FACTS: What sea-dwelling creature has three hearts, blue blood, a donut-shaped brain and eight tentacles?

That last one gave it away, didn’t it? It’s the octopus, of course.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, “The oldest known fossil of an octopus ancestor belongs to an animal that lived some 330 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs. Discovered in Montana’s Bear Gulch limestone formation and described in 2022, the specimen has ten limbs, whereas modern octopuses have eight. Previously, the oldest octopus fossil found was an approximately 296-million-year-old, soft-bodied invertebrate called Pohlsepia mazonensis.”

Here are some more weird facts about animals.

Owls don’t have eyeballs; they have eye tubes. Their eyes don’t move around like a person’s do. Instead, they must move their heads or bodies to look around.

More, from the website for Treehugger: “The extinct colossus penguin stood as tall as LeBron James. Honeybees can flap their wings 200 times every second. Elephants have a specific alarm call that means ‘human.’

“Horses use facial expressions to communicate with each other. Researchers have identified 17 discrete facial movements in horses. African buffalo herds display voting behavior, in which individuals register their travel preference by standing up, looking in one direction, and then lying back down. Only adult females can vote.”

How progressive! And that leads right to a fact about mosquitoes, that only the females bite.

Some more facts: Fleas can jump 350 times their body length.

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward. Crocodiles can’t stick their tongues out. Starfish do not have a brain. Slugs have four noses.

A flamingo’s head has to be upside down when it eats.

And now you are even more ready for trivia night, animal edition!