All the Crazy Ways Life Has Evolved to Cope with Extreme Heat

human being are n’t very in effect at deal with high temperature — we either perspire miserably or rack up crazy AC bills . But some life forms have to survive with scorch temperature and uttermost drought all the time . Here are some of the most flaky strategy they ’ve acquire for stay nerveless and hydrous .

Hibernate In a Mucus Sac

trope credit rating : Kelley Minars / Flickr

We ’ve all had those daytime where we just want to crawl under a blanket and veil from the earth . For the African Bull Frog , it ’s the same situation , except replace “ 24-hour interval ” with “ class ” and “ blanket ” with “ water system - soluble mucus sac . ” When teetotal season hits on the Savannah River , this frog use its potent hind leg to burrow late into the ground . There , it seal itself in a mucus cocoon that preclude the evaporation of corporal fluids . When rainy days fall , the mucous secretion sleeping bag melt , and the frog backwash up and run through it . That can take seven years , which may fathom like a farseeing time to drop in a mucus pocket , but nature ’s cruel , humankind .

Grow Some Giant Ears

Image Credit : Su Neko / Flickr

certain , crowing ears help you get a line better , but as the fennec foxes of North Africa know , they ’re also a great way of dissipating superfluous trunk heat . Side bonus : prominent ears make you so freakin ’ cunning human design Pokemon in your honor .

persona Credit : Bulbapedia

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Get Reflective

Dudleya brittonii . figure cite : Yves Leroux / Wikimedia

If you ca n’t obliterate from the sun ’s blacken rays , bounce ‘ em back , why not ? That ’s a popular strategy among desert plant , admit Dudleya brittonii , a drought – adapted succulent native to Baja California , Mexico . This works ’s leaves are covered in a calcareous white wax that not only attracts water , it ’s a killer sunscreen with the highest UV reflectivity of any known biological substance .

Take a Spit Bath

Red roo . Image Credit : Wikimedia

Marsupials are all about being eldritch , so it ’s no surprise they ’ve got some pretty unknown ways of keep nerveless . Kangaroos , for their part , gave up perspiration gland to retain more water . To compensate for the cooling outcome of sweat , ‘ roos smartly lick their legs and forearms , which contain networks of bloodline vessels peculiarly design for evaporative cooling .

Turn Your Skin Into a Rain Collector

The briery devil , an adorably armoured lizard of the Australian Outback , may never see a rain pool in its life . or else , the lizard toast with its skin . At dark , dew condense onto the creature ’s scale and gets canalise to its oral fissure via hairlike action . Mmm , cutis water .

Wear a Hairy Coat of Bacteria

Nope , it is n’t a Sith lord on Adderall — just a bloodcurdling deep sea dirt ball bathe in hydrothermal fluids . Thriving at temperatures well above 150ºF , the Pompeii worm is one of the most heat tolerant critters known to science . We ’re not totally certain how this louse deal to endure in its steamy , deep - sea caldron habitat , but we think it has something to do with the hairy gray coating of bacteria covering most of its body . ( What else would that be about ? ) scientist mistrust this bacterial coatfunctions like a flack fighter ’s heat blanket .

Fortunately , it ’s totally dark at the bottom of the ocean , so fashion is n’t a large priority .

Burn Baby, Burn

paradigm mention : Jon Buie / Flickr

If you live in a warm , dry part of the world , there ’s a good chance you ’re going to have to divvy up with flak . Certain trees , including larches and giant sequoias , have evolve compact , fire retardant barque that ’ll happily cauterise while leaving more frail , underlying tissue paper entire . Hey , you do n’t get that ginormous without doing a few things correct .

Be a Camel

Image Credit : Ted / Flickr

Camels are doing basically everything good when it comes to put up heating and drought . They ’ve begin those jumbo , juicy - fill humps , which they can burn for food and large calorie in prison term of need . Their outstandingly oblong red blood mobile phone will continue to circulating even when the animate being are exceedingly dried . Their kidney and intestines are water - retaining machine . When camel exhale , their nostril trap and resorb water vapour back into their bodies . They barely ever sweat , but when they do , camels can turn a loss up to 25 % of their body weight and survive .

Give Up On Oxygen Already

The fish that gave up oxygen . Image Credit : Frank van Breukelen

High heat causes O to produce damaging costless radicals . This scrappy looking desert pupfish , found only in a handful of red-hot water puddles throughout Death Valley , has developed a remarkable coping mechanism : It stop emit . Forup to five hours at a time , this awe-inspiring fish can survive off anaerobic ( oxygen - free ) metamorphosis , by fermenting sugars into alcohol . The only other life story forms that can do that trick are bacteria . I do n’t care if you ’ve hiked Mount Everest a dozen times , this Pisces the Fishes is way more hardcore than you ’ll ever be .

Stop Peeing

Image Credit : Marie Hale / Flickr

Peeing — otherwise know as hemorrhaging body of water — is a big elbow room to go bad of thirst in the desert . The Dorcas gazelle ’s solution ? Concentrating its urine into uric acid , which the animal expels as a solid , whitened shot . That ’s preservation , phratry !

Turn Into a Dry, Lifeless Ball

paradigm : Darron Birgenheier / Wikimedia

When it come to uttermost endurance , nothing and no one holds a candle to the humble tardigrade , an aquatic , 8 - legged critter that measures only a millimeter across . When the going get down tough , the tardigrade curls up into a ironical , lifeless orb called a tun , secrete protective sugars to suspend and preserve the content of its cells . tun are basically indestructible — you may literally boil them , cool them to just above absolute zero , and subject them to the vacancy and vivid radiation therapy of stunned space , and they ’ll be just fine .

Everyone else can go home now .

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