Saturday, February 02, 2019

Interlocking vertebrae

I had never heard of the hero shrew before tonight.
But the first known hero shrew, S. somereni, has 10 to 11 vertebrae with many more bony projections that lock together, giving it unparalleled power in the animal kingdom.

It’s so strong that, according to written accounts of DRC explorers in early 1900s, a man stood on the back of a hero shrew for five minutes, stepped off, and the animal walked away unharmed, Stanley said.


Wikipedia has a clearer picture of the spine. I have no comments beyond "Wow!" and "Why?"

No comments:

Post a Comment