15 Real, Proven Facts That Are So Unbelievable, They Kinda Sound Like Bullsh*t

Today I learned people way back when could not stop eating giant tortoises, and I have some questions about that, personally.

Recently, Redditor u/kinein_myrrhine asked, "What is a real, proven fact that sounds like impossible fantasy bullshit?" As an enjoyer of any kind of fun fact, I took it upon myself to sift through some of the best facts in this thread, fact-check them, and share them with you all! So, without further ado, here are 15 facts so unbelievable, they seem false, but are 100% true:

Note: responses have also been pulled from these similar threads.

1. "Babies have more bones than adults. A lot more."

Stockdevil / Getty Images

—u/SandSurfSubpoena

Babies are born with about 300 bones, whereas adults have 206 bones. As babies get older, some of their bones begin to fuse together. For instance, babies tend to have soft spots on their heads, which feel a lot different than the hard heads we adults have. Well, as babies age, those soft spots "close up" as the bones in their head fuse, giving them the skulls we have as adults. You can read more about the process here.

2. "There's a jellyfish that doesn't have an anus! Whenever too much waste product builds up in its body, it simply makes a hole somewhere on its body, discharges the waste, and then the hole closes back up again."

Katie Dobies / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—u/lonely_nipple

This is the warty comb jelly, the only creature we know of that does this. When it has to go, part of its gut fuses with the outer layer of its "skin," which creates a hole that is then immediately sealed back up. Adult warty comb jellyfish do this about once an hour.

3. "The US military has lost several nuclear weapons and not all of them have been recovered."

Fpg / Getty Images

—u/umdche

According to the BBC, the US has lost — and never found — at least three nuclear bombs. There have been at least 32 known instances where the US accidentally lost, launched, set off, or had a nuclear weapon stolen. These are called "Broken Arrows." You can read more about the lost bombs here.

4. "It took a long time for the Giant Tortoise to be scientifically recognized because to be catalogued, a sample had to reach London. Turtles turn out to be really, really good to eat."

Stuart Westmorland / Getty Images

—u/Conscious-Ball8373

The Galápagos Tortoise's discovery can be traced to Spanish sailors as far back as 1535. However, they proved to be really convenient meals for long ship voyages, as the tortoises could live on ships until they were needed, were large enough to feed many, and — above all — were apparently really delicious. William Dampier — a 17th-century pirate — said of them, "The land-turtles are so numerous that five or six hundred men might subsist on them alone for several months, without any other sort of provision. They are extraordinarily large, fat, and so sweet that no pullet eats more pleasantly."

Centuries later, in 1835, Darwin would go on to develop his theory of natural selection inspired by the Galapagos and the several different species of giant tortoises amongst the islands, though he and his crew, too, ate some of the tortoises that would prove to be essential evidence.  

5. "That butterflies retain memories from their larval (caterpillar) form. So while it is all goo in the pupa form, something is keeping some memories intact."

Catchlights_sg / Getty Images

—u/Lokan

Scientists discovered this through a study where they trained caterpillars to avoid certain smells by giving them a mild shock when near them. The moths that the caterpillars turned into knew to avoid the odors, suggesting that they retained the memory through their metamorphosis, despite their brain and nervous system being dramatically reorganized during the process. You can read more about it here.

6. "The first English scientists to receive a preserved platypus were so absolutely 100% convinced it was a hoax that he nearly took the specimen apart trying to find evidence that it had been assembled from multiple different animals."

Anna Calvert / Getty Images/500px

—u/SoldMySoulForHairDye

It's true! In 1799, zoologist George Shaw — the first to publish a description of a platypus — said of the animal, "It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means..."

7. "The Children's Crusade was a Holy Crusade made up nearly entirely of children. Their goal was to siege and take the Holy Lands for the Catholics, fixing their fathers' and brothers' perceived failures and taking the city. Most of them died before getting anywhere out of Europe."

Hulton Archive / Getty Images

—u/Upright_Eeyore

The Children’s Crusade of 1212, led by 12-year-old Stephen of Cloyes, was approved by neither King Philip nor the Pope, but that didn't stop Stephen and his army of children (which, according to legend, was as large as 30,000 people). Another similar group of child crusaders formed in Germany, led by Nicholas of Cologne. They supposedly carried crosses and banners instead of weapons and optimistically believed they could convert people through their words and divine intervention. As OP mentioned, the Crusaders hit a wall, so to speak, around the time they made it to Genoa, Italy, as many grew tired, hungry, and did not speak the language. The groups fell apart when they hit the coastal cities, where they were supposed to wait for boats to the Holy Land. You can read about them more in-depth here.

