There are such bizarre rarities in nature that some still have no scientific explanation.
10. Hybrids of narwhals and belugas
In the 1980s, an Inuit hunter from Greenland encountered three whales and pelted them with harpoons. One sank immediately, the body of the second washed ashore later and was soon washed away by the waves, and only the third fell into the hands of the hunter as prey. He took the meat to the village and ate it there, and kept the skull as a curiosity as a keepsake.
The fact is that the hunter, who killed many beluga whales and other whales during his life, was at a loss, since he had never seen such a whale before. His body was gray with dark spots like narwhals, and his head and mouth were like the head and mouth of a beluga whale.
When the hunter sold the skull to an interested white researcher, he brought it to Denmark. Danish scientists have never seen such a creature either, and there was a long discussion about what it is. A new species of whale or a hybrid of a narwhal and a beluga whale?
Only recently was a DNA study of these remains, and they showed that this creature's mother was a narwhal, and the father was a beluga whale. This was the first time it was scientifically proven that hybrids of narwhals and belugas exist.
Promotional video:
The hybrid did not inherit a long horn from its mother, and its head was generally larger than the head of the narwhal and beluga whales, and the teeth were located differently. Chemical analysis showed that this creature also ate differently from its parents, it mainly ate bottom species, while narwhals and belugas eat fish that swims near the surface.
9. Coyotes with blue eyes
Common coyotes see the world with brownish-golden eyes, but blue-eyed coyotes have become increasingly visible in California over the past few years. None of the scientists had previously encountered such a mutation in coyotes.
At first, a version arose about crossing coyotes with dogs that may have blue eyes. However, in this case, the entire color of these coyotes would have interspersed with other colors, but blue-eyed coyotes have the most common skin color.
The main version is now in favor of a genetic mutation, which is dominant. This means there will be even more of these coyotes in the future.
8. The goldfish drained into the toilet are the size of an arm
In 2019, in the Niagara River in New York State, a goldfish was caught, which was 36 cm long. According to scientists, someone poured the fish into the toilet and it not only survived, but was fattened to such large sizes on free bread.
In 2013, in Lake Tahoe, California, a goldfish was caught almost 2 times larger than the Niagara, it was 61 cm long and weighed more than 2 kg. How the fish got into this lake, in which carps were not previously found, remained unknown, except for the version with draining into the toilet or throwing it into the water directly from the shore of the lake.
In general, scientists agree that goldfish are very resilient and can survive a sewer journey. And when they get into a river or lake, they feel great there, as they are unpretentious, hardy and therefore dangerous invasive species.
They crowd out native species and reproduce in abundance. Suffice it to say that there are millions of goldfish in the United States' Great Lakes region, although most of them don't grow to the size of the stories above.
7. Three-eyed snake
The news about this rare curiosity went through the media quite recently. The snake was found near the road in the city of Humpty Doo in Australia. It was a juvenile python of the species Morelia spilota, which had three eyes: two in their usual places and one in the forehead. They gave him the name Monty.
X-ray examination showed that Monty is not a snake case of Siamese twins and his third eye did not arise from the fusion of two heads into one. It had the most common one head, but with an extra eye. This probably happened due to a breakdown in DNA at an early stage of embryonic development.
Unfortunately, Monty lived for only a few weeks and soon passed away. At the time of his death, he was only 2 months old. According to those with whom Monty lived, he died most likely due to the fact that with the third eye it was very difficult for him to open his mouth wide and absorb food in the right amount.
6. A cloud of beetles
It happened a month ago in southern California, when a meteorologist noticed something very large on radar and did not look like a cloud or a thunderstorm front. It was hanging over San Bernardino, but the sky was visually clear and without a hint of rain or thunderstorm.
The object was a colossal 130 km in length, which is incredibly huge parameters even for a UFO. Alarmed by the anomaly, the meteorologist sent a team to the site to see with their own eyes what was so big above the ground. And the people who arrived at the scene saw in the air many … flying ladybirds.
