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As the year draw to a close , here ’s a feel back at some of the weird brute discovery of 2011 . From transvestic skirt to zombie caterpillar and our own set of animate being superheroes , it ’s been a wacky drive .

1 . A - Flock - Alypse ?

The fisherman who caught the shark is keeping his specimen. [Read full story]

This year jump with a belt as score of raspberry fell from the skies in January . The " aflockalypse " as it became called , hearken back for many to their first time watching Alfred Hitchcock ’s psychological thriller " The Birds , " but expert gibe that the birds ' and fish ’s mass deaths were just coincidental .

It started with the deep deaths ofthousands of blackbirdsin Arkansas and Louisiana around New Years ' eve ; this was follow by several paper of dead fish washing ashore and many more " massive " animate being die - offs . In the conclusion , the bang with which it all started was probably pyrotechnic , which ab initio killed the Turdus merula . Researchers agree the estimable account so far is the pyrotechnic ' noise and lights may have affright or disoriented the bird , cause them to fatally injure themselves flying into buildings , weewee pillar and trees . The all-encompassing getaway of the original blackbird floor probably prepare off the media attention afterwards stories received , but these kind of die - offs are normal , researchers and ecologists say .

2 . Zombie Ants

The yr was a cock-a-hoop one for zombie insects . Reports of mind - controlled ants and caterpillars were enough to fawn out even the least squeamish .

In May , in the journal BMC Ecology , researcher David Hughes from Pennsylvania State University report that a parasitic fungusinfects forest ants to fulfill its dictation . The fungus fills the pismire ’s foreland with fungal cells and changes its muscles so the pismire can grab a folio in a death clench just when and where the fungus want it — specifically , the zombie ants all bite down around high noon , then all die together around sunset , like some eldritch fungus - addled ant cult . The fungus then bursts out of the ants ' heads and spreads its spores to its next unwitting dupe .

Another report in September found the genetic perpetrator thatsends caterpillars to the treetops , where they liquidise and rain infectious decease down on their peers . The computer virus that zombifies these gypsy moth caterpillars also build sure they grow as large as possible so they spread infective viruses far and wide , said study researcher Kelli Hoover , of Pennsylvania State University . They also send the Caterpillar creep up trees in the eye of the daytime , when they are most vulnerable to bird attacks .

3 . The computer mouse with two pappa

In a kookie feat of genetical engineering and a shank - cell switcheroo , researcher created the first mouse baby from the genes of two manlike mice — a mouse that literally has two pa . The mousey Dr. Frankensteins , from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston , turned cellular phone from Dad No . 1 into X - only stem turn cells , which they injected into an orchis to make a distaff mouse , which was then feed by sperm from Dad No . 2 .

The field of study , published in the journal Biology of Reproduction , is the first pace to make human children from two men , though that is a long agency forth . This beggarly exploit of genetic engineering science was also dub by LiveScience reporter Stephanie Pappas as " scientific progress at its cutest " whenshe fit the computer mouse in someone .

4 . animate being with superhero gage

Scientists are n’t the only 1 grow miraculous tricks this class . Mother Nature has a few up her arm as well . Animal first-rate sentience turned up in mahimahi and lamia bats in 2011 , and even one possible 6th common sense in humans made an appearance .

research worker at Rostock University in Germany discovered that the common Guiana dolphin has a special sixth good sense : It cansense galvanizing fieldswith a special electric organ on its snout . While the power is common in fish , the dolphins are the first placental mammalian ( as opposed to a marsupial mammal ) determine to smell out electricity , which they in all probability use to find fish in the shoal , murky waters they call domicile .

In other odd brute senses , researchers key in August that thevampire cricket bat can " see " heatfrom veins and arteries using a particular organ on its nose that is incredibly sensitive to heat . The bat uses this organ to ascertain stemma meals and to bite the good part of the pelt : A mouthful of hair is unappetizing to these little bloodthirsty critter .

A possible extra human sense also made an appearance this yr . A human protein , when expressed in fruit flies , has theability to detect charismatic fields . The investigator caution that the protein might not work out that way in humans , though . gloomy , Magneto wannabees .

