Unusual habitats of living organisms. Interesting facts about biology. Basic body functions
Ecology of cognition: The human body still continues to reveal its mysteries. By studying the operation of its systems, scientists make hundreds of discoveries every year. And often new facts refute centuries-old ideas.
The human body still continues to reveal its mysteries. By studying the operation of its systems, scientists make hundreds of discoveries every year. And often new facts refute centuries-old ideas.
20. Silence of the heart
The average adult's heart beats 72 times a minute, 100 thousand times a day, 36 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times throughout a lifetime.
However, the heart beats rhythmically, which means that in addition to beats, there are also pauses in the cycle. So, if you add up all the pauses between heartbeats in one average human life, it turns out that our heart is “silent” for about 20 years. It is also interesting that the heart stops when you sneeze.
19. Defying the laws of physics
It is known that liquid can flow from higher to lower pressure, but in our body this law is constantly violated. When simultaneously measuring pressure in the aorta and femoral artery, blood from the aorta, where the pressure is lower, flows into femoral artery where the pressure is higher.
18. Round heart
NASA recently conducted a study that yielded very interesting results. It turned out that in a state of weightlessness the heart not only weakens and decreases in volume, but also... becomes rounder. During the experiment, NASA cardiologists studied the hearts of 12 astronauts working on the ISS.
Analysis of the images showed that in conditions of weightlessness the heart is rounded by 9.4%. However, upon returning to Earth, the heart returns to its normal shape within six months and resumes “earthly” activity. To imagine the decrease in heart activity, it is enough to say that lying on a bed for a month and a half is equivalent to working in zero gravity for a week.
17. New skin: from three days to a month
Human skin is constantly renewed. This process is called regeneration. It happens like this: new skin cells are formed in the germinal layer of the epidermis, over the course of about 28-30 days they move to the surface and lose their cell nucleus. On the surface, with the help of the keratin they contain, they form the stratum corneum of the skin, which gradually peels off when washed or in contact with clothing.
Thus, the skin that we consider ours is constantly renewed. After a month, the composition of a person’s skin completely changes.
In newborns, the regeneration process, like many other processes (for example, metabolism), proceeds faster. “Skin change” in infants takes three days - 72 hours.
16. Internal "brewery"
People with “fermenting gut” or the so-called “inner brewery syndrome” turn any food and drink into alcohol within themselves. That's why they're always a little tipsy. The cause of the disease is the inability of the stomach to break down sugar into carbohydrates - instead it engages in fermentation.
In addition, the human body with a fermenting intestine is not able to process ethanol resulting from the consumption of starchy foods. For such people, one bottle of beer is enough to gain 0.37 ppm. Fortunately, this is very rare syndrome, only 11 cases have been reported worldwide today.
15. No hair
A spinal fracture can also lead to such an unexpected consequence as the disappearance of body hair. This is a unique phenomenon that scientists themselves have not yet understood very well. Hair on the human body actively grows when they make a request to the brain and receive feedback. If this connection is broken - and this is exactly what will happen if spinal cord will suffer serious damage - the hair on the body gradually begins to disappear.
14. Avian genetics
The fact that the “lark” is a “lark” is not his merit. As in the fact that “owl” is “owl” - there is no guilt. Nature has “imprisoned” us this way. And who is responsible for chronotypes determined by American researchers? Medical center Northwestern University of Chicago in collaboration with scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. While studying the fruit fly Drosophilia melanogaster, they discovered a gene that regulates circadian rhythm. They called it the “24-hour genome” and in 2010 they published the data in the journal Science, where they noted that the flies for which it “did not work did not show activity for a long time at dawn.”
If we draw a parallel with humans, then these fruit flies are typical “owls”, who also cannot tear their heads away from their “fly pillows”. And the same gene is responsible for the easy awakening of those who are lucky enough to be born “larks”.
13. Moving facial expressions
In 2011, scientists were able to discover that human facial expressions arise long before his birth. Even during the prenatal period, the child is already able to move his facial muscles, smile, raise his eyebrows in surprise or frown.
The facial muscles make up 25% of the total number of muscles; 17 muscle groups are involved during a smile, and 43 during anger or crying.
One of the best ways maintaining smooth skin on the face - kissing. They work from 29 to 34 muscle groups.
