There are certain things that we take for granted in our world. Tacos taste great, the sun rises in the east, roosters crow, and so on. However, just because you anticipate something and may even have become accustomed to it due to prior experiences, doesn’t indicate that’s how things will always be. You might be misinterpreting the facts, as was the case in the past when people believed the sun revolved around the Earth, even though it may not even be that way.

In the natural world, a lot of things are not necessarily what they seem to be. Nothing about nature is unsurprising. In light of this, let’s examine a few living species that might not function as you might anticipate.

10. The T. Rex Wasn’t Able to Clap

Remember at the end of the first Jurassic Park movie, when the T. Rex manages to sneak inside the visitor center, battles the velociraptors, and lets our heroes go before roaring loudly? At this point, the majority of us are undoubtedly able to recognize that sound effect in a crowd. And that demonstrates the impact of sound in films as well as Steven Spielberg’s creative vision. Ironically, the data suggests that the Tyrannosaurus rex was completely incapable of roaring.

Although reconstructing the morphology and surviving traits of dinosaurs from fossils is a challenging task, we have been doing it for a considerable amount of time. Even though it’s theoretical, it seems improbable that a T. rex-like dinosaur could have possessed a larynx given the state of research. It is therefore doubtful that it could make sounds like any living mammal, including lions, bears, and other creatures that we are familiar with roaring.

In contrast, birds are able to vocalize because they possess a structure known as a syrinx. Even then, it’s more plausible that the dinosaur had something similar to enable bird-like chirps, and that came from the order of smaller, arboreal dinosaurs that later gave rise to modern birds.

Even so, the T. rex might have produced noises, although ones that were more in keeping with those of contemporary reptiles. Consider the hissing noises produced by crocodiles and snakes, as well as humming and drumming noises. They were probably not as noisy as the movies portray them to be, even if they weren’t silent entirely.

9. Because they are unable to roar, cheetahs are not big cats.

Speaking of roaring, a roar is now well recognized as a distinctive feature of large cats. Of course, tigers and lions both have the ability to roar. That’s a characteristic shared by jaguars and leopards, so perhaps stay inside if you hear it coming from the woods at night. If you don’t hear it, though, don’t assume you’re safe all the time.

In addition to screaming cats, there are also purring cats. While that may sound like your adorable cat at home, there are larger cats in the same group. Take the cheetah as an example. It is not a “big” cat in the traditional meaning of the word since it is unable to roar. Its larynx lacks the ligament that enables the other big cats to produce loud sounds.

A cheetah is not a large animal, even though it may reach a weight of 140 pounds and reach speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour. Actually, they belong to a peculiar family called Acinonyx. Additionally, they are the only cats without fully retractable claws, having just semi-retractable ones.

8. Earthworms Are Not Very Good at Drowning

How often have you seen earthworms, all pallid and moist, covering the sidewalk after it has rained? Like most people, you probably surmised—or maybe even discovered—that this was because they were trying to get away from the rain so they wouldn’t drown. Their little worm holes must, after all, be filled with water. Not so quickly.

Earthworms can live for days when completely submerged in water because they breathe via their skin. For effective breathing, they require moisture. Thus, they cannot be drowned by the rain. Rather, it’s thought that worms surface because it makes their journey faster.

For worms, digging in dry soil is actually a laborious process, as they require liquid to survive. However, when it rains, they can emerge, remain wet as they like, and probably travel farther more quickly. It’s a matter of convenience.

Another explanation is that worms are simply moving up to get away because the sound of rain confuses them, leading them to believe that a predator is nearby. They’re not drowning, though, in any case.

7. Young Pandas Need Assistance to Poop

Panda jokes are a common online topic of conversation. People frequently wonder how the animals live in the wild at all because they resemble cartoon characters with a restricted diet, thanks to the abundance of films showing the animals acting foolish. In light of that, here’s something else to ponder over their prolonged survival.

As some of the most defenseless newborns in all of nature, baby pandas are at risk of dying if their moms do not tend to them from the moment of birth. Because they are just 1/900th the size of their mother, they are unable to move, see, or even relieve themselves independently. Without assistance, constipation may cause them to pass away.

Mother pandas are often seen licking their offspring to encourage defecation rather than grooming them. Yes, that implies that they require assistance with, er, unloading. Mothers stay with their young all the time during that critical first week, massaging their bellies to ensure that they can poop when necessary.

6. Reindeer Can’t Go Potty on Foot

Have you ever heard a joke about not being able to chew gum and walk simultaneously? That’s a classic one that basically indicates that someone appears to be too clumsy or unskilled to do fundamental duties. However, some animals are actually incapable of doing simple tasks like walking at the same time. For example, reindeer are unable to move and urinate.

