Unusual habitats of living organisms. Interesting facts about biology. Basic body functions
Ecology of knowledge: The human body still continues to reveal its mysteries. By studying the operation of its systems, every year scientists make hundreds of discoveries. And often new facts refute ideas that have been established for centuries.
The human body still continues to reveal its mysteries. By studying the operation of its systems, every year scientists make hundreds of discoveries. And often new facts refute ideas that have been established for centuries.
20. Silence of the heart
The average adult's heart beats 72 times a minute, 100,000 times a day, 36 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times a lifetime.
However, the heart beats rhythmically, which means that in addition to beats, there are also pauses in the cycle. So, if we 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 sneezing.
19. Against the laws of physics
It is known that a liquid can flow from a higher pressure to a lower one, but in our body this law is constantly violated. With simultaneous measurement of pressure in the aorta and femoral artery, blood from the aorta, where there is less pressure, flows into femoral artery where the pressure is higher.
18. Round heart
Recently, NASA 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 ... rounds off. During the experiment, NASA cardiologists studied the hearts of 12 astronauts who worked on the ISS.
An analysis of the images showed that under weightless conditions the heart is rounded by 9.4%. However, upon returning to Earth, the heart returns to its usual shape within six months and resumes "earthly" activity. To imagine a decrease in the activity of the heart, it is enough to say that one and a half months of lying on the bed is equivalent to a week of work in weightlessness.
17. New skin: from three days to a month
Human skin is constantly renewing itself. This process is called regeneration. It happens like this: new skin cells are formed in the germinal layer of the epidermis, for about 28-30 days they move to the surface and lose their cell nucleus. On the surface, with the help of the keratin contained in them, they form the stratum corneum of the skin, which gradually exfoliates when washed or in contact with clothing.
Thus, the skin that we consider our own is constantly updated. After a month, the composition of a person's skin changes completely.
In newborns, the regeneration process, like many other processes (for example, metabolism), proceeds faster. "Change of skin" in babies takes three days - 72 hours.
16. Inner Brewery
People with a "roaming gut" or so-called "inner brewery" syndrome turn all food and drink into alcohol inside them. Therefore, they are always a little tipsy. The cause of the disease is the inability of the stomach to break down sugar into carbohydrates - instead, it is engaged in fermentation.
In addition, the human body with a fermenting gut is not able to process the ethanol resulting from the consumption of starchy foods. One bottle of beer is enough for such people to gain 0.37 ppm. Fortunately, this is very rare syndrome, only 11 cases have been reported worldwide to date.
15. Without hair
A fracture of the spine can also lead to such an unexpected consequence as the disappearance of body hair. This is a unique phenomenon in which scientists themselves have not yet figured out 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 be seriously damaged - the hair on the body gradually begins to disappear.
14. "Bird" genetics
The fact that "lark" - "lark" - is not his merit. As well as the fact that “owl” - “owl” - there is no fault. This is how nature made us. And who is responsible for the chronotypes determined by American researchers medical center Northwestern University of Chicago in collaboration with scientists from the Korean Institute of Science and Technology. By studying the fruit fly Drosophilia melanogaster, they discovered a gene that regulates the circadian rhythm. They called it the “genome of 24 hours” and in 2010 published data in the journal “Science”, where they noted that the flies in which it “did not work, did not show activity for a long time with the onset of dawn.”
If we draw a parallel with humans, then these fruit flies are typical "owls", which are also unbearable to tear their heads off their "fly pillows". And the same gene is also responsible for the easy awakening of those who are lucky enough to be born "larks".
13. Moving facial expressions
In 2011, scientists managed to discover that human facial expressions occur long before birth. Even during the prenatal period, the child is already able to move facial muscles, smile, raise eyebrows in surprise or frown.
The facial muscles make up 25% of the total number of muscles, while smiling, 17 muscle groups are involved, during anger or crying - 43.
