Friday 24 November 2017

THE LIVING WORLD


  • Rainforests cover less than 2% of Earth's total surface area but they are home to about half of it's plants and animals.
  • Arctic Tern  performs the largest known annual migration.
  • Tropical and subtropical rainforests present examples of how a hot ,steady climate promotes remarkable diversity in plant growth.
  • One in every 113 men,women and children is a refugee.
  • War and Violence cost global economy 13.6 trillion dollar in 2015 according to the Global Annual Peace Index.Worldwide 65 million people were forced to  flee their homes last year.
  • One of the oldest animals in the world live in the ocean.The oldest 507 year old was an ocean quahog(Ming,scientific name Arctica islandica) found on a seabed near Iceland in 2006.
  • The oldest tree in the world is 4148 years old Methuselah, a bristle corn pine in California .
  • The oldest rock fragment in the world is a tiny zircon crystal dating back 4.4 billion years,found in Australia.
  • The oldest known fossils of cyanobacteria found in rocks in western Australia , belongs to 900 million years back.
  • The oldest mountain range is the Appalachian Mountains.
  • Oldest oceanic crust found under the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The oldest water  located 2 miles under Ontario, Canada,  in Kidd Mine,the deepest base metal mine in the world.The water here  is 2 billion years old. 
  • The oldest human fossil found in Ethiopia in 2013.It was 2.8 million  years old.
  • The Dragonflies are able to determine if an insect is prey or not within 500th of a second.They are able to do this because they can see 300 images per second.
  • Tiny eel like aquatic critter is known for it's ability to detect approaching storms.
  • They have swim bladder attuned to changes not only in water pressure but also barometric pressure . They become more active due to changes in barometric pressure .They are known as weather fish.
  • Whiskers are sensitive and accurate that seals can even hunt while blind folded.Whiskers follow trails of fish swimming up to 600 feet away.
  • African giant pouched rat has a super-sniffer that we humans use to find out buried land mines.
  • Specially trained rats can locate land mine with their keen sense of smell and even walk over the land mines without triggering them.They are so efficient that they can 2000 square feet in twenty minutes.It would take a human with a metal detector 4 days to search the same area.
  • The Penguins have to see well on land to find breeding sites and in water to find food  and avoid predators.  They are able to do this with the help of a flattened cornea.The flattened cornea refracts light less than a human eye does.Coupled with their eye muscles that allow them to change the shape of the eyes ' lense penguins can focus in and out of water with ease. 
  • Beetles are everywhere.But Jewel Beetles (belonging to Buprestidae family)are different.Their distinct and beautiful colours are notable.They can detect fires up to 7 miles away using infrared receptors.The thoracic infrared organs pick up radiation emitted by forest fires.This is a useful trait since the beetle requires recently burned wood to lay their eggs.
  • Humans and cats are roughly the same when it comes to hearing things on the lower end of the sound spectrum, cats hear better than we do when it comes to higher pitched sounds.Cats can hear 1.6 octaves higher than us.(one octave above a dog).
  • Mantis shrimp can detect a range of colours. Because it's eyes have up to 16 photoreceptors .A male is able to know that the female is ready to mate by seeing the biofluorescence. Its wavelength matches that of the detected shrimp's eye pigments. 
  • Dogs are anecdotally considered reliable indicators of Earthquakes.Their keen sense of hearing alerts them to impending temblor. Ancient Greeks have noticed dogs behaving strangely before earthquakes.
  • Hamsters communicate each other  at ultrasonic frequency.The sense of hearing of hams is so good that they are able to hear on the ultrasonic frequency.
  • World's biggest shell fish lives in coral reefs.giant clams grow well over one meter long  - big enough to bathe in it's shell.
People live in forests.300 million people live in forests worldwide.
Deforestation kills wildlife,reduces oxygen,damages soil,pollutes atmosphere and finally messes up our world.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth.
Bushfire spread across the continent from December 2019 onwards. It lasted for months with devastating effects. Plant ecosystems as well as livestock and other wildlife were lost in huge numbers.