Random Facts So Interesting You will be amazed to know Part 10

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1. Our European ancestors were cannibals.

In 16th and 17th century Europe, cannibalism was actually a fairly common practice, and it was all for medical purposes. The practice seems to have started because Egyptian mummies were thought to have magical curative properties—so they were ground up and put in many remedies.

As the idea evolved, human bone, blood, and fat were all used in medical concoctions. Got a headache? Crush a skull and make it into tea! While medical cannibalism has fallen out of favor, modern medicine still sometimes uses one human body to heal another in the form of blood donations, organ transplants, and skin grafts.

2. Dogs actually understand some English.

Some owners of disobedient dogs may have trouble believing this, but dogs can learn to recognize a vocabulary of about 165 words. Unsurprisingly, dogs respond best to short words, as well as words with hard consonants like "t" or "r," which may explain why they can hear "treat" from three rooms away.

If you want to try to expand your dog's vocabulary, be consistent—for example, always call a meal "dinner" instead of breakfast, lunch, or supper. And don't believe the myth: Old dogs can learn words just as well as young dogs.

3. You have a nail in your body.

Or, at least, the components of one. Iron is an important nutrient that the human body needs. It helps your red blood cells carry oxygen, which is necessary for producing energy throughout the body. That's why an iron deficiency can present itself with feelings of exhaustion. Amazingly, a healthy adult has about three grams of iron, enough that, if it were pulled out and melted down, it could form a nail up to three inches long.

4. Redheads aren't actually going extinct.

Periodically, a rumor starts on the internet that says natural redheads will become extinct by the year 2060. Lucky for gingers everywhere, this is a myth. It's true that the gene that causes red hair is recessive, meaning that both parents must have it for their child to have red hair. However, even non-redheads can carry the red hair gene, and it can pop up unexpectedly in generations down the line.

5. Pro baseball once had women players.

While there are currently no female players in Major League Baseball, there have been plenty of women in professional men's leagues. The first was Lizzy Arlington, who pitched during the ninth inning for the Reading Coal Heavers in 1898 and won her team the game. A little over 30 years later, an African-American woman, Jackie Mitchell, pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game, striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. What's more impressive: Mitchell was 17 years old at the time.

6. Koalas have fingerprints.

Chimpanzees and gorillas have human-like fingerprints and so do koalas. In fact, koala prints are very similar to human fingerprints, even to expert crime scene investigators. As of yet, no koalas have framed humans for their crimes, but now we know it's not impossible…

7. Humans are just one of the estimated 8.7 million species on Earth.

Human beings may dominate the planet with our sprawling cities and far-reaching technology, but we are, in fact, just one species among some 8.7 million that live together on planet Earth. One 2011 study published in the journal PLoS Biology estimated that "the various forms of life on the planet included 7.8 million species of animals, 298,000 species of plants, 611,000 species of mushrooms, mold and other fungi, 36,400 species of protozoa, and 27,500 species of algae or chromists." And it's worth noting that the researchers did not venture to put an estimate on the number of bacteria.

8. Riding a roller coaster could help you pass a kidney stone.

After multiple people reported they had passed a kidney stone while riding Walt Disney World's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a research team from Michigan State University decided to investigate the phenomena in 2016. They conducted tests with a model kidney and found that there was a 64 percent kidney stone pass rate for those seated in the rear of the Thunder Mountain ride. That number was just 16 percent for those seated in the front.

9. Dinosaurs lived on every continent.

Back in their day, dinosaurs lived on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica. The reason we only find their bones in certain places, though, is that weather and soil conditions in those places were just right for the bones to be fossilized. Scientists also speculate that there may be many smaller-sized dinosaurs that we know nothing about because their bones were too small to fossilize well.

10. Bee hummingbirds are so small they get mistaken for insects.

Hummingbirds are known for being itty-bitty creatures, but Bee Hummingbirds are the teeniest versions of these shockingly tiny flyers. They're actually the smallest bird in the world. They are so minuscule that they are sometimes mistaken for insects (which explains their name), according to the National Audobon Society. The birds are just two and a quarter inches long and weigh less than a dime.