The internet is a wonderful place. Sure, it has a few rotten folks trying to spread their toxicity, but a big part of it is also made up of helpful and kind-hearted individuals who are more than willing to share their knowledge and expertise.
This is especially true in communities like 'What Is This?', where amateur and experienced sleuths come together to identify the things that people ask them to, no matter how small or big.
One of the most interesting aspects of this subreddit is the variety of mysteries that are posted. From bizarre objects found in the backyard to even stranger creatures spotted in the wild, it has a little bit of everything.
So continue scrolling to check out some of the most interesting cases that these folks have solved. I promise, you will definitely learn a thing or two.
#21 Saw This On A Tree While Hiking Today. Not On Any Other Trees In The Area. What Is This?
Answer: It's a burl! Woodworkers pay lots of cash for these cuz the inside grain structure is cool.
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408points
#22 Found This In My Grandparents Kitchen. What Is This? I Can Only Think It’s An Ancient Male Torture Device
Answer: Egg shell cutter. For soft boiled eggs. A "Topper"
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402points
#23 What Kind Of Lizard Is This? It Refuses To Leave My Hand And I’m Not Sure How To Help It (I Live In Central Florida)
Answer: Caribbean House Gecko. Very common in Florida. They’re nocturnal, so if it’s out during the day then it’s probably stressed. Just put him somewhere dark and warm for now.
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397points
#24 My Dad Shows This Thing To Everyone Who Comes To The House To Try And Find Out What It Is, It’s Gone So Far That He’s Actually Built A Shelf Just For It. Help
Answer: That’s a coconut cutter/shredder. You sit on it and pound coconuts against it
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378points
#25 What Is This Thing That Showed Up In My Yard?
Answer: It's a stinkhorn. The tip smells like rotten meat to attach flies and spread the spores. It's hollow. Don't let your dog need it. My dog ate on. Took him to the vet. Dr. Said my dog was tripping off the mushroom. He was fine after a day of observation.
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371points
#26 This Was Found In A Pillowcase In A Stairwell Of The Hotel My Boyfriend Works At
Answer: For making counterfeit credit cards.
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367points
#27 Found In Hotel Room
Answer: Morse code. "PLEASED TO MEET YOU HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME" [repeated 4 times]
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360points
#28 A Strange Creature In South Wales, UK
Answer: elephant hawk moth caterpillar
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360points
#29 Help! Was Given A Present And Didn’t Want To Ask What It Was!
Answer: It's a bookmark
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358points
#30 This Came Out Of My Apple Juice Bottle This Morning During Break At Work ??
Answer: It’s a SCOBY. A Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeasts. It’s not harmful but will make your juice taste sour. SCOBYs are used to make Kombucha. They feed off sugar, natural or otherwise. In this case the sugar in the juice. They excrete lactic and acetic acid, which have a sour taste
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355points
#31 My Muslim Neighbors Surprised Me & Brought Me This Food. Has Rice, Some Kind Of Milk, Walnuts On Top, & I Can Taste Lemongrass
Answer: It's called Kheer. Normally eaten warm, but personally, I prefer it cold.
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352points
#32 Cleaning Out My Grandma’s House To Sell And Found This. What The Heck Is It?
Answer: It's a flour duster. You use it to sprinkle flour across your work surface. You can use it to dust powdered sugar over cookies & what-not, too
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347points
#33 This Is Growing In My Crawlspace.... Sos
Answer: Orange bleeding tooth fungus
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345points
#34 What Is This Border Between The Pacific And Philippine Sea? Why Is It Not Just A Straight Line?
Answer: It's an international date line. It looks like this because it makes an exception around the Line Islands. The Line Islands have about 8,000-ish people on them, and this way, they're on the same 'day' as Kiribati, the nation they are part of. Due to time zones, it's the same 'Time' in the Line islands as Hawaii, but in the Line Islands, it's the next day.
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337points
#35 Why Did They Do This To These Trees?
Answer: Its because they sprayed the trees with an insecticide that was intended to kill aphids, which were dropping a sap onto cars parked underneath the trees. It unintentionally killed thousands of bees so they wrapped a netting over the trees to prevent more from landing in and on the trees.
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336points
#37 What Is This Oddly Terrifying Creature?
Answer: Sand dollar.
A sand dollar is a kind of echinoderm. This is the same animal phylum as starfish. The moving bits on the bottom are the tube-feet, similar to those of a starfish.
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323points
#38 4 Legged Fish - Freshwater Arid West/US
Answer: It’s a Western Tiger Salamander!
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320points
#39 What Is This Thing On My Airbnb Oven?
Answer: It’s for adding water in case you want to steam your food in addition to normal baking
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315points
#40 What Is This? It Flashes Every Time An Ambulance Speeds By. They Are All Over My City
Answer: It picks up a strobe light on emergency vehicles and then will flash to let them know that their light is green and all other directions are red. E: to clarify the strobe is IR and at a specific frequency and flashing the high beams won’t work. If you are caught with an MIRT you are likely to face very serious (felony) consequences.
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315points