skin which they can control the size of in turn it makes them change color.
Pair that with a wide variety of postures and you’ve got an invisibility master.
18.
Face of Steel You’ve heard of the Man of Steel, well this
animal should be his mascot.
The elephant has a face of steel that can lift up to one ton with their trunks.
It’s actually a mouth and nose, that is boneless and therefore a flexible, able to
grasp appendage.
Their trunk is actually a heck of multi-tool.
It functions as a fork, snorkel, hose, finger, poker, and can even crack peanuts.
The real shocker?
An elephant isn’t the only one with a massively strong face.
The trap-jaw ant can shut it’s jaws at over 100 miles per hour- that’s faster than the
speed limit!
The force exerted from their talent can launch them over 15 feet into the air.
That would be like you biting into a carrot and being launched 100 feet away.
How crazy!
17.
Iron Stomach There are some times I can think of when an
iron stomach would be a great superpower to have- college anyone?!
Well this animal superpower belongs to the spotted hyena which can eat pretty much anything
rotted or not.
They can even eat anthrax infected animals without getting sick.
Their jaws crush bone, but there is one downside: Hyenas have to throw up the hooves, hair,
and horns in little pellets because they simply cannot digest them.
At least they don’t have to be picky!
16.
No Pain or Cancer What if we lived in a world with little to
no pain and cancer was eradicated?
Well that’s what scientists are trying to do by using the naked mole rat genome.
The naked mole rat is from East Africa and is a peculiar animal.
It is ugly, tiny and almost blind, living in underground colonies like ants with a matriarch
like bees.
But why are they so special?
Naked mole rats are almost completely resistant to pain and immune to cancer.
They live seven times longer than their mouse cousins and have never been observed to have
cancer.
Therefore, by studying the genome, and manipulating proteins, scientists hope that one day we
too can use
this trait.
15.
Jumpers The ability to jump high and far could have
its advantages as a superpower.
Well in the animal kingdom, there are plenty of jumpers.
The most superpowered?
A flea!
Yep, those annoying pesks have a coil of energy protein that behaves like a spring in the
thorax.
The energy is then transferred down the legs and moves on to the toes for a compressing
action that sends the flea the distance of 200 times its body length.
There are other super jumpers, too.
Kangaroo rats can jump 45 times their body length, tree frogs spring 150 times their
body length, and jumping spiders manage to make it about 100 times their body length.
I don’t to be anywhere close to a jumping spider, it will totally get me.
14.
Stealth When going into combat, stealth can make all
the difference and there are plenty of animals with a stealth superpower.
Some do it by not making a sound like owls which can sneak up on a mouse without a noise
from its wings due to some kind of special shape and feathers.
Scientists are working on using their techniques on large aircrafts.
Isn’t that cool?
Another creature sneaks up on its prey by whispering it’s echolocation.
The Western Barbastelle bat remains invisible to the moths it eats by pinging 10 to 100
times lower than usual which means they can totally sneak up on their prey.
If just being quiet wasn’t good enough some animals make themselves almost invisible to
sneak up on their prey like the North American comb jelly.
They chow down on zooplankton by using tiny hairs in their mouth that generate a current.
The current makes them hydrodynamically invisible to the zooplankton leaving them to be suddenly
devoured.
These sneaky superpowers are no joke!
13.
Toxic Blood Eels have been a delicacy all over the world
for centuries.
You can even get it at your local sushi place, but did you know their blood can actually
kill us?
What a superpower!
Just a little bit of blood would take your enemy down.
Their blood causes spasms that affect the heart.
The only way to neutralize it is cooking which is why you’ll never see raw eel on the menu.
And now for number 12, but first be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell
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12.
Live For 200 Years What if you could live for 200 years?
We would be out of natural resources I’m sure, but wouldn’t that be something to
live that long?
Well that’s the lifespan of the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.
There was even a tortoise in India that was believed to be 255 years old.
In addition to living an extraordinary long life, Aldabra Giants are the heaviest and
largest tortoises to exist.
Now that’s a great superpower.
But what’s even crazier is the Benjamin Button power of the Scarlet Jellyfish.
They can go to the ocean floor and become a polyp which is the infant state and transition
to an adult in about 2 months.
Once jellyfish can do the cycle up to 12 times.