The Finnish reindeer herders have a term for the distance a reindeer will move before urinating since it is common knowledge that reindeer need to stop for frequent urinal breaks and that herds of them will halt together. A poronkusema is roughly six miles long. You may be sure that the herd will walk for approximately six more miles before stopping to urinate.

5. There Is No Effect of Capsaicin on Birds

People’s fondness for hot peppers is evident from YouTube. After all, Hot Ones is a huge deal. Regardless of your preference for or against hot cuisine, you have undoubtedly felt the heat that comes from the chemical capsaicin, which is found in peppers.

If you’re not a big fan of spices, you might feel jealous of birds because they can’t enjoy the benefits of capsaicin. This is partly due to birds and their extremely primitive sense of taste. The 2,000–10,000 taste buds on human bodies enable us to perceive flavor. A chicken has twenty-four. It appears from research that birds either have extraordinarily sensitive capsaicin receptors or no receptors at all. This could also be advantageous to plants since it would allow birds to absorb seeds from spicy peppers and distribute them around, making it an evolutionary advantage.

4. There Was No Higher Intelligence in Velociraptors

We have previously made one trip to Jurassic Park. How about returning to inspect the raptors? The films have also helped contemporary viewers understand the functioning of a velociraptor. They are pack hunters, cunning, deadly, and intelligent, and the only thing that can stop them is Chris Pratt holding out his arm. But that’s Hollywood once more. Even though it’s a loaded term, raptors may have been intelligent in real life.

As with gas station meals, praising a hot dog as very nice is like to saying that raptors were smart for dinosaurs. You’re still not terrific even if you’re the best of the worst. Based on the size of the chamber housing its brain, clever for a dinosaur indicates that the raptor was likely smarter than a rabbit but not as smart as a cat.

Remember that movie raptors were really more similar to Utahraptors. Because velociraptors were smaller than turkeys and had only a cat’s level of intelligence, they weren’t as scary as people may believe.

3. The Capability to Fly Is Gone for the Domestic Silk Moth

Humanity has benefited much from agriculture, but not all of the things we farm—like the silk moth, for example—have benefited from it. These insects’ way of life has altered since humans have been using them to make silk for thousands of years. We raise trillions of them, making them the second most extensively cultivated mammal in the world behind bees.

A silk caterpillar used to be able to fly away after undergoing a metamorphosis and becoming a moth. We have bred the flying ability of the domestic moth out of them as a result of farming for decades. They haven’t been able to fly like this for such a long time; even if they were given the opportunity, they couldn’t.

2. Cats Aren’t Able to Taste Sugar

Cats can be extraordinarily picky eaters, or they can be furry trash cans that devour anything and everything, even bread, salad, and rabbit turds. Like individuals, taste is sometimes unaccountable. But you shouldn’t allow that deceive you into thinking food is the same for cats as it is for us.

You might be tempted to assume that your cat has a sweet tooth if he enjoys your ice cream, but that is untrue. Although your cat might adore dessert in general, this is most likely due to the dairy, fat, or anything else. Physically speaking, cats cannot taste sweetness.

Most other mammals are able to detect sweetness. A gene that transmits sweet signals to the brain is helpful for survival since sweet often corresponds to sugar, which is a type of carbohydrate that provides energy. The majority of animals view sugar as a way of survival. However, since cats are carnivores, they don’t function that way. Thus, the Tas1r2 gene functions in conjunction with another gene to produce the proteins that comprise sweet receptors. But that is not how cats evolved.

However, there might be another factor at work when it comes to cats that appear to go crazy for sugar. It’s plausible, according to researchers, that they can taste sugar at high doses because of the other gene, Tas1r3. Or perhaps cats are just peculiar.

1. Not All People Possess an Inner Voice

It’s quite simple to assume that other people think the same way you do. Indeed, it’s virtually impossible to go through life without wondering why in the world someone else thought they were so stupid when they made a stupid decision. In actuality, though, our opinions are not all the same. And our ways of thinking vary greatly amongst us.

When they think, most people have an inner monologue. You “hear” your thoughts in your head, most likely in your own voice, as if you were speaking to yourself. Your thoughts exist as words, entire phrases. It might surprise you to learn that not everyone is capable of doing that, and even those who are sometimes struggle with it.

Between 30% and 50% of persons are regarded to think primarily through their inner monologue. But we think in different ways as well. Visual thinking, or imagining something, is another popular technique. Plus, not everyone is able to accomplish it. However, when you think in this way, you picture a location, a person, or perhaps a meal that you wish to eat without using words or conversation.

Other ways of thinking are also grounded in sensation, in sensory awareness, or in a careless sort of instinct. Rarely do we just engage in one sort; most of us engage in all kinds at different times. While some people seem to have an inner monologue all the time, very few people have it 100% of the time.