6 remarkable inventions that already exist in nature

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

From the wheel to the rocket, humans have invented a marvelous lot.

But it might surprise you to learn that many of our inventions are not original or unique. Many of them already exist in nature. And sometimes, these natural versions are even more sophisticated than the human-made ones.

Here some examples that show how incredibly advanced nature is:

Velcro — inspired by the burdock plant

Swiss engineer George de Mestral observed the burrs from the burdock plant that latched on to his pants (and his dog) after a hunting trip. He found that the seeds' tiny hooks allowed them to stick to things with loops, like the cotton fibers of pants. It took Mestral over a decade of experimentation to replicate it perfectly into what he called the "zipperless-zipper" and is today known as Velcro.

Source: Today I Found Out

SONAR — dolphins do it too

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 prompted researchers to try and develop technology to detect objects in water. In 1915, French physicist Paul Langevin invented a system designed to utilize sound waves and their echoes to locate objects underwater; today we know it as SONAR. While this technology is fairly new for humans, some animals have always used echolocation to navigate, hunt, and forage. Bats and dolphins, for example, emit sounds and listen to the echoes to detect and locate objects around them.

Suction cups

Suction cups are magical tools that can be used to attach or tightly grip flat surfaces. Using principles of vacuum and pressure, these objects can be used to stick objects to walls or even scale tall buildings. The first human patents for an version of suction cups were filed during the 1860s. However, octopus suckers are a much more advanced version of the human-made kind, with tiny concentric grooves on the edges of every sucker allowing the animal to grasp uneven surfaces even underwater.

Source: Scientific American