A Conversation for Ask h2g2

Useless Facts

Post 10121

Cheerful Dragon

You're right, Mr. X. This means that a kangaroo's pouch is a combination of bra and baby carrier, something humans haven't invented yet.


Useless Facts

Post 10122

Pink Paisley

I'm never going to be rich.

PP.


Useless Facts

Post 10123

Feisor - -0- Generix I made it back - sortof ...

Kangaroos are marsupials but still are part of the class Mammalia.

Yes their 4 milk glands are inside the pouch and they are able to produce 2 different qualities of milk for joeys at different stages of growth at the same time.

They are herbivorous like cattle, which release large quantities of methane through exhaling and burping, but kangaroos release virtually none. The byproduct of fermentation is converted into acetate, which is then used to provide further energy. Scientists are interested in the possibility of transferring the bacteria responsible from kangaroos to cattle, since the greenhouse gas effect of methane is 23 times greater than that of carbon dioxide, per molecule.

smiley - ok


Useless Facts

Post 10124

Baron Grim

Further study into this proved that kangaroos do, indeed, fart quite a bit, roughly as much as horses.

This radio program was my flatological source.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-internet-asks-does-it-fart-and-science-answers/


Useless Facts

Post 10125

Icy North

*** Breaking News ***


smiley - run


Useless Facts

Post 10126

Caiman raptor elk - Inside big box, thinking.

The question is: What to do with the bits of broken news?


Useless Facts

Post 10127

Icy North

It just requires a bullet in.


Useless Facts

Post 10128

Cheerful Dragon

Having a bullet in will break a lot of things, not just news.smiley - tongueout


Useless Facts

Post 10129

Baron Grim

Armadillos nearly always give birth to identical quadruplets (monozygotic embryony).


Useless Facts

Post 10130

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Oh, lord, how did we live without this fact? smiley - rofl


Useless Facts

Post 10131

Baron Grim

Hey, I've lived in Texas for half a century and I didn't know this before. smiley - rofl


I knew Texas horned toad lizards can squirt blood from their eyes when provoked, but I didn't know our armadillos squeezed out quads every birth.


Useless Facts

Post 10132

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Texas is a wild place...smiley - island


Useless Facts

Post 10133

ITIWBS

Unlike modern placental carnivores and herbivores, which originate from separate shrew lineages following the KT disaster, armadillos belong to the archaic group of placental mammals, with lineages predating the KT boundary.


Useless Facts

Post 10134

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Well, that doesn't make me feel any better about it...


Useless Facts

Post 10135

Florida Sailor All is well with the world

It helps when so few of them can get across the road intactsmiley - erm the tire tracks make it hard to count the bands

F smiley - dolphin S


Useless Facts

Post 10136

ITIWBS

I've always thought their survival inspirational, a tribute to how quickly the little devils could dig in against the KT global firestorm.


Useless Facts

Post 10137

Baron Grim

Yep, armadillos have some interesting relatives; anteaters, echidnas, & pangolins.

For more info, see this hilarious video on the True Facts of the Pangolin Posse. http://youtu.be/mbnBYh-BJ1g


Useless Facts

Post 10138

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

smiley - snork That is smiley - bleeping brilliant writing!


Useless Facts

Post 10139

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

In the recent Zimbabwe elections, it was illegal for parties to use an owl on their logos. Or a secretary bird.


Useless Facts

Post 10140

Baron Grim

I regularly see at least 4 commercials on TV featuring animated owls.

One's for a for-profit school, one's for a travel booking website, one's for a chain of optometrists, the fourth I forget.


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