12. Blood type as a factor in career and personal life
In Japan, since the 1930s, the doctrine of “ketsu-eki-gata” has been practiced, in which you can tell everything about a person by knowing only his blood type. The Japanese are confident that those with blood type I are sociable and energetic people, while those with blood type II are stress-resistant and patient, but stubborn. Creative and powerful people are usually Group III blood. People with the rare IV group are balanced and natural leaders.
“Ketsu-eki-gata” is incredibly popular. A Japanese girl may ask on the first date not what your zodiac sign is, but what your blood type is. The Japanese rely on their blood type both when they get married and when they get a job. HR departments try to form teams that are perfectly matched by blood.
11. Testosterone and longevity
The effect of testosterone on life expectancy has been repeatedly confirmed in various studies. One of them, conducted in 1969 among patients psychiatric hospital in Kansas, showed that castrated men lived 14 years longer. Interesting data on this issue were recently published by the Korean scientist Kyun-Chin Min. He studied the book "Yang-Se-Ke-Bo", in which the genealogical information of 385 families of court eunuchs can be traced.
Comparing the life expectancy of 81 eunuchs with confirmed life dates, Kyun-Chin Min saw that average duration The life of the eunuchs was 71 years. That is, eunuchs outlived their contemporaries by an average of 17 years.
10. Craving for sleep
Narcolepsy is a disease in which a person constantly wants to sleep. Also called paroxysms of irresistible sleepiness and Gelineau's disease. The disease occurs infrequently, in approximately 20-40 people out of 100,000. Scientists associate narcolepsy with disintegration syndrome, an untimely onset of sleep phases.
Patients suffering from narcolepsy, although they sleep a lot, do not get enough sleep, because by skipping the slow-wave sleep phase, they immediately find themselves in the REM sleep phase, the encephalogram curve of which resembles the encephalogram curve of a awake person; it is almost impossible to get enough sleep in this mode. We get enough sleep in the deep delta sleep stage; patients with narcolepsy do not fall into this phase.
The causes of narcolepsy are still unclear. Some doctors believe that the culprit of the disease is the brain neurotransmitter hypocretin. It is he who regulates the REM sleep phase and wakefulness. If the cells of this neurotransmitter are damaged, it leads to sleep disorders.
9. Natural alarm clock
Probably, each of us at least once woke up a few minutes before the alarm clock, especially when we knew in advance that it was simply necessary to wake up.
This is thanks to the so-called “natural alarm clock,” namely adrenocorticotropic hormone.
Scientists believe it has something to do with minimizing stress on the body when waking up. But the most interesting thing is that we can consciously control it. When studying the properties of adrenocorticotropic hormone, an experiment was conducted in which a number of subjects programmed themselves in advance to wake up at a certain time. More than 75% of the subjects actually woke up on their own when they needed to.
8. Wave of Death
In 2009, in one of the American hospitals, encephalograms were taken from nine dying people who at that time could no longer be saved. The results were sensational - after death, the brain of all subjects, which should have already been killed, literally exploded - incredibly powerful bursts of electrical impulses arose in it, which had never been observed in a living person. They occurred two to three minutes after cardiac arrest and lasted approximately three minutes. Previously, similar experiments were carried out on rats, in which the same thing began a minute after death and lasted 10 seconds.
Scientists have dubbed this phenomenon a “wave of death.” Scientific explanation“waves of death” raised many ethical questions.
According to one of the experimenters, Dr. Lakhmir Chawla, such bursts brain activity are explained by the fact that from a lack of oxygen, neurons lose their electrical potential and discharge, emitting impulses “avalanche-like”. “Living” neurons are constantly under a small negative voltage - 70 minivolts, which is maintained by getting rid of positive ions that remain outside. After death, the balance is disrupted, and neurons quickly change polarity from “minus” to “plus.”
7. How men and women hear
Women are better at distinguishing high-frequency sounds. A one-week-old girl can already identify the sound of her mother's voice and hears when another baby cries. Boys don't need that.
Women better than men recognize changes in tone and therefore know very well when men are lying.
Men specialize in sounds wildlife(this skill is not so necessary in the city) and they “hear” the direction perfectly. If a woman hears the kitten’s meow first, then it is the man who will indicate where to look for it.
6. Such different sensitivities
A woman's skin is 10 times more sensitive than a man's skin. Research by English scientists has shown that even the most sensitive man in this sense does not live up to the most insensitive woman. But men's skin is thicker than women's and therefore men have fewer wrinkles. On the back of an adult man, the skin is four times thicker than on the stomach. And if a man is busy with work, then the sensitivity of the skin drops even more, and he almost does not feel pain.
