Within 12 hours of their birth, oysters begin pulling calcium out of the water to create their signature shells. For the first few weeks of their lives, these newborn bivalves zoom around in a current until they eventually settle on some hard substrate, whether it’s a rock, pier, or another oyster. This place of protection is where the oysters will spend the rest of their lives (which can be as long as 20 years). Eventually, usually a year after birth, it’ll be time for the oysters to breed, and that’s where things get interesting. 

Only oysters can make pearls.

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When debris gets caught inside an oyster so it can’t be flushed out, some species encase the unwanted irritant in a material called nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl. Although oysters make pearls, most commercial pearls come from saltwater clams or freshwater mussels.

Although born male, oysters have the impressive ability to switch their sex, seemingly at will. Every season, females can release up to 100 million eggs, and the amount of sperm released is so high it’s essentially incalculable. Once the egg and sperm are released, the oysters rely on pure chance for fertilization to take place, as the egg and sperm meet in the open water. Because any resulting larvae are extremely vulnerable to predators (especially filter feeders), oysters have evolutionarily compensated by being one of the most virile and sexually flexible species in the world — meaning that their ability to change sex likely evolved as a matter of survival. This impressive fecundity means that natural oyster reefs can grow to tremendous size; as little as 10 square feet of reef can house up to 500 oysters. Scientists theorize that water temperature could play a role in triggering whatever causes an oyster to change its sex, but many aspects of the process remain a mystery. 

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Watching an old Western might leave you with the perception that tumbleweeds have always been a part of America’s western landscape. However, many of the spiky bushes are actually an invasive species from Russia. Salsola tragus goes by a variety of names — including “Russian thistle” and “wind witch” — but its best-known title comes from the way the plant breaks free from the ground at the end of its growing season, blowing around and spreading hundreds of thousands of seeds. While some native tumbleweeds do exist — like Amaranthus albus, aka common tumbleweed — Russian thistle is highly invasive, a term scientists use to describe species that choke out native plants and cause ecological harm by altering habitats. Today, Russian thistle is the most common type of tumbleweed in California.

Tumbleweed plants can survive radioactive hot spots.

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They even thrive. In the 1950s, the U.S. government performed nuclear tests in Nevada’s deserts, noting that Russian thistle bushes were among the first plants to return to test sites. Despite being technically radioactive, tumbleweeds grew vigorously around the test sites.

Botanists believe Russian thistle first put down roots in South Dakota around 1873, accidentally mixed into containers of flaxseed brought with European immigrants and growing unchecked in arid, desolate regions because it requires minimal water. Russian thistle gained such a stronghold in Western states that it alarmed government botanists, who reported in the 1890s that the plant had claimed as much as 35,000 square miles of land in just two decades of growth. While wind helped disperse the seeds, the early days of the railroad system also spread seeds inside batches of contaminated agricultural material, both throughout the U.S. and as far north as Canada.

Tumbleweeds may seem relatively benign to humans, but they are known to gather en masse during windstorms, causing highways to shut down and even trapping people in their homes and cars. Newer species are capable of reaching 6 feet tall, prompting naturalists to remove them wherever they crop up with the help of shovels and herbicides.

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A baby red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) is about the size of a jelly bean. Born after about 34 days of gestation, it’s less than an inch long — or 100,000 times smaller than its adult height (roughly 4 feet). This newborn kangaroo, called a joey, isn’t quite ready for prime time, however. Unlike most mammals, joeys are born while they’re still embryos, which means they lack sight, hearing, and hair. They spend the next six months in their mother’s pouch, or marsupium, where they suckle from a teat and continue to develop before finally taking their first steps into the world. If the word “marsupium” sounds familiar, it’s probably because that’s where the term “marsupial” comes from. Marsupials are a mammalian class that includes kangaroos, wombats, koalas, possums, and more — about 330 species altogether.

Baby rabbits are called kittens.

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Cats don’t have a monopoly on the “kitten” term. Baby rabbits are also called kittens, while the animal’s short birthing process is called kindling. Rabbits can have multiple litters a year, with up to 12 kittens in each (though the average is five).

Kangaroos are some of the supermoms of the animal kingdom. Not only do they have a special pouch for their babies, but they can create two distinct types of milk to care for both the developing embryo and the more mature joey. They can even suspend their ability to conceive during times of drought, and then regain that ability when conditions are more favorable. With their remarkable adaptability, it’s no wonder kangaroos outnumber Australians nearly two to one. 

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The North Atlantic is filled with lobsters, and it’s been that way for millennia. In fact, the first European settlers who arrived in North America in the 17th century reported that heaps of lobsters — some in 2-foot piles — simply washed up along the shore, making the crustaceans a vital source of protein during those harsh New England winters. Fast-forward 400 years, and lobsters remain plentiful; by one estimate, the lobster industry catches some 200 million lobsters in the North Atlantic every year. Among those millions of lobsters are some truly eye-catching crustaceans — including the blue lobster, which is so rare that scientists estimate it’s a 1-in-2 million catch. Although such a rare find fetches a high price at the market, no evidence suggests that the blue lobsters (whose sapphire hue is caused by a genetic defect) taste any different than their normal-colored brethren. 

Most lobsters are red.

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Lobsters are actually many colors (though most look brown) and only turn red when cooked. A lobster’s various natural hues come from the chemical astaxanthin, which binds with the protein crustacyanin. When boiled, astaxanthin is released, and the creature turns a reddish-orange.

Although blue lobsters are a rarity in the North Atlantic, they are far from the most exclusive crustacean living along the seabed. The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine says that finding a yellow lobster, for example, is a 1-in-30 million catch. But one of the most astounding finds of all came in 2011, when a British fisherman caught an albino lobster — estimated to be a 1-in-100 million catch. The 30-year-old lobster, which somehow avoided predators despite being easier to spot in the sea, didn’t end up on a dinner table. Instead, it was donated to the Weymouth Sea Life aquarium in England. 

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