National Geographic Museum Blog

Have you been putting off your trip to the Animal Grossology exhibit? Well, don’t wait any longer as the exhibit ends this weekend on January 8th. In celebration of all the cool things we learned from the exhibit, here’s a final Fast Facts post with tons of cool animal secrets.

A cockroach can live for over a week without a head.
The regal horned lizard squirts blood out of its eyes to repel predators.
Kangaroos lick their forearms to stay cool.
Some sea stars break off their own arms when frightened.
Some spiders eat their own webs.
Some fish eggs hatch in the dad’s mouth.
Giraffes are the only animal born with horns.
Raw termites taste like pineapple.
One of the world’s most expensive coffees comes from animal droppings.
The world’s termites outweigh the world’s people.
The total earthworm population in the US weighs ten times more than the total human population.
650 houseflies weigh less than one ounce.
Wombat waste is cube-shaped.
A Scottish dish called haggis is cooked inside a sheep’s stomach.
You drink the same water as dinosaurs!
The lifespan of an adult mayfly is one day!
Some frogs glow when they eat fireflies.

Are you curious about what an Anglo-Saxon village would have looked like? This game let’s you and your children figure out what an ancient town looked like and how modern day explorers discover interesting facts about historic times.

Follow this link to play: http://www.pastexplorers.org.uk/village/

King Offa of Mercia, 757 AD became the most powerful of all Saxon rulers. He is also known as King of all the English.

He erected a palace in Tamworth so magnificent in style and furnishings, that it was declared to be ‘the wonder of the age’.

In 799 AD he fortified the town with a huge earthwork – a wall and a ditch – resting on the rivers Tame and Anker and encircling the town. This is known as Offa’s Dyke.

Charters were granted by Offa from the palace at Tamworth.  Offa spent Christmas at Tamworth in 781 AD.

He had links with the famous King Charlemagne, exchanging letters and gifts and he established trading connections as far as Arabia.

There is still the unanswered question as to why he killed so many of his relatives following his victory at the Battle of Seckington.

In the late 8th century the first watermill was constructed in Tamworth.

Source: http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/history/key-characters/king-offa-of-mercia

1.) Sharks have eight senses. Humans have only five.
2.) A shark can grow and lose up to 30,000 teeth in its lifetime.
3.) Sea stars don’t have brains.
4.) Spiders have clear blood.
5.) Penguins swim 3,100 miles in a year.

The photographer behind Ocean’s Soul is who. An award-winning photojournalist specializing in marine subjects, Brian Skerry has logged more than 10,000 hours underwater. Traveling up to eight months each year, he visits warm tropical reefs, cool waters blooming with life, and beneath the polar ice. In celebrating the beauty of the sea’s natural moments, Skerry crafts images with an artist’s deft touch. Creatures from the sea floor fill the lens in an abstraction of shape and color. A fish appears for a close-up in a blur of motion and subtle hues.

Beyond their artistic value, these photographs also tell an important story. In his coverage for National Geographic and other publications, Skerry pursues subjects that increase awareness of the plight of the world’s oceans. Treading softly beside nesting endangered leatherbacks and crisscrossing the seas covering the global fish crisis, he seeks to make photography a powerful instrument for change.

Featuring 50 photographs, this exhibition is based on a new National Geographic book, now available for sale, Ocean Soul (National Geographic Books, 2011; $50 hardcover).