30 Unusual Facts You Definitely Don’t Need to Know, But Are Pretty Cool Anyway

Sometimes, the best facts are the ones you don’t actually need to know.

The unusual facts won’t help you on a test, win an argument, or impress your boss, but they’re fun to keep in your back pocket anyway.

From the oddly specific to the completely random, Reddit users have shared their favorite useless facts in a recent thread, and the results are pretty entertaining.

Whether you’re looking to add some weird trivia to your next conversation or just enjoy learning things for no reason at all, this list has you covered.

Keep going for a mix of dumb animal facts, obscure history, and stuff so random you’ll wonder how anyone found it out in the first place.

1.

Photo by Theo Jores on Unsplash

Otters carry around their favorite clam-opening rock in their armpit, and mothers will even pass on their favorite rock to their baby.

2.

Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash

When a caterpillar enters a chrysalis and becomes a butterfly, it doesn’t just sprout wings and legs. It essentially disintegrates into goo, and a new butterfly is built from that. But that’s not the weirdest part. The weirdest part is that it’s possible to teach something to that caterpillar, and after it becomes goo and then re-forms as a butterfly, it still remembers what you taught it.

3.

Chickens have the DNA for teeth, it’s just not turned on.

4.

I noticed this when visiting museums, looking at old paintings: hands are often ‘hidden’, covered by flowers, clothing or they disappear in the shadows. I researched it later and learned it is true. Even the best painters struggled with drawing and painting hands. I look for hands in every painting now.

5.

Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash

If you eat polar bear liver it will kill a human and if a polar bear eats your liver it will too.

6.

A weird fact is that honey never spoils; archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still perfectly good to eat!

7.

That divider at grocery stores that separates stuff on the conveyor belt is called a spratchet.

8.

The minimum number of humans required for the species survival is about two hundred. The minimum number required for *any* level of survival is fifty. Below that, the inbreeding becomes a problem in the long term.

9.

Pelicans have three stomachs and one of them is just for bones.

10.

Photo by Oleksandr Sushko on Unsplash

Great white sharks have never been seen mating. Ever. By anyone. Zero record made by a human. Strange considering what a mighty presence they have on humans.

11.

LASER is an acronym (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) but in most cases should be LOSER because the light is oscillated, not amplified.

12.

The swimming pools on the Titanic are still full of water to this day.

13.

For me it is that the lighter was invented before matches.

14.

The first public game of basketball was played the same week and less than 100 miles away from the last American vampire hunt.

15.

Photo by Maurits Bausenhart on Unsplash

Off the top of my head, maybe that fact that the great cats roar, but do not purr; lesser cats purr but do not roar.

16.

Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood so fascinating!

17.

Your eyes have their own immune system. If your “normal” immune system discovers this it will attack your eyes and you’ll go blind.

18.

The spinal cord has the consistency of a ripe banana.

19.

Spiders curl up when they die because the thing that keeps their legs out is blood pressure, which releases when they die.

20.

Photo by Zoë Reeve on Unsplash

The only animal other than a human that can perform a headstand is an elephant.

21.

All cheetahs are genetically cousins. They almost went extinct thousands of years ago, down to like 100 individuals.

22.

Killer whales are a natural predator of moose.

23.

The mantle plume hotspot that is half the cause of Iceland’s intense volcanism (the other half being the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) is believed to have been the cause of the largest mass extinction event in the planet’s history, back when it sat under what is now Siberia.

24.

I grew up on a dairy farm1960’s. US milk production today is twice what it was then and there are half as many cows. Each cow produces four times as much.

25.

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Australia is wider than the moon.

26.

John Tyler, the 10th US president, was born in 1790 – that is during the first US president George Washington’s first term. His grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is still alive – that is the current US president Joe Biden’s term. Think about it – just three generations (father,son and grandson) to cover the entire US presidential history.

27.

The career that has the most s****des per year is dentist and then serving. Second most is veterinarians.

28.

The Grand Canyon is so large that you could fit EVERYONE who ever lived inside it and still not fill it.

29.

Photo by Steven Erixon on Unsplash

An average storm cloud weighs about 47,627,199 kilograms.

30.

Most polar bears are left handed.

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