(intense ambient music) - [Narrator] With characters like Batman, Spider-Man and Wolverine, some of the most famous
superheroes are named after animals possessing powers that are
inspired by the insane abilities found in the animal kingdom. Sometimes though, mother nature
beats out the comic books with certain rare creatures
possessing astounding abilities that can rival iconic superheroes, from shape shifters to
spider bird hybrids, today, we're gonna put on
our capes and fly through some unusual animals
with real superpowers, animals assemble.
(upbeat ambient music) X-Animal. To a predatory snake or bird, the hairy frog looks
like the perfect meal, a large tasty amphibian
with no visible defenses. The critter found
throughout central Africa looks like easy pickings, but unfortunately for the
predator, this prey packs a punch. When the hairy frog is threatened, it turns into a monster,
breaking its own finger bones and pushing them through its skin giving itself retractable
claws, remind you of anyone? And that's right, the creature is also known
as the "Wolverine Frog", it's retractable bone claws closely resembling the X-Man's superpower. What's more, experts believe that once the frog has
fended off predators and retracted its claws, its body can quickly
regenerate the damaged tissue, getting ready for the next fight. And if all that wasn't
Wolverine enough for you, this incredibly evolutionarily
distinct amphibian also looks the part, sporting sideburns that would
make Hugh Jackman blush. Unlike Wolverine, the frog doesn't just use its mutton chops to stylishly warm its cheeks, these hair-like strands
actually contain thin arteries and the blood running through them helps the frog to absorb
oxygen while it's underwater so it can stand underneath the surface for extended periods of time. Somebody call up Kevin Feige. If we can get this little frog dude an Adam adamantium skeleton, I think we have the MCU's
next Wolverine casting. Big mouth bird. When it comes to singing, the best humanity has to offer
are opera singers and Adele, but compared to the lyrebird, our Sopranos are incredibly basic. This songbird possessing
the most complex voice in the animal kingdom. Its abilities of mimicry in
particular are truly astounding, hear for yourself. (bird chirping) When the lyrebird sings,
(tranquil ambient music) it uses its exceptional hearing, memory and a sound producing
organ called a syrinx to imitate almost anything
it has heard before. They're known to mimic other birds. (bird chirping) Chainsaws. (mimics chainsaw whirring) Construction sites. (mimics machines whirring) Car alarms. (mimics car alarm) And camera shutters. (mimics camera shutter) Talk about range. Unfortunately, lyrebirds don't use their
powers for the greater good, they use 'em to get lucky. Everybody loves a pop star, and the more songs a male
lyrebird has in its set list, the more impressive they are to a female, and the crooner with the
largest collection of songs finding the most success. If you wanna see a
lyrebird live in concert, then you gotta travel down under because these creatures
only live in Australia. But hey, maybe one day
they'll go on a world tour. Long arms of the law. If you wanna fight crime, you gotta be willing
to throw a few punches, and this next creature has
just the hands for the job. (cartoon swoosh) This boxer might float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but it's actually an American whip spider, a real life cave monster
that uses its long arms to hunt crickets,
cockroaches, small lizards and hummingbirds. Instead of fists, the boxer
has thorn like protrusions at the end of each arm, allowing it to pierce its
prey from a safe distance throwing punches like Mr. Fantastic. Thankfully these long armed
terrors are non venomous, making them pretty harmless to humans. That being said, if you
mess with the whip spider, it won't hesitate to throw hands. Aqua spider. Let's stay on spiders. Taking a look at an
arachnid's answer to Aquaman. The diving bell spider
is the only arachnid that lives almost entirely under water, sleeping, hunting, mating, and to laying eggs underneath the surface. Despite its watery habitat,
the spider doesn't have gills, instead it lives inside a bubble of air, traveling across the riverbed
in a homemade submarine. Building this bubble base is pretty easy, first, the spider heads to the riverbed and spins a dome shaped
web anchored to plants. It then heads to the
surface for a breather, and as it dives back underwater, air is trapped between
its tiny abdominal hairs, creating a bubble that wraps
around the shape of its body. The spider then transports
