Animal Education

Sea cucumbers are an animal with no brains but does that mean they are “vegetables?” These animals are famous for ejecting their white intestines as a defense mechanism. 

Sometimes an animal population will fall to just 10% over 5 years. Is this an extinction risk? Usually not. In another 5 years, the population will be right back to 100%. It turns out shark populations are more affected by their predator-prey cycle than by over-fishing!

Hagfish have no jaw and that is why their teeth are everywhere outside. Yuck! These fish are close to invertebrates with an incomplete skull and maybe a missing link in the story of evolution! Here is a video of 5 gross hagfish facts on Youtube #shorts.

Sometimes animals sacrifice themselves to save another. Why do animals act selflessly? Meerkats, wolves, blackbirds, bats, bees, and moles all act altruistically. But this behavior is ruled by the selfish gene! Today we learn about animal examples of kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and obligate altruism. 

We first became familiar with hamsters because we or someone we knew had a hamster as a child. But do you know that hamsters are actually not the best-fit kind of pet for a child? Today we learn 10 cool hamster facts. Hamsters were just recently domesticated in 1930. How can these wild hamster facts … READ MORE

How did life start on Earth? Scientists have a pretty good idea of how it could have happened. There is fossil evidence dating back 3.5 billion years. This is an introduction for people who are interested in one of science’s greatest mysteries. The primordial soup has all of the ingredients needed! This week’s video is … READ MORE

How did volcanoes, an asteroid, climate change, and tectonic plates cause these once-great creatures to disappear from the face of the earth? I also explain how the birds and our mammalian ancestors survive this extinction event, called the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction (K-Pg for short). The dinosaur extinction happened about 66 million years ago and killed 70% … READ MORE

Do you know what biomimicry means? In this week’s video, I will explain Biomimicry 101 and give examples of today innovation inspired by nature. Check out some cool innovations inspired by nature! I explain what biomimicry is and present some real-life examples. Scientists can draw upon billions of years of evolution to copy natural selection’s … READ MORE

What is negativity bias? We learn how the human mind is wired to think negatively based on millions of years of evolution. Today’s humans still have a caveman’s brain, and it is not yet adapted to the modern world. This leads to anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, poor decision making, and an inability to take risks. … READ MORE

We learn how the solar system formed, starting 4.6 billion years ago. How did sun form? How were the planets made? Listen to the story of our solar system, and learn about its major features. t the end, we speculate about the future of the earth. Will our solar system burn up, or will it … READ MORE