What’s good, y’all! It’s Alexi G, AKA David AttenBruh ( @Alhendiify) here to talk with y’all about some of the absolutely wild animal adaptations that make a guest appearance in Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman’s PROJECT POWER.

Y’all ready for a thread? (Spoilers ahead)

Let’s go!

Preface: It’s impossible to explore every hair raising aspect of these adaptations in this thread so get in these comments with questions and all of us in #ScienceTwitter–who could frankly use a break–will come thru with knowledge that’ll have you sayin...

The first two powers we got on deck are ~`*whew*`~

We got Reptile Mods on full AND the camouflage of the mimic octopus

Since I’m a reptile guy let’s start with them, shall we?

My man JGL reveals some powerful scales. IRL reptiles have scales made of keratin. Crocodilians have an especially powerful bone layer under the scale known as the osteoderm. This is a nearly impenetrable armor, resilient to almost any animal’s bite. Almost.

As many of us know, some lizards even have the ability to yeet their tail. This is called autotomy, where the limb self-severs. I wish I could go into all of the costs and benefits to this method of defense

leaving it at this

UR FAVORITE BIRD COULD NEVER
FISH CAN ONLY WISH

Now let’s move on to the naked man in the room

The first time “invisibility” shows up, this guy is running the streets with his toes all the way out. As he runs, the background moves across his skin. This is derived from the mimic octopus’ special adaptation

The IRL Mim-Oc (and it’s cousin, the Wonderpus) have the unrivalled ability to mimic a number of features and creatures. They’ve been seen imitating lion fish, sea snakes, toxic flatfish, jellies, mantis shrimp, etc.

They reign supreme

Let’s talk about HOW:

Squid and octopi have chromatophores, iridiphores, leucophores, bumpy skin, and the ability to contort their body in ways few other animals can

Chromatophores can expand making red, yellow, or brown pigment visible for an instant color change

Iridiphores and leucophores can produce iridescence, blues, greens, white, & hide their shape by scattering light

And the bumpiness of the skin? Baby, that’s just t e x t u r e

MOVING ON: to the Wolverine frog
This appears in the movie as a man raises bone blades (new band name, called it) out of his skin as he prepares to throw hands. The wolv frog doesn’t extend bones out, but snaps their finger bones to produce claws. #HorrifyingHerps

PC: Blackburn

Let’s give #birdtwitter their time in the light and talk about superb owl night vision. Their night vision is among the best. Many of us like to say owls could read a book at 100 meters under candle light.

Part of what makes this possible are their massive eyeballs. They’re huge and bring a lot of light in, but they leave little room for a brain or even eye muscles. This is partially why owls can rotate their head 270 degrees; it makes up for their big stationary eyeballs

The final power is one that’s HOT

The pistol shrimp.

Man lemme tell you: these crustaceans don’t play. The pistol shrimp can slam its claw shut shooting water at 150 ft/sec. That is so fast that it produces heat around ~5000 Kelvin... like the surface of Sol, our sun.

Project Power is a magic realism menagerie and is a super fun watch. After you watch it be sure to shoot off questions, or thoughts to #sciencetwitter so all of us nerds can jump in your mentions and share what we love about nature.

EAT UP, Y’ALL