the air to the web and releases it within the dome, the bubble getting trapped
at the bottom of the river. Spider repeats the process a few times until the bubbles connect,
creating an underwater base with an air supply that
will last for about a day. When the oxygen supply in
the bubble starts to dwindle, all the spider has to do is
swim back up to the surface, collect more air and top up the base. At just 0.7 inches in size, this aquatic architect of a spider largely eats mosquito larvae and tiny crustaceans called Daphnia. Grabbing its spray out of the water before dragging them back
to the bubble base to feed. As impressive as all that is, it's a harsh truth to
reveal to arachnophobes. Even underwater, you can't
get away from spiders. Amazing architects. I'm sure the diving bell
spider loves living underwater, but if the arachnid ever wants to move to a home on dry land, I know just the bug that can build it. The bagworm moth caterpillar
is part insect, part architect, the creepy crawly is able to construct themselves
elaborate wearable homes. The bag worms building skills
are incredibly rare in nature. These critters using sticks,
seeds, soil and leaves to make their luxury log
cabin homes on their backs. The building materials are stuck together with
the bag worms silk, the critters silk webbing
being far stronger, stickier and more flexible than the
kind produced by spiders. These patchwork outfits
start with the smallest bits, which are pushed upward over time as larger pieces are attached, and act as camouflage, hiding the mini marines from the birds and insects that hunt them. When mailbag worms grow into
moths, they develop wings, leaving their shelters
and flying away to mate. For the females, it's important that the
camouflage jackets work well because they stay in the
outfits for their entire lives, working on the shelters from the moment that they're born as larva to the day they die as moths. Some people are such home bodies. Unbe-leaf-able insects. From one camouflaged critter to another, leaf insects are nature's shape shifters, a family of 50 different
species that look and act exactly like different types of leaves. They say you are what you eat. And the insects spend their days lying on plants and munching on leaves, they're camouflaged making them
near invisible to predators. Even when the leaf insects go on the move, they're nearly impossible to spot. The creatures shaking their body to mimic a real leaf
being blown by the wind. This marvelous mimicry is all down to billions
of years of evolution. The insects that were born with mutations that left them closely resembling leaves were less likely to
get eaten by predators, allowing them to survive and reproduce, passing down their leafy traits. As generations of these insects were born, the more closely they
resembled leaves, the better. Traits like leaf shaped bodies and even having the
appearance of fake bite marks like real leaves, eventually resulting in
the astounding marvels we can observe today, well, the marvels we can
observe if we squint super hard. The invisible squid. Next up, we have an ink readable squid with the power of invisibility. This little magician has been identified as a sepioteuthis squid, one of the few types of squid
that can turn transparent when threatened or startled
vanishing into thin air whenever a predator tries to attack it. The invisible woman got her
powers in a cosmic storm, but the origins behind the
sepioteuthis squids powers is in its cells. The squid's skin is
covered in chromatophores, pigment sacks that the squid can expand and contract at will. When the sacks are expanded, they cover the squid's
entire body in dark pigment. However, if the squid is threatened, it can contract the pigment sacks, shrinking them down to remove
the coloration from its skin and render itself see through. (phone ringing)
It better get Kevin Feige back on the line, we've got the Fantastic
Four's new Sue Storm. Tentacled taxi. If we're going by the Fast
and the Furious franchise, I think we have to admit
that Vin Diesel and co's driving skills are basically superpowers. With that considered, there's
a species of fish out there that's been captured on several occasions, channeling it's inner Vin Diesel driving through the sea in a
very unconventional vehicle. When Australian photographer, Tim Samuel went scuba diving around Byron Bay, he came across a little fish
trapped inside a jellyfish, believing that the fish had been eaten, Tim uploaded photos of
the fish's wide eyes and open mouth onto Reddit, urging netizens to mourn