5. Electricity is in us
Humans have great prospects as generators of electricity; it can be generated from almost any of our actions. So, from one breath you can get 1 W, and a calm step is enough to power a 60 W light bulb, and it will be enough to charge your phone.
4. Lungs - the “stove” of the body
One of the luminaries Soviet systems hardening was the Soviet scientist of Austrian origin Karl Trincher. He spent five years in the Gulag and knew firsthand about the cold. Treacher once noticed that in laboratory animals, when there is a lack of oxygen, the temperature in the lungs increases. From here he made a brilliant conclusion: “The lungs are the only organ where fats, reacting with oxygen, are burned directly. Without any enzymes."
Today, physiologists no longer deny that the lungs are a “stove” that can warm the body in cold weather. Or rather, not to warm, but to keep warm, to resist the pathogenic dominance of the cold. Therefore, in the cold, you first need to monitor your breathing, breathe slowly, evenly and deeply.
3. Color perception of floors
On the retina human eye almost seven million “cone” receptors are located, which are responsible for the perception of color. The X chromosome is responsible for their action. Women have two of them, and the palette of colors they perceive is wider. In conversation they use shades: “sea green”, “sand”, “light coffee”. Men talk about fundamental colors: red, white, blue.
2. Big skin
Skin is the most large organ human body. Its average surface area is from 1.5 to 2 square meters. On different areas The skin of the body varies in thickness and sensitivity. The thickest skin is on the feet and palms, the thinnest is on the eyelids. At the same time, skin sensitivity is not directly dependent on thickness. Thus, the skin on the fingers and palms, although quite thick, can feel a pressure of 20 milligrams, which corresponds to the average weight of a fly.
1. A hard worker's heart
Extremely high-speed processes occur in our body every second. When the body is at rest, the path of blood from the heart to the lungs and back takes only six seconds, from the heart to the brain and back - eight seconds, and sixteen seconds from the heart to the fingertips and back. published
The human body is a complex and intricate system that has been studied by the best minds for several millennia. And this is an extremely interesting fact, because, despite this, our body is capable of surprising even doctors, not to mention people without deep anatomical knowledge.
Brain
Impulses from receptors to the brain arrive at an amazing speed of 275 kilometers per hour.
To function, our brain needs energy comparable to the energy of an ordinary light bulb.
The electronic equivalent of the human brain's memory capacity can reach thousands of terabytes.
About 20% of the air from the bloodstream goes to brain function.
The brain is more active at night when we sleep than during the day when we are awake.
The higher the intelligence, the more dreams you see.
Neurons and brain tissue are capable of regeneration throughout our lives.
Different types of neurons transmit information at different rates.
The brain is unable to feel pain; it lacks pain receptors.
Four-fifths of brain tissue is fluid.
Nails and hair
Women's hair is on average two times thinner than men's; in addition, the thickness and coarseness of hair depends on race.
The beard and mustache grow faster than all other hair.
The average hair can support the weight of a hundred gram chocolate bar.
Toenails grow 4 times slower than fingernails.
Every day a person loses from fifty to a hundred hairs.
For blondes greatest number hair, but they are thinner.
The nail on the middle finger grows the fastest, probably because it is the longest finger.
There is a lot of hair on the human body, as much as our closest primate relatives, but not all of it is so clearly visible.
One hair can remain in place for an average of three to seven years.
Human hair decomposes so slowly that it is virtually indestructible.
Before baldness becomes noticeable to others, a person loses more than 50% of his hair.
Internal organs
The heartbeat generates enough pressure to force blood to flow over a distance of 9 meters.
The small intestine is the largest internal organ in the human body.
The surface area of one human lung is approximately one-fifth of a football field.
Stomach acid can dissolve thin blades.
total length circulatory system person is 96,500 kilometers. For comparison: the circumference of the Earth is only 40,000 kilometers.
The gastric mucosa is renewed every three to four days.
Women's heart rates are faster than men's.
Scientists have counted about 500 useful functions, which are performed by the liver.
The diameter of the aorta is the same as the diameter of a garden hose.
The left lung is slightly smaller than the right due to the fact that the heart is located on the left side.
A person is able to survive without a huge part of his internal organs, such as the spleen, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, stomach, kidney, lung and all organs of the pelvic region. Of course, living without most of the internal organs is not easy, but it is possible.
The adrenal glands change their volume throughout a person’s life.
Basic body functions
The air flow during a sneeze moves at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
During a cough, the speed of air movement decreases to 95 km/h.
