關(guān)于動物大腦的冷知識，絕對大開眼界！

1. Squids have doughnut-shaped brains.

烏賊的大腦結(jié)構(gòu)就像甜甜圈。

(Note: this photo is not of a giant squid. Pictures of giant squids in their natural habitat are hard to come by! Please accept this cute photo of a regular squid instead.)

(注：這張照片不是巨型烏賊。因?yàn)樵谧匀画h(huán)境下，巨型烏賊的照片很難拍到!所以就請大家暫時觀看這張普通魷魚的照片吧!)

So giant squids have brains the shape of doughnuts. Not only that, but their esophagus runs directly through the hole in their brain. Because of this, squids have to bite their food into small pieces so the meal can fit through the esophagus. If the food is too big, it can scrape against their brain and cause damage. :(

巨型烏賊的大腦結(jié)構(gòu)就像甜甜圈。此外，它們的食道可以直接通過一個洞連接大腦。因此，烏賊需要把食物咬成小塊以便順利通過食道。如果食物太大，可能會刮傷大腦并造成傷害。:(
 

2. Leeches have 32 brains.

水蛭有32個大腦

A leech's internal structure is divided into 32 separate segments, and each of these segments has its own brain.

水蛭的身體可以分為32個部分，且每個部分都有各自的大腦。
 

3.Sea squirts eat their own brains.

海鞘吞食自己的大腦

The life of a sea squirt is as follows: it comes into this world as an egg that quickly turns into a tadpole-looking thing. It has one eye, a spinal cord, a tail, and a primitive brain that helps it move around. Once it finds its forever home (ocean floor, rock, boat), it attaches itself to said home. It then proceeds to eat its own brain, absorbing its tadpole-like body, and eventually turning into this creature.

海鞘的“一生”：最初是一個卵，后快速地成長為蝌蚪一樣的生物。有一只眼睛、一條脊髓、一條尾巴和一個支持四處活動的原始大腦。一旦它找到了它永遠(yuǎn)的家(海底，巖石，船)，它就附著它的家上。然后它會吞食掉自己的大腦，吸收蝌蚪般的身體，最終變成這種生物。
 

4.An ostrich's brain is smaller than its eyeball.

鴕鳥的大腦比它的眼球小

So, one ostrich eyeball is the size of a billiard ball (around two inches in diameter). Now imagine two of those in an ostrich's head. Its eyeballs are so large that there is only a little room for its brain. So because science is science and evolution is weird, an ostrich's brain is smaller than its eyes — which makes sense considering it runs in circles to "escape" from predators.

鴕鳥的眼球大約有一個臺球那么大(直徑約2英寸，5厘米)?，F(xiàn)在想像一下，鴕鳥的頭上有兩個“臺球”。 它的眼球太大了，所以大腦只有一點(diǎn)空間。 所以科學(xué)只是科學(xué)，進(jìn)化則相對奇怪，鴕鳥的大腦比它的眼球要小——這也使它不屬于“食肉動物”的范疇。
 

5. Starfish don't have a centralized brain.

海星沒有位于中心部分的大腦

The starfish's anatomy is super fascinating. Starfish use sea water (instead of blood) to pump nutrients throughout their bodies. And its central nervous system is distributed throughout its legs (or arms, who am I to say?), so it technically doesn't have a localized brain.

海星的身體構(gòu)造非常迷人。海星用海水(而不是血液)來輸送體內(nèi)的營養(yǎng)物質(zhì)。它的中樞神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的分布于腿 上(或胳膊上，額...該怎么說呢?)因此，嚴(yán)格來說，它沒有位于中心部分的大腦。
 

6. Male and female stickleback fish have different size brains.

雄性和雌性刺魚有不同大小的大腦

Male stickleback fish have bigger brains than their female counterparts. Scientists don't know exactly why this is, one theory is that because the male is responsible for impressing the lady fish, building the nest, and taking care of the eggs, they have developed bigger brains. (The female is only responsible for laying eggs and inspecting the male's nest. Listen, I don't know. I'm not a scientist so don't come at me with this.

雄性刺魚的大腦要比雌性大?？茖W(xué)家們也不知道為何會如此，但有一種說法是，雄性刺魚要吸引雌性、筑巢、照顧魚卵，所以它們進(jìn)化出更大的大腦。(雌魚只負(fù)責(zé)產(chǎn)卵和檢查雄性的巢。我也不是科學(xué)家，所以不要和我死扣這個問題了!
 

7.A sperm whale has the biggest brain of any mammal — but compared to its body size, its brain is actually teeny tiny.

抹香鯨有哺乳動物中最大的大腦——但相較于它的整個“身材比例”，它的大腦其實(shí)算很小的。

Even though a sperm whale has the biggest brain of any animal, its brain is not exceptionally big compared to its massive body size. An average sperm whale's brain weighs 17 pounds. For comparison, a human's brain weighs around three pounds, or about two percent of its body weight. A sperm whale can reach up to 45 tons (90,000 pounds!) so their brain only accounts for 0.00019 percent of their body weight.

盡管抹香鯨擁有最大的腦，但它的大腦與其龐大的體型相比并不算大。平均每個抹香鯨的大腦重17磅。相比之下，人腦的重量約為三磅，約占人體重的百分之二。而抹香鯨體重為45噸(90000磅)!所以它們的大腦只占體重的0.00019%。
 

8.A spider's brain is so big that it spills into its legs.

