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Explore the incredible abilities of the only creature that can survive on Mars and discover why it is nature's weirdest superhero. Witness firsthand how this creature defies all odds and adapts to extreme environments like no other.
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00:00Birds just like us have a tongue that is held up by a bone called the hyoid.
00:05In humans, it looks like a horseshoe and is located under our jaw.
00:09That's what the muscle in the tongue are attached to.
00:12This bone is very important for us. It helps us breathe, swallow, and talk.
00:18Unlike us, woodpeckers have a very different hyoid bone.
00:22It's a big part of their body that allows them to peck really fast.
00:26It also helps them keep their head steady and lets them use a lot of force when they peck wood.
00:32A woodpecker's tongue is long and it has spikes on it, which helps the bird get bugs out of trees.
00:39Woodpeckers can also move it in and out, which is not very common in most birds.
00:44This tongue also has a special way of wrapping around the woodpecker's skull to keep it safe when the bird
00:50pecks.
00:50The tip of the tongue is also covered with a sticky substance, which helps to catch bugs better.
00:58Speaking of weird animals, ever heard of an axolotl?
01:01You might also know it as a Mexican walking fish.
01:05It's a type of salamander.
01:07It's a unique species, known for its ability to regenerate its limbs.
01:12Axolotls are typically found in lakes, streams, and canals in and around Mexico City.
01:17Their appearance with the wide head and long, feathery external gills is unusual compared to other amphibians.
01:25They're often kept as pets because of what they look like.
01:29Rats may not be your first choice when thinking about weird animals, but let me tell you about the naked
01:35mole rat.
01:36This one is considered weird because of its unique physical characteristics and behavior.
01:42For starters, it's nearly blind and has translucent, pink skin.
01:47These animals also live in large underground colonies with a strict social hierarchy,
01:53with one dominant female and several male mates.
01:57The creature, also known as the sand puppy, has a low metabolic rate,
02:02which allows it to survive on very little oxygen and food.
02:06Even their lifespan is unusual, much longer than that of most other rodents.
02:12Some specimens even live up to 30 years in captivity.
02:16This unusual creature is considered the superhero of all rats.
02:21Being immune to pain caused by high levels of acid,
02:24this makes it capable of living in environments that would be dangerous to other animals.
02:31Dogs are one of the most common species of animals these days, but not the Commondor dog.
02:36This one is a weird dog breed because of its unique appearance.
02:40It has a long, thick, corded coat that resembles dreadlocks.
02:45Additionally, it's a large and imposing breed,
02:48standing at around 27 inches tall and weighing up to 110 pounds.
02:53Its size and appearance can make it seem intimidating to some people,
02:57but most dog breed specialists say it can be a loving family pet if properly trained.
03:03Imagine that food bill, though.
03:05The star-nosed mole is an equally weird animal
03:08because it has a distinctive star-shaped snout that is highly sensitive.
03:12It helps these animals locate and identify food underwater really efficiently.
03:18This mole is also an expert burrower and has feet with claws,
03:22which allows it to dig through the ground with ease.
03:25Among its other unique traits, there is a high metabolic rate
03:29and the ability to eat food at an incredibly fast rate.
03:34A crab with a weakness for coconuts?
03:37That's probably where the coconut crab got its name.
03:39It's widely seen as a quirky animal because of its strong,
03:43claw-like legs that allow it to climb trees and open coconuts.
03:47This is a unique ability among crabs.
03:51It's also the largest land-dwelling anthropod in the world,
03:54reaching up to 3 feet in length and weighing up to 9 pounds.
03:59The coconut crab also lives a pretty long life
04:02with some specimens even getting to celebrate their 60th birthday.
04:07Look at this face.
04:09See these bulging eyes, huge ears, and tufts of hair?
04:12This image is not photoshopped.
04:15It's a real animal called the aye-aye.
04:18This quirky-looking creature is a long-fingered lemur
04:21native to the island of Madagascar.
04:24It comes equipped with rodent-like teeth that never stop growing
04:28and a special thin middle finger.
04:31Hmm.
04:31The aye-aye is also the world's largest nocturnal primate.
04:36The weirdest thing about it?
04:37Its method of finding food.
04:39It taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood
04:44using its forward-slanted incisors to create a small hole.
04:48It then inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out.
04:52The aye-aye also has a distinctive call that has been described as a shrieking screech.
04:59The echidna is a weird animal because it's a mammal, but it also lays eggs.
05:04Not only that, but it has spines like a porcupine, a tongue like an anteater,
05:10and a long snout that resembles a beak.
05:13Because they're pretty shy animals, they need their sharp claws to dig holes in the ground to hide.
05:18The echidna likes to eat bugs and has a special tongue that helps it catch them.
05:23The Dumbo octopus has large ear-like fins that give it a distinctive appearance,
05:29resembling the cartoon character Dumbo the Elephant.
05:32It also has a unique method of propulsion.
05:35The octopus uses its ear-like fins to fly through the water
05:39instead of using traditional tentacles like other octopuses.
05:43More so, it lives in the ocean at depths of up to 13,000 feet,
05:49which makes it difficult for humans to observe and study this creature.
05:54The panda ant, also known as the cow ant or velvet ant,
05:59is a species of wasp that is known for its unusual looks.
06:03It's called a panda ant because it has a black and white coloration resembling that of a panda bear.
06:09The ant is considered weird because it's not actually an ant, but a species of wasp.
06:15Additionally, its large size makes it stand out from other insects.
06:20Make room for the Honduran white bat,
06:23which is weird because it's one of only a few species of bats that have white fur.
06:27It's also unusual because it has a unique mating behavior,
06:31with the males taking care of multiple females and aggressively defending them from other males.
06:37Additionally, it's one of the few bat species that feed primarily on pollen and nectar from flowers,
06:44rather than insects.
06:46Another animal with a striking physique is the saiga antelope.
06:50It has a bulbous nose and large protruding eyes.
06:54This adaptation helps the animal filter out dust
06:57and regulate its body temperature in the harsh desert habitat.
07:01Sadly, the saiga antelope experiences a rapid population decline
07:06and is considered critically endangered,
07:09which is unusual for an antelope species.
07:13The mata mata turtle is considered unusual,
07:16and not just because of its name.
07:18It has a flattened and elongated shell,
07:21a pointed snout,
07:22and bony protrusions on its head that resemble horns.
07:25Its skin is also covered in ridges and bumps,
07:29giving it a rough, dangerous-looking appearance.
07:31Its movements are slow and sluggish,
07:33and you'll often see it lying motionless for long periods of time,
07:37waiting for its prey to pass by.
07:40The okapi is truly one-of-a-kind.
07:43That's because it's not closely related to any other known species of animals.
07:47It has a unique combination of physical characteristics,
07:51including a long neck and body,
07:53short legs,
07:54and striped markings on its backside,
07:56which makes it stand out from other animals.
07:59You can only find it in a small region of Central Africa,
08:03which only adds to its uniqueness and mystery.
08:07Ever heard of Gobi jerboa?
08:09It's not a fantastic beast,
08:11though judging by the name,
08:13you may be tricked into thinking that.
08:15It has long hind legs for jumping,
08:18a tail for balance,
08:19and large ears for hearing.
08:21Its habitat is equally as special
08:23since the animal lives in the harsh regions of the Gobi Desert in Asia.
08:29Of all the creatures on our home planet,
08:32this could be the only animal that could survive harsh conditions on Mars,
08:36the tardigrade.
08:37These fellas have another name because of their unusual looks,
08:41water bears,
08:42or moss piglets.
08:43They live literally everywhere across the globe,
08:46from coastal dunes to mountains,
08:48from the lush Amazon rainforests
08:50to the barren landscapes of Antarctica.
08:53Some live on land,
08:54but tardigrades are creatures that need water around their bodies
08:57to enable gas exchange,
08:59and generally stay hydrated.
09:01That's why they prefer soil,
09:03moss,
09:04or leaves covered with a layer of water.
09:06And since they're aquatic creatures,
09:08they usually choose freshwater bodies,
09:10like lakes,
09:11rivers,
09:11and ponds.
09:12You haven't come across these cool animals before
09:15because they're only 0.02 inches long.
09:18You can barely perceive them with the unaided eye.
09:21But since they're virtually immortal,
09:23we can assume they've developed some amazing survival tactics.
09:27If we loaded them in a tiny spaceship and sent them to Mars,
09:31they'd be a little shocked at first,
09:33especially because of the temperature.
09:35Sure,
09:36they can live through a wide range,
09:37even going below minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit,
09:41and up to 302 degrees Fahrenheit.
09:44And Mars might seem like a very hot planet when you see it in pictures,
09:48but the temperatures there are actually low,
09:50way lower than on Earth.
09:52I mean,
09:53it's farther from the sun and has a thin atmosphere,
09:56so temperatures there can drop to minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit
09:59or go up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:02On Earth,
10:03the lowest temperature was recorded in Antarctica.
10:06It was minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit,
10:10while the highest occurred in California,
10:13134 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:16Tardigrades are also pretty resilient when it comes to strong pressure.
10:20They can take one that's six times bigger than the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.
10:24Now,
10:25for every 33 feet you go down below the surface,
10:28the pressure doubles.
10:30So,
10:30at a depth of 2.4 miles,
10:32the pressure is 380 times greater than at the surface.
10:36And in the very deepest parts of the ocean,
10:38it can be 1,100 times greater.
10:42The pressure on the red planet is about six times stronger than in the ocean depths.
10:47So,
10:47I guess it's a little bit too much.
10:49It would be hard for these little creatures to adjust to such conditions.
10:52They would have to evolve through the next few generations to become even more resilient,
10:57so that they could enjoy their time on Mars more.
11:01The food could be one of their main problems, though.
11:04Some tardigrades mostly eat plants,
11:06like moss,
11:07algae,
11:08or some flowering ones.
11:09And they like them served with a portion of bacteria.
11:13Others are carnivores that eat smaller tardigrades or other microscopic organisms.
11:18Well,
11:19they'd find nothing like this on Mars.
11:21So,
11:21I guess we'd have to fill their tiny spaceships with lots of stashes of food they would be able to
11:26pull inside their tubular mouths.
11:27Now we're getting to the really tricky part.
11:30Water.
11:31Water must have flowed on its surface a long time ago.
11:35It's hard to understand where it all went,
11:37but it's highly possible most of the ancient water ended up trapped within minerals on the planet's crust.
11:43Some older research suggested that most of this water had escaped into space when the sun's radiation had ruined the
11:50atmosphere of Mars.
11:51But a new study has shown that only a little bit of water escaped,
11:56while most of it is still there,
11:58hidden and waiting for us to discover it.
12:02Also,
12:02a few years ago,
12:03researchers found signs of hydrated minerals on the slopes of the red planet,
12:07where they saw mysterious darkish streaks that seemed to flow.
12:11It mostly happens during warm seasons,
12:14since they fade when it gets cooler.
12:16These downhill flows could be evidence of real liquid water on Mars.
12:20Scientists have discovered some minerals that confirm this idea, too.
12:25These minerals can lower the freezing point of water like salt does on icy roads.
12:30That's why scientists think there might be a shallow underground flow of briny water that causes these streaks.
12:38Tardigrades probably have excellent instincts,
12:41considering they can survive even in the toughest conditions.
12:44So,
12:44they'd probably find water on Mars way before us.
12:47But even if they didn't do it right away,
12:50they would still have their tactics to stay alive for a while.
12:53If this creature loses 99% of its water content,
12:57it can survive by pausing most of its vital functions.
13:00It can remain in such a state for a couple of years.
13:05Tardigrades can absorb extremely strong impacts that would easily crush other animals,
13:10including us.
13:11They can withstand radiation levels so high that they could destroy a human.
13:15And even if we do send tardigrades to Mars one day,
13:19that won't be their first trip to space.
13:22In 2019,
13:23a spacecraft went to the moon,
13:25carrying thousands of tardigrades,
13:27the first lunar library,
13:29human DNA samples,
13:30and a DVD-sized archive that contained 30 million pages of information.
13:35The idea was to create archives of all the knowledge the human race had collected.
13:41But,
13:41seconds before the spacecraft had to land,
13:44the mission control lost contact with it,
13:46and it crashed into the surface of the moon.
13:48The team was wondering what was going to happen with the spacecraft's cargo.
13:53After lots of discussion and analysis,
13:55they assumed that the library had survived.
13:58And even crazier,
13:59perhaps tardigrades had too.
14:02They were in this dehydrated kind of dormant state,
14:05so they shriveled up into tiny balls.
14:07They lowered their metabolism and expelled most of the water from their bodies,
14:11waiting for a better environment where they could be their best selves once again.
14:16These creatures can stay like this for decades and survive extremely harsh conditions.
14:21And this wasn't the first organized tour to space for tardigrades.
14:25In 2007,
14:27a team of scientists sent a group of these tiny water bears
14:30to orbit our home planet on the outside of a rocket for 10 days.
14:34They did pretty well,
14:35considering that when the rocket got back to Earth,
14:3868% of these creatures were alive.
14:41Scientists don't put all their hopes only on these water bears.
14:44They keep testing if there are some other life forms that could survive on the red planet.
14:50They did an experiment called Biomex on the International Space Station.
14:54They took tiny organisms such as algae, bacteria, and other similar creatures
14:59and kept exposing them to really tough conditions in space for 18 months.
15:05This means things like huge changes in temperature, extreme radiation, and vacuum.
15:11The amazing part is that many of these tiny life forms survived these harsh conditions
15:17and came back to Earth as true space heroes.
15:20So they could probably deal with the hardships of living on Mars.
15:24Scientists studied Archaea as well.
15:27Those are tiny ancient microorganisms that have existed in salty seawater on our planet
15:32for more than 3.5 billion years.
15:35Some of their relatives from the Arctic also survived in space-like conditions.
15:40But life on Mars doesn't have to be a whole new thing.
15:44Billions of years ago, the red planet might have been a bit like Earth.
15:47It most likely had water,
15:49and that's one of the key ingredients for life.
15:52Scientists believe tiny organisms called methanogens might have thrived there.
15:58They were hiding beneath the surface to stay safe from harsh radiation.
16:03These organisms could have breathed in hydrogen and carbon dioxide,
16:07exhaling methane gas.
16:09But as they gobbled up hydrogen, which was a powerful greenhouse gas back then,
16:14they might have cooled the planet too much.
16:16So it's possible these ancient microbes are still somewhere there,
16:21trapped in ice deep below the surface.
16:23They could be in a sort of deep sleep,
16:26waiting for better conditions to wake up,
16:28or some new cool friends from Earth.
16:31They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
16:32They could be in a sort of deep sleep.
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