However, all this did not fully explain the anomaly, the mass of the cows seen was much smaller than on the radar and they were found only at a distance of about 16 km. Nevertheless, this was taken as the main version.
Environmentalists and insect experts are still arguing whether so many ladybirds can gather in one place and why they did it. The thing is. that such large clusters of ladybirds have never been observed before. The mystery was aggravated by the fact that soon the mysterious clot completely disappeared from the radar screens.
5. Blond zebras
In early 2019, wildlife photographer Sergio Pitamitz ambushed a watering hole in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park trying to capture a herd of nomadic zebras. Among the zebras running up to the water, he suddenly noticed one with very pale stripes that were not black, but the color of cocoa.
These "blonde" zebras have been noticed before, they are very rare and still remain a mystery to biologists. They are somewhat similar to the white and brown panda that was found in China several years ago.
"Blond" zebras are obviously not albinos and do not suffer from leucism, probably the whole thing in a genetic malfunction. But judging by the behavior of such zebras, they are not rejected by their relatives as sick animals, they live like ordinary zebras and reproduce normally.
4. A tree growing on a tree
This unique miracle grows in the Piedmont region (Italy) between the cities of Casorzo and Grana and is a completely natural plant. Locals call it "Bialbero de Casorzo" and it is a mulberry tree with a cherry on top. The mulberry tree is older and the cherry is a young plant.
Cherry does not parasitize on a mulberry tree, it only needs it for support, and it receives energy like all plants from rainwater and sunny colors. In nature, this is called the term "epiphyte" and this is most often found with flowers growing on tree branches.
But in this case, everyone is surprised by how big the cherry has grown and that it successfully blooms every year and bears fruit. Where did the cherry come from here at all is also a mystery, although most likely a bird dropped a cherry seed once, it fell into the folds of the bark of a mulberry tree and then successfully took root in them.
3. Sea molluscs in amber
Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient trees. Therefore, it is logical that living creatures trapped in amber are mainly those that crawl through trees. But what about sea clams?
In Myanmar, pieces of 100-million amber are found, in which the shells of sea mollusks are clearly visible. They are so well preserved as if they got there quite recently. At the moment, 4 snails, 1 sea ammonite and 7 isopods have been found in amber from Myanmar, which live in tidal waves. In addition to them, grains of sand from ancient beaches fell into the amber.
Liquid resin that gets into the water will never become amber, so all these creatures somehow ended up on the shore at a dry moment and then managed to get stuck in the resin. Incredibly rare finds.
2. A bird that has repeated the same evolutionary path twice
Once upon a time, part of the birds of the Bialbero de Casorzo species (Shepherd's Cuvier) inhabiting the island of Madagascar left it for some reason and settled in the Seychelles, or rather on the Aldabra atoll, which does not have predators that feed on birds, chicks or eggs birds.
Time passed and the absence of predators changed the shepherds, they stopped flying (the same thing happened with the birds of New Zealand) and began to run. And about 136 thousand years ago, a huge flood engulfed Aldabra and these birds became extinct.
But after 36 thousand years, when the water level dropped, the atoll again emerged from the water and, you will not believe, soon a population of flying shepherds from Madagascar arrived again. And after a while they evolved again in the same way, having lost the ability to fly.
This phenomenon of twice repeated evolution is called "Iterative evolution" in science and is extremely rare.
1. Square waves
Everyone who has ever seen this photo believes that either it is a correction in Photoshop, or a frame from some fantastic movie. In fact, this is a completely real and very rare phenomenon and it is called "Cross sea".
It looks as if someone has divided the areas of the sea into squares, setting up a fence under the water. Such areas are formed when, due to two strong winds, waves travel in two different directions.
This is a completely mesmerizing phenomenon, but it is very dangerous for those who are in the water at this time. Waves falling on a boat or small fishing vessel from both sides can easily overturn it.