8. "If there are 23 people in a room, the probability that two people have the same birthday is over 50%."

Ezra Bailey / Getty Images

—u/MrLevi123

This is called the birthday paradox. It involves a bit of math, so bear with me here. If every single person compares their birthday with each of the 22 other people in the room on a 1-on-1 basis, there are 253 possible combinations of people. In general, any two people have about a 99.7% chance of not having the same birthday. To calculate the likelihood of no birthday matches in that group overall, you'd multiply that percentage by itself (99.7% x 99.7%) 253 times (aka the number of possible combos), which ends up being 49.95%. If there's a 49.95% chance of them not having the same birthday, that means there's about a 50% chance of them having the same birthday! You can take a closer look at the math yourself here.

9. "Previously fish-free lakes and ponds can be populated by fish thanks to migrating ducks. When ducks eat fish eggs, some of them can pass through the digestive system unharmed and hatch in new waterways."

Westend61 / Getty Images/Westend61

—u/sola_clamoris

10. "The release of all of the original Star Wars trilogy is closer in time to WWII than the present day."

20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising / Everett Collection / Archive Holdings Inc. / Getty Images

—u/karma_dumpster

The first film in the original Star Wars trilogy came out in 1977. WWII ended in 1945, which means they are 32 years between them. If you want to take this to extremes, though, the final film in the trilogy — Return of the Jedi — came out in 1983, which is 38 years after WWII ended. It's 2024 at the time of my writing this article, which means there are 47 years between the first film of the trilogy and now and 41 years between Return of the Jedi and today. So, yeah, the math is mathing!

11. "I remember reading that if you look at pictures of sick people, your immune system will automatically give itself a little boost just by looking at the pictures."

Raquel Arocena Torres / Getty Images

—u/earic23

According to National Geographic, Mark Schaller from the University of British Columbia did a small study looking into this. What he found was that people who looked at pictures of people sick or sneezing "had a stronger immune response to later infections" than people who hadn't looked at such photos. The logic behind this is that, much like an emotional reaction you might have to an image like that of feeling gross or unclean, your brain and immune system also react. Subconsciously, you might be on high alert now thinking about it, and avoid coming into contact with a possible contaminant. This is a behavioral reaction. He also suggests our immune systems may react to these images as well, and give us a boost in anticipation of illness or potential threats. You can read about this more in-depth here. 

12. "There are more bones in gummy worms than real worms."

Kathydewar / Getty Images

—u/PandaAnt17

A common ingredient in gummy worms (unless specified to be vegan) is gelatin. Gelatin is made from animal bones, skin, and cartilage, which are processed for their collagen. Real worms have no bones, as they are invertebrates and actually have a hydrostatic skeleton. So, it looks like gummy worms really do have more "bones" than real worms do!

13. "Animals can see completely different colors than us. Pretty wild when you think about it."

Nico_blue / Getty Images

—u/Inovox

Many animals can see colors that we as humans cannot. For instance, birds, reptiles, honeybees, and some bony fish have the ability to see ultraviolet light, which is outside our range of "visible light." Though humans and bees can both be looking at the same flower, for example, we're seeing them in different ways and colors. On the flip side, some animals, like dogs and cats, see fewer colors than we do and see them more weakly. 

14. "There is a jellyfish that is 'immortal.' It returns back to pupa state and then again grows and repeats the cycle!"

D3_plus D.naruse @ Japan / Getty Images

—u/AkkadBakkadBambeBo80

Turritopsis dohrnii, aka the Immortal Jellyfish, can transform back into a polyp (the "child" phase of a jellyfish's life cycle) when they're physically damaged or starving. Essentially, the jellyfish "shrinks in on itself" and reabsorbs its tentacles, becoming a blob that soon transforms into a new polyp. From that, it matures and the new "medusae" buds off of it. The process is called transdifferentiation. You can read more about it here.

15. And finally, "That sharks are older than the rings of Saturn."

Gerard Soury / Getty Images / HO/AFP via Getty Images

—u/CaBBaGe_isLaND

Saturn's rings are estimated to be no more than 400 million years old. Comparatively, sharks date back to the Late Ordovician Period, or about 450 million years ago.

Do you know a fun fact like these? If so, tell us about it in the comments below!

Note: Reddit submissions have been edited for length, clarity, and correctness.