Amoebae  (that’s the plural of Amoeba, remember that for your next general knowledge quiz!)

One of the simplest of life forms.   A single celled life form.  I bet you didn’t know though, that some amoebae can be as large as 1 millimetre across and visible to the human eye.   They are also surprisingly complex.  Did you know that the human genome contains 2.9 billion base pairs?  Well one of the most common amoeba, the Amoeba protea, has 290 billion base pairs in it’s genome?  (Note to self…..go and look up ‘genome’….)

Crane Fly – or ‘Daddy Long Legs’

Take just a moment to study the complexity and intricacy of this exquisite insect.  It’s larvae, ‘leatherbacks’ typically eat the roots of grasses and such like, often in your well maintained lawns.  They then hatch into their adult form, often alive for only a day or two, with the sole purpose of mating, which is followed by death.   Consider this the next time you’re tempted to swat one into oblivion simply because you don’t like it ‘flittering around’, or because of urban legends such as they are poisonous to humans or that they bite.  They don’t bite humans, and their poison really is not a worry to an animal of our size.

Texas Indigo Snake

This snake, found in North America in Texas down to Mexico, can reach 8 to 10 feet in length and will eat almost anything they can overpower long enough to swallow:  birds, mammals, turtles, frogs.   They are a listed ‘threatened’ species, actually predominantly black, but the incredible iridescence of their scales often gives them the indigo appearance.  This snake will often shake it’s tail as a warning if harassed, but possesses no ‘rattle’, they may bite and will often release a foul smelling musk if troubled.