What’s your favorite animal fact?
Get to know the team at the Discovery Center! We’re wild about wildlife, so we asked our crew to share some of their favorite animal facts. We hope you’ll learn something new!
"My favorite animal facts are all about the hammerhead shark. Their distinguishable head or "cephalofoil" gives them an alien-like look but serves as one of nature's coolest adaptations. It's filled with sensory organs that help them detect, observe and catch their prey. It also makes them hydrodynamic and the placement of their eyes gives them a 360 degree view of the world!
- Nicole White, Animal Husbandry Specialist
Horseshoe crabs have ten eyes! The two that we notice at first glance are called compound eyes, with additional eyes along the body containing thousands of photoreceptors! Their tail is also covered in photoreceptors and makes up their tenth eye. These photoreceptors are about 100 times larger than the cones and rods found in the human eye, giving them amazing vision.
- Brianna Varner, Education Specialist
Horseshoe crabs have remained the same for over 400 million years, and they have very special blood! Their blood is blue because it's copper-based, and it’s often harvested because of its value in medicine. It contains immune cells that are sensitive to toxic bacteria, making it very effective in testing the sterility of medical equipment and injectable drugs.
- Anna O’Connor, Guest Services Associate
Parrotfish are really important to ocean ecosystems, especially coral reefs, as they help keep them clean and maintained. They eat broken bits of shell and dead pieces of coral, break them down into smaller pieces, and then poop out sand. Parrotfish do a great job at recycling!
- Molly O’Connor, Guest Services Keyholder
My favorite animal facts are about the Whale Shark, which despite its name, is actually not a whale! It was named this simply due to its sheer size but in reality it is a species of shark that eats small shrimp, plankton and small fish. The whale shark is actually the largest fish in the ocean, only smaller than the largest mammals such as the blue whale. Though they swim very slowly (3 mph) in comparison to other fish, if you try to catch up to one in the ocean they will always outswim you due to their large powerful tail.