00:00 Now, get this.
00:02 Octopuses are visitors from outer space.
00:04 Here's how this would've happened.
00:06 Ice-kept eggs of octopuses stuck in spatial bodies crashed into Earth.
00:11 Then these guys would have mixed together with a pre-existing set of genetic information
00:16 available on our planet.
00:18 And presto, octopuses were born!
00:20 Well, it may be a long stretch to justify that the highly intelligent octopuses are
00:26 extraterrestrial beings, but the idea is based on a theory that has been around since ancient
00:31 Greece, something known as panspermia.
00:35 Now panspermia is a hypothesis that says life exists all around the universe, not only in
00:41 planets.
00:42 So, things such as space dust, asteroids, and even spacecraft have their share of life
00:47 glued to them, and when they travel across the galaxy, life is disseminated.
00:53 This strand of thought has been polemic since it goes against the idea that all life originated
00:58 right here on our planet.
01:00 But as much as this new octopus theory might be refreshing, it doesn't contribute too
01:05 substantially to the search for life on other planets.
01:08 It's just too hypothetical.
01:11 Now, octopuses are in fact incredibly old.
01:16 The oldest known fossil belongs to an animal that lived almost 300 million years ago.
01:21 FYI, this is before our dinosaur buddies roamed the Earth.
01:25 Wait, there's more!
01:27 Octopus arms have a mind of their own.
01:29 That's because two-thirds of their neurons lie in their arms, not in their heads.
01:34 This means that their arms can problem-solve how to open a shellfish, while their owner
01:39 is worried about other stuff entirely.
01:41 Talk about ninja-level multitasking!
01:43 Oh, and like other animals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins, octopuses have proven to be
01:49 good at maneuvering tools, like picking up old shells and using them as a temporary home.
01:55 Now, of course, the most intelligent animals on our planet are humans, according to humans.
02:02 But we don't seem to give pigs enough credit.
02:05 Pigs are so smart they can play video games!
02:07 No, not Minecraft.
02:09 But in a recent academic study, scientists had four pigs play a joystick game.
02:14 They had to manipulate the stick so that the moving ball would hit the wall and then they
02:19 would get a treat.
02:20 All four pigs did great in the test, which was surprising even to the scientists.
02:25 Pigeons also aced an impressive test.
02:30 They were trained to differentiate a Picasso painting from a Monet one, which they had
02:34 no trouble learning.
02:36 Then they were able to apply this knowledge, identifying works of art they had not previously
02:41 seen.
02:42 Meaning, they really understood the difference between each painter.
02:45 Poor things are always seen as a nuisance.
02:49 If we placed kangaroos in an Animals' Most Amazing Ability contest, they'd win!
02:56 It's mainly because they break the four-legged rule.
02:59 A special species of kangaroo, the red kangaroo, uses its tail to help propel it forward.
03:05 Visually, it has four limbs, but in practice, it uses five.
03:10 They're biologically built to use their tail as a fifth limb, since it's packed with articulated
03:15 vertebrae and thick muscles.
03:17 Of course, it had to be an Australian animal!
03:21 Jokes aside, Australia is home to a variety of unique animals, like the most venomous
03:29 snake in the world.
03:30 This not-so-cute reptile is known as the Inland Taipan, and its venom is enough to take down
03:36 a hundred humans.
03:38 And still, on the topic of dangerous animals, the island is also home to one of the world's
03:42 most venomous spiders, the funnel-web spider, which can be found not too far away from downtown
03:49 Sydney.
03:50 Yikes!
03:51 The Little Mermaid may have shown us that life is good under the sea, but she didn't
03:56 mention anything about the bizarre ways of the anglerfish.
04:00 Anglerfish are those special types of fish that have a huge whip-nose connected to the
04:04 front part of their bodies.
04:06 They look like they're forever holding a lantern in front of them.
04:09 Except that the little lantern they carry is a type of bioluminescence, and it's far
04:14 from romantic, as anglerfish use it to lure smaller fish in as their meals.
04:22 It was back in 1999 that scientists discovered that these little guys spend most of their
04:27 lives upside down.
04:28 They had never seen anything like that.
04:31 Hovering above the Pacific Ocean floor at a depth of around 16,400 feet, where light
04:37 almost doesn't even reach, there they were.
04:40 They do this because since they live so close to the sea floor, their built-in lantern illuminates
04:45 the ground in search of food.
04:47 They might be weird, but they're also pretty clever.
04:51 Recently scientists have discovered a species of animal that has neither a brain nor a head
04:56 and is pretty smart.
04:57 Meet the brittle star.
04:59 This five-armed creature is a bundle of nerves, and it has proved itself to be super clever.
05:04 In a recent experiment, scientists would dim the light while they fed brittle stars their
05:09 favorite treat – yummy shrimps.
05:12 After 10 months of conditioning, these babies would creep out of hiding as soon as the scientists
05:17 turned off the light in the room they were in.
05:19 Surely they were expecting to enjoy a delicious meal.
05:22 We really shouldn't judge a brain by its size.
05:25 Or lack of brain in this case.
05:30 There's something known as the "orange cat behavior," and apparently it's not
05:34 just a meme.
05:36 So far, scientists have been able to understand that coat color is connected to a feline's
05:41 gender.
05:42 And since orange is an X chromosome, orange cats are usually males, like Garfield.
05:48 The so-called orange cat behavior describes ginger cats as agents of chaos.
05:53 Again, pretty much like Garfield.
05:55 However, there haven't been any conclusive studies on whether coat color and cat behavior
06:00 are truly linked.
06:02 In terms of vision, mantis shrimps probably have the most psychedelic vision out of all
06:07 animals.
06:08 These funny-looking creatures have a whopping 16 varieties of photoreceptors, with 5 of
06:14 them reserved for the ultraviolet or UV spectrum.
06:20 Ultraviolet rays are really short wavelengths which are invisible to humans.
06:24 The thing science still doesn't understand is how exactly these mantis shrimp view the
06:29 world around them.
06:30 Sure, they can perceive a bunch of colors, but they can't necessarily distinguish all
06:35 of these colors among themselves.
06:37 It can be that they just see a lot of really vivid, really blurry colors, but we haven't
06:42 figured out a way to check that out.
06:44 Now, to say sloths are cute is an understatement.
06:48 They may be one of the friendliest animals in the jungle, but there's more.
06:52 If you look closely at their fur coat, you'll notice hints of green.
06:57 These greeneries are actually tiny little algae that grow alongside sloths.
07:02 They help sloths to camouflage better in the jungle, but they also nurture them.
07:07 The little cracks inside a sloth's fur create the perfect environment for algae reproduction,
07:12 and scientists have found species of algae that don't exist anywhere else in the world.
07:17 They do get by with a little help from their friends.
07:23 Deep within the Sahara Desert, you'll find a little creature known as the fennec fox.
07:28 This huge-eared animal adapted perfectly to survive in its hostile environment.
07:33 The huge ears help them to dissipate the unbearable heat of the desert, as well as help them to
07:38 hunt for underground prey.
07:41 Meet this guy.
07:42 Unlike what its name might suggest, the red panda is closer to a raccoon than it is to
07:47 a giant panda.
07:49 You'll find a lot of these cat-sized creatures in the Himalayan region, hopping from tree
07:53 to tree and bundled together trying to keep warm in the harsh weather.
07:58 They're gentle and friendly like their big panda cousins, and occasionally enjoy eating
08:02 some bamboo sticks.
08:06 And then there are bees.
08:08 Compared to humans, bees' brains are the size of pinheads, yet they are capable of
08:12 astounding things.
08:14 Let's say a bee is running low on energy after a long search flight.
08:18 This bee desperately needs a drop of honey in order to continue flying.
08:22 But smartly enough, she doesn't need to go back to the hive to recharge.
08:27 She can ask a fellow beehive mate for a drop of honey directly from this other bee's
08:31 stomach and continue flying.
08:34 This type of decentralized system allows them to build highly effective societies, one that
08:39 bees don't need to push the queues in front of the honey cells, for example.
08:43 Hey, just kidding.
08:44 That's it for today!
08:46 So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:50 friends!
08:51 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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