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Evolution is an incredible natural process, allowing all living things to gradually change and adapt to their surroundings. These adaptations are typically geared toward survival: becoming stronger, faster, more intelligent, more attractive, and so on. Those useful characteristics are then passed on to offspring and the process continues — albeit very, very slowly in most cases.
The animal kingdom is filled with many extraordinary creatures that have evolved remarkable adaptations, from the ability to thrive in extreme environments to senses that far exceed those of humans. Some of these animal abilities are as bizarre as they are impressive, so we decided to explore the strangest and most astonishing skills found in the animal kingdom, from resurrecting frogs to creatures that can survive in space.
Wood Frogs Possess the Power of Near-Resurrection
Wood frogs are found in some of the chillier regions of North America, from Alaska to the boreal forests of Canada, and they’re also the only frogs that live north of the Arctic Circle. These little amphibians have developed an extraordinary ability to survive the freezing winters — an ability that very closely resembles resurrection.
To endure the subarctic winters, wood frogs have adapted to allow around 65% to 70% of their bodies to freeze solid. While frozen, they have no detectable vital signs: no heartbeat, breath, blood circulation, muscle movement, or detectable brain activity. To prevent permanent cell damage, they produce glucose that acts as a natural antifreeze to protect specific vital organs. Incredibly, they can remain in this semi-frozen state for up to seven months, acclimating to their frozen environment by freezing along with it. And when the temperatures rise once again, they happily hop on with their lives.
Mantis Shrimp Can Punch as Fast as a Bullet
Mantis shrimp typically grow to about 4 inches in length. That’s certainly not an intimidating size, but when it comes to punching power, they are not to be messed with. Pound for pound, the mantis shrimp possesses the most powerful punch in nature. Their strikes accelerate at speeds comparable to a 22-caliber bullet, with each blow landing about 1500 newtons of force. This allows them to use their hammer-like clubs to smash through hard-shelled prey such as crabs and clams; they’ve even been known to smash through aquarium glass.
This punching power comes from elastic energy storage. The shrimp stores energy in its muscles while it cocks its club into position, then releases the compressed energy in a ferocious hammer blow. The punch is so fast and creates so much pressure that the shrimp actually vaporizes the water in front of it, creating small cavitation bubbles that emit bright light and produce temperatures of around 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit. (The surface of the sun, by comparison, is 9,930 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Owls Can Rotate Their Heads 270 Degrees
Imagine if your eyes were fixed in place and couldn’t move in their sockets. It would be quite difficult and arduous to take in the world around you, because you’d have to constantly move your head around to direct your eyes. This is a problem owls have had to work around. Their large eyes, which are more elongated than ours (making them more adept at night vision), are fixed in place by bony structures called sclerotic rings, making their eyes nearly immobile.
To compensate for this, owls have evolved the ability to turn their necks incredibly far in either direction. While this famous owl trait doesn’t allow them to turn their heads all the way around, they can rotate them 270 degrees, or three-quarters of a full circle, in either direction, as well as 90 degrees up and down. An owl’s vertebrae and vertebral arteries have become specially adapted to allow for such an extreme range of movement, which in other animal species — including humans — would cause all kinds of physical issues.
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Hairy Frogs Break Their Own Bones To Use Them as Weapons
The hairy frog is also known as the Wolverine frog, and you’ll soon understand why. This peculiar frog grows to about 4 to 5 inches long, and its flanks and thighs are covered in tiny, hair-like projections that are actually modified scales, likely to help with oxygen absorption. Its most bizarre characteristic, however, is one of the strangest defensive mechanisms in the natural world.
When threatened, the hairy frog deliberately breaks its own toe bones, forcing the sharp, claw-like bone fragments through the skin of its toes to create formidable weapons (hence the reference to the X-Men superhero Wolverine, known for his retractable claws). The frog can then kick its foes to inflict painful lacerations. The triggered bones eventually move back into place on their own without any known retracting mechanism, and the toe wounds heal over — at least until the next time something makes the mistake of picking a fight with this remarkable and somewhat devious creature.
The Mimic Octopus Is the World’s Most Amazing Shapeshifter
The mimic octopus was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, and it’s perhaps no surprise that it took so long to spot them. These masters of camouflage not only change shape and color to match various objects and surroundings, but they can even mimic other species.
While most mimics in the animal kingdom can take on the characteristics of just one other species, the mimic octopus impersonates several, including lionfish, jellyfish, sea snakes, shrimps, and crabs, as well as small sponges and even tube-worm tubes. What’s more, this amazing shapeshifter can switch between mimicking other creatures rapidly. It chooses which form to take based on threat assessment, selecting whatever sea creature poses the greatest threat to the predator they’re currently facing. For example, if the octopus is about to be attacked by territorial damselfish, it mimics the banded sea snake — a common predator of damselfish.
Tardigrades Are the Animal Kingdom’s Greatest Survivors
Tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are microscopic eight-legged animals that are the most resilient creatures known to science. These extremophiles can survive in conditions that would be instantly fatal to almost any other organism, including extremes of heat, cold, pressure, and radiation. They can even survive in the usually uninhabitable vacuum of space. Add to this the ability to go without food or water for 30 years, and you have one very tough little creature.
This incredible resiliency can largely be chalked up to two amazing adaptations. Their bodies contain a protein unique to the tardigrade called DSUP (short for “damage suppressor protein”) that protects their DNA from harmful radiation. They also possess an amazing survival trick called cryptobiosis: a state of inactivity triggered by dry environments in which the tardigrade squeezes all the water out of its body, retracts its heads and limbs, rolls up into a little ball, and becomes dormant. They can stay like this for years, only unfurling themselves and going on with their lives when conditions improve, making them the ultimate specialists in survival.
Tony is an English writer of nonfiction and fiction living on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
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