the unfortunate creature. As marine biologists entered the comments, most of them agreed that the fish had been ensnared for
digestion by the jellyfish. However, other experts
offered an alternative, less tragic explanation, believing that this fish
is a driver, not a dinner, climbing inside the jellyfish and using it as a protective force field. Buying a new sports car is usually a sign of a midlife
crisis, but fish biologist, Ian Tibbets believes
that the fish in the pic might be a baby trevally. Juvenile trevally's have on occasion been seen to hide near the
tentacles of a jellyfish to protect themselves from predators. Trevally's aren't immune
to jellyfish stingers, so they usually keep their distance from their toxic tentacles,
swimming deathly around them. Tim Samuels fish clearly
didn't get the memo though, swimming straight into
the jelly fish's bell and wearing the creature like a jacket, this doesn't sound all that comfortable. However, the fact it's still
swimming around implies it isn't being digested. Tibbets theorizes that the fish swam into
the jellyfish by accident, but intriguingly, I've found evidence
that some of these fish may intentionally hijack
these tentacle taxis. The footage from 2013
clearly shows the trevally managing to dodge the jelly
fish's dangerous tentacles, and as it hops in and out
of the jellyfish at will, it becomes clear that the
hijacking isn't accidental. This video and Tim Samuels photograph are pretty much the only
examples of this phenomenon available on the internet. So for now, this drive to
survive aquatic superpower, and the question of whether
it's for protection or for fun remains shrouded in jellyfied mystery. The inedible Hulk. In Hollywood, superheroes
are typically tall, dashing and absolutely ripped. As a result, this next superhuman animal, it probably won't be getting
a call up to the Avengers, unless there's suddenly
a need of an ugly little translucent bug that's
bursting with its own poop. This larval cereal leaf beetle may look like it's filled with worms, and indeed it does contain
one little white parasite right there, but all the rest of the strange
squiggly blobs on its back are actually its fecal shield, a layer of armor that's
made out of its own poop. The beetle larvaes armor may
not be as shiny as Iron-Man's, but it's almost as effective. The pooper power protecting the critter from all sorts of predators. This defense mechanism is
also used by other larvae in the leaf beetle family. The critter is able to
build up their defenses every time they drop a douche. So how does this fecal
shield provide protection? Well, imagine going to your
favorite Italian restaurant and finding your spaghetti
is seasoned with tiny turds, you'd probably leave and
go somewhere else, right? Well, likewise, if a predator
tries to eat the fecal beetle, all it'll get is a mouthful
of foul tasting poop, encouraging it to leave,
find something else to eat and leave a terrible Yelp review. The unsettling spider-bird. New York's favorite web slinging superhero has a new sidekick, "Super Bird", a horrifying alien creature
with the body of a bird and the legs of an eight legged monster. Images of the creature
went viral back in 2020, but luckily we can put the holy water away because the monster in this picture is partially caused by
a trick of the eyes. It turns out the rare spider
bird is actually a Jacana, a species of bird whose real superpower is being a super dad. In this photo, the male Jacana's extra legs
actually belong to its chicks. The father picking up its babies and putting them under its wings whenever the family needs to travel. The illusion looks extra strange due to the length of
the Jacana chicks legs. From birth Jacana's have
freakishly large feet and legs, the babies standing tall on
their disproportionate limbs. This might look a little silly, but the leggy design actually
serves a very useful function, you know what they say about
big feet, big surface area. The Jacana's giant feet
dispersed their weight, allowing them to walk on lily pads floating on rivers and swamps. Despite weighing five ounces, the Jacana's can use the lily
pads to walk over rivers, allowing them to hunt for fish
on their own surf and turf. But if you think that water
walking ability is impressive, wait till you meet the
gravity to fire up next. The Jesus lizard. Despite its underwhelming name, the common basilisk is a
miracle lizard that can walk or more accurately run on water. It can sprint over rivers and lakes at up to 15 miles per hour,
like some kind of jogging Jesus. The basilisk lives in the
rainforests of Central America and South America, generally hanging around
