 Which is the biggest animal in the world?
Not only is the blue whale the biggest animal living today, it is the biggest that has ever lived! It's even bigger than the dinosaurs discovered so far. Weighing as much as 200 tons, a blue whale is 90-110 feet long with a heart the size of a Volkswagen! The largest-known dinosaur, Sauroposeidon, weighed only 70 tons and was just 60 feet tall.
 Why do fish travel in schools?
Small fish usually swim around in groups called ‘schools’ so that they can look like one large animal. This gives each little fish a better chance of not being eaten by predators. Schooling also helps fish find more food sources. Different fish have their own types of schools. Sardines swim in huge schools with hundreds of thousands to millions of fish.
 Did you know that a group of frogs is called an ‘army’?
 How are pearls formed?
Pearls are naturally created by shelled animals called mollusks. Oysters are a type of mollusk that can form pearls. When an irritant (like a piece of sand) enters a mollusks shell, the mollusk neutralizes the invader by secreting minerals called aragonite and conchiolin around it. These minerals, together called nacre, eventually build up to form a pearl and give it its luster.
 Why do penguins have darks backs and white fronts?
This is called counter-shading and helps penguins not be seen by predators such as orca and leopard seals. When they are in the water, looking from below, you would see their light coloured fronts which would help them blend in with the sky background, while when viewed from above they blend in with the dark colour of the deep sea.
 Penguins have some playful pastimes — they lie on their bellies and toboggan through the ice and snow and surf through the waves onto land. They also dive off cliffs into the water, hop back up onto the land and dive down again. Line-ups for good diving spots can get very long!
 What are corals?
Corals are invertebrate (without a backbone) animals called 'polyps'. Most live in groups of hundreds to thousands of identical polyps forming a 'colony'. The colony is formed by a process called 'budding' — the original polyp literally grows copies of itself.
Corals are classified as either hard or soft coral. Hard corals or 'reef building' corals extract abundant calcium from surrounding seawater and create a hardened structure for protection and growth. Coral reefs are therefore created by millions of tiny polyps forming large carbonate structures, which is home to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other species. Coral reefs are the largest living structures on the planet, and the only ones visible from space. Corals have a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship with zooxanthellae — one-celled animals that give corals their characteristic colours of pink, purple and green. The Great Barrier Reef, the largest complex of coral reef in the world, stretches for 2,000 km along the coast of Queensland, Australia. Composed of more than 2,800 individual reefs, it is the largest UNESCO World Heritage Area.
 Penguins have some playful pastimes — they lie on their bellies and toboggan through the ice and snow and surf through the waves onto land. They also dive off cliffs into the water, hop back up onto the land and dive down again. Line-ups for good diving spots can get very long!
 Is a starfish really a fish?
Starfish are more accurately called 'sea stars'. Although a starfish lives in water like a fish, it does not have a backbone like most fish. Starfish are not part of the fish family, but belong to the family of echinoderms. This family consists of animals that are radially symmetrical. This means their bodies are like hubs with spikes or tentacles coming out of their centres.
 What’s the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?
Both reptiles are members of the crocodilian family and you can tell them apart by their teeth. Alligators have slight overbites, so you can't see their teeth when their mouths are closed whereas crocodile teeth show on the outside of their mouths even when closed. Both have uniquely-shaped noses and are different colours. Alligators have short, blunt, rounded snouts and are grayish-black. Crocodiles have long tapered snouts and are a light tan or brown.
 The most-feared shark is the Great White Shark,
responsible for most attacks on humans.
Simple Science
AN ICE CUBE LIFTER
Lift an ice cube with a string.
|
|