5 . unusual sperm

It may not be super , but unknown spermatozoan abounds in the animal land .

survey in naked mole rat sperm show that these weird little creatures alsohave uncanny minuscule sperm . In any other animals their sperm samples would n’t pass lineament ascendancy , but these eusocial hole-and-corner rodents make do just fine with their mutant sperm , a study published in the December issue of the daybook BMC Evolutionary Biology shows .

Ducks also have especial spermatozoon properties , another 2011 report show . Their spermatozoon contain antibiotics that might protect them and their mates from sexually transmit infection . The brighter their invoice is , the better their sperm is at killing off bacterial invader , suggests the study published in April in the daybook Biology Letters .

6 . More unknown sex

Sperm was n’t the only weird animal - sex finding of 2011 . Multiple studies found everything from hermaphroditic bulldog to sexually disoriented fish and birds .

The bulldog Bijou is genetically distaff , but has somephysical properties of a male click , including a prostate gland gland and testicles . research worker are stumped as to why this pup , and another English bulldog , Tana , had these manly characteristics without manlike cistron .

Other ambiguously arouse animals are also stomp researchers this year : A redbird with half - male , half - female coloring seems to be a genetic anomalousness , with half - female and half - male cells . Several sexual urge - changing birds also made the news in 2011 , including a female chicken that transformed into a cock in the United Kingdom over a few weeks time . Researchers reckon that a tumour or cyst may have caused the switch .

Some birds of prey don distaff feather , but do n’t in reality change grammatical gender . Thesetransvestite marsh harriersuse such sexual apery to fool other males into leaving them alone , researchers reported this twelvemonth .

7 . Cyclops shark

foreign sexuality - change fauna were n’t the only weirdoes nature threw at us this year . A Photoshop - quality icon of afetal shark with one eyestunned researchers and cybergawkers likewise when it made the news in October . The one - eyed fetus was cut from the belly of a shark in the Gulf of California , but would not in all probability have survived out of doors of the uterus .

" This is extremely rare , " shark expert Felipe Galvan Magana of Mexico ’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar told the Pisces Fleet Sportfishing blog in July . " As far as I know , less than 50 model of an abnormalcy like this have been memorialise . " [ Photos of Cyclops Shark ]

Other , less scientifically based account ofYeti nest sightingsand hair samples from Russia splashed the news this year . And scientists reported finding the lair of a ' Kraken ' sea behemoth , though the interpretation of the determination has not been substantiated .

8 . Fishy intimate molestation

Several advancements in the field of study of fishy sexual torment made the news this year , point thatTrinidadianguppies seem to have more chatty play and sexual tension than an episode of " Sex in the City . "

A study published in October showed that when a harassing male chases down female guppy , they are more potential to get infights with other female . The sexually blame male person punctuate these females out so much they end up turning on each other , the researchers said .

Another written report render that these same guppy , when harassed , copulate up with prettier female , whose front draws tending away from themselves .

9 . Animals with protective poison

Scientists have long empathize that plants practice poisonous substance to guard themselves , but traditionally beast are intend to defend themselves with weapons like piercing teeth and pincer . In 2011 , a number of creature were discovered to wield poison of their own .

By employ the same plant that African tribesman use to envenom their arrows , the furred fury known as the African crested blabber can incapacitate and even kill predatory animal many times its size of it , research published in August found . The rat chews toxicant barque and spits the poison onto its furt coat , which has particularise hair with pores to absorb the fauna ’s poisonous spit , which protects them against vulture like dog-iron .

Another odd animal poisonous substance discovered in 2011 is thecyanide - sweating millipedediscovered in September . When disturb , the bugs let loose a toxic cyanide goop and foul - savor chemicals that discourage predator looking for a snack . Luckily for its predators this odd louse also has a nighttime glow to warn predator of its vicious secretions

10 . The loudest genitals

One loud little worm makes a big call , from an unorthodox organ . Research published in July indicate that by using its genitals , the water waterman makes theloudest Sung for its size : At less than one - ten percent of an inch ( 2.3 millimeters ) long , it calls out to mates at over 99 dB , as tatty as an orchestra . The left insect ’s birdcall from the depths of a river can even be get a line along its banks , the researchers say , and is likely created when the animal rubs its private parts against ridges on its consistency , though the scientists are n’t sure how the sound stupefy so forte .