The tiny shrew with a spine strong enough to hold a grown man
A grown man can stand on this animal and it walks away unharmed.
Which one is REALLY true about the Hero Shrew?
The short version
The hero shrew has four times as many vertebrae as a human, interlocking with dense finger-like projections that grip from every direction. The spine is about 4% of its body weight, and reports describe a full-grown man standing on one with the shrew walking off afterwards.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Hero Shrew carries about four times as many vertebrae in its backbone as a human being does.
- ✓The Hero Shrew has vertebrae that interlock with dense finger-like projections, gripping each other from every direction.
- ✓The Hero Shrew has been reported to survive a full-grown man standing on it, then simply walk off afterwards.
- ✓The Hero Shrew packs a spine that makes up around four percent of its entire body weight.
- ✓The Hero Shrew is thought to use that spine to wedge into palm trunks and pry them apart to reach the insects inside.
You could line up about 9 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
You could stand on this animal, and it would walk away unharmed. Meet the hero shrew, a small mammal from Central Africa with the strangest spine of anything alive. Its backbone carries four times as many vertebrae as yours, and they interlock with dense finger-like projections that grip each other from every direction. The result is a spine so strong that people have reported a full-grown man standing on one, and the shrew simply walking off afterwards. That whole structure makes up about four percent of its entire body weight. And nobody is completely sure why. The leading idea is that it lets the shrew wedge into palm trunks and pry them apart to reach the insects inside. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Hero Shrew carries about four times as many vertebrae in its backbone as a human being does.”
“The Hero Shrew eats mostly leaves and ferments them with bacteria in a huge crop, just like a cow does.”
“The Hero Shrew has vertebrae that interlock with dense finger-like projections, gripping each other from every direction.”