5 Almost Immortal Animals

The idea of immortality is almost as old as mankind itself. There are countless myths of fountains of youth, mystical elixirs that increase lifespan as well as attempts to create lifestyles that would make one live long, if not forever, but all this is just fantasy, right? It turns out that immortality is possible in the world that we live in now. The nature holds secrets to unusually long lives and even ways how to live forever. Let’s take a look at 5 of the most impressive immortal creatures and learn their secrets.

5. Turtles

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

All species that can live longer than humans are doing better than us. The fact that turtles can live for a couple of centuries might not be news to you. However, you might not know that biologically there is almost no difference between a young turtle and a turtle that is far into its second century of life. That means that the way how turtles age is different than humans. It’s like as soon turtles reach their puberty, their organs stop aging. Teenage mutant ninja turtles might not be that mutant after all because of this. Also it seems that turtle hearts don’t always beat in response to nerve impulses, and sometimes they don’t even beat at all. It is as if they could turn it off when it is not needed. So, living well over hundred years is impressive, yet that is still far from immortality. How come that oceans aren’t overcrowded with turtles? Turtles can die, but that is never from old age. They die from diseases or predators.

4. Bdelloids

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

These little fellows are microscopic animals that can survive for ten years outside of fresh water, which is their their natural habitat, and surprisingly, can even withstand powerful blasts of radiation before becoming infertile. These creatures haven’t reproduced sexually for almost hundred million years. This is an interesting fact, since most of animal species in nature survive much better if they reproduce sexually, because this adds diversity in their genes. Bdelloids do take care of mixing genes, but they do that in a unique way. They steal them from other species. A single bdelloid specimen could have genetic material from hundreds of different species. This is possible because their DNA chain has breaks, allowing to add genomes from nearby dead animals, for example. This genetic versatility makes them much more likely to survive in environments that would be deadly to most species.

3. Jellyfish Turritopsis-Nutricula

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Turritopsis nutricula is a tiny jellyfish, only 4 to 5 mm long, but their lives can potentially be infinite. These creatures have an ability to regenerate. When a mature jellyfish is in obstacles that can threaten its life, for example, when it is starving or injured, it can attach itself to the ocean surface where it was born and turn into a polyp. Its cells then undergo a very strange transformation. They are literally reverting back to their baby-state. Muscle cells can transform into sperm or egg cells, nerve cells can turn into muscle cells. In whole animal kingdom there is nothing even remotely close to this. Surprisingly, this animal reproduces asexually so all specimens are genetically identical.

2. Clams

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Clams can live up to half of millennium years old.  That means, there might be some clams out there in the ocean that are even older than the United States of America. That’s quite impressive. The oldest known clam  is currently 410 years old, but who knows what the ocean depths are hiding. The reason why they live so long is because of their incredibly slow aging process. Clam cells are replaced on much, much slower rate than humans. They just slowly grow bigger and bigger. Once clams reach sexual maturity the growth enzymes remain stable for 150 or even more years. Sadly, the scientists don’t know yet how exactly clams can age so slowly.

1. Glass Sponges

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Living for 400-500 years sounds good, doesn’t it? How about living for a thousand? No, how about living more than ten thousand years? Yes, that’s exactly how long can this humble looking little glass sponge live for.The specimens you see in the picture can be older than modern humans. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors could be walking this same old Earth when these creatures became alive. Glass sponges can live up to impressive 15,000 years. They surely are the oldest living animals on this planet. Also they grow very slowly, glass sponges can be two meters long and weigh 10kgs. Scientists take great interest in researching these animals. Thanks to measuring the concentrations of manganese, calcium and oxygen inside some glass sponges, it is now known how the sea temperatures have changed over thousands of years. Who knows what else will we learn from these natural sea archives?