One of better ways maintaining smooth skin on the face - kissing. With them, from 29 to 34 muscle groups work.
12. Blood type as a factor in career and personal life
In Japan, since the 1930s, the teachings of “ketsu-eki-gata” have been practiced, in which you can tell everything about a person, knowing only his blood type. The Japanese are sure that the owners of the I blood group are sociable and energetic people, the owners of the II blood group are stress-resistant and patient, but stubborn. Creative and powerful people usually Group III blood. People with a rare IV group are balanced and natural leaders.
"Ketsu-eki-gata" is incredibly popular. A Japanese girl may ask on a first date not about who you are according to your zodiac sign, but about your blood type. The Japanese are guided by blood type when they get married and when they get a job. HR departments try to form ideally matched “by blood” teams.
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 found castrated men lived 14 years longer. Interesting data on this issue were recently published by the Korean scientist Kyung-Chin Min. He studied the book "Yan-Se-Ke-Bo", in which one can trace the genealogical information about 385 families of court eunuchs.
Comparing the lifespans of 81 eunuchs with confirmed lifespan dates, Kyung-Chin Ming saw that average duration The life of eunuchs was 71 years. That is, eunuchs survived 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 drowsiness and Gelino's disease. The disease occurs infrequently, in about 20-40 people out of 100,000. Scientists associate narcolepsy with disintegration syndrome, the untimely onset of sleep phases.
Patients suffering from narcolepsy, although they sleep a lot, do not get enough sleep, because skipping the phase of non-REM sleep, they immediately find themselves in the phase of REM sleep, the encephalogram curve of which resembles the encephalogram curve of a waking person, it is almost impossible to sleep in this mode. We get enough sleep in the stage of deep delta sleep, 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 phase of REM sleep and wakefulness. If the cells of this neurotransmitter are damaged, this leads to sleep disorders.
9. Natural alarm clock
Probably, each of us at least once woke up a few minutes before the alarm, especially when he knew in advance that it was simply necessary to wake up.
This is the merit of the so-called "natural alarm clock", namely, adrenocorticotropic hormone.
Scientists believe that it has something to do with minimizing stress for the body during awakening. But, what is most interesting, we can consciously control it. When studying the properties of adrenocorticotropic hormone, an experiment was conducted in which a number of subjects pre-programmed themselves 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 the death of all the subjects, the brain, which was already supposed to be 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. Prior to this, 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 the “wave of death.” scientific explanation"waves of death" has given rise to 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 are discharged, emitting impulses "avalanche-like". "Live" neurons are constantly under a small negative voltage - 70 min volts, which is maintained by getting rid of positive ions that remain outside. After death, the balance is disturbed, and neurons quickly change polarity from "minus" to "plus".
7. How men and women hear
Women are better at distinguishing high-pitched sounds. A week-old girl can already distinguish the sound of her mother's voice and hear when another baby cries. Boys don't need that.
Women better than men recognize changes in tone and therefore know perfectly well when men are lying.
Men, on the other hand, specialize in sounds. wildlife(this skill is not so necessary in the city) and perfectly “hear” the direction. If a woman hears a kitten's meow first, then it is the man who will indicate where to look for him.
6. Such different sensitivity
A woman's skin is 10 times more sensitive than a man's skin. Studies by British scientists have shown that even the most sensitive man in this sense falls short of 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 male, the skin is four times thicker than on the abdomen. And if a man is busy with business, then the sensitivity of the skin drops even more, and he almost does not feel pain.
5. Electricity in us
People have great prospects as generators of electricity, it can be generated from almost any of our actions. So, you can get 1 W from one breath, and a calm step is enough to power a 60 W light bulb, and it will be enough to charge the phone.
4. Lungs - the "stove" of the body
One of the luminaries Soviet systems hardening was a Soviet scientist of Austrian origin Karl Trincher. He spent five years in the Gulag, and he knew firsthand about the cold. Treacher once noticed that in laboratory animals with a lack of oxygen, the temperature in the lungs rises. From here he made a brilliant conclusion: “The lungs are the only organ where fats, reacting with oxygen, burn directly. Without any enzymes.
