![]() ![]() Real-Life Animal: Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) The result? Pulses of spray that fire out between 300 and a thousand times per second. Bombardier beetles’ outbursts pulse rapidly instead of going all at once. In fact, bombardier beetles have a skill that even blast-ended skrewts don’t seem to have: rapid-fire. ( Find out more about how the bombardier beetle generates these explosions.) When threatened, the beetle can produce a noxious spray that can reach temperatures of 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) and can fly at predators at up to 22 miles an hour (10 meters per second). The non-wizarding world has a creature capable of similar pyrotechnics: the bombardier beetle. In the Harry Potter novels, the blast-ended skrewt is the product of a breeding experiment gone wrong-a crablike creature that smells of rotten fish and can explosively blast its enemies. Size: Up to one inch (2.5 centimeters) long ![]() Real-Life Animal: Bombardier beetles (Subfamily: Brachininae) What’s more, early legends of the basilisk may have been inspired by cobras. In a sense, basilisks actually exist: The reptile family Corytophanidae consists of iguana-like lizards called basilisks, including the Jesus Christ lizard ( Basilicus basilicus), which can run for short spurts across water. Real-Life Animal: Titanoboa cerrejonensisįor centuries, the basilisk has slithered through European myth, a massive serpent with a crown-shaped crest and a reputedly lethal stare. No tarantula living or dead has gotten as big as the fictional acromantula, however, which reportedly has a leg span of 15 feet (4.6 meters). That honor arguably goes to South America's Goliath birdeater ( Theraphosa blondi), which can get up to 11 inches (28 centimeters) wide-and can prey on small birds, although it mostly eats arthropods. And it has a special defense mechanism to keep predators from considering it as a meal.īut neither of these carnivorous spiders is the biggest living tarantula. With a leg span nearly a foot wide, the Goliath birdeater is the world's biggest spider. And like Aragog, the acromantula most featured in the Harry Potter books and films, Australian tarantulas can "talk” by rubbing together their chelicerae, or fang-tipped jaws, to create a hissing sound. There really is a large black-haired spider native to the Sangihe Islands, east of Borneo: Lampropelma nigerrium, a tarantula first scientifically described in 1892. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Scamander describes acromantulas as large black-haired spiders native to Borneo. The similarities between fact and fiction are striking. ![]() In the wizarding world, acromantulas are enormous spiders-bearing a real-life resemblance to tarantulas, a group of spiders comprising more than 850 species. IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern to Critically Endangered Size: 4.75 inches (12 centimeters) long up to 11-inch (28-centimeter) leg span Real-Life Animal: Tarantulas (Family: Theraphosidae) The creatures in Scamander’s magical suitcase-and Rowling’s imagination-may be awe-inspiring, but the real world offers up creatures that are just as amazing.įrom ancient snakes more than 40 feet long to explosive beetles, here are a few examples of what nature has to offer. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, a wizard named Newt Scamander has traveled the world, studying and collecting magical creatures of all shapes, sizes, and descriptions-and then has to deal with the chaos of their escape from captivity. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the latest film based on J.K. The wizarding world’s premier expert on animal life hits the big screen in North America on November 18-with a menagerie of fantastical creatures in tow. ![]()
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