Ben reveals how the rhino femur could be the strongest bone in the animal kingdom.
But neither femur nor tibia is the densest and hardest bone of a mammal's body. It's a well-hidden piece of skull, known as petrous bone.
The rostral bones of the toothed whale, Mesoplodon densirostris, consist mainly of hypermineralized secondary osteons and have yielded among the highest values for density (2.6 g/cm3) and mineral content (86.7%) yet reported for any bone.
The femur is one of the most well-described bones of the human skeleton in fields ranging from clinical anatomy to forensic medicine. Because it is the longest and strongest bone in the human body, and thus, one of the most well-preserved in skeletal remains, it makes the greatest contribution to archaeology.
A dung beetle is not only the world's strongest insect but also the strongest animal on the planet compared to body weight. They can pull 1,141 times their own body weight. This is the equivalent of an average person pulling six double-decker buses full of people.
The absolute unbeatable beast who took home the title for best fighter: the elephant. With a 74% win rate, it just eked out a win over the rhinoceros, who also received a 74% win rate. (Just a few extra tenths of a percent gave the elephant the top spot.)
Too Weak to Support Its Own Body Weight: The Jellyfish
Crystal jellies Aequorea victoria, are a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. Almost every living creature on the planet has at least the strength to support its own body and move around.
1. The unbreakable bone mutation: LRP5. Thanks to a genetic mutation called sclerosteosis, some humans are born with bones that are several times denser than the average human. In theory, people with the “unbreakable” bone mutation could walk away from car accidents unscathed.
On the Young's modulus scale, which is used to measure the stiffness of a solid material, the stiffness of titanium plates is four to ten times higher than that of bone, leading to a weakening of the bone over time as the two are in contact.
Excerpt. The femur is the longest, heaviest, and strongest bone in the human body.
Males Have Larger Skeletal Size and Bone Mass Than Females, Despite Comparable Body Size.
The whale shark isn't only the largest fish in the oceans. It also has the thickest skin of any living creature – in the oceans or on land. Typically around 10 cm (4 in) in thickness, the skin offers vital protection and insulation for the animal.
The weakest and softest bone in the human is the clavicle or collar bone. Because it is a tiny bone which runs horizontally across your breastbone & collarbone, it is simple to shatter. Water makes up 31% of the weight of your bones. Your bones are four times more powerful than a concrete pound for pound.
Unbreakable bones – the LRP5 gene
However, a different mutation in the LRP5 gene can also cause an uncommon disorder in which bone density is greatly increased making the bones very strong and resistant to fractures.
The thigh bone is called a femur and not only is it the strongest bone in the body, it is also the longest. Because the femur is so strong, it takes a large force to break or fracture it – usually a car accident or a fall from high up. To fix it properly requires an operation.
Human bone is as strong as steel but 50 times lighter.
Tungsten, which is Swedish for "heavy stone," is the strongest metal in the world. It was identified as a new element in 1781. It is commonly used to make bullets and missiles, metal evaporation work, manufacturing of paints, creating electron and Television tubes, and making glass to metal seals.
Titanium, however doesn't stand a chance against bullets fired from high-powered military grade firearms such as those used to penetrate tanks. Titanium can take single hits from high-caliber bullets, but it shatters and becomes penetrable with multiple hits from military-grade, armor piercing bullets.
The record for the most broken bones in a lifetime is held by Evel Knieval, the famous motorcycle stuntman, who sustained 433 fractures by the end of 1975, when he retired from major performances.
Nature has been optimizing our bone structures for millennia. Bone typically has an elastic modulus that is like concrete but it's 10 times stronger in compression. As for the stainless-steel comparison, bone has a similar compressive strength but is three times lighter.
Of 10 weapons studied, two were made from human bone. About 11,000 years ago, Stone Age hunters crafted sharp weapons out of human bone, a new study finds. These hunter-gatherers lived in Doggerland, a now-underwater region in the North Sea that connected Europe to Britain.
'In the sense of producing emotional tears, we are the only species,' he says. All mammals make distress calls, like when an offspring is separated from its mother, but only humans cry, he says.
The honey badger has been called the world's most fearless animal because it doesn't hesitate to attack animals much larger than itself- even lions and crocodiles!
It's a tardigrade—the most 'indestructible' animal on Earth. Also called water bears, tardigrades can survive up to 30 years without food, live in volcanoes, and endure the vacuum of space. Researchers say they could even survive an asteroid impact like the one that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.