Incredibly Unusual Creatures You Won’t Believe Exist
What would you do if you encounter an incredibly unusual creature that looks as if it came out of a science fiction novel? Our planet is filled with bizarre creatures, many are cute but mean, while others are a bit ugly but completely harmless... and how about the in-betweens? You won’t believe some of these creatures exist, but you’ll find them all over the world, and some of them are right under your nose. Here are the most Incredibly unique creatures you never knew existed!
11 Goblin Shark
What if you were scuba diving and a creature came from the depths of the ocean to greet you... its head looks like a barracuda swimming in the depths of the ocean while using a sword fish as a visor, and to make it worse, it’s also a shark!!?? …. Well this is not fiction or something from a nightmare… the goblin shark is such a rare species that is sometimes called the living fossil or fossil shark. Its ancient lineage is over 125 million years old! As a terrifying added bonus, the shark can open its jaws up to a 111 degrees angle. Although it lives in the depths of most of our ocean, many encounters occur of the coast of japan. Goblin sharks are extremely rare, and thus a few fall preys to deep water fishing with depths over 1000 feet. The international union of conservation of nature (IUCN) has them as “least concern”, due to is wide distribution and low capturing incidents.
10 Patagonia Mara
Coming all the way from Argentina, and sporting its own idea of style, meet the Patagonia Mara or Dillaby. It looks like a cross between a large rabbit and a kangaroo. It’s the 4th largest rodent in the world. Capibaras of the amazon are at the top of this list. The coolest thing about the Patagonia Maras is that they are very family oriented. Both parents share the guarding duties so their offspring don’t get into trouble… or become a meal for their predators. More remarkably, is how high they can jump. It’s been recorded that the Patagonia Mara can leap as high as 6 ft/ 2m.
9 Blue Dragon
A creature that in this case is a nightmare dressed like a daydream is the blue dragon… it sound so magical, like medieval mythical dragons spewing fire... but the blue dragon does not glide in the sky but under water and even though there is no fire, the poison will make you wish fire was the culprit of your pain. Unfortunately, its origins come from a less impressive sea creature, the sea slug. This rare sea slug floats upside-down. Displaying its blue belly towards the sun and its grey to the bottom, it floats on the open warm waters of the ocean. This is called countershading, and it’s designed to disguise itself from predators and pray. Sometimes they have the bad fortune of washing up on the beach. As tempting as it may be, don’t touch it, the venom causes symptoms worse to those of the Portuguese man of war.
8 Malayan Colugo
It’s a bird it’s a bat…. no. Squirrel? Originally from south east Asia, colugos are also known as flying lemurs!! But don’t be fooled by their name. They jump from tree to tree for safety and food but they don’t fly like bats do… Colugos are gliding mammals that look as if they could maneuver the skies from tree to far away tree. It’s been recorded jumping 3 times the length of a basketball court! One of the coolest characteristics about the Malayan colugos, besides being the size of a small cat, is that they look as if they had attached a sheet from head to tail, making them look sooooo cool and ready for the jump… but unlike the great climbing house cat, these long-clawed mammals are terrible climbers….
7 Frog Fish
Imagine a creature so bizarre… it has the body of a frog with a wig and to top that, a fishing rod attached to its head. The frog fish does not have hair, but soft spines, like skin tags on us humans. Although its looks are funny, they are well designed for hunting and hiding. The frogfish can change colors based on the environment. Like an octopus changes colors to camouflage, the frog fish does the same. The color change takes longer than for the octopus. It takes it about a week to look like its new environment. And the rod you ask? The fishing rod, well, as you can imagine, they dangle it luring their prey with mesmerizing moves into their mouths. And they don’t hunt just small critters, their mouths open so wide, they hunt for pray as large as themselves!! They also have questionable family relations. They are all friendly and nice while mating, and after... the don’t tolerate each other after fertilization...
6 The Panda Ant!
If you are ever given the opportunity to create an animal, what would you make? a cute but fierce creature? If yes, then this may be the one you would come up with. Meet the panda ant, looks as cute as a panda with its white and black fur. But, as fierce as a working ant who can carry about 7 times its weight. Unfortunately, the panda ant is neither an ant nor a bear... they are from the family of the wasps, I know I sounds as if I was making things up… but no, the mutillidae is a family of over 3000 species of wasps. Females are wingless so that’s why the name. When you head down to Chile, you will hear the locals describe the sting as “soo terrible as to render a cow unconscious” thus, locally called cow ant.
5 The Pacu Fish
There are many animals used to replace human body parts, like heart valves from cows or pigs, but how about teeth…. There is actually a fish that has human looking teeth. Related to the flesh-eating piranhas of south America, the Pacu fish from Papua New Guinea is called the “ball cutter” by the local fishermen. They were terrified the fish would bite “them” while in the water. Globalization has taken a toll on the native fauna and flora. Many species have been introduced in areas where they become an invasive dominating species. This is a danger to the local fragile ecosystem. In 2015, the Pacu fish made the news in new jersey where it was spotted smiling at the camera in the new jersey lake.
4 Lowland Streaked Tenrec
This list keeps getting creepier and creepier with all the bizarre creatures that look like experiments gone wrong. And this one may keep you awake at night. I personally think this one is really cute. Imagine a regular pet store gerbil, and then, add some cactus spikes, like extra-large porcupine quills… yea, you will get the Lowland streaked Tenrec that lives in Madagascar. Besides its unique look, what makes it an incredible experiment in adaptation, is that they are the only mammal to be able to communicate using stridulation. recently only associated with snakes and insects, Stridulation is a way of making sounds rubbing together two parts of their body, like crickets at night calling for their mate.
3 Sea Pig
What would happen if we explore the deepest ends of the ocean? What would we find? From imagination to reality, this creature came for the real abyssal plains of the ocean. This animal looks like a pig farm went underwater and mated with a jellyfish… meet the sea pig... as the name describes this pink, fat and fluffy looking creature likes to live at the bottom of the abyss, over half a mile (1km) straight all the way down. Like the terrestrial pig, rolls int the with the mud to clean it self and exfoliate the skin. The sea pig likes to roll in the deep-sea mud but not for looks, but to extract the organic particles found within the mud for feeding.
2 Giant Isopod
Imagine if a pill bug or roly-poly who got lost in a nuclear facility and found shelter in the ocean…. Again, the ocean... where the most bizarre creatures live… here is the giant isopod, its name is not that impressive, since many of its crustacean cousins live near the surface and are very small… considered the largest isopod in the world, it got its size due to a natural phenomenon called sea gigantism, the deeper you go, the larger the animals you will see. The giant isopod scavenges for food at the bottom of the ocean and would pray on slow- moving animals like sea cucumbers.
1 Fluffy Cow
How long does it usually take for you to get ready, I mean, apply makeup, hair products, all the works… now, how long does it take for a cow to get ready for a show…. Well probably longer than your older sister occupying the only bathroom in the house before prom night… meet this common cow, but with a twist. This cow breed is soo pampered that it takes over two hours to get them looking as fluffy as a plush toy. Before a show, they wash their hair, comb and brush and even apply hair products. They look and feel like lively toys we would want to hug and fall asleep with at night.
