Pilobolus grows on cow dung. Its tiny fluid-filled stalk builds up pressure, then bursts, launching its spore capsule up to 2.5 meters with an acceleration of about 20,000 times gravity. It even aims: a light-sensitive, lens-like swelling points the shot toward the light. The spores land on grass, get eaten by grazers, and the cycle restarts in fresh dung.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.