riverbanks and streams. If a land predator tries to attack them, the basilisks simply head for the water, evading any means of
capture and presumably thoroughly bamboozling their predators. The basilisks superpower doesn't
all come down to its speed, the lizard possesses a unique
set of long toes and claws. And as it moves across the water, it uses them to paddle the surface, creating little pockets of
air that keep it afloat. If the basilisk manages
to keep the speed up, it can stay afloat for around 65 feet, more than enough distance
to escape a hungry snake or provide it with a spectacular show. Super teeth. The crabeater seal is fluffy and friendly, until you open its mouth. Yikes. Those gnarly teeth serve
a very specific purpose, but not what you might think. In a classic case of false advertising, the crabeater seal
doesn't eat crab at all, its name actually originating
from the German word "Krebs", which refers to all crustacean. The crabeaters primary prey are tiny crustaceans called krill, and their method of hunting all comes down to their terrifying teeth. As a crab eater seal swims
around the Antarctic coast, it uses its interlocking teeth
like a spaghetti strainer, opening its mouth wide and
taking in a mouthful of seawater and krill, it then pushes the seawater out through the gaps in its teeth,
filtering out its dinner. At this point, the krill are trapped and the seals left with
a mouthful of food, that is until a leopard seal comes along and turns the adorable crabeater into a mouthful of food
of its own, so it goes. A head of the game. Calling somebody a door
head sounds like an insult, but door-headed ants take
pride in their anatomy, blocking the entrance to their nest with their gigantic heads. But when this ant was first discovered, the scientists believed
that it was an entirely new, rare species, however,
they later discovered that it's a type of soldier
ant in the cephalotes family. Evolved for the task of
protecting the colony. A cephalotes nest is an exclusive club, and over millions of years of evolution, these soldiers have become
incredible bouncers. They use their thickened saucer like heads to plug the entrances to
their three branch nests, blocking entry for any
invasive ant or predator that tries to sneak inside. Within a colony, the size
of the soldier ants heads are relatively uniform, as
are the nest entry holes, ensuring that their
heads are all big enough to block off and disguise the entrance. This defense is called phragmosis. And if you ask me, it's one of the strangest examples of a specific roll related
evolution I've ever seen. All these bouncers need
now our black Polo shirts, shaved heads and earpieces, then they'll be ready to
open a Cephalote nightclub. Elephantelepathy. Elephants are famous for their
super powered size, strength and excellent memories, however, this species has another special superpower,
telepathy, hmm, kinda. Infrasound waves are sound
waves with a frequency so low that humans can't hear them. Elephants can use their deep husky voices to communicate via infrasound,
their giant vocal cords allowing them to create
these low frequencies. They can then emit the
infrasounds toward the ground, causing low frequency rumbles
that travel over six miles before being received through
another elephant's feet. Ultrasensitive nerve cells
in an elephant's feet pick up on these vibrations, allowing them to receive
information from another elephant without even needing to use their ears. Though of course, those huge ears can also detect
infrasound if close enough. These sounds are usually
imperceptible to humans, however, there are cases
of zoo workers reporting feeling the infrasound
vibrating through the air, able to sense the creatures communicating without hearing it. Although nobody knows for sure
what the elephants are saying over infrasound, experts
believe that it's probably used to coordinate group movements or to find a mate over long distances. Kind of like a big gray rumbly trunk swinging version of Tinder. Although technically elephants
are just making noise that's too deep for us to hear, the use of infrasound communication is pretty much the closest thing to telepathy in the animal kingdom. Aside from the near
supernaturally coordinated electromagnetic hive
minds of bee colonies, regardless, elephants can rest easy knowing they're able to
whisper sweet nothings to each other's feet
without humans listening in. Caved crusader. Batman is one of the most
iconic superheroes of all time and his gadgets and
vehicles are so awesome that it's easy to forget