Full bladder matches the size of a large grapefruit.
Almost 75% of feces consists of water.
Women blink twice as often as men.
Earwax is produced to keep the ears healthy.
There are about five hundred thousand sweat glands on the feet, which are capable of producing half a liter of sweat daily.
Over the course of a lifetime, a person secretes so much saliva that it can fill two Olympic swimming pools.
The average person experiences bouts of flatulence about 14 times a day.
Reproduction
The largest cell in the human body is the egg, and the smallest is the sperm.
Teeth begin to appear six months before the baby is born.
Fingerprints appear on the embryo at three months.
Pregnant women at the beginning of pregnancy see frequent dreams about frogs, house plants and worms.
Almost all babies are born with blue eyes.
On a comparative weight basis, a newborn baby is stronger than an ox.
One in two thousand babies is born with a tooth already grown.
Each of us spent half an hour of our existence in the form of a single-celled creature.
Most men experience erections several times a night.
Sense organs
After a heavy meal, hearing becomes worse.
About one third of humanity has perfect vision.
Unlike men, women have a more developed sense of smell.
If a product is not able to dissolve in saliva, we are not able to taste it.
A person can remember about 50 thousand different smells.
Even the slightest noise causes the pupils to dilate slightly.
Each person has their own scent that is completely unique; Only twins don't have it. Identical twins smell identical.
Old age and death
The ashes of a cremated body weigh on average 4 kilograms.
Nails and hair do not grow after death; they appear longer because the muscles and skin dry out.
By age 60, people lose about half of all their taste buds.
The size of the eyes does not change at all, but the nose and ears do not stop growing until death.
By the age of 60, more than half of men and slightly less than half of women begin to snore in their sleep.
A person remains conscious for 20 seconds after decapitation.
Disease
Most often, according to statistics, heart attacks occur on Monday.
A person can survive without food longer than without sleep.
Normal, not strong sunburn can severely damage blood vessels.
Almost 90% of diseases can be either caused or complicated by stress.
Muscles and bones
To smile you need to use 17 muscles, and to frown - 43.
In the morning we are 1 cm higher than before going to bed, due to the fact that the vertical position contributes to pressure on the spine.
At birth, the number of bones is 300. Over time, some of them fuse, and in an adult there are fewer of them - 206.
The most hard bone- jaw.
The most strong muscle in the human body there is a tongue.
To take one step, a person must use 200 different muscles.
The tooth is the only part of the body that cannot heal itself.
It takes twice as long to lose newly acquired muscle mass as it does to gain muscle mass.
Bone is stronger than some steel alloys.
Of the 206 bones in the human body, 52 are in the feet.
Cells
About 16 million bacteria live on every square centimeter of skin.
External skin covering person is updated every 27 days.
Every day human body produces 300 billion cells.
About 300 million cells die every minute in our body.
We shed about half a million pieces of dead skin every hour.
The imprint of a person's tongue is as unique as fingerprints.
There is enough iron in the human body to fuse a nail 7 centimeters long.
The most common blood type is first. About half of the world's population has this type of blood.
The color of the lips is so bright because the capillaries in them are located directly under a thin layer of skin.
Miscellaneous
The size of a baby's head is 25% of the length of his entire body. The head size of an adult is only one-eighth of height.
The colder your bedroom, the more likely you are to have a nightmare.
Tears and mucus contain an enzyme that can destroy the membranes of many bacteria, thus protecting us from infection.
In half an hour, the human body produces enough energy to bring 4 liters of water to a boil.
Our ears produce more wax when we are scared.
It is impossible to tickle yourself.
Arm span usually matches height.
Humans are the only representatives of the animal kingdom capable of crying due to emotions.
According to statistics, right-handers live 9 years longer than left-handers.
Women burn calories slower than men.
Koalas and primates also have unique fingerprints.
The depression between the nose and upper lip called the philtrum. Scientists have not yet determined what it is for us.
Despite the fact that our planet has been developed by humans quite well, we do not know everything about our home. Every year, scientists discover new species of animals and plants, some of which are very unusual. Such organisms live both in the ocean and on land, but not everyone notices the amazing things under their feet.
In continuation - a description of animals that were discovered really recently, last year and this year. All names are given in Latin, so that if you want to know more about these animals, it will be easy to find information on the Internet.
