The deepest fish ever filmed, a snailfish, was swimming at 8,336 m in 2022, yet ocean trenches plunge to nearly 11,000 m. The reason is chemical: to resist crushing pressure, fish load their cells with a protective molecule called TMAO. Beyond roughly 8,200 to 8,400 m, they would need so much of it that seawater would start flooding their cells by osmosis.
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.