There are certain scientific facts that, regardless of how true they are, would make you sound like you were nuts if you said them out loud.
One of our favorites is that sharks existed long before trees. Sharks have been around for over 450 million years whereas the first trees appeared between 350 and 420 million years ago. Not that they play a huge part in sharks' lives even today, of course. Sharks are not big climbers.
Another favorite is [shouting in streets] DINOSAURS LIVED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GALAXY and [catching the eye of somebody in Wendy's] FOR 15 YEARS SWEDEN THOUGHT ENEMY SUBMARINES WERE INVADING ITS TERRITORY BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE HERRING FARTS.
Thirsty for more, we asked our audience if they had other similar facts that you probably shouldn't shout in the street for fear of sounding unhinged, and boy, did you all deliver. OK, even shouting normal facts in the streets would get you a few stares, but try shouting some of these at strangers (you probably shouldn't) and see how that they react (again, please don't actually do this except in your heads).
Here are some of our favorites. We'll jump in if anything needs further elaboration.
This is correct. In fact, by the time the last of the woolly fellas died the Great Pyramid of Giza was a thousand years old.
Again, all true (take a look for yourself here) and not something you want to shout in the streets. It's the only animal in the world to poop cubes. No, they do not have a square anus. The shape is the result of a long and slow digestive process, during which the poop dries out and is shaped by their large horizontal ridges in their intestines. It's not reshaped by their anus because of how dry the poop cubes are by the time they pop out like dice.
This is true given that some people have fewer than two arms, and only assuming that you use the mean (rather than the median or mode) and are a gigantic pedant.
Yep, astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are actually constantly falling at the planet, but (like in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) they constantly miss, giving them a microgravity environment: the appearance of weightlessness.
Spooky.
Good news fungus fans, this is also true. It occupies almost 965 hectares (2,400 acres) of soil, and covers an area around the size of 1,665 football fields.
We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did. If you need more, you can find plenty on our Facebook page here or Twitter here.