Facts About Xenarthrans - strangefacts

• Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters (Xenarthra) are notable for the unique joints in their backbone that provide them with the strength and support they need to dig and burrow

• Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters have few or no teeth and a small brain

• Xenarthra are an ancient group of placental mammals that once roamed across Gondwanaland before the continents of the southern hemisphere separated into their present-day configuration

• When Gondwanaland divided, it split up to form South America, Africa, India, Arabia, New Zealand, and Australia, Xenarthra were initially isolated on the continent of South America but have since spread northward into areas of Central America and southern parts of North America

• Though xenarthran populations were absent from Africa, Asia, and Australia, these regions contain unrelated species that evolved to resemble xenarthrans

• Similar environmental conditions in these distant parts of the world resulted in species that, although unrelated, adapted in a similar manner and as a result resemble each other in some ways. This evolutionary dynamic is known as convergent evolution

• Examples of species that display convergent evolution with the xenarthrans include the aardvark (Africa), the pangolin (Africa and SE Asia), and the spiny anteater (Australia)

• These animals all have genetically different ancestors than the xenarthrans and consequently belong to different orders than the xenartrhans, yet they have evolved similar characteristics

• Xenarthrans were classified in the past together with the pangolin , also scaly anteater or Tenggiling, is a mammal of the order Pholidota

• There is only one extant family and one genus of pangolins, comprising eight species

Facts About Butterflies - strangefacts

• Having a wingspan of only ½", the smallest butterfly is in the world is found in South Africa. It is know as the Dwarf Blue Butterfly

• Did you know that butterflies need the warmth of the sun to enable them to fly? Butterflies are cold-blooded and will not fly if the temperature is below 50 degrees

• Fiction, you will not hurt a butterfly if you touch it, although you might rub off some of the color of its wings which are actually miniature scales

• Butterfly wings are actually clear. Their colors and patterns are made by the reflection of the scales that cover them

• In Pacific Grove, California, it is a misdemeanor to kill a butterfly

• Caterpillars do NOT have bones, they have over 1,000 muscles in which they use to move from place to place and they can move at a very quick pace

• If you find a caterpillar and place him in a designated place, before you know it , he will have crawled out of sight

• Nicole Kidman has a morbid fear of butterflies

• Butterflies taste with their feet

• Butterflies can see color in the ultraviolet range, revealing patterns on flowers to them that humans can’t see

Facts About Ice Cream - strangefacts

• Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs loved every flavor except for Mint Oreo

• Julia Roberts and Christie Brinkley once sold ice cream

• Barack Obama worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared the month of July to be "National Ice Cream Month."

• One out of five people that eat ice cream binge on ice cream in the middle of the night. The person is usually between 18 - 24 years old

• The last thing Elvis Presley ate before he died was four scoops of ice cream and 6 chocolate chip cookies
• Donald F. Duncan, the man who made the yo-yo an American tradition, is also credited with popularizing the parking meter and introducing Good Humor "ice cream on a stick

• Dolley Madison is credited with inventing ice cream

• Nancy Johnson, the wife of a naval officer, is credited for inventing the ice cream freezer

• Ice cream cones were first served in 1904 at the world’s fair in St. Louis, MO. US Patent # 3,477,070
  

Facts About Kissing - strangefacts

• You burn 26 calories in a one-minute kiss

• Longest underwater kiss - 2 minutes and 18 seconds in Tokyo, Japan, on April 2, 1980

• Ancient Egyptians kissed with their noses instead of with their lips

• The average amount of time spent kissing for a person in a lifetime is 20,160 minutes

• The longest kiss on record lasted 30 hours and 45 minutes. Dror Orpaz and Carmit Tsubara recorded it on April 5, 1999 at a kissing contest held in Tel Aviv, Israel

• It takes 20 different muscles to form a kiss

• James Bond is also known as Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang

• The first far eastern country to permit kissing in films was China. The first oriental screen kiss was bestowed on Miss Mamie Lee in the movie "Two Women in the House"

• People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)

• The record for most kisses in a movie is 127 in Don Juan
  

Facts About Bats - strangefacts

• More species of bats live in Texas than in any other part of the United States

• Tens of thousands of bats live in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

• The largest known colony of bats lives in Bracken Cave in Texas. Biologists estimate more than 20 million Mexican Free-Tail bats call this cave home

• In China, bats are considered good fortune

• Bats make up almost a fourth of all mammal species. Only the order of rodents has more

• Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. Other mammals may glide and give the appearance of flight, such as squirrels and lemurs, but only bats possess powered flight and can hover, flap and soar

• The term "blind as a bat," is incorrect. Bats have perfectly acceptable eyesight, but the majority use echolocation while in flight, and hunting

• Male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of any mammal

• Vampire bats use rivers to navigate

• Bat wings are made of two thin layers of skin stretched over the bat's arm and fingers. Bats have a thumb and four fingers, just like people

Facts About Harry Houdini - strangefacts

• Harry Houdini (1874-1926) The Great Houdini  is a name that will forever define the term "escape artist."

• As the Budapest-born, American-bred performer would so often proclaim, "No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom."

• The real name of  Harry Houdini was Erich Weiss

• There is no question that Houdini is the most famous magician in history. His name is synonymous with escapes; his ability to get out of seemingly impossible situations- and his knack for publicizing these events- made him a legend in his own time.

• The Houdini myth is about to be examined, and truth really is stranger than fiction!

• Houdini was born Erich Weiss on March 24, 1874. Though he claimed throughout his life that Appleton, Wisconsin was his birthplace

• He was really born in Budapest, Hungary. He was four years old when his family moved to America

• Houdini was small, standing a mere 5'5", with dark, wavy hair, dark gray eyes and a high-pitched voice

• Houdini was poorly educated. He was, however, extremely athletic and highly motivated to succeed

• According to an autobiographical pamphlet published by the magician in 1920, Houdini said that his favorite place was Hollywood, California and that his favorite song was Auld Lang Syne (the traditional New Year's Eve tune)
  

Facts About Meteorites - strangefacts

• A meteorite is bits of the outer space that enter the earth surface surviving the impact. They are chunks and are no bigger than particles of dust and sand

• When in the outer space they are known as meteoroids but once when they enter the earth surface they are called meteors

• A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky, popularly known as the shooting star or falling star, which is produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere

• Meteoroids move very fast. Some enter the Earth's atmosphere at as much as 130,000 miles per hour

• Meteorites contain the oldest known rocks in our solar system

• They also contain 'pre-solar grains', which are minerals that formed around other stars probably billions of years before our solar system was born

• Up to 4 billion meteoroids fall to Earth everyday

• But most of them are too tiny to do any noticeable harm

• In 2004, a 30-foot-wide meteoroid hit the atmosphere over Antarctica, leaving 2 million pounds of dust in its wake

• That was enough to seed rain clouds and affect climate all the way on the other side of the planet