Fascinating facts about Human & Animals

Prepared by: Himanshi Tobaria Class X F Roll No 12

Fact # 1
Unlike other body cells, brain cells can not regenerate. Once brain cells are damaged they are not replaced.

Fact # 2
The surface area of the lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court.

Fact # 3
About 2 million blood cells die in the human body every second, and the same number are born each second.

Fact # 4
The longest muscle in the body is the sartorius, from the outside of the hip, down and across to the inside of the knee. It rotates the thigh outwards and bends the knee.

Fact # 5
The smallest bone is the 'stirrup (stapes)', deep in the ear. It is hardly larger than a grain of rice.

Fact # 6
After death, cartilage rots faster than bone. This is why the skulls of skeletons have no nose or ears.

Fact # 7
It takes about 1 minute for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

Fact # 8
Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria.

Fact # 9
The capillaries in the lungs would extend 1,600 kilometers if placed end to end.

Fact # 10
We lose half a litre of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapour we see when we breathe onto glass.

Fact # 11
Everything about a sloth is slow-moving, including his digestive system. It can take up to a month for a sloth to process his food.

Fact # 12
No other species have such wide variety of bones than dogs. Even though a Chihuahua will be having the same number of bones as that of a Great Dane but the shape and size of the bones will be varying to a great extent.

Fact # 13
A cow's stomach is divided into four sections. The first section softens the cow's food, the second section sends the food back up to the mouth where it can be rechewed, the third section removes the moisture from food and the last section mixes the food with digestive juices.

Fact # 14
Blue whales have large enough aortas (the main blood vessel) for a human to crawl through.

Fact # 15
A garden caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

Fact # 16
Snakes have no arms or legs, but they can have up to five hundred vertebrae in their flexible spine.

Fact # 17
Scientists estimate that a normal horse will produce about 10 gallons of saliva daily.

Fact # 18
A bird's crop acts as a storage compartment for excess food that a bird can't eat at one sitting. Its twochambered stomach mixes the food with digestive acids and crushes the food thoroughly.

Fact # 19
The flea can jump up to 200 times its own height. This is equivalent to a man jumping the Empire State Building in New York.

Fact # 20
The plethodontids, also called "lungless salamanders" must absorb oxygen through their skin and mouth to breath since they lack lungs.

References
http://www.bodyworlds.com/Downloads/did_you_know.pdf http://www.ehow.com/facts_5526620_animals-digestive-system.html http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/educate/resource/aniskel.pdf http://www.thefactsite.com/2010/09/300-random-animal-facts.html http://animals.about.com/od/amphibians/a/amphibian-facts.htm http://www.ker.com/library/EquineReview/2005/HorseWorld/HW27.pdf

Thank You !!