The Scarlet Jellyfish and the tortoise should be friends.
THey have so much in common.
11.
Infrared Vision The Pit Viper has the uncanny ability to see
it’s predator or prey like an infrared camera would.
They have a pit organ with has a membrane that can detect heat.
It’s located between the eye and the nostril and allows the snake to see perfectly at night.
That’s a true animal superpower.
10.
Super Strength LIke Superman, the Mantis Shrimp has one heck
of a punch.
It is found in tropical waters, can see colors we don’t know exist.
Not to mention the claw strike they can do.
To kill its prey, it takes its claw and strikes it lightning fast creating a strike so powerful
it can break aquarium glass.
Remind me to never mess with a Mantis Shrimp, but stronger than that is the world’s strongest
insect- the Horned Dung Beetle.
It can pull more than 1100 times its body weight which would be like me trying to pull
6 double-decker buses that were loaded to the brim.
Superman has some competition.
9.
Regrowth We wouldn’t need prosthetics if we could
regrow limbs like the superpowered salamander can.
It can regrow entire limbs, its tail and even some parts of major organs.
The crazy part is it’s actually a part of the salamanders immune system.
The starfish can do the same thing, it can regrow any of it’s appendages.
How do they do it?
I don’t know, but I do know is that’s pretty cool.
8.
Guns for Hands The aptly named Pistol Shrimp is always packing
heat.
It has asymmetrical claws that produce a loud snap extremely fast.
Its claws can fire a cavitation bubble as hot as the sun after being cocked like a gun.
However it is louder than a gun coming in at 218 decibels.
7.
Liquefy Sometimes I’m sure we all want to melt into
the cracks because we’ve all had those embarrassing moments.
Sea cucumbers are able to do just that.
They have collagen in their tissue which means they can go back and forth between solid and
liquid forms.
But that’s not all!
They also have a secret weapon.
Their guts can trap an attacker just by spilling out.
It’s so sticky that they become trapped!
This is a disgusting yet powerful animal superpower.
6.
Brain Control That’s right, it may not be me or you, but
the Toxoplasma Gondii can control minds!
This is the animal superpower anyone would want to take over the world with.
So how does it do it?
Well since the Toxoplasma Gondii can only reproduce in a cat’s intestines, this single-celled
parasite infects mice.
When infected these mice will no longer be scared of cats, in fact, they will almost
become drawn to them.
The real motive is the quicker the mouse gets eaten, the quicker the parasite can reproduce.
The Toxoplasma Gondii may use its brain control for a bit of evil, but who can blame them?
5.
What a Shock!
The electric eel, although popular, is not actually an eel at all.
It is actually a part of the knifefishes.
So what’s with the history lesson on these slender fish?
Well they have a super cool superpower.
They have a current going through most of their body that produces a shock greated that
5 times the voltage of a regular US outlet.
No wonder it’s at the top of it food chain!
4.
Incredible Navigation The sockeye salmon have an incredible sense
of direction thanks to its ability to navigate by the Earth’s magnetic field.
If we had this animal superpower, we wouldn’t even need Google maps.
The salmon travel more than 2,500 miles to get back to the same stream they hatched from.
ALl that travel just to spawn.
Can you believe that they have the location of certain magnetic fields that just guide
them wherever they want to go?
3.
Poisonous Gas I would run as far away as possible if I ever
came across a dragon millipede.
Why?
Well because they can shoot a cloud of poisonous gas!
Specifically, hydrogen cyanide is what they spray.
Not only do they have this line of defense, but they are also nastily scary.
They are found in the wetlands in Laos and are very understudied.
Let’s just say you won’t see me anywhere near Laos anytime soon.
2.
Walking Up Walls Like a real life spiderman, Geckos can walk
up windows, walls, and fences.
They do this by the interaction of electrostatic forces between the atoms of the surface and
thousands of tiny hairs on the bottom of their feet.
Now that wouldn’t that come in handy during rush hour?
1.
The Power of Fear This last one is sure to have you freaked
out.
The hairy frog defends itself by breaking their own bones, pushing them through their
skin to make claws.
No worries though, the skin grows back.
I think that is the most bizarre animal superpower.
We envy you tough guy.
Thanks for watching!
Which animal superpower would you want?
Let us know in the comments!
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