13 Curious Animals Around The World That Look Like They Belong In Fantasy Movies

The movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them shows several fantastic creatures from a fictional universe. But it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine exotic animals, since around the world we can find many of them. Whether to adapt to the conditions of the environment in which they live, or to attract species and mate, each animal has its peculiarity — some more than others.

O awesome.club invites you to take a trip around the world to meet some of the most curious animals and what makes them so special and similar to fantasy characters.

Australia, as well as the other countries of Oceania, has an extremely peculiar fauna. Suffice it to mention the existence of the famous kangaroos, with their pouch where they carry their young, and the almost indecipherable platypus. This happened because the continent is too far away from the others, which made its animals evolve in isolation and without many possibilities for migration. One of them is the collared lizard.

Also known as the Australian dragon lizard, this species lives in the deserts of Australia. By the way, confirming what we said before, he is the only animal of the Chlamydosaurus species. Its main feature is this extension of skin and cartilage behind its head, which the collared lizard opens to scare off its predators (it worked for us 😰). A curious fact is that, despite being a quadruped, he is able to run on two legs. Counting the tail, it measures 85 centimeters.

Cassowaries are huge birds, smaller only than ostriches and emus, that are flightless and live in forests in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea—all countries in Oceania. Cassowaries are wary of humans and will often mimic their movements after observing them, but will usually hide before being spotted. However, if provoked, they can be quite aggressive. Many know them as “the most dangerous bird in the world”.

Cucaburras are birds that live near rivers and are a fisherman species, but rarely eat fish. They prefer to eat mice, snakes, lizards and insects. They are very big, reaching 47 centimeters. The name of this bird comes from the sound it makes, which the natives call “guuguubarra”. In fact, the sound resembles human laughter, so it is widely used in the sound of movies and animations and even in Disney theme park attractions!

Unfortunately, this curious marsupial (like kangaroos) is extinct. The last of them, named Benjamin, died in captivity in 1936. The extinction of this species happened mainly after European colonization, around 1830, as Tasmanian tigers attacked sheep herds, which motivated farmers to hunt them. them. They were already rare to be seen since the 1920s.

Tasmanian tigers are also known as Tasmanian wolves, but they are neither one nor the other. They were called tigers because of the stripes on their backs and wolves because of the similarity of their heads. They were marsupials, like kangaroos, and even had a pouch to carry their young. But unlike their cousins, both female and male Tasmanian tigers had this pouch.

Yes, the thorny devil is scary, but you don’t have to be afraid of him unless you’re an ant. After all, this is the only food of this Australian lizard and it usually measures 21 centimeters. It eats one ant at a time, sticking them to its tongue, but manages to eat thousands a day. The method for him to drink water is very curious. As the thorny devil lives in the desert, it condenses the moisture from the night air and, in the morning, the “dew” runs between the thorns and into its mouth.

With that appearance, you don’t even need to explain why the thorny devil has that name, right? As this lizard is very slow, it needs several defense mechanisms, the main one being the spines spread throughout the body that make it difficult to swallow. These animals also have a false head, which becomes apparent when they spot a predator and place their real head between their front legs. Finally, they change color according to the weather, to camouflage themselves in the sand.

Yes, this turtle is named after its nose. More than that, this species is unique in the world! They live in fresh water but have flippers like sea turtles. And their shell is not hard! That’s right, they are flexible and leather-like in texture. However, underneath that skin, they have a bony shell. That is, they are different from everything that is known about turtles. And since there are few in nature, not much else is known about them.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, you may have associated the above image with Jabba The Hutt, but know that this is not what the blobfish actually looks like. It turns out that his body is all gelatinous and with a density lower than that of water. Without muscles, the blobfish or blobfish is able to withstand the enormous pressure of the ocean depths. His sad, frowning appearance earned him the 2013 Ugly Animals Preservation Society “Ugly Animals Preservation Society” award for the world’s ugliest fish.

This species, which looks more like a superhero movie villain, is one of the oldest sharks in existence today. The goblin shark also lives in deep water, so much so that it is rarely seen alive. When sighted, it is usually off the coasts of Japan, Australia and southern Africa. One of the last ones found was in Rio Grande do Sul, by fishermen, in 2011.

The goblin shark has a prominent, flat nose endowed with tiny sensory cells. Its teeth are small and pointed and the body is flabby, to withstand the pressure of the depths. Its skin is semi-translucent, making it possible to visualize the blood vessels, which gives the goblin shark a unique pink color among the species. As the depths are extremely dark, they sense the presence of prey through the electrosensitive cells on their snout.

Sci-fi fans will look at the saiga’s snout and immediately relate to alien races. The saiga is a species of antelope, like goats and gazelles, that lives in several countries on the borders between Europe and Asia. The saiga’s nose is somewhat reminiscent of an elephant’s trunk and serves to warm inspired air during winter, as well as filtering dust and sand. They walk in large herds and only the males have horns.

It looks like some science fiction scientist mixed up a zebra, a giraffe and a horse, but no, okapis are just that. In fact, they are the only living relatives of the giraffe species, but it seems they haven’t developed a neck as much. They live in the forests of Central Africa and, except for breeding, are solitary. For a long time, European settlers called okapis African unicorns, due to the protuberances that males have on their heads.

It is easy to recognize a star-nosed mole, as it is the only one of its species to have these 22 pink appendages near its nose. They don’t look like noses or fingers, they don’t have muscles or bones. But they move constantly, exploring and recognizing the environment around the mole. They are extremely sensitive, able to detect the smallest changes, including ground vibrations. And this is extremely useful, as these moles are blind.

Forget what you