The Most Terrifying Bird on Earth Photo via Amazing Australia Queensland, Australia. Philip Mclean, a 16 year-old boy, and his brother, three years his junior, encounter a cassowary. Despite the s Photo: Photo via Amazing Australia Queensland, Australia. Jekyll and Hyde? Photo: Photo by Ronnie23 Philip Mclean’s death took place in 1926, but attacks on humans by the cassowary – viewed by many as the most dangerous bird alive – are not uncommon. Keep clear of the claw: At 12 cm long, it can do serious damage Photo: Photo by Mrs King The southern cassowary is one of the largest birds on the planet – only its relatives the emu and the ostrich are bigger – the female reaching almost 2 metres tall and weighing 130 pounds. Cassowary comin’ atcha: It is a fast runner, able to reach 50 km/h Photo: Photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen Hello beautiful: The coarse head feathers are brilliant, perhaps as a warning Photo: Photo by Paul IJsendoorn Here today, gone tomorrow: the cassowary is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Photo: Photo by Elfike
6 Terrifying Diseases That Science Can't Explain The world is full of some pretty awful diseases, including but not limited to viruses that leave you with your limbs rotting off (CAUTION! Pictures!) or pooping yourself to death in hours. What could be worse than getting diagnosed with one of those? How about having a doctor stand over your death bed, shrug his shoulders and say, "I dunno, magic?" Firmly in the category of "things somehow made more terrifying by a ridiculous name," the Dancing Plague was an actual disease that killed people. Deadlier than a crocodile with rabies and a machine gun. Now, you may be thinking that "tackling and forcibly stopping" the people who were literally dancing themselves to death may be a sound idea for preventing the afflicted from dying. "Well, they're not dancing anymore, are they?" The Mystery: The whole thing just kind of ended and, despite almost five intervening centuries, modern medicine has no explanation for why 400 French people suddenly danced themselves to death. Stiff Person Syndrome
Terror Bird Fought Like Muhammad Ali Analysis of a terror bird's predatory behavior reveals this animal knew how to fight. At least one of these now-extinct, large birds, Andalgalornis, fought like boxer Muhammad Ali. Like Ali, they believe the bird was an agile and fast fighter that employed an "attack-and-retreat" strategy. At 90 pounds, the ancient terror bird Andalgalornis may not have been comparable to a human heavyweight. The study, published in the latest PLoS ONE journal, presents the first detailed look at the predatory style of terror birds, now-extinct flightless birds known for their unusually large, fearsome heads and imposing sizes. CT scans revealed this bird's skull was strong and rigid in the vertical and fore-aft directions, but was relatively weak from side to side. "That side-to-side weakness meant that the bird couldn't grapple with struggling prey like a Joe Frazier kind of slugger without risking fracturing the beak.
6 Creepy Animal Behaviors That Science Can't Explain Animals do a lot of strange things: dogs will go after their own butts for hours, some fish fly and if some people are to be believed, sheep have the amazing ability to attract New Zealanders and Scotsmen. But there are some things about the animal world that leave the smartest of us scratching their heads in puzzlement saying, "Fucked if I know..." One of the major things that separate humans from animals is that most lower life forms have an intense will to live. Unless they are defending their babies or food, most animals will prefer to run off than fight, because life is precious. Plus, given the fact that most don't really appear to be all that self aware, the likelihood of goth hamsters and emo pigeons seems pretty thin. Then why do some animals just up and decide to off themselves sometimes? And lets not forget Jatinga, India, where hundreds of birds from several species dive into the ground to kill themselves every year. How Long Has This Been Going On? That's a tough one.
