Bone-Eating Snot-Flower And Other Animal Discoveries

Even though people have been studying the natural world for hundreds of years, we are still making amazing new discoveries about living things.

Bees that solve puzzles, singing mice, rare spiders and strange worms that eat bones are some of the newest finds.

Did you know that sometimes it's scientists based in museums who make these discoveries?

Most of us know what a normal garden earthworm looks like. What about a worm called the bone-eating snot-flower?

This creature has only just been discovered, living on the bones of dead whales in the North Sea.

The North Sea is between eastern Scotland and Norway, and scientists from the Natural History Museum were surprised to find this strange worm there.

Photo: © Natural History Museum

It is one of the best-studied seas on the planet and they thought they knew most things about it already.

The worm is similar to 'zombie worms' that also live on dead whales, but thousands of miles away off the coast of California in America.

This discovery has given the scientists a new problem to solve - they are not sure why the zombie worms live deep in the sea at depths of around 2,500 metres and the bone-eating snot-flowers live in fairly shallow water.

If you thought these worms were strange, what about singing mice?

It was accidentally discovered that male mice use sounds a bit like bird song to attract a mate.

The reason we didn't already know this is because human ears aren't sensitive enough to hear the complicated squeaks.

Photo: © Dawn Allynn

Researchers at a university in America used special equipment so that they could hear the love songs.

Apart from humans, the only other creatures known to sing are bats and cetaceans, which is the group of animals including whales and dolphins.

Another group of scientists from a university in London have found that bee's eyes are much more advanced than they thought and they can solve complicated colour puzzles.

Photo: © Rem Plenzik

The scientists trained some bumblebees to find coloured artificial flowers. Then the bees were tested to see if they could find the same flowers after they were lit by different coloured lights. Although the colours were mixed up, the bees could still find their flower.

People had previously thought that bees, with their tiny brains, would not be able to do this. Not even the most advanced computer in the world can solve this type of puzzle.

The scientists think that the new findings may one day help to build advanced robot eyes.

Sadly, we often hear about types of animals that are becoming rarer or that no longer exist. Its not just big creatures like tigers and elephants that are in danger - small animals and insects are also under threat.

Sometimes there is good news and rare animals become more common.

Until recently, the wasp spider was only found in a few places on the south coast of England, but over the last ten years they have been moving further inland.

Photo: © Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Some were recently discovered in two places in Tunbridge Wells in the south east of England.

They are called wasp spiders because they have yellow and black stripes like a wasp, not because they bite or sting - they are actually harmless.

The discoveries were made on a Mini-Beast Safari organised by Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery, where children searched for interesting bugs with the help of expert staff.

Photo: © Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

So - not all big discoveries are made by experienced scientists. If you keep your eyes open, who knows what you might find?

If you fancy having a go at some online specimen collecting try our Mission: Explore game which we made with London's Natural History Museum.