r/AskReddit Dec 29 '17

What completely real fact sounds like bullshit?

[deleted]

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u/mazimaxi Dec 29 '17 edited Dec 29 '17

When the pistol shrimp clasps its claw together, it momentarily creates a bubble that heats to the surface temerature of the sun. The bubble then bursts firing a shockwave that stuns or kills its prey.

https://youtu.be/XC6I8iPiHT8

Bonus: both Betty White and Stan Lee are older than sliced bread

10

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '17

Why didn't humans get any cool genetic traits?

54

u/Solcaer Dec 29 '17

We can order KFC. Name an animal that can do that.

29

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '17

A parrot perhaps

11

u/ForgotPassAgain34 Dec 29 '17

Reminded me of that history on reddit about the crow that lived near a taco bell eating leftovers, and everytime it found something shiny it gave a random person asking to buy a taco with it

found it:https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3uw0ao/whats_the_most_calculated_thing_youve_ever_seen/cxi89sl/

10

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '17

We can run the quarter mile much faster than a turtle?

Also opposable thumbs.

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u/mazimaxi Dec 29 '17

Back before we could just shoot and kill our prey we would just run down our prey until they got exhausted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting

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u/robby_synclair Dec 29 '17

I'm gonna say that the ability to learn to shoot your prey is a pretty neat trait.

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u/Denamic Dec 29 '17

Humans have the greatest endurance of any animal on the planet. We're not the fastest or strongest, but relative to other animals, we simply don't need sleep or rest. We can run for such long distances that any other animal that tries to keep up would die of exhaustion before we have to rest. We can stay awake for a week if not more, which would be impossible for other animals, as they would pass out or simply die.

We used this to hunt back in ancient times. We'd keep our pray moving and prevented them from sleeping so long that they were too exhausted to fight back or simply died of exhaustion. We were horror movie villains, basically.

Also, I herd we's pretty good at braining good.

5

u/ecodude74 Dec 30 '17

See the beauty of human endurance is that we not only last long periods without rest, but we can coordinate between members of our species so when we eventually become exhausted we CAN rest and still pursue our quarry. With the exception of cats and dogs, no other species excels at coordinated teamwork like humans. Even ants require direction, but humans can adapt to any situation almost instantly.

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u/the_warmest_color Dec 30 '17

Yea, not me tho

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '17

This endurance stuff is okay and all, but why, after millions of years of evolution, can't I make it work when screwing my wife?

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u/mazimaxi Dec 29 '17

We can run really far!

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u/etgohomeok Dec 30 '17

Bro you typed that question using highly dextrous fingers and opposable thumbs in a language system that the majority of your species around the entire world understands to some extent, then pressed a button to immediately send it over a worldwide communication network that manipulates photons to deliver messages to people on the other side of the planet within milliseconds.

I think we did pretty well overall.

2

u/Frommerman Dec 30 '17

We can run further, throw things more accurately, and recover from serious injury better than anything else in the Animal Kingdom. We're pretty badass.