Cebrennus rechenbergi
This is a somewhat strange-looking spider that lives in the heart of the Moroccan desert. Its defense against enemies is unique: if something goes wrong, the spider begins to tumble. At the same time, he moves quite quickly. If the spider is lucky, its movement will also be accelerated by the wind. True, here the spider needs the wind to blow from the enemy, and not towards him.
Torquigener albomaculosus
Quite a long time ago, scuba divers began to record the appearance of strange circles at the bottom of the East China Sea. Moreover, the circles could be very large and almost perfect. At the same time, the circles were also decorated with ornaments, which could be very different. Scientists have been puzzled for some time over what could be the author of these circles, and theories about aliens, mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea, etc. appeared among ordinary people.
The reason turned out to be simple - a small fish, a male, makes circles, attracting a female.
Dendrogramma enigmatica
This creature is difficult to classify. Scientists have decided that this species is a cross between ctenophores and coelenterates. In addition, representatives of Dendrogramma enigmatica are quite reminiscent of some extinct species of animals that lived in the seas and oceans more than 600 million years ago.
Deuteragenia ossarium
A wasp that worries about the safety of its offspring. When laying eggs, the female begins to hunt spiders of a certain species. She places each spider she catches in a hole in the ground, where she lays an egg. In addition, she covers the clutch with the bodies of other spiders, at least 13 in number.
Phryganistria tamdaoensis
A very unusual stick insect, whose body length reaches 23 cm. This stick insect is not the largest in the world. However, the fact that no one discovered it until recently speaks volumes. In particular, it tells us that scientists still have something to discover; there are still many animals and plants hiding from humans.
Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum
Another strange creature that scientists attributed to sea slugs. The size of this animal is not so small - its body length reaches 28 cm in length. The slug lives on the Japanese islands and is quite rare.
Limnonectes larvaepartus
These frogs surprised scientists by the fact that they do not lay eggs, but give birth to tadpoles. There are now 6,455 species of frogs, and only a very few species have internal fertilization. Such frogs are very rare, and they are found in Indonesia, on the island of Sulawesi.
Not just long-livers, but super-centenarians.
1. Radiated turtles (188 years old).
Record holders for officially documented age among reptiles. The turtle Tui Malila, according to legend, given to the chief of the island of Tongo by Captain Cook, lived 188 years, dying in 1965. Radiated tortoises are found only in Madagascar and are critically endangered.2. Bowhead whales (211 years old).
Bowhead whales were originally thought to live for about 70 years. But then harpoon tips were found in the body of one of them. early XIX centuries! Other studies based on the study of amino acids in the eyes and teeth of whales have confirmed these data - bowhead whales can live more than 200 years, which makes them champions among mammals.
3. Mollusks (500 years old) of the species Arctica islandica look like the most ordinary shells.
But appearances are deceiving - after counting the rings on the shell of mollusks, biologists found that they live over 300 years. The prize for longevity went to a mollusk named Min - 507 years. This absolute record among organisms that do not live in colonies.
4. Mushrooms (2400 years).
In 2003, the scientific community was stirred up by the discovery of a colony of the fungus Armillaria solidipes (dark honey fungus) over 2,400 years old. The mushroom is located underground, occupying about 5 square kilometers, and is considered one of the oldest inhabitants of the Earth.
5. Intermontane bristlecone pine (5000 years old).
A relatively small coniferous tree that often bends at odd angles. Unpresentable appearance does not play any role, given the ability of these pines to live for millennia. The oldest tree discovered, named Methuselah, is 5062 years old - in fact, it is the same age as many of our oldest civilizations.
6. Larrea tridentata (11,000 years old).
This is a shrub whose leaves have medicinal properties. In 1970, Frank Vasek discovered that the ring-shaped bush in the Mojave Desert was a single organism - a so-called "clonal colony". The branches of a bush can only live for a couple of hundred years, but the root system is almost eternal.
7. Bacteria (34,000 years old)
In the mid-1990s, a group of scientists announced that they had been able to revive a colony of bacteria extracted from 40-million-year-old bees entombed in amber. In 2000, the same thing was done with 250-million-year-old bacteria from salt crystals. These claims have yet to be verified. The officially confirmed age of the bacterial strain is still amazing - 34 thousand years.
8. Aspen poplar (80 thousand years old).
A colony consisting of clones is the most reliable path to immortality, and the aspen poplar clearly realized this. Individual poplars live no more than 130 years, but a clonal colony known as Pando has been around for 80,000 years, constantly growing new “children.”
