Kolomichuk

There was a time when there was no bacteria that would decompose a tree.
The trees that existed 300 million years ago do not resemble the trees we have on Earth now. These trees could grow extremely tall, but they had very shallow root systems, so fell over very easily. At the time, no microbes existed that could decompose these trees, so as they fell, they stacked up upon each other, eventually creating what one could consider a blessing or a curse….coal.

Tiny sea-dwelling creatures called phytoplankton are actually the ones that produce the vast majority of the oxygen in our atmosphere: 50 to 85 percent to be exact. Though they're too small to see without a microscope, they live in the upper layers of water and use the same method plants do—photosynthesis—to convert sunlight into energy, creating oxygen in the process.

On Earth, it only seems like a day can last longer than a whole year. In reality, our planet rotates on its axis once every 24 hours and makes one complete revolution around the sun every 365.25 days.

The fuzzy rock hyrax is only found in certain parts of Africa and the Middle East. Though it may look somewhat unremarkable, it has a pretty incredible relative: the elephant. You have to look pretty closely to see the similarities between these 10 pound creatures and a 10,000 pound elephant. But the rock hyrax does have long front teeth that are distinctly tusk-like.

Similar to graphite and diamonds, water and snow are made up of the same molecules arranged differently. Water expands when frozen, and when snowflakes pile up, they trap some air between them. That means the same number of water molecules will take up more volume as snow than they will as liquid water.

Though it's true that sound can't travel through the vacuum of space, NASA has launched multiple probes that have flown close by the planets in our solar systems to make recordings.

Also known as the "Rose of Jericho" or "dinosaur plant," Selaginella lepidophylla can survive extreme dehydration. It's found in deserts in North and South America, and in the total absence of water, it curls up into a dead-looking ball.

It's time that the world knew the truth. While you probably didn't think those camel humps were beverage coolers, you might have imagined that all the water that a camel drinks—up to 53 gallons in three minutes—has to go somewhere. And it does, but it's not in its humps. The water stays in the camel's stomach or bloodstream.

There are about 1,000 different kinds of bamboo and many grow quite fast, but only a few species can reach Guinness World Record speeds. The current record is an astonishing rate of 35 inches in a day, which is nearly three feet. The more typical growth rate in temperate climates is more like 1 to 4 inches per day, which is still a lot.

If you measure the kinetic energy of its wind velocity alone, a single mature hurricane can equal about half of our entire planet's capability of producing electricity. If you measure it in terms of rainfall, though, a hurricane releases the force of 10,000 atomic bombs over an area about 413 miles wide.

The difference, of course, is that the energy is spread out over the entire area instead of radiating from a single point. Still, that much sustained force can do some heavy damage, as all too many Floridians, Texans, Louisianans, and North Carolinians know.

It's a rough world out there, and animals have to protect themselves from predators however they can. For some, like Iberian ribbed newts, that means pushing their own bones through their skin.

The newt's abdomen contains special tubercles that allow its ribs to poke out through its skin when the newt is frightened. As an added bonus, its skin secretes a toxic chemical, turning this unassuming little creature into a killer of anything that tries to bite it. Basically, this little guy is real-life Wolverine.

While this sounds completely counterintuitive, all substances have what's called a "triple point," or the exact temperature and pressure at which the three main states of matter—gas, liquid, and solid—are at equilibrium. For water, that point exists at 0.01°C (32.018°F) and 611.657 pascals of partial v***r pressure.