On 21 October 2023, guests at the West Coast Fossil Park were entertained and informed by Professor Mike Bruton, a well-known scientist and science educator from Cape Town, in a most interesting talk about South Africa\u2019s strangest animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He defined strange as \u201cout of the ordinary\u201d, \u201cunfamiliar\u201d, \u201cdiffering from the normal building plan of its group\u201d, \u201cshowing unusual behaviour\u201d or \u201chaving a different lifestyle\u201d. Bruton first trawled through many of the strange invertebrate animals \u2013 those without backbones \u2013 that live in South Africa and described their unusual characteristics. After careful consideration he suggested the following invertebrates are the strangest: sea pen, sea cucumber, velvet worm, fish-eating spider, honeybee, mantis shrimp, barnacle, nudibranch, octopus and sea urchin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He then trawled through the backboned animals of South Africa \u2013 fishes, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals \u2013 and suggested the strangest are the hagfish, five-gilled stingray, coelacanth, bullfrog, platanna, sea snake, leatherback turtle, ostrich, free-tailed bat, elephant, right whale and pangolin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruton then chose the \u201cquarter-finalists\u201d, the eight strangest animals with and without backbones: sea urchin, velvet worm, octopus, coelacanth, sea snake, free-tailed bat, pangolin and elephant, and the four \u2018semi-finalists\u2019: velvet worm, coelacanth, pangolin and elephant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After careful consideration, the velvet worm and pangolin were chosen as the two \u2018finalists\u2019, with the pangolin narrowly winning the race to be crowned as our strangest animal! Amongst many other unusual characteristics, it is the only mammal with scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In conclusion, Mike outlined the reasons why animals are \u201cstrange\u201d, including frozen in evolutionary time, the development of novel feeding and breeding behaviours, acquiring special powers of defence, attack and camouflage, adaptations to unusual habitats and the adoption of novel lifestyles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also pointed out that many non-human animals have acquired abilities that humans do not have, including sight without eyes, nerve coordination without brains, production of ultrasonic sounds, ability to navigate using the earth\u2019s magnetic field, echolocation, flight without machines, electro-reception and electro-generation, trinocular vision, regrowth of lost organs, external digestion of food, and light production without electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruton also pointed out that, sadly, the survival of many of our strangest animals is threatened as they possess characteristics that make them vulnerable to extinction, including being highly specialised, high in the food pyramid, partners in dependencies, living in complex communities, rare, with narrow habitat preferences, and high parental investment in a few young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talk revealed that, although South Africa does not have animals as strange as the platypus, axolotl, kangaroo and narwal, it does have some very strange animals. Overall, the talk opened the audience\u2019s eyes to the incredible variety of animal life on the planet, but also to the fact that some of the most interesting animals are threatened with extinction due to the harmful actions of humankind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information on South Africa\u2019s strangest animals, and the reasons they were selected to be competitors in this strangest of competitions, read Bruton\u2019s book, Curious Notions. Reflections of an Imagineer<\/span> (Footprint Press, 2021). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 21 October 2023, guests at the West Coast Fossil Park were entertained and informed by Professor Mike Bruton, a well-known scientist and science educator from Cape Town, in a most interesting talk about South Africa\u2019s strangest 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