9. Posidonia (200 thousand years).
This is a plant from the genus of “sea grasses” that grow in the Mediterranean Sea. DNA samples taken from one of the species of posidonia - Posidonia oceanica - showed that a plant colony can live from 100 to 200 thousand years. The existence of this centenarian is seriously threatened global warming and development of the seashores.
10. Jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii.
Supposedly an immortal being. Many jellyfish start out as nonmotile polyps, but Turritopsis is the only one capable of reverting. If they are threatened with death, including from illness or old age, Turritopsis simply return to the polyp stage, budding off new clones.And this cycle can go on forever.
Yesterday, the International Committee of Taxonomists named the ten most interesting species of living organisms discovered over the past year.
Every year, starting in 2008, on the birthday of the great Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, the creator of a unified system for classifying flora and fauna, a list of the most interesting biological species discovered over the past year is announced.
Olinguito
The star of this list can rightfully be called the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina), living in Ecuador.
We're talking about the first carnivorous mammal, opened over the past 35 years in the New World.
Besides the scientific importance of such a discovery, appearance The animal, which resembles a plush toy, created a real sensation among animal lovers. 
Kawesak dragon tree
The beautiful Kawesaki dragon tree (Dracaena kaweesakii) was identified as a new species only last year.
If a twenty-meter tree growing in Thailand remained unnoticed by science for so long, then perhaps many more interesting species in this country are waiting for their discoverers. 
Sea anemone ANDRILL
This species of Antarctic sea anemone was named after the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program (ANDRILL). This is the first and so far only species of sea anemone living in ice.
These creatures, 2-3 centimeters long, burrow into the ice shelf, leaving only a couple of dozen tentacles outside in the water. The discovery of complex organisms that survive in such harsh conditions amazed zoologists last year. 
Skeleton shrimp
Newly discovered skeleton shrimp (Liropus minusculus) looks like fairy creature and, of course, is one of the most beautiful and interesting species of invertebrates.
It was discovered in a cave on Santa Catalina Island, near Southern California. The size of the female is approximately 2.5 mm, and the male is 3 mm. 
Orange penicillium
Orange penicillium mold (Penicillium vanoranjei), different bright color, was named so not only because of its color, but also in honor of the King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange.
Besides its color, the new fungus is interesting because it produces a leafy structure that protects it from drying out. 
Leaf-tailed gecko
The leaf-tailed gecko (Saltuarius eximius), native to Australia, is very difficult to spot due to its camouflage coloring and unusually wide tail in the shape of a tree leaf.
You can find it in tropical forests and rocks. Frozen in vertical position on a tree or on a stone, this night hunter calmly waits for the next careless insect to get closer.
Researchers have not been able to find such lizards in nearby areas of Australia, so it is assumed that we are talking about a very rare species. 
Amoeboid protist
The amoeboid protist (Spiculosiphon oceana) is a true giant among single-celled organisms. Its dimensions range from 3 to 5 centimeters.
The behavior of this creature amazed biologists: the protist collects pieces of sponges and builds a sponge-like shell from them. Moreover, it uses sponge spicules, completely imitating their behavior.
This amazing species was discovered in an underwater cave, 50 km off the coast of Spain. In the same cave, predatory sea sponges were previously discovered for the first time. 
Microbe in sterile rooms
This microbe (Tersicoccus phoenicis) was found in rooms where spacecraft are assembled under conditions of (supposedly) absolute sterility. Researchers fear that it could have already contaminated Mars, having arrived on the Red Planet along with the rovers. But it is possible that its relatives already live on other planets, since this organism is capable of surviving in extreme conditions.
The microbe was found on the floor in two completely sterile rooms on different continents: in Florida and French Guiana.
Taking into account the measures taken to clean up such spaces, Tersicoccus phoenicis, according to scientists, taught science an important lesson about the incredible conditions in which life can exist. 
Tinker Bell Fairy Fly
The Tinker Bell fairy fly (Tinkerbella nana), named after Peter Pan's winged companion, lives in the forests of Costa Rica. Its size is approximately 0.25 mm, so we are talking about one of the smallest insects in the world. 
Bulge earth slug
In the caves of western Croatia, more than a kilometer deep, lives this slow, eyeless creature, the bulbous earth slug (Zospeum tholussum). The lack of pigmentation gives its shell a ghostly appearance.
Even by snail standards, Zospeum tholossum moves extremely slowly, traveling less than 2cm per week. Scientists believe that this miniature organism uses streams of water or other animals, such as bats, for long-distance movements. 