Today, even physiologists do not deny that the lungs are a "stove" capable of warming the body in the cold. Or rather, not to warm, but to keep warm, to resist the pathogenic dominant of the cold. Therefore, in the cold, you must first of all monitor your breathing, breathe slowly, evenly and deeply.
3. Color perception of floors
On the retina human eye contains almost seven million receptors, "cones", 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 that they perceive is wider. In conversation, they operate with shades: “aquamarine”, “sand”, “light coffee”. Men talk about fundamental colors: red, white, blue.
2. Big skin
Skin is the most big organ human body. Its average surface area is from 1.5 to 2 square meters. On the different areas Body skin has different thickness and sensitivity. The thickest skin is on the feet and palms, the thinnest is on the eyelids. At the same time, the sensitivity of the skin is not directly dependent on the thickness. So, on the fingers and palms, the skin, although quite thick, can feel pressure from 20 milligrams, which corresponds to the average weight of a fly.
1. Heart-worker
Extremely high-speed processes take place in our body every second. When the body is at rest, it takes only six seconds for blood to travel from the heart to the lungs and back, eight seconds from the heart to the brain and back, 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 able to surprise even doctors, not to mention people without deep anatomical knowledge.
Brain
The impulses from the receptors to the brain arrive at an amazing speed of 275 kilometers per hour.
Our brain needs energy comparable to the energy of an ordinary light bulb to work.
The electronic equivalent of the memory capacity of the human brain can reach thousands of terabytes.
About 20% of the air from the blood stream goes to the work of the brain.
The brain is more active at night when we are sleeping 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 not able to feel pain, it lacks pain receptors.
The brain tissue is four-fifths fluid.
Nails and hair
Women's hair is on average twice as thin as men's, in addition, the thickness and stiffness of the hair depends on race.
The beard and mustache grow faster than all other hair.
The average hair can support the weight of a 100 gram chocolate bar.
Toenails grow 4 times slower than fingernails.
Every day a person falls from fifty to hundreds of hairs.
Blondes the largest number hair, but they are thinner.
The nail on the middle finger grows the fastest, probably because this finger is the longest.
There is a lot of hair on the human body, as much as our closest primate relatives, just not all of them are so clearly visible.
One hair can stay 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 the hairline.
Internal organs
The heartbeat generates enough pressure to send a stream of blood 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 a person is 96,500 kilometers. For comparison: the circumference of the Earth is only 40,000 kilometers.
The mucous membrane of the stomach is updated every three to four days.
Women's heartbeat is faster than men's.
Scientists have counted about 500 useful features 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 one due to the fact that the heart is located on the left side.
Man 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 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 coughing, the air speed is reduced to 95 km / h.
Full bladder the same size as a large grapefruit.
Almost 75% of bowel movements consist 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.
In a lifetime, a person secretes so much saliva that it can fill two Olympic pools.
The average person experiences flatulence attacks 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 birth of a child.
Fingerprints appear in the embryo at a three-month period.
Pregnant women at the beginning of pregnancy see frequent dreams about frogs, house plants and worms.
Almost all babies are born with blue eyes.
In a comparative weight ratio, a newborn baby is stronger than a bull.
One in 2,000 babies is born with an already grown tooth.
Each of us spent half an hour of our existence in the form of a single-celled being.
Most men experience erections several times a night.
sense organs
After a hearty meal, hearing becomes worse.
About one third of humanity has perfect vision.
Unlike men, women have a more developed sense of smell.
If the product is not able to dissolve in saliva, we are not able to taste it.
A person is able to remember about 50 thousand different smells.
Even the slightest noise causes the pupils to dilate a little.
Each person has their own scent, which is completely unique; only twins don't have it. The smell of identical twins is identical.
old age and death
The ashes of a cremated body weigh an average of 4 kilograms.
