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Explore Vietnam’s Son Doong Cave, the largest known cave in the world
Son Doong Cave, or “mountain river cave,” is the largest known cave in the world. It’s located in the Quang Binh Province of Vietnam as part of the UNESCO-listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park near the border of China. The incredible scale of Son Doong Cave Five miles long, the gargantuan cave stands 660 feet
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Puya Raimondii, the flower spike that’s “Queen of the Andes”
Puya Raimondii is a bromeliad species (flowering plant) native to Bolivia and Peru. That’s the same family as pineapples, which the inflorescences (a collection of flowers arranged on a stem) resemble in full bloom. The so-called “Queen of the Andes” stands up to 50 feet high, with a trunk stretching to heights of 16 feet
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The stealthy ghost crab
The ghost crab is about as big as your hand but as fast as lightning. The eight-legged little creature moves across sandy beaches at 100 body lengths per second, up to 10 miles per hour. That’s blazing-fast compared to the size of a human and a cheetah, who achieve speeds of 11 and 20 body
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The Potoo bird may be the scariest bird you’ve ever seen
The Potoo bird, or Ghost bird from Central and South America, gives off a startling expression. The strange-looking bird possesses a hooked snake-like bill with a massive gape the animal uses to swallow moths and other insects. But even more freaky are their yellow googly eyes that glow up at night. Potoo birds control pupil
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The famous Zlatni Rat beach on Bol Brac Island, Croatia
Zlatini Rat, or Golden Cape, is one of Croatia’s most unique and popular beach destinations. It’s not hard to see why. The magnificent horn-shaped beach resides on the southern coast of the Croatian island of Brac, outside the resort town of Bol. The 1700-foot white-pebble beach formed by the collision of two currents also runs
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Asperitas clouds form rippling waves in the sky
There are all types of stunning clouds — Lenticular, Mammatas — to name a couple. But the asperitas clouds take center stage. These clouds, which are dark and storm-like, look like Van Gogh painted waves in the sky. Asperitas clouds form in the wake of thunderstorms like Mammatus clouds, yet unlike the latter, asperitas clouds
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The satanic leaf-tailed gecko wears nature in disguise
The satanic leaf-tailed gecko (uroplatus phantasticusis) wears many disguises. It has superior camouflage — special skin that evolved to look like plants — and can also scare away predators by opening its bright red mouth and hiss like a cat. These geckos can even shed their tail to deceive predators and lick their corneas to
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The Patagonian mara is a strange and speedy rodent
The Patagonian mara of Argentina may be one of the most appealing animals on the planet. The world’s fourth largest rodent looks like a mashup of a small deer with the long ears and short tail of a rabbit. Along with being a large rodent — they can grow up to 2.5 feet long —
