Compared to other members of the animal kingdom, humans are pretty good at tasting things. Our primate biology gives us the ability to detect five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (or savory). These five basic tastes create the nearly limitless flavor profiles of all the foods we enjoy (or detest) — but not all animals are so lucky. Birds, for example, can’t detect spiciness in foods, which is why a pigeon could munch on a Carolina Reaper without a second thought. Taste also varies widely among mammals, and dolphins and whales may be some of the worst off, because they have devolved to only taste salt. That’s right — these unfortunate creatures have slowly lost their sense of taste over millions of years. 

Taste buds are only on your tongue.

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Humans have between 2,000 and 10,000 taste buds (we lose some as we age), and a majority of them are located on the tongue. However, other parts of the mouth, including the soft palate, inner cheek, esophagus, and epiglottis, also contain taste buds.

In 2014, scientists analyzed the genomes of 15 species of baleen and toothed whales, and found a massive loss of taste receptors across the board. Although these receptors were technically still present, they had been irreparably damaged by genetic mutations. Researchers were particularly surprised by the loss of bitter receptors, as many toxins in the sea have a bitter taste. This slow-but-steady loss of taste is likely tied to how whales and dolphins eat, as they tend to swallow prey whole rather than chew like many fellow mammals do. So while slowly losing their sense of taste is certainly a bitter pill to swallow, luckily these cetaceans can’t taste it anyway. 

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By the end of the 1970s, Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne had reached the pinnacle of his profession by way of his celebrated work on classics such as Chinatown and Shampoo. Set to make his directing debut with the sports drama Personal Best, he was also heavily invested in a film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, which he intended to direct.

Rin Tin Tin garnered the most votes for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards.

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Although legend has it that the winning votes for the prolific German shepherd actor were overturned by organizers who wanted the 1929 ceremony to be treated seriously, further research has shown that consideration for Rin Tin Tin came from a studio executive’s joke ballot.

Of course, it's a dog-eat-dog world in the high-stakes business of moviemaking, and after a 1980 Screen Actors Guild strike halted production of Personal Best, Towne sought out independent financing in a deal that ultimately forced him to relinquish his rights to the Tarzan property. And when Personal Best flopped at the box office in 1982, Warner Bros. handed Tarzan to director Hugh Hudson, who subsequently brought in writer Michael Austin to revise Towne's sprawling, unfinished script.

Unhappy with the wholesale changes to his story, Towne took a page from the disgruntled directors who disown their films under the pseudonym of Alan Smithee and insisted on being credited as "P.H. Vazak" — the name of his Hungarian sheepdog — for his contributions to the script. Lo and behold, the completed Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes garnered a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination in 1985 for the duo of Michael Austin and P.H. Vazak. The awards ceremony seemed ripe for comedy, but ultimately human Peter Shaffer received the trophy for Amadeus.

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The end of the dinosaurs is often pictured as an apocalyptic event complete with a giant asteroid, a cataclysmic collision, and general fire and brimstone-type stuff, but the ends of biological epochs are rarely so cut-and-dried. In fact, the story of the dinosaurs didn’t even end on that unfortunate spring day 65 million years ago, because dinosaurs still live among us — we just call them birds. 

Chickens are the most abundant wild birds in the world.

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Chickens are the most abundant domesticated birds, but the most plentiful wild bird is the red-billed quelea (Quelea quelea). This sparrow-like bird, native to sub-Saharan Africa, flies in synchronized hordes, and has an estimated world population of 1.5 billion.

Today, scientists consider all birds a type of dinosaur, descendants of creatures who survived the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. And yes, that even includes the chicken. In 2008, scientists performed a molecular analysis of a shred of 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein, and compared it to a variety of proteins belonging to many different animals. Although proteins from alligators were relatively close, the best match by far belonged to ostriches — the largest flightless birds on Earth — and the humble chicken. 

Today’s chicken is a descendant of a still-extant tropical bird known as the red junglefowl, and a member of an order of birds known as Galliformes (gallus means “rooster” in Latin). Following the initial 2008 study, further research has proved that a chicken’s genetic lineage closely resembles that of its avian dinosaur ancestors. Scientists have even concluded that a reconstruction of T. rex’s chromosomes would likely produce something similar to a chicken, duck, or ostrich. So the next time you eat a chicken for dinner, you might pause to consider its connection to some of the most fearsome beasts to ever stalk the planet.

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Humans tend to adore cats despite some of their more difficult tendencies, which include sprawling across laptops and books, delivering (unwanted) gifts of mice, and begging for a food refill before their bowl is even empty. Not to mention keeping their pet parents up all night with loud yowls and frenzied midnight runs. But who can blame a house cat for the mischief they get up to in the wee hours? After all, cats sleep around 15 hours per day, so it makes sense that their bedtime routines don’t align with ours. However, cats don’t bank all those hours of rest at once. While sleep habits can vary by breed, domesticated cats generally take frequent catnaps lasting 15 to 30 minutes each, followed by bursts of activity, and then occasional periods of deeper rest.

Humans spend about one-third of our lives asleep.

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For humans, sleep is just as vital to survival as food and water, allowing our bodies to rest, heal, and retain information. It’s why we doze so frequently and for so long. Banking seven to eight hours each night adds up quickly; about one-third of our lifespan is spent snoozing.

Feline researchers believe cats’ unique sleeping patterns evolved from their need to store energy between hunts. Prowling for and pouncing on prey is a major energy drain, and resting after hunting and eating allows cats to prepare for their next pursuit. However, cats have developed different styles of sleeping to still be aware of the world around them during their daytime naps. Catnapping felines remain partially awake, can still move their ears and tails, and even keep their eyes partially open to detect danger. When they do doze more deeply, cats experience REM sleep just like humans — one reason scientists believe they dream like us, too.

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