Giant Terror Birds Used Stabbing Beaks to Kill Prey | Wired Science When South America was still an isolated continent, terror birds were the creatures you didn’t want to mess with. Flightless, standing up to seven feet tall, and with giant, stabbing beaks, these birds killed their prey with fierce, axe-like motions. Now scientists have used CT scans and computer modeling to reconstruct the feeding behavior and interior skull anatomy of one of 18 known species of terror bird, Andalgalornis steulleti, which lived in northwest Argentina until about six million years ago. A. steulleti was a mid-sized terror bird, standing 4.5 feet tall and weighing about 90 pounds. “CT scanning extinct animals is exciting because you never really know what you’ll find inside,” said paleontologist Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University, co-author of the study published in PLoS ONE August 18. Terror birds, known scientifically as phorusrhacids, evolved in isolation in South America about 60 million years ago. See Also:
5 Real Animal Friendships Straight Out of a Disney Movie Cartoons notwithstanding, we are generally raised with the knowledge that animals kill one another. The process is messy, but it's all a part of an intricate balance; the death of one creature provides life for another. But just sometimes, vicious carnivores of the world take an appraising look at centuries of biological necessity, then turn their back on it and say, "Screw that noise, let's be friends." #5. Snake Decides a Hamster Is Better as a Roommate Hamsters, like most rodents, are the meal of choice for many snakes. And then there's Japan. Aochan is a Japanese rat snake held at a Tokyo zoo. So they took a female dwarf hamster, dropped her into Aochan's cage and waited for nature to take its course. Then pulled the blanket over his head and gave him a Dutch Oven. Did Aochan fly into a mindless rage, seeing his pride as a rat snake being torn to shreds by this overtly friendly furball? We feel it's worth noting that Aochan wasn't just a random snake that likes to eat rodents. #4. #3.
How the fearsome 'terror bird' dealt with its victims six million years ago How the fearsome 'terror bird' dealt with its victims six million years ago A fossil skull of the terror bird Andalgalornis, compared with the skull of a modern-day golden eagle and a human skull for scale. Andalgalornis was an extinct, 1.4 metre-tall flightless predatory bird found as 6-million-year-old fossils in northwestern Argentina. How the fearsome 'terror bird' dealt with its victims six million years ago - The Irish Times - Thu, Aug 19, 2010 Scientists have worked out how the wonderfully named ‘terror bird’, which died out some two million years ago, caught and chopped up its prey IT FLOATED like a butterfly and stung like a bee but it was no boxer. Scientists have worked out how the wonderfully named “terror bird” caught and chopped up its prey. This flightless bird, of the Phorusrachid family, ranged across what is now North and South America millions of years ago. It is likely that humans would have been part of its menu plan had we existed at the time.
The 7 Most Terrifyingly Huge Things in the History of Nature We may be the undisputed kings of the food chain, but when it comes to being pant-soilingly huge, we come up a bit short. We can hang out with tiny dogs and house cats until we feel like the T-Rex of our home -- but in the back of our mind, we know. Nature has produced terrifyingly huge and horrific organisms that could kill us without noticing, either by stepping on us, accidentally swallowing us the way we might swallow a fly or simply stopping our heart with sheer terror. A Crab as Big as Your Car They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Via Wikimedia CommonsIn this case, almost all of them are some variation of AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Japanese spider crabs, in what we can only assume is a cruel joke from God, possess all the most terrifying qualities of each of its namesakes. Long spindly legs to help it creep through your nightmares.A terrifyingly disproportionate body just to freak you out.The ability to trigger the primal arachnophobe inside us all. Via NHM And from crabs it has:
baby chameleons photo Random photo Submit your photo Stumble Thru animal photography Tags: baby animal chameleon baby chameleons by igor siwanowicz 1 047 420 views Rating: +26 a happy family of polar bears baby meerkats cute “mini lion” kitten Adorable Photos of Animals With Their Babies That Will Make You Go ‘Aww’ Place your ad here Loading... About OneBigPhoto is your daily dose of high quality photos. 2726 photos uploaded Important stuff Top rated Top galleries Submit photo Privacy policy Wallpaper Contact us Connect with us Search Some rights reserved. ©2013 OneBigPhoto.com Law Of The Wild :: SeenAndShared.com :: Best Quality! The Law Of The Wild says "Kill ONLY when you are hungry." Photographer Michel Denis-Huot, who captured these amazing pictures on safari in Kenya's Masai Mara in October last year, said he was astounded by what he saw: *UPDATE: While these pictures are indeed real, the outcome after the encounter below did not fare well for the young deer.