that the caped crusader is really just a musclely rich guy who likes playing dress up. Batman may be a glorified
furry, but that doesn't mean that real bats don't possess
very real superpowers. The horseshoe bat is named
after the shape of its nose, it's snout likened to a horseshoe, or if you ask me a pastrami sandwich. Like many bats, this pastrami sandwich
bat has terrible eyesight, which is a good thing
considering their ugly faces. It also explains their
use of echolocation, a method of seeing with your ears. When echolocating, a bat will
release an ultrasonic beam through a series of clicks. It'll then listen to how the
beam bounces off the walls and objects around it, essentially allowing it
to build a mental map of its surroundings using its ears. Most bats send these sonar
beams through their mouths, but the horseshoe sends it
through its special nose, making the beam more focused and accurate. The bats live in dark caves
across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, and its special
nose helps it to hunt beetles, moths and crane flies, like
Bruce Wayne hunts criminals in total darkness. Wall crawlers. When you think of big strong superheroes, ducklings probably don't spring to mind, but these little guys might not be fighting
off any super villains, but it turns out baby ducks have a set of incredible superpowers that help them survive until adulthood. Ducklings famously follow
their moms wherever they go, however, baby ducks can't fly, so whenever mom takes flight, her ducklings need to get creative. If the mother duck
flies up somewhere high, her kids will climb up after her, using their beaks and claws on their feet to scale sheer walls and
cliff faces like Spider-Man. It takes a bit of trial and error, but the ducklings are so light, they can easily support their own weight on their tiny claws, following
mom wherever she goes. And what goes up must come down, and when their mother
flies down to lower ground, the baby ducks follow
her with a leap of faith plummeting straight towards the floor. The ducklings can comfortably
fall from up to 50 feet as they're so incredibly lightweight that their maximum falling speed is far slower than other heavier animals. They reach their low
terminal velocity quickly and hit the ground with very little force, allowing them to bounce off
the floor and safely walk away. Talk about a superhero landing. Small and very mighty. Comic books are full of
muscle bound monsters, superheroes that save the
day by picking up cars and Hulk smashing the bad guys. In the animal kingdom, the strongest superhero may not be a Hulk, but it's definitely incredible. Studies have demonstrated
that the mighty dung beetle is able to push 1,141
times its own body weight, the equivalent of an average person pushing six double decker
buses full of people. So what does the dung beetle do with all this super strength? Well, instead of lifting
buses and saving the world, the beetle uses its powers to
move its favorite food source, poop. My mom always told me
not to play with my food, but when dunk beetles find a pile of poop, they roll it into a large
ball and play a bit of soccer. The dunk beetles move their dung balls to protect themselves from predators, transporting their dung out of the open and burying it underground
to safely eat later. Despite literally eating poop, the dug beetles are fussy eaters, carefully smelling and
picking through the dung ball, only eating the poop particles with the highest concentrations
of nutrients like nitrogen. While dunk beetles are generally accepted as the strongest animals
alive relative to their size, some netizens have pointed
out that dung beetles only roll their poop balls, scarcely actually lifting the weight. This technique differs from ants who regularly work as a team to lift huge weights over their heads, like this little squad, working together to
carry a shrimp up a pole. ants have been observed carrying food that weighs up to 20 times
their own body weight, the equivalent of the average American man picking up a large giraffe and
carrying it home for dinner. This feat of strength is
incredibly impressive, but an ant colony does most
of their heaviest lifting as a team, their individual strength
paling in comparison to the mighty dunk beetles, but whether you're team
ant or team beetle, the power that both of
these critters possess is insanely impressive, proving that you don't need
protein shakes, tank tops, or tribal tattoos to
pump some serious iron. (upbeat ambient music)
So if you were assembling
a team of superheroes, which of our super powered
animals would you choose? Let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching.
