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I write a lot about animals for Neatorama and that’s because I’m always reading about them. The coolest thing about the vast variety of critters is that there are so many and each has evolved their own strange adaptations to survive in their own niche of the planet. With each animal trying to carve out its own special place in the world, it’s not too surprising that there are some that had to dig a little harder and have ended up adapting in very strange ways. These six creatures might not seem too strange at first, but just wait until you read more about their bizarre adaptations.
I’d like to give a special thanks to The Proceedings of the Ever So Strange and The Book of Animal Ignorance, both of which greatly contributed to the information in this article.
Generally, when you’re being attacked by something that wants to eat you, the last thing you want to do is let them get a taste of your delicious, delicious blood to further entice them. But for critters that aren’t as tasty as us humans, this rule applies less and less. In fact, the Texas horned lizard has blood that tastes so gross that it voluntarily gives predators a taste just to show them that they won’t find any pleasure snacking on the lizard. As if that weren’t strange enough though, the source of the lizard’s blood buffet is even weirder …it launches its fluid sample straight from its eye. Even if the taste of the little critter’s blood wasn’t enough to turn away a potential predator, this horrifying scene certainly is!
Source Image via randomtruth [Flickr]
Being the most deadly animal in Africa, the hippo doesn’t have much to worry about in terms of predators. Sure, an occasional lion, croc or hyena might munch on the babies, but once these river monsters grow up, they’re pretty much at the top of the food chain. That’s why their biggest defenses aren’t against other creatures, but against the ravaging African sun and disease-causing bacteria. While rolling around in the mud can work as a natural sunscreen, it’s simply not enough when the majority of their day is spent wading through the river. Instead, hippos have developed their own natural sunscreen, which oozes out of their pores in a shocking, bright red color. This strange secretion has earned the appropriately horrific nickname of “blood sweat,” although it contains neither bodily fluid. Instead, it is made up of a number of highly acidic compounds that absorb ultraviolet light, preventing sunburn, and that inhibit the growth of bacteria. While we usually think of the blood sweat as bright red, it actually comes out clear, turns red and then fades to brown as it becomes exposed to the air.
Being stuck on an island with no natural predators, the Komodo dragon already has a good evolutionary hand, growing to become the largest living lizards on earth, reaching almost 10 feet long. But as many lizards will be happy to tell you, “size doesn’t matter,” so the Komodos also evolved a quite nasty way to bring down their prey.
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Mastering a musical instrument is a challenge to begin with, but when an injury ruins someone’s ability to play, that generally is the end of their career. Fortunately, some great musicians have been able to work beyond their injuries and relearn to play, in some cases, making them even better musicians than they ever were before.
Jazz fans and gypsy music lovers adore Reinhardt, although the name isn’t familiar to many other music fans. Even so, he was a wildly inspirational musician who pioneered his own style of jazz that blended gypsy roots with jazz guitar. His music has since been featured on about a dozen movies, including The Matrix, L.A. Story, Chocolat and more.
Reinhardt started learning to play music as a boy, starting with the violin and then moving to the banjo and the guitar. When he was 18 though, tragedy struck. Django and his wife were living in a caravan where they sold imitation flowers made from celluloid and paper to supplement their meager income. When Reinhardt accidentally knocked down a candle on his way to bed, the caravan burst into flames, destroying all of his property and leaving him with first- and second-degree burns over the entire left side of his body.
As a result of the accident, his right leg and the 3rd and 4th fingers on his left hand were completely paralyzed. Doctors said he would have to get his leg amputated and that he would never play a string instrument again. But Reinhardt refused to get the surgery and within a year, he was able to walk with the use of a cane. While his fingers never recovered, the doctors were wrong about his music career as well.
As it happens, learning to play guitar again may have saved his life. Reinhardt ended up getting stuck in France during WWII and it was said that and handful of jazz-loving Nazis ensured his safety despite the fact that thousands of Gypsies were murdered under Nazi-occupied territories. To help protect himself further, he also developed a distinctively non-jazz sound to please the Nazis who, like the majority of their party, were adamantly against jazz.
Interestingly, Django wasn’t just influential when it came to jazz musicians, he also played a major role in the creation of heavy metal. You might be asking yourself how in the world a gypsy jazz musician helped create one of the darkest genres around, but the answer isn’t in his sound, it’s in his story.
You see, guitarist Tony Iommi was talented, but he came from a poor, working-class family so he was forced to work at a sheet metal factory as a youngster, rather than chase his dreams of rock n’ roll stardom. Unfortunately, industrial factories aren’t the safest place for the hands of budding musicians. On his last day of work, Iommi severed the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand. As a leftie, this meant his fretting hand was destroyed. Unsurprisingly, the teen was heart-broken and convinced this would be the end of his musical aspirations. However, his boss from the factory inspired Iommi to stick with his craft by bringing him a Django Reinhardt album and telling him about the jazz musician’s injury.
The inspiration worked like a charm and soon enough, Iommi was trying to remaster the guitar. At first he tried learning to play right-handed, but when that didn’t work, Iommi instead developed a few prosthetic fingertips using plastic covered in leather. Because his prosthetic fingers weren’t as tough as the real thing, Iommi started using lighter strings and detuning the strings so the tension would be lowered. To match Iommi’s sound, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler did the same, and suddenly, the dark, deep sound of heavy metal was born solely as a technique to work around an injury.
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Hollywood
loves adaptations - indeed, sometimes adapting books, plays, and musicals
work extremely well (like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter
and countless others). Sometimes they fail (I'm looking at you, The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
Sometimes, these adaptations are very, very strange. Here's a compilation of 10 of the strangest film and TV adaptations to ever happen by Geekscape. For example, take "Rubik, The Amazing Cube" (1983):
You remember the toy. It's still in wide use today. A cubic puzzle with six sides, nine square facets on each side, was to be twisted an manipulated until all the colored sides matched. It is notoriously difficult, and remains a top-seller in toyshops nationwide. How can we base a TV show on this puzzle? Hm...
So, get this: A magician loses his enchanted Rubik's Cube. A quartet of children finds the cube, solve it, and, voila!, a small elf-like blue face appears on the cube, and squat blue feet grow out of its base! Holy shit! That thing is flipping terrifying! But no! It's your friend! It will cast spells and aid you in your adventures! But when it's dropped, it gets all mixed up again, and you have to solve it to get your monstrous little imp back!
I'm going to pass on my complaints about adapting an effing toy into a TV show for the time being, just so I can rant about how scary the cube monster is, and how unsettling the premise. Rubik looks like a mutated dwarf cemented into a box, and his little kid voice only adds to the fright. Watching the show only made me glad that I wasn't very good at solving Rubik's Cubes. I wouldn't want that thing to aid me on my adventures.
Link - Thanks Marcus!
Here’s a list sure to spark debate. Which is better, the movie or the book? Usually one is much better than the other. With the ten books and movies listed here, it’s all a matter of opinion because both the book and the movie are classics. Still, I will always recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. Link [possible malware alert @ link - go there at your own risk]