Nails and hair do not grow after death, they seem longer due to the fact that the muscles and skin shrink.
By the age of 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 being decapitated.
Disease
Most often, according to statistics, heart attacks occur on Mondays.
A person can survive longer without food than without sleep.
Normal, weak 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 taller than at bedtime, due to the fact that the vertical position contributes to the pressure on the spine.
At birth, the number of bones is 300. Over time, some of them grow together, and an adult has fewer of them - 206.
The most hard bone- jaw.
The most strong muscle in the human body - language.
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 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 human is updated every 27 days.
Every day human body produces 300 billion cells.
About 300 million cells die every minute in our body.
Every hour we shed about half a million particles of dead skin.
A person's tongue print 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 the 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 its entire body. The head size of an adult is only one-eighth of the height.
The colder it is in the bedroom, the more likely you are to have a nightmare.
Tears and mucus contain an enzyme that can destroy the shell 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.
You can't tickle yourself.
The arm span usually matches the height.
Humans are the only representatives of the animal kingdom capable of crying because of emotions.
According to statistics, right-handers live 9 years longer than left-handers.
Women burn calories more slowly than men.
Koalas and primates also have unique fingerprints.
depression between nose and upper lip called the philtrum. For what it is to us, scientists have not determined.
Despite the fact that our planet is mastered by man quite well, we know about our home far from everything. 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 under their feet.
In continuation - a description of animals that were discovered really recently, in the past and this year. All names are given in Latin, so that if you want to know more about these animals, it was easy to find information on the Web.
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 starts to tumble. At the same time, he moves quite quickly. If the spider is lucky, the wind will also speed up its movement. 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. In this case, the circles could be very large, and almost perfect. At the same time, the circles were also decorated with an ornament, which could be very different. For some time, scientists puzzled over what could be the author of these circles, and among the inhabitants there were theories about aliens, mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea, etc.
The reason turned out to be simple - a small fish makes circles, a male attracting a female.
Dendrogramma enigmatica
This creature is difficult to classify. Scientists decided that this species is a cross between ctenophores and coelenterates. In addition, representatives of Dendrogramma enigmatica quite strongly resemble some extinct animal species 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 caught spider in an earthen hole, where she lays her egg. In addition, she closes the masonry 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 has discovered it until recently speaks volumes. In particular, the fact that scientists still have something to discover, there are still a lot of animals and plants hiding from humans.
Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum
Another strange creature that scientists have 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. Now there are 6455 species of frogs, and only very few species have internal fertilization. Such frogs are very rare, and they are found in Indonesia, on the island of Sulawesi.
Not just centenarians, but super centenarians.
1. Radiant turtles (188 years old).
Record holders for officially documented age among reptiles. Tortoise Tui Malila, according to legend, was presented to the leader of the island of Tongo by Captain Cook, lived 188 years, having died in 1965. Radiant turtles live only in Madagascar and are on the verge of extinction.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 century! Other studies based on the study of amino acids in the eyes and teeth of the whale have confirmed this data - bowhead whales are able to live for more than 200 years, which makes them the champions among mammals.
3. Clams (500 years old) of the species Arctica islandica look like the most common shells.
But appearances are deceiving - by counting the rings on the shell of mollusks, biologists have found that they live for over 300 years. The prize for longevity went to a mollusk named Ming - 507 years. it absolute record among organisms that do not live in colonies.
4. Mushrooms (2400 years).
In 2003, the scientific community stirred up the discovery of a colony of the fungus Armillaria solidipes (dark honey agaric) 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. Pine spiny intermountain (5000 years).
A relatively small coniferous tree, often curved 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).