蜘蛛的大腦太大了，所以分布到了腿上。

A spider's brain is so gigantic that its head doesn't have room for it. All of that extra brain actually spills over into the spider's legs. Scientists believe that this might explain arachnids’ amazing ability to spin webs.

蜘蛛的大腦非常大，所以頭部沒有空間了。所有多余的大腦就會分布到蜘蛛的腿上?？茖W(xué)家認(rèn)為，這可能就是蜘蛛的織網(wǎng)能力驚人的原因。
 

9.A killer whale shuts down half of its brain when sleeping.

虎鯨睡覺時，其大腦有一半也在休息。

Whales use half of their brains for sleeping and the other half for breathing. The part of the brain that controls breathing stays awake while the other half catches some z's. Not only that, but the whale keeps one eye open (on the side of the brain that's awake) and the other closed while sleeping. It's called unihemispheric sleep, and dolphins, beluga whales, and sea lions do it, too!

鯨魚睡覺時用一半的大腦，另一半用于呼吸?？刂坪粑牟糠执竽X保持清醒，而另一半則進(jìn)入休息狀態(tài)。不僅如此，鯨魚在睡覺時，還能保持睜著一只眼睛(大腦清醒的一側(cè))，閉著一只眼睛。這就是所謂的“半腦睡眠”，海豚，白鯨和海獅也是這樣睡覺的。
 

10.Woodpeckers have a super-strength skull to prevent brain injuries.

啄木鳥有防腦損傷的超強(qiáng)度頭骨

Just take a moment to picture a woodpecker slamming its face into a tree over and over and over. Well, because it does this as a way of life, it has a unique spongey skull and neck muscles that protect the brain from the repetitive impact. In addition to that, a woodpecker has a third eyelid to ensure its eyeballs literally don't pop out of its head.

花點(diǎn)時間想象一下啄木鳥把它的臉一次又一次地撞向一棵樹的畫面。因?yàn)檫@是它的生活方式，所以它有獨(dú)特的海綿狀頭骨和頸部肌肉，保護(hù)大腦免受這種重復(fù)的影響。 此外，啄木鳥還有第三只眼瞼，防止其眼球從頭部掉出。
 

11.Around two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are distributed in its arms and suckers, and not its brain.

章魚約三分之二的神經(jīng)元分布于腕足和吸盤，而非其大腦。

An octopus is equipped with 500 million neurons. More than half of these neurons are located in the limbs an individual suckers, while the remaining neurons are in the central brain and optic lobes. This distribution of neurons makes it possible for them to do incredible things with their arms — like solve puzzles, open jars, and taste with their skin.

章魚有5億個神經(jīng)元。其中一半以上位于腕足和吸盤，其余則分布于中央大腦和視葉。神經(jīng)元的分布使他們有可能用腕足做很多事——如玩智力玩具、開罐子以及與用皮膚品嘗味道。
 

12.A cockroach can live for weeks without a head and brain.

蟑螂沒有頭和大腦也可以存活數(shù)周

(果然是打不死的小強(qiáng)!很強(qiáng)!)

Yeah, sorry. Bad news for all roach haters. It's not a myth that a cockroach can live without a head. If a roach were to lose its head, its body would seal off the wound (by blood clotting) and go about its business until it dies of starvation.

很抱歉，這對討厭蟑螂的人來說是個壞消息。但“小強(qiáng)”沒有頭可以存活確實(shí)是真的。如果一只蟑螂沒有了頭，它的身體會用血液凝固住傷口，并繼續(xù)它的生活直到餓死。
 

13.A certain type of fungus can take over an ant's brain, literally turning it into a zombie.

某種真菌可以控制螞蟻的大腦，把它變成“僵尸”。

Here's what happens: a specific type of fungus relies on ants to complete its life cycle. This fungus is so advanced, though, that it won’t pick just any of the ant; it knows what specific ant to attack. So, you have an ant foraging for food, minding its own business, when it eats something with this fungus on it. The fungus immediately spreads throughout the body, releasing mind-controlling chemicals. These chemicals hijack the ant's central nervous system, forcing it climb up vegetation and latch onto leaves while the fungus finishes killing the body.

具體情況如下：某種特定真菌依靠螞蟻成長。這種真菌非常高等，盡管它不會選擇某一個螞蟻，但它知道可以攻擊哪一種。 所以，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)一個螞蟻覓食、做著自己的“工作”，一旦它吃了附著著這種真菌的東西，真菌會立刻擴(kuò)散到全身，釋放出控制精神的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)會控制螞蟻的中樞神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)，指使它爬上植被，并在真菌殺死螞蟻后附著在樹葉上。

The fungus then grows outside of the dead ant's body, developing a long stalk outside of the head that will eventually infect more ants that come in contact with it, starting the cycle over again.

之后，真菌會慢慢地生長到死螞蟻的身體之外，在頭部外面長出一條長長的莖，接著會感染更多接觸到它的螞蟻，重新開始循環(huán)。

The animal kingdom is a wild place.

這就是野生的動物王國。

怎么樣?是不是大開了眼界呀!你還知道其他關(guān)于動物的冷知識嗎?歡迎留言分享~