Life as we know it today is less the result of a steady evolutionary flow than a series of cataclysmic fits and starts. To date, the Earth has experienced five mass extinctions, a variety of ice ages, and other climatic changes that have had huge impacts on plant and animal life, often wiping the terrestrial slate clean. However, a few incredible survivors live among us — including magnolias. Named for the 17th-century French botanist Pierre Magnol, these trees have a history that far surpasses the ancien régime. In fact, it’s estimated that magnolias first sprouted on Earth 95 million years ago — smack dab in the middle of the Cretaceous Period. That’s about 27 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the Earth. 

Dinosaurs and humans are part of the same geologic eon.

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The worlds of dinosaurs and of mammals seem vastly different, but both eras are part of the Phanerozoic — a 541 million-year geologic eon that began with the Cambrian explosion. While half a billion years seems like a lot, the preceding Proterozoic Eon is four times longer.

Back here in the Holocene (the current geological epoch), the magnolia family’s native ranges can be found in East and Southeast Asia and the southern U.S., as well as Mexico, northern South America, and the Caribbean. Although a modern favorite among plant lovers, magnolias still sport evidence of their ancient upbringing. Because they are so old, they evolved to be pollinated by beetles and flies instead of bees, butterflies, or moths. That’s because back in the Cretaceous, those other pollinators didn’t exist yet. Magnolias have tough carpels (the female parts of the flower) to protect themselves from a beetle’s less-than-graceful mandibles, and invest more energy in producing showy, nectar-filled, sweet-smelling flowers in an effort to attract these insects. The beautiful magnolia tree and the flightless beetle may seem like an odd couple, but it’s a relationship that has worked since the Mesozoic.

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Plants may not have ears, but they’re able to detect sound vibrations in ways that would astonish most gardeners. Scientific research has revealed some plants perceive and respond to acoustic signals in their environment. They then use those vibrations to make crucial decisions about defense, growth, and even reproduction.

In 2019, biologist Lilach Hadany of Tel Aviv University discovered evening primroses can pick up the specific frequencies of bees’ wings. Within minutes, the plants increase their nectar’s sugar concentration, making themselves more attractive to the visiting pollinators. Hadany surmised that the flower’s bowl-shaped blossoms act as an earlike structure, helping to detect the vibrations.

One of the world’s largest carnivorous plants is big enough to eat rats.

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Nepenthes rajah, the world’s largest pitcher plant, secretes a sweet-scented nectar to lure prey — including rats, frogs, and insects — into its acidic pitcher traps, which then slowly digest the unfortunate creatures.

And in 2014, researchers at the University of Missouri found that when a caterpillar chews on the leaves of a plant, it creates distinctive vibrations that travel through the plant’s tissues. Some plants can detect those very specific vibrations and perceive them as a threat; they then engage their chemical defenses, producing compounds that make their leaves less palatable to the munching insects. 

Researchers refer to this as “hearing” because the plants aren’t just reacting to being touched or shaken — they’re “listening” for the unique “sounds” (vibrational rhythms) of the specific input (such as a predator chewing). Remarkably, the study showed plants can distinguish between different vibrations, whether it’s a munching insect or another mechanical disturbance such as the wind or raindrops — activating their defenses only when genuinely threatened.

Further studies have shown plants can even use sound to navigate their environment. In 2014, researchers discovered that plant roots are capable of locating water sources by sensing the vibrations generated by moving water — further evidence that plants can sense more than we give them credit for.

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Hummingbirds sometimes seem otherworldly compared to other feathered friends. They see more colors than the human eye does and can even enter a deathlike state to survive frigid winter nights. But their most remarkable ability has to do with their incredibly fast-moving wings, with the fastest flapping upwards of 70 times per second. Thanks to those incredible appendages, hummingbirds can hover — and they’re the only species of bird that can do so on their own for a sustained period of time. Hummingbirds can also move up, down, left, right, forward, and yes, even backward (another unique ability), reaching speeds of 75 miles per hour. According to Audubon, the hummingbird also has really sensitive “brakes” and can switch from flying 25 miles per hour to coming to a dead stop within the length of a human index finger. 

A species of hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world.

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The world’s smallest bird is the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), which can be found only in Cuba. This pint-sized hummingbird is only 2.25 inches long and weighs around 2 grams — about the weight of a dime.

How are hummingbirds such aerial aces? Well, most birds achieve lift only when flapping their wings down, but hummingbirds swish their wings in a side-to-side, figure-eight pattern, which is more characteristic of an insect than a bird. (The feat has earned them the excellent nickname “hummingbugs.”) Although hummingbirds have evolved to use their wing muscles efficiently, their tiny bodies have an incredibly high metabolism, which means the creatures must constantly hunt for food to survive. Remarkably, hummingbirds can drain up to 10 drops of nectar from a flower in 15 milliseconds (or one-hundredth of a second).

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