Two Gender Chimeras: Bilateral Gynandromorphs

Biologically there are three sexes: female, male and intersex. The sex of a creature is defined by internal and external bodies, sexual anatomy, chromosomes and hormones. Although most of animals fit into either female or male category, intersex in animal kingdom is more common than you might think. It can be represented in many different ways such as ambiguous genitals or DNA chromosomes that are responsible for determining the gender. This time let’s take a look at the strange nature phenomenon known as bilateral gynandromorphs.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

What are bilateral gynandromophs? Gynandromorphs are individuals that have some male and some female characteristics or in other words, they belong to intersex gender. Bilateral gynandromorphs are animals that are half male and half female, divided lengthways. Lepidoptera species that include moths and butterflies have shown a big number of such specimens. For example, in the picture above you can seePolyommatus icarus also known as the Common Blue butterfly that is half male and half female.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

This phenomenon is occasionally spotted among other species such as crustaceans, although the likelihood to see a bilateral gynandromorph specimen outside of lepidoptera species is very, very low. If we take a look at lobsters, for example, the chance of meeting a bilateral gynandromorph  lobster is 1 in 30 million. The odds are a bit higher if you look at the insect world. Fruit flies sometimes look like they have been split right in the middle and glued together – half brown, half yellow. Sometimes one eye is white while other is red. The genitalia of these specimens can be unique such as two full sets of both male and female genitalia. However, most of the time the genitalia is a mix of tissues that don’t look like either male or female reproductive organs.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The reason why this happens is because of chromosome mutations. Normally sex is determined using the XX/XY system, where females have 2X chromosomes and males have 1X and 1Y chromosome. Occasionally a mutation can happen where one female chromosome is lost during the first mitotic division in a female zygote. In this situation, one of the daughter nucleus  has 2X chromosomes (XX), and the other daughter nucleus contains only 1X chromosome (XO). The XX nucleus will create a female body while XO nucleus will create a male body in spite of the lack of Y chromosome. That means that the “splitting” of the body has happened during the first mitotic division, when the sex of both the left and the right side has been determined.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

When it comes to why the physical features are so different such as the body or eye color, the reason of this is that the eye and body color genes are found within the X chromosome. If the loss of X chromosome happens after the first mitotic division, the animal will become a mosaic gyandromorph. That means it would have patches or regions that are male and female instead of the sharp bilateral contrast between the male and female body halves. These creatures are also known as chimeras, which are essentially the opposite of identical twins, where one embryo turns into two.

The 10 Most Intriguing Ancient Cities

If you think that today’s cities are awesome, you might as well be right, but history can show us that there were truly astonishing cities back in the ancient times. Wouldn’t be great if we can get to know some of these ancient cities? Well, that is exactly what we are going to do. Brace yourself, because this is our selection of 10 most intriguing ancient cities.

• Sanchi, India

Trademark of the city is one of the most beautiful monuments in the world, “Great Stupa”. The monument is in a great condition and it is considered to be one of the best preserved early stupas. The central room is located in this hemispherical dome of excellence, and it is used for placement of the relics that marks Buddhism in all of its glory.

Image source by http://www.manoratravel.com

• Palenque, Mexico

Mayan culture left its marking in Central America to the present day. Palenque is the obvious proof of that fact. Great palace must be seen if you are a tourist, but observatory and a temple pyramid of Pacal Votan are also pure classics of Mayan architecture.

Image source by http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com

• Ephesus, Turkey

It was founded around 1000 years BC. The city itself was an Attic- Ionian colony and the temple of Artemis is one of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World. It is the place of many different cultures and, because of that; many monuments are to be found there. Some of those are: the Temple of Hadrian, the Basilica of St. John, the Roman Library of Celsus, and many more.

Image source by www.bestourism.com

• Petra, Jordan

The city is pretty much carved into mountain, or to say it more precisely, in red stone. As it is the case with the previous city, we can found mixture of cultures and architectures here as well. This time, it is a mixture of eastern traditional architecture with Hellenic culture. The end result is truly amazing.

Image source by http://www.prlog.org

• Persepolis, Iran

The capital of the ancient Persian Empire will never cease to amaze us. The trademarks of the city are those tombs that are positioned very high in the walls. There are many inscriptions here too, and the city itself was built by King Darius high in the mountains.

Image source by www.nationalgeographic.com

• Pompeii, Italy

You might be surprised, but Pompeii was a truly stylish city of old. Everything is so well preserved that we had to put it on our list. Roman architecture at its best is shown in this ancient piece of paradise.

Image source by http://famouswonders.com

• Nimrud, Iraq

Nimrud was Assyrian capital for many years. The first thing to be noticed is that ivory in the throne room. The city is also famous because of tombs of its ancient rulers.

Image source by http://www.atlastours.net

• Stonehenge, England

It is safe to say that this prehistoric monument is the trademark of a prehistoric period. Scientists are puzzled by its existence and they tend to have many debates about this particular topic.

Image source by http://trip.worldtravellist.com

• Machu Picchu, Peru

Incas had a truly great civilization. Their architecture was put to the test here. Machu Pichu is a site to be seen for sure. When combined with the nature at its best, we might even have the prettiest ancient city in the world.

Image source by http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com

• Angkor, Cambodia

Khmer Empire had its best moments around 9^th century. That is exactly when the city was built. When we think about ancient religious monuments, the first thought should be this place. There are more than 1200 stone markings and many towers as well.

Image source by www.nationalgeographic.com

Ten of the Biggest Insects of the World

Gratitude for mother nature is easy when it comes to the sweet, the small, the non-threatening beings…but what about the huge insects and arachnids on this page, many of that are endangered or threatened: How would you really feel facing down a spider the size of a wall clock or an 8-inch-long beetle?

1. Giant Weta

                                                                                                  Photo: Wikimedia Commons

New Zealand’s giant weta gets its name from the Maori word for “god of bad looks” — and it’s not hard to see why.

2. Stag Beetle

The 3 inch male stag beetle could be most easily identified by its spiky front antlers  also called  mandibles — that are a key part of courtship rituals and wrestling matches; you’d have more to fear from the a bit smaller females, though, which don’t have the giant spikes but do have a more fearsome bite.

3. Goliath Beetle

These types of beetles are just one representative of the 30,000-powerful scarab family, which has roamed our planet for 300 million years, and reportedly holds the record for world’s heaviest insect: One topped out at 4.5 inches long and 3.5 ounces.

4. Giant Walking Stick

Female walking sticks in many cases are larger than the males, and have been seen to reach as long as 21 inches when measured from end to end. You will find them almost worldwide, in warm regions and some temperate zones, where they take shelter under plants during the day and feast on leaves at night.

5. Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly

When it comes to insects, butterflies are the sort many find wonderful on a grand level — that is a good thing for the Queen Alexandra Birdwing, because their wingspan can reach as much as one foot across.

6. Titan Beetle

Not only is it huge for a beetle — it’s the most enormous fellow of its species, longhorn beetles, and the longest beetle found so far in the Amazon rainforest — it’s just plain huge, with adults reaching as long as 8 inches in length.

7. Dung Beetle

While bigger animals can carry more weight overall, they can’t carry as much proportional weight; the dung beetle can move items with a mass that’s 1,141 times heavier than itself.

8. Giant Water Bug

It’s not uncommon for water bugs to be mistaken for cockroaches — however at four inches long, the giant water bugs are significantly bigger. These bugs thrive near slow-moving water where they can eat tadpoles and small fish (and survive on crickets when in captivity).

9. Atlas Moth

The Atlas moth, so called with regard to either the mythological Greek giant of the same name or the wing patterns that look like maps, has the biggest wing surface of the moth family (many have more than 62 square inches of wing, though they don’t have the widest wingspan).

10. Goliath Bird-Eating Spider

It’s not harmless if you’re a frog, lizard, small snake, or — yes — baby bird: The toothless spider incapacitates its victim by using the venom in its fangs, and then spits digestive juices onto the prey so that it can “slurp up its meal

5 Most Beautiful Rivers Around the World

Who doesn't like rivers? Well maybe someone doesnt , but we sure do 

1.Cano Cristales River – River Of Rainbow, Northern Colombia

Cano Cristales River also called River of Rainbow located in northern Colombia present truly gem in this wild and beautiful country.

Its around 100 km long and 20 meter wide . It is hard to reach this destination , you have to fly by plain there to Macarena and then by boat trough unmarked jungle to find this river of colors, but if you are persistent enough you want regret it when you see this joy to eyes .

2.Río Futaleufú, Chile And Argentina

Small town Futaleufu in Chile gives name to this amazing river wich flows trough 2 states Chile and Argentina .This river is also known for popularity among kayakers.

They find it very attracting and one of the most famous places for kayaking.Clear and magic blue color gives this river specific charm which will leave you breathless if you stare long enough, at least i felt like that .

It rightfully belongs in our list about most beautiful  rivers.

3.Zambezi River, Zambia And Mozambique

Zambezi River is famous african river that flows trough 6 states in Africa. Most know spot of this river are beautiful Victoria Falls also know as the biggest waterfalls in the world . Around 2 millions people each year  visits this amazing water cascades . Popular spot here is also Devil Pool, famous for its photoshoped images that circle on the internet .

4.Yangtze River, China

Yangtze River is the longest river in the Asia ,it flows 6,418 kilometers.With their amazing landscapes , gorgeous canyon and mountain it belong in our list of most beautiful rivers in the world.

5.Danube River, Central Europe

Danube river flows trough ten countries of Europe. It give different looks on Cultures of countries that flows trough.Journey trough Danube is inspired with medieval  and modern spirit of Europe. Its the main artery of Central Europe. You will enjoy medieval castles when you come to Austria and the spirit of the Eastern Europe when you pass Croatia , Serbia and Romania . Lot of different cultures gives this river more beauty 

5 Unusual Sea Snakes

Sea snakes inhabit the warm tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. these animals that have evolved from terrestrial ancestors, and during their adaptation to aquatic lifestyle, almost all species have lost their ability to move on land. However, unlike fish they don’t have gills and have to surface to breathe. They are predators of the sea that use their venomous fangs to paralyze and kill their prey which is usually small fish. Most of them are mildly tempered, but they all are venomous and could be dangerous if provoked. Here is a list of most unusual species that stand out among other sea serpents with their looks or behavior.

Turtle Head Sea Snake (Emydocephalus Annulatus)

Source: Flickr

The turtle head sea snake got its name due to its short, blunt head that looks very similar to a turtle’s head. They can be found in a wide range of colors – dark blue, brown, black, and they often have blotchy or banded patterns in lighter shades of grey or yellow. Their fangs are quite small, even less than a millimeter long, because their diet consists mainly of  fish eggs.  They eat quite frequently, sometimes several times an hour and form small social groups for protection. This is the least venomous sea snake in this list and when confronted it’s first natural reaction is to hide in reefs rather than attacking.

Hooked Nose Sea Snake (Enhydrina Schistosa)

Source: Flickr

The name of the hooked nose sea snake comes from the distinctive beak like snout. This serpent is usually dark grey above with a yellow or light olive belly. Its usually eats small fish and fish eggs, but sometimes they can even swallow an eel. In fact, they can swallow a prey that is twice size of its neck. It is one of the most venomous snakes on this planet and is responsible for more than 50% of human deaths that are caused by sea snake bites. However, it has the same shyness that most sea snakes have and is actually more scared of humans than humans are scared of them.

Yellow Belly Sea Snake (Pelamis Platurus)

Source: Flickr

The yellow belly sea snake got its name because of its bright yellow belly. The upper part of the body is black. The body shape of these snakes is compressed, it’s twice the diameter of the snake’s neck. Yellow belly sea snakes are one of the rare serpents that can actually be found in open ocean. These creatures like to hang around in groups among debris which gives them a great hiding place for hunting fish.

Olive Sea Snake (Aipysurus Laevis)

The body of olive sea snake is stout and rounded in olive brown, purple-brown or golden color. Its head is not distinct from the body, so for an unobservant viewer they might appear to be like big worms.  This animal is one of the few sea snakes that can comfortably move on the land although it spends most of the time in water. They hunt for prey in coral reefs which can be dark at times and, although this snake is not gifted with excellent eyesight, the nature has taken care that this snake can see what happens in underwater caves. Their tails have photo-receptors that detect light. Unlike the most sea snakes, olive sea snake can be quite aggressive. It is not advised to touch them even if they are on sand, because they are known for feigning death.

Banded Sea Snake (Laticauda Colubrina)

Source: Flickr

The banded sea snake is white with black rings circling the entire length its body. It lives mostly in the sea, but comes to land for reproduction. Because of this amphibian nature, the banded sea snake has cylindrical body shape the same as land snakes and ventral scales. The body is well suited for moving on land and even climbing trees. However, its tail is shaped like a paddle which allows the banded sea snake to swim fast in water. The head and tail of this creature look quite similar which sometimes can confuse predators. If the snake’s tail is attacked, it is less likely that it would suffer fatal injuries.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article and getting known to these unusual sea animals!