Weird Animals

per wikipedia:
Guitarfish have a body form kinda like those of sharks and rays, which is pretty freakin' awesome.

Neat! Surely those eyebrows are gills? I kind of thought it was a craft project, actually, and that the eyebrows were zippers.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/bloghoax/guitarfish.jpg

those eyebrows give me the same uneasy feeling as the surinam toad's hole filled back

― no Atlantis is too underwater or fictional (dyao), Monday, July 5, 2010 12:11 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://divegallery.com/leafy_sea_dragon4.jpg

phycodurus eques

Weirdest animals of 2010:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/photogalleries/101207-top-ten-weird-new-animals-2010/#/t-rex-leech-face_18988_600x450.jpg

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/271/cache/papua-new-guinea-new-species-bat_27185_600x450.jpg

Hi dere. I am a YODA BAT.

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/239/cache/newfoundland-deep-sea-species-octopus_23992_600x450.jpg

CUTEST OCTOPUS

Dumbo Octopus would have words with you.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/22/science/22deep_slide01.jpg

Yoda Bats mum yesterday...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/photos/stylus/72619-neverending_story_490x200.jpg

Baby dragon:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5-OO39wxkkc/TWKEmjOO6tI/AAAAAAAAAx8/XGy-GwKxR6I/s400/aardvarkbaby.jpg

Seven-sexed creature:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/files/2011/03/sevensexesorganism1.jpg

Meet Tetrahymena thermophila, which in addition to its seven different sexes—conveniently named I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII—has such a complex sex life that it requires an extra nucleus. This fuzzy, single-celled critter has a larger macronucleus that takes care of most cellular functions and a smaller micronucleus dedicated to genetic conjugation.

& sexed = worst date ever.

7 not &

Eight-wheel amirite.

errr, "Eighth."

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/52392000/jpg/_52392786_c0089246-spl.jpg

see here tom
The 100 Most Fascinatingly Disgusting Members Of The Animal Kindom

Oops! Tho I think he's kinda cute, not disgusting at all

How about a frog that can turn itself into a heart?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/scienceray/2008/07/01/201653_26.jpg

HYPNOTOAD LIVES.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/hypnotoad2.jpg

BIONIC TURTLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ErWsA5guU&feature=player_embedded

I mean tortoise, I know the difference.

The upside is you live a ridiculously long and healthy life, can’t develop cancer, feel very little pain, never get lonely and have great skin right to the end.

The downside is you breathe stinky air, rarely go outside, tend to get cold, don’t see well, live in a monarchy and can’t count on having sex. (Also, you’re a naked mole rat.)

NOT JUST A PHALLUS DENTATUM ANYMORE.

(Did I get the Latin right?)

omg @ phallus dentatum

vagina dentata v. phallus dentatum

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/01/05/why-is-the-new-deep-sea-antarctic-octopus-so-pale/

it's great to be back, leee!

(belated lol looks like we both read Ed Yong's blog).

<a href=https://plus.google.com/photos/108851026326071355993/albums/5694712457955114465/5694712462177328802>;Okinawan Ribbon Eel</a>.

D'oh.

And now for the fish that lives in a sea cucumber's butt:

Not content with simply living in unmentionables, the pearlfish has evolved its own anus to become as close as possible to its head. It may seem rather silly to have all that goings on near to where you dine, but it means that the pearl fish only has to poke the front half of his body out of the sea cucumbers bits to get rid of his business. Of course it must have taken some time for this unwanted house guest to evolve a bum hole up to where his tie should be, which can only mean one thing. The pearl fish has been living in sea cucumbers bottoms for quite a while, which can’t be any comfort to the sea cucumber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2DrbhOA-M&t=05m55s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2DrbhOA-M

'It's a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach.'

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58229000/jpg/_58229764_p1010514.jpg

giant isopod earlier, bigger, scarier

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Giant_isopod.jpg/220px-Giant_isopod.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Bathynomus_giganteus.jpg/220px-Bathynomus_giganteus.jpg

Not an animal, but still weird (and cool):

Aspens are a good example of how sex can help an organism that usually clones itself to survive. Going by the name Pando (Latin for "I spread"), one particular colony of male aspen trees in Utah is not only the largest organism on earth (weighing in at over 6,000 tons), it is also the oldest, estimated to be 80,000 years old. The organism is actually an entire forest of an estimated 47,000 trees that are all genetically identical, and that are all feeding off a shared root system that covers over 10 acres. The whole thing grew from clones arising from a single tree.

http://io9.com/5885204/worlds-tiniest-chameleon-is-the-size-of-matchs-head

http://i.imgur.com/CTFaz.jpg

Again, not animalia, but there was a fine article on Toxoplasma gondii in the Atlantic this month:

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

The subjects who tested positive for the parasite had significantly delayed reaction times. Flegr was especially surprised to learn, though, that the protozoan appeared to cause many sex-specific changes in personality. Compared with uninfected men, males who had the parasite were more introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other people’s opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules. Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women.

...

Meanwhile, two Turkish studies have replicated his studies linking Toxoplasma to traffic accidents. With up to one-third of the world infected with the parasite, Flegr now calculates that T. gondii is a likely factor in several hundred thousand road deaths each year. I

...

Twelve of 44 schizophrenia patients who underwent MRI scans, the team found, had reduced gray matter in the brain—and the decrease occurred almost exclusively in those who tested positive for T. gondii.

Not weird so much as OMGFGGFG:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/31/article-1165930-03FD1AB7000005DC-269_468x329.jpg

Glass frog:

http://images.mudfooted.com/glass_frog.jpg

More here: http://mudfooted.com/transparent-glass-frog/

Exquisitely beautiful, really.

no dissection needed

And because I want to push that awful worm into the fold, here's another one, i.e., the mantis shrimp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sEoOWdYLWIo

Make sure to watch till the very end!

Hmm:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJcg_BSOaQU/UB1D8jAGAMI/AAAAAAAABkE/7zCdjtiDMX8/s1600/kaarmeetujh020812_503_hu.jpg

(Click image, if you dare, to see what the f that is.)

The mite has no anus, and stores its waste in large cells within its gut. Nutting saw these as adaptations for a life spent head-down in a tightly closed space. When the mite dies, its body disintegrates and the waste is released.

http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/08/31/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-the-mites-that-eat-crawl-and-have-sex-on-your-face/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NotRocketScience+%28Not+Exactly+Rocket+Science%29

SUP

http://i.imgur.com/N0Eoe.jpg

Nudibranch that eats ... crown of thorn starfish or manowar jellies! In addition to being BEAUTIFUL.

http://i.imgur.com/spd42.jpg

http://www.nature.com/news/african-spiny-mice-can-regrow-lost-skin-1.11488

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/10/12/this_ugly_but_amazing_chinese_turtl.php

my christ, four headed alien autonomous penis horror

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKZcf0KBo-U#!

It looks like it's pooping out ET. Oo

Moar penis horror:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2012/10/Seed-beetle-penis.jpg