Interesting and Unbelievable Facts

There are more than  300,000 species  of plants on earth. Around 90% of them are flowering plants. The  three most abundant members  of plant families are the sunflower family (24,000 species), the orchid family (20,000 species), and the legume family (18,000 species). These three families comprise around   25% of all the flowering plant species  on earth.  Plants can survive  low-level radiation . Few plants survived and grew near Chernobyl ( Ukraine ) after the nuclear disaster in 1986, thanks to the adoption of necessary changes in their inner structure. ( Source ) About 80,000 plant species are edible . But currently, only 150 species are cultivated for human and animal food. ( Source ) Tropical rainforests cover 7% of the earth’s land mass but contain nearly 50% of all known plant species. Plants in these forests are the source of 120 prescription drugs for diseases such as cancer, leukemia, heart problems, malaria, gl...

Feathers, laying of eggs, and toothless beaked jaws are the  main features that distinguish birds from other vertebrate animals . There are more than 10,000 known species of birds. 13% of these birds are under threat of extinction. ( Source ) More than half of all bird species belong to the order Passerine (house sparrow is one among them).  There are around 5,700 species of passerine. ( Source ) Birds have unique features in their eyes that enable them to  see UV (ultraviolet) light . ( Source ) Common swifts  remain in the air  continuously for ten months without touching the ground. During their migration from Europe to Africa (and then back to Europe ), these birds eat, mate, and collect nest material in the air. During this process, swifts can land on houses or branches but not on the land. They do not rest at night for a longer duration. It suggests that they can sleep in the air as well. ( Source ) Birds are the main  predators of snakes ...

Animals have  two main groups:  vertebrates (with a spine) and invertebrates (without a spine).  Mammals , birds, reptiles, fishes, and amphibians are the main types of vertebrate animals. Invertebrate animals generally include  insects , arachnids (spiders, scorpions, mites, etc.), mollusks (snails, octopus, squid, etc.), and crustaceans (lobsters, crabs , shrimp, etc.). Mammals and birds are warm-blooded animals that can adjust their body temperatures according to their surroundings. All the other animals are cold-blooded. Most animals appeared during the Cambrian period around 540 million years ago, in duration of 20 to 25 million years. It is known as the  Cambrian explosion  and is the main event used by creationists to deny Darwin’s theory of evolution. ( Source ) Pompeii worm is the earth’s  most heat-tolerant  animal that can live at a temperature of 176 F (80 o  C). The bacteria on its body help the wor...