(image borrowed from Australian Museum)
Some Australian cuttlefish are larger than the others and when it comes to "wooing" the alluring female giant Australian cuttlefish the littler guys don't have a chance against their bigger brethren. These little guys will then hang out with the girls by changing their colors to resemble the female coloring and then sneak up on them and mate with them.
Fun Fact: Nematode worms will go even further than this and will change its sex to increase its chances of mating. Females actually have the ability to self-fertilize and produce her own offspring, all of which are born female.
That's actually pretty creepy. Scary even. But that factoid on nematoads is rather interesting!
(image borrowed from Parkway Pest Services)
The red and speckled bug of the Coccinellidae family are called ladybugs in the US. In England, Australia, India, and Pakistan they are called "ladybirds." Entomologists call them "lady beetles." They pretty much have a different name everywhere, in Russia their name translates to "God's little cow" and in Turkey, it's "good luck beetle" and in Hebrew it's "Moses's cow."
FUN FACT: Even the male ladybugs are called ladybugs.
Wow! That's a lot of different names! I mean...Moses's cow?
(image borrowed from Oceana)
A female blacktip shark grew up in an aquarium in Virginia and had no contact with other male sharks of her kind for the 8 years of her life. Her handlers were very surprised when she became pregnant, but it wasn't a surprise to ichthyologists or fish biologists who long suspected that sharks have the ability to reproduce by virgin birth. Female sharks can become pregnant without the assistance of male sharks and her offspring will have the same DNA as her. Ichthyologists believe this has become more common for female sharks as sharks are being overfished and leaving few viable mates for each other.
That's weird! I honestly didn't know this about sharks!
(image borrowed from Wikipedia)
Female blue sharks and Greenland sharks have a very thick skin that's twice as thick as their male counterparts. This breed of shark mates face-to-face and the males bite the female violently to hold them in place while mating.
Dang these animals are violent in their mating habits!
(image borrowed from Encyclopedia Britannica)
While most sharks tend to live in warmer or tropical waters, the Greenland shark likes it cold, really, really cold! It's found as far north as the Arctic ocean and spends much of its time deep below in the darkest part of the ocean.
Suffice is to say that I will never have to worry about this breed of shark!
That's so interesting about sharks! I had no idea!
ReplyDeletecute ladybug and i love all the shark shares. i knew they were violent, but face to face?
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental