This Bird Dives at 240 MPH — and 4 Other Animal Superpowers

A lizard that walks up glass, a bird that dives faster than any animal on Earth, a mammal that sees with sound, a lizard that paints itself with crystals, and a micro-animal that survived open space. For a long time these sounded like magic. Here's the real science behind each one. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:29 The Gecko: Sticky Without Glue 1:58 The Peregrine Falcon: The Living Missile 3:35 The Bat: Seeing With Sound 4:54 The Chameleon: Painting With Crystals 6:12 The Tardigrade: Life on Pause 7:48 Which superpower would you want? Sources • Autumn et al., Nature (2000); Autumn et al., PNAS (2002): gecko adhesion and van der Waals forces • Hansen & Autumn, PNAS (2005): self-cleaning gecko setae • U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: peregrine falcon recovery and 1999 delisting • Surlykke & Kalko, PLoS ONE (2008): loudness of bat echolocation calls • Elemans et al., Science (2011): superfast muscles and the feeding buzz • Corcoran et al., Science (2009): tiger moths jamming bat sonar • Teyssier et al., Nature Communications (2015): photonic crystals in chameleon skin • Jönsson et al., Current Biology (2008): tardigrades in open space (FOTON-M3) • Tsujimoto et al., Cryobiology (2016): tardigrades revived after ~30 years frozen • Boothby et al., Molecular Cell (2017); Hashimoto et al., Nature Communications (2016): tardigrade protective proteins • Neves et al., Scientific Reports (2020): tardigrade heat tolerance Wild Wonder Lab: Real Science. Amazing Stories. #AnimalFacts #Science #Nature #WildWonderLab