Hello everyone, I am a sea cucumber, welcome to my channel.
There are thousands of species in the biological world, and although humans have discovered and named millions of species, this may still be only a small part of the natural world, and new species are constantly being discovered. Today I will introduce you to several exotic species that have been discovered in recent years.
Magic Hat Spider
The spider is scientifically called the Griffin's Woolly Round Spider, and because of its strange appearance and the magic hat in the famous science fiction novel "Harry Potter", the scientists who found it also directly named it after the owner of the magic hat.
Discovered in 2016 in the Western Ghats in southwest India, the spider has a strange back shape that is exactly the same as a magic hat, although it does not have the magic of a magic hat, but it is an excellent camouflage to avoid predators. Whether on the ground or on the branches, its color and shape are like dead leaves, making it difficult for birds and other predators to distinguish, and combined with its body length of no more than 1 cm, this camouflage increases their chances of survival.
Magic Cap Spider
Yellow-bellied three-fingered stone dragon
I believe that everyone should be familiar with the story of "painting snakes and adding feet", and the three-fingered stone dragon is like a realistic version of painting snakes and adding feet, and the ancients are not deceived! The creature was found in southern Australia, and when it was first discovered, scientists classified them as snakes, and it wasn't until later that they saw the limbs and confirmed that they were a type of lizard.
But it seems to be a little reluctant to say that it is a lizard, because compared to other lizards, their limbs are too short, and the proportion of the tail to the body is too large, and the way of progress is more like the gliding of snakes, so it may still be closer to snakes. Of course, these are all understandable, and the most shocking and puzzling thing is that there are two different breeding patterns in this creature: the three-fingered stone dragon on the seashore is oviparous, and the three-fingered stone dragon on the mountain is indeed a fetal birth, which makes biologists very puzzled, and biologists are still studying the reasons for this situation. Maybe the current stage of the three-fingered stone dragon is just a transitional stage of evolution, and has not yet fully evolved?
Volta electric eel
The electric eel, known as the "high-voltage line in the water," is the most feared freshwater creature on Earth. Scientists have long believed that there is only one type of electric eel in the world, until the discovery of the voltaic eel and another "Watt's electric eel", and the volta electric eel is quickly known to the public because of its highest voltage.
According to scientific records, the electric eel in the previous test, the highest voltage measured is 650 volts, and the maximum voltage of the volt electric eel can reach 860 volts, much higher than the highest voltage measured before, is currently known to be the strongest "biological generator", although the instantaneous high voltage is not enough to electrocute large organisms, but can cause them to faint and be drowned, humans are also one of the victims.
According to scientists, the reason why this electric eel can release such a high voltage is related to the waters in which they live, the water quality of ordinary electric eels is rich in minerals and better conductivity, so it does not need too high a voltage to electrocute or corona prey, while volta electric eels live in ultra-clear waters, due to the lack of conductive minerals, conductivity is relatively poor, so a larger voltage is needed to achieve the same effect of ordinary electric eels.
Glowing tortoiseshell turtle
Tortoiseshell turtles are endangered species, especially in recent decades, the number of hawksbill turtles has decreased by about 90%, and the glowing tortoiseshell turtles are even fewer. The tortoiseshell turtle was inadvertently discovered by scientists while photographing coral reefs in the Solomon Islands, and is the first reptile in history to be found to glow on its own.
Many organisms can actually emit fluorescence through reflection, this light is called biological fluorescence, but this fluorescence requires ultraviolet radiation, which is very different from its own fluorescence, so the discovery of luminous hawksbill turtles has also made biologists very excited, and it has also caused countless questions, such as how did their luminous ability come from? How is this fluorescence produced? Whether other creatures may also have this ability, etc.
Because there are many other creatures and coral reefs that emit biofluorescence in the sea where the glowing hawksbill turtle was found, scientists have determined that the tortoiseshell turtle emits light to avoid predators.
Pelican spider
The earliest understanding of pelican spiders can be traced back to 1854, when biologists found a fossil specimen of pelican spiders more than 50 million years old, but biologists at the time believed that this spider was extinct, until the end of the last century on the island of Madagascar found traces of this spider, but did not attract enough attention, until recent years to systematically analyze the spider, and named 18 different species.
Pelican spiders are very special in appearance, usually we see spiders do not have necks, but pelican spiders have slender necks, making it look very similar to pelicans, hence the name. In addition to their necks, they also have huge claws for hunting, and their main food source is other species of spiders. When the pelican spider finds its prey, it will quickly stab into the prey with one claw limb, and use the other claw limb to inject venom to paralyze the prey, and then hold the prey high until it cannot resist, like an assassin killer, so the pelican spider is also called "assassin spider".
But curiously, this spider does not attack its kind. Researchers once put Daigo spiders in the same vessel to study, if you put in three at the same time, they will form a triangular position, and if you put in four at the same time, they will form a square position, biologists are still looking for answers.
Ok, so that's all for today, see these strange species do you also want to explore?
I am a non-floating sea cucumber, tomorrow continue to take you to understand the magical creatures of nature, see you in the next issue, Kwa heli, Byebye ~~