There has been some debate on this, depending on how you define an animal’s size. The Bumblebee Bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) is definitely the world’s smallest species of bat. It is about 30mm in length and weighs about 2 grams (less than an American penny). It is the only known species in its genus and is […]
The largest spider in the world is a tarantula called the Goliath Birdeater. An adult can weigh over four ounces (about the size of a large mouse) and has a leg span of up to 12 inches. The spider was given its unique name by Victorian explorers who witnessed one eating a hummingbird although birds […]
Mimosa pudica (also known as the “sensitive plant” or “Tickle Me plant”) is well known for its rapid leaf movement. In the evening the leaflets will fold together and the whole leaf droops downward. It then re-opens at sunrise. This type of movement is called nyctinastic movement. The leaves also close up under various other […]
This is a very generic question, but one that actually gets asked quite frequently. Of course, the short answer is that snakes have a varied diet, depending on factors such as their species, size, age, geographic locale, etc. A fairly accurate answer for what most snakes eat might be: insects, worms, lizards, birds, small amphibians […]
This is a bit of a humorous post as this question has made the rounds on the Internet for the last several years. The short answer is: goldfish are egg-layers and as such, they’re never considered pregnant. A female goldfish carrying eggs is said to be “ripe” but no ichthyologist would say she’s pregnant. You […]
Some magnets are natural (lodestone and magnetite are naturally occurring), and some magnets are man-made. The magnets made in the laboratory are usually made of a mixture of iron, cobalt, nickel and other elements. The substances are magnetized by a couple of different methods. You could move a permanent magnet in one direction across the […]