This is one of the oldest living organisms in the world. This very dense, flowering shrub is related to parsley and lives in the extremely high elevations of the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is at least 2,000 years old.

The most impressive nose in the animal kingdom belongs to the star-nosed mole. The weird-looking animal has 22 fleshy pink tiny tentacles surrounding its nose. These containing a total of 100,000 nerve fibers, that's six times as many touch receptors as on a human hand.

Latrodectus mactans, or Southern black widow or simply black widow, is a highly venomous species of spider. They are well known for the distinctive black and red coloring of the female of the species and for the fact that she will occasionally eat her mate after reproduction (hence the name – Black widow). The species is native to North America. The venom might be fatal to humans.

Although these spiders are not especially large, their venom is extremely potent. They are capable to inject the venom to a point where it can be harmful. The males, being much smaller, inject far less venom. The actual amount injected, even by a mature female, is very small in physical volume. When this small amount of venom is diffused throughout the body of a he ...

Lichtenberg figures are fractal patterns from electric discharges and can be found on a variety of materials.

This is Croatobranchus mestrovi, a leech that lives 1.3km below sea level and doesn't want to suck your blood. The leech's milky colour and lack of eyes comes from living exclusively in the freezing groundwater and darkness of one of the deepest caves in the world, located in Croatia. They were found in shallow water attached to rocks, with their extra-wide, tentacle-surrounded mouths facing the current.

The bush viper lives up in the trees of the tropical forests of Africa, and does most of its hunting at night. They are highly venomous and are found only in tropical sub-Saharan Africa.

Infants are born with reflexes that support their survival. Newborns are making adjustments to living outside of the womb and do not have time to worry about survival. Fortunately, these reflexes support them in the first few months of life.

One reflex is the rooting reflex. This reflex occurs when the cheek or mouth is stroked and results in the baby turning its head toward the stroke. This reflex helps the baby find the nipple when it is time to eat. This reflex disappears around 4 months of age.

Another reflex is the sucking reflex. Whenever something touches the roof of the baby’s mouth, it will begin to suck. While this reflex is active before birth, babies that are born prematurely sometimes have difficulty coordinating their sucking ...

The wolf spider is the only species of spider that carries its offspring this way -- live, hatched and wriggling on her back! After a gestation of 9 to 27 days (dependent on temperature) during which the eggs are carried around in a silk globe attached to the mothers stomach, the offspring hatch and climb on to her back. They stay there until they're ready to hunt alone.