It is a shrub whose leaves have medicinal properties. In 1970, Frank Vasek discovered that a ring-shaped bush in the Mojave Desert was a single organism - a so-called "clonal colony". Shrub branches can live only 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 succeeded in reviving a colony of bacteria extracted from 40-million-year-old bees immured in amber. In 2000, they did the same with 250-million-year-old bacteria from salt crystals. These claims are yet to be verified. The officially confirmed age of the strain of bacteria is still amazing - 34 thousand years.
8. Aspen-shaped poplar (80 thousand years).
A colony consisting of clones is the surest way to immortality, and aspen poplar clearly realized this. Individual poplars live no more than 130 years, but the clonal colony known as Pando has existed for 80,000 years, constantly growing new "children".
9. Posidonia (200 thousand years).
This is a plant from the genus "sea grass" that grows in the Mediterranean Sea. DNA samples taken from one of the Posidonia species - Posidonia oceanica - showed that a colony of plants can live from 100 to 200 thousand years. The existence of this long-liver is seriously threatened global warming and seaside development.
10. Jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii.
Supposedly immortal being. Many jellyfish start out as immobile polyps, but Turritopsis are the only ones capable of changing back. If they are threatened with death, including from illness or old age, Turritopsis simply return to the stage of polyps, budding new clones from themselves.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, since 2008, on the birthday of the great Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, the creator of a unified classification system for flora and fauna, a list of the most interesting biological species discovered over the past year has been announced.
Olinguito
The star of this list is the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) from Ecuador.
It's about the first predatory mammal discovered over the past 35 years in the New World.
In addition to the scientific importance of such a discovery, appearance animal, resembling a plush toy, made a splash among animal lovers. 
dragon tree kawesaka
The beautiful Kawesaka dragon tree (Dracaena kaweesakii) was only identified as a new species last year.
If a twenty-meter tree growing in Thailand has remained unnoticed by science for so long, then perhaps many more interesting species on the territory of this country are waiting for their discoverers. 
Anemone ANDRILL
This species of Antarctic anemone was named after the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program (ANDRILL). This is the first and so far the only species of sea anemones 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 surviving in such harsh environments amazed zoologists last year. 
skeleton shrimp
Newly discovered skeleton shrimp (Liropus minusculus) is similar to fabulous creature and, of course, is one of the most beautiful and interesting species of invertebrates.
They found her 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
The fungus orange penicillium (Penicillium vanoranjei) is characterized by bright color, was named so not only because of its color, but also in honor of the King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange.
In addition to color, the new fungus is interesting in that it produces a leaf structure that protects it from drying out. 
leaf tail gecko
The Australian leaf-tailed gecko (Saltuarius eximius) is hard to spot due to its camouflage coloration and unusually wide, tree-leaf-shaped tail.
You can find it in tropical forests and rocks. Frozen in vertical position on a tree or on a stone, this nocturnal 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 this is a very rare species. 
amoeboid protist
The amoeboid protist (Spiculosiphon oceana) is a real giant among unicellular organisms. Its dimensions are 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 the spicules of sponges, completely imitating their behavior.
This amazing species was discovered in an underwater cave, 50 km from the coast of Spain. In the same cave, predatory sea sponges were previously discovered for the first time. 
Clean room microbe
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 polluted Mars, hitting the Red Planet along with rovers. But it is possible that its relatives already live on other planets, since this organism is able to survive in extreme conditions.
The microbe was found on the floor in two completely sterile rooms at once on different continents: in Florida and French Guiana.
Given the efforts being made to clean up such spaces, Tersicoccus phoenicis has taught science an important lesson about the incredible conditions under which life can exist. 
Fairy Tinkerbell
The tinkerbell 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. 
Bulging Earth Slug
In the caves of western Croatia, at a depth of more than a kilometer, this slow eyeless creature lives, a bulging earth slug (Zospeum tholussum). The lack of pigmentation gives his shell a ghostly appearance.
Even by snail standards, Zospeum tholossum moves extremely slowly, covering a distance of less than 2 cm per week. Scientists believe that this miniature organism uses streams of water or other animals, such as bats, for long-distance movements. 