We have learned many strange, weird, and wonderful facts about the Earth, animals, and our solar system throughout history. Yet, some of those discoveries have opened up a can of fact-worms that even the biggest know-it-alls might not know. These trivia tidbits dive into some nitty-gritty truths that actually made us a little uneasy.
From sharks being older than trees, to the surprising origins of chain saws, some of these facts are super interesting, and almost cool – but they definitely confound our normal way of thinking. For instance, that nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty, the egg who fell off the wall? It turns out he was never an egg at all. Read on for more unsettling facts that made us question everything.
- 1Elephants Can Maneuver Their Nether Parts Like A TrunkThe animal kingdom can be a strange place with unusual body parts, such as the neck of a giraffe or the trunk of an elephant. But the trunk is actually not the elephant’s only appendage it can move that way. Male elephants have prehensile penises they can use to prop themselves up, scratch their stomachs, or swat away pesky flies.There’s a good reason for an elephant’s prehensile (and massive) member. Since elephants are the world’s largest land animals at approximately 6 metric tons on average, it would be challenging to get into position to procreate, much less maneuver, without the aid of this large and freely moving body part.Ranked #1 by 1,450 voters with a 94% upvote rate1,450 votesWhat do you think?Wait, seriously?
- 2Cloudy Oysters Are Filled With Reproductive FluidsThe majority of oysters don’t stay the same sex over the course of their entire lives. Instead, oysters are known as protandric animals, which means they can change their sex organs from male to female over time. Usually, oysters have reproductive organs containing eggs and sperm. Once an oyster reaches maturation after a year of life, it will release sperm, and a few years later, it will release eggs. During spawning season, an oyster is filled with reproductive fluids that make it cloudy. If an oyster is not spawning, it will have an opaque appearance. People often don’t realize they are eating spawning oysters that are filled with reproductive fluid. Fortunately, if oysters have been handled correctly and refrigerated, it won’t harm humans to eat them during this spawning process. Ranked #2 by 1,129 voters with a 92% upvote rate1,129 votesWait, seriously?
- 3Chain Saws Were Invented To Assist In ChildbirthToday, chain saws are primarily used to cut wood, but this is not why they were invented. Before the first cesarean section in 1794, small medical knives and saws had to be used to birth babies that couldn’t exit the birth canal. Doctors used a practice known as symphysiotomy, which involved removing parts of bone and cartilage to create more space for a baby to exit. These symphysiotomies were conducted without anesthesia and were notoriously painful for the mothers. In 1780, medical chain saws were invented by doctors for childbirth to make the process of removing pelvic bone, and thus the baby, easier and less time-consuming. These chain saws were powered by a hand crank and might best be described as a modern-day kitchen knife with small teeth on an oval chain. Ranked #3 by 1,395 voters with a 91% upvote rate1,395 votesWait, seriously?
- 4Ants Can Recognize Themselves In The MirrorIn 1970, psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. developed the mirror test, a test to determine which animals can recognize themselves in a mirror. Humans generally pass the mirror test around 18 months old. But since its development, only a few types of animals have successfully passed, one of them being ants.The mirror test is conducted by placing a marker on an animal to see if an animal recognizes that a marker has been placed on their body when they are placed in front of a mirror. Usually, the animals that pass the mirror test will try to adjust their positions to try and look at the mark on their body. Often they will pay significantly more attention to the body part that bears the new marking. In 2015, a group of scientists published a research study that suggested that ants can recognize themselves when they look in a mirror. During the experiment, ants would slowly move their heads back and forth, touch the mirror, and shake their antennae, behavior they didn’t do when looking at another ant through glass. The ants were then marked with blue dots on their clypeus. After being placed in front of a mirror, they would try to remove the markings placed on them. This research has shown that ants likely recognize themselves in mirrors.In addition to self-recognition, the mirror test also suggests the possibility of self-awareness, though it doesn’t prove it. Other animals that have passed include many great ape species, bottlenose dolphins, orca whales, Asian elephants, and Eurasian magpies. Other species may be capable of self-recognition but still don’t pass the test. Dogs for instance, may use scent to recognize themselves rather than sight.Ranked #4 by 961 voters with a 93% upvote rate961 votesWait, seriously?
- 5Humpty Dumpty Wasn’t An EggMany people who have heard the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” associate the titular character with an egg. Yet, by historical accounts, Humpty Dumpty wasn’t actually an egg. In fact, the rhyme never even references an egg:Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;All the king’s horses and all the king’s menCouldn’t put Humpty together again.The egg association likely arose during the 19th century, when an illustration in Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass portrayed the character as an egg. Many also read the poem as a riddle, with “egg” seemingly being the answer.While the historical origins of the rhyme are often debated, many concur that Humpty Dumpty didn’t start out as an egg. Various historical figures have been proposed as the real Humpty Dumpty, including King Richard III, who was historically depicted as humpbacked.Perhaps the most popular theory, though, holds that Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon that English Royalists used during the English Civil War between 1642 and 1649. When the wall that Humpty Dumpty (the cannon) was sitting on was demolished, it fell to the ground and could not be repaired (or put back together again). Ranked #5 by 868 voters with a 91% upvote rate868 votesWait, seriously?
- 6Guillotine Executioners Were National CelebritiesIn modern times, people might follow the lives of famous pop singers or reality TV stars. But during the late 1700s and 1800s in France, some guillotine operators were national celebrities. French guillotiners were closely judged on how precisely and quickly they could perform multiple beheadings. The faster and cleaner their cuts, the more famous they were. Additionally, the job of a guillotiner was often a family business. One of the most famous families of French executioners was the Sanson family. This family acted as state executioners from 1792 to 1847 and was responsible for executing thousands of people, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Moreover, the typical clothing of these guillotine celebrities reportedly inspired many different fashion trends during the era. Many locals were also known to chant the famous guillotiner names in the street before a beheading.Ranked #6 by 707 voters with a 91% upvote rate707 votesWait, seriously?
- 7Bowling Ball Holes Have Been Found To Contain Fecal MatterFair warning: This fact may ruin your idea of a fun afternoon at the bowling alley. According to Cary McNeal’s book, 1001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You, finger holes in bowling balls have been found to contain “substantial” amounts of fecal contamination. This means that depending on the bowling ball, when a person places their fingers into the holes, they risk getting trace amounts of poop on their fingers. Unfortunately, many people may go on to eat after a bowling game without washing their hands.Ranked #7 by 1,050 voters with a 90% upvote rate1,050 votesWait, seriously?
- 8The Car JFK Was Assassinated In Was Used By Later PresidentsOne of the most famous presidential assassinations was that of American President John F. Kennedy. Many people know that Kennedy was assassinated in his car while he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, on November 22, 1963. However, fewer know that other US presidents used the same car he was assassinated in. The 1961 Lincoln Continental Presidential Limousine was a Ford Motor Company-assembled car leased to the Secret Service for $500 a year. The custom-built car cost nearly $200,000 (about $1.9 million in 2022) and had a range of unique features, including flashing red siren lights, interior floodlights, and a hydraulic rear seat that could be raised 10.5 inches to elevate the president. After the passing of President Kennedy, the car was rebuilt at the cost of almost $500,000 to make it safer and repair damage. One of the key features in the fix was the addition of a permanent, non-removable top that contained transparent armor. It was later used regularly by US presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon despite its tragic history. Ranked #8 by 954 voters with a 90% upvote rate954 votesWait, seriously?
- 9The Velociraptor Noises In ‘Jurassic Park’ Are Actually Mating TortoisesDespite frequent imitations, humans actually have no idea what Velociraptor noises sounded like. So, the filmmakers of the 1993 movie Jurassic Park had to get creative when sourcing the sounds the Velociraptors made. According to Gary Rydstrom, the film’s sound engineer, the Velociraptors’ noises when communicating with one another are actually the sounds of tortoises mating.Yet it wasn’t only the Velociraptors who were voiced by well-known animals. Rydstrom had the Gallimimus flock voiced by female horses in heat, while the Tyrannosaurus rex was voiced by a baby elephant and Rydstrom’s pet Jack Russell terrier, Buster.Ranked #9 by 689 voters with a 91% upvote rate689 votesWait, seriously?
- 10Not So Long Ago, People Ate Corpses For Medicinal ReasonsBefore modern pharmaceuticals, people turned to a strange source for medicine: human flesh. According to historians, using components of the human body to cure various ailments was most popular during the 16th and 17th centuries. Scientists, priests, royalty, and ordinary folk consumed remedies containing human fat, blood, and bones. These remedies were supposed to treat everything from headaches to epilepsy. According to author Richard Sugg, “The question was not, ‘Should you eat human flesh?’ but, ‘What sort of flesh should you eat?'”The popular methods changed over the years, from crumbled Egyptian mummies to stop internal bleeding, bandages soaked in human fat for gout, and King Charles II of England’s personal tincture of alcohol containing bits of human skull. Human remains were so often utilized as medicine in part because many believed they contained the spirit of the person who had passed. A person’s spirit was thought to link their body and soul, which is why many believed it to have an unequaled vitality that could be used for healing. Drinking human blood, for instance, was considered beneficial to one’s health, and was a popular alternative for poor people to the expensive apothecary treatments. The fresher the blood was, the more potent it was thought to be, as it still contained the vitality of the body.Of course, components of the human body are still used in modern-day medicine, albeit with less consumption involved.Ranked #10 by 718 voters with a 90% upvote rate718 votesWait, seriously?
- 11You’re More Likely To Be Killed By A Vending Machine Than To Win The LotteryFor a large proportion of people, winning the lottery is a far-fetched dream, but many lotto-hopefuls might not realize just how unlikely snagging the winning ticket actually is. Statistically speaking, the odds of winning the Powerball are approximately 1 in 292.2 million, making many other rare occurrences much more likely. For example, according to The Book of Odds by Amram Shapiro, you’re more likely to perish from a vending machine-related accident than you are to win the lottery. The odds of death by vending machine are actually about 1 in 112 million, meaning it’s statistically more than twice as likely as the big lotto win. You’re also statistically much more likely to end up in the emergency room from a pogo-stick mishap (1 in 175,667 odds) or be murdered in the Grand Canyon (1 in 8.2 million odds).Ranked #11 by 704 voters with a 90% upvote rate704 votesWait, seriously?
- 12Newborn Megalodon Sharks Were Bigger Than HumansAccording to scientists, massive megatooth sharks, AKA megalodons, roamed the worlds’ oceans over 3 million years ago and gave birth to babies that were bigger than an average-sized adult human. This discovery was made when researchers X-rayed the vertebra of a fossilized megalodon. The growth bands of the fossilized shark established that the megalodon was 6 and a half feet when it was born. Fully grown megalodon sharks, on the other hand, are believed to have grown more than 49 feet in length. Newborn megalodons also had an average life span of 88 years and were almost two times the length of the longest adult sharks that are studied today. Ranked #12 by 553 voters with a 90% upvote rate553 votesWait, seriously?
- 13Sharks Are Older Than TreesCompared to other animal species, sharks have proven to be one of the most resilient, as they have survived each of the five global mass extinctions. It might be hard to believe, but sharks are actually older than trees. Trees, as we know them today, didn’t appear on Earth until the late Devonian period, 360 million years ago.In contrast, scientists have dated the earliest shark teeth to early Devonian deposits, approximately 400 million years ago. The teeth, which are less than an inch in length, belonged to an ancient shark called Leonodus. The fact that the teeth are double-cusped suggests Leonodus belonged to the Xenacanthus family of freshwater sharks.However, scientists have discovered shark scales that date back even further. Prehistoric shark scales have been found in Siberia from 420 million years ago. The oldest shark-like scales were found in present-day Colorado, and date back 455 million years; however, their differences from modern shark scales have led some scientists to question whether they actually belonged to sharks.Ranked #13 by 540 voters with an 88% upvote rate540 votesWait, seriously?
- 14So Many Animals Have Evolved Into Crabs, There’s A Scientific Term For It Carcinization, or carcinisation, refers to non-crab species that, over time, evolve into “crab-like forms.” This has happened in five documented cases – but it’s not quite as weird as it sounds.Convergent evolution occurs when similar factors influence different species. Both bats and whales use echolocation, for example, because their ability to see in their respective environments is very poor. Bats are active at night and whales swim through the murky ocean, so they need another sense to figure out what’s going on.In the same way, the environmental extremes of ocean life, and the vast stretches of evolutionary time, have led to multiple crustaceans adopting a form that increases their chances of survival. As Popular Science points out, there’s also a lot of halfway cases of carcinization:There’s not a hard yes or no definition of crab-look-alikes, we really don’t know how many times it’s happened, says Heather Bracken-Grissom, a marine invertebrates expert and associate professor at Florida International University. Some species may be only partially carcinized, looking like a half-breed between a lobster and a crab, like with the squat lobster.Ranked #14 by 500 voters with an 88% upvote rate500 votesWait, seriously?
- 15Coffins With Bells Were Invented To Help People Who Were Buried AliveBefore modern medical equipment could monitor heartbeat, brainwaves, and breathing, pronouncing a person dead involved a lot more guesswork. Stories of people being accidentally buried alive date back to the 14th century.In one particularly disturbing 17th century case, an English woman named Alice Blunden was reportedly buried alive twice. After she drank a large amount of poppy tea (which would have contained sedatives) a doctor held a mirror to Blunden’s nose and mouth and declared her deceased. Two days later, children playing by her grave heard noises and reported it to their school master. It took a day to exhume Blunden, at which point she was so near perishing that she was returned to her grave. A guard designated to stand watch by her grave abandoned his post; the following morning she was found dead after trying to free herself a second time.In response to this harrowing phenomenon, inventors came up with a myriad of creative interment solutions, including coffins equipped with ladders, breathing mechanisms, and bells. These “coffin alarms” allowed the supposedly deceased person to literally ring for help from within the tomb and sound the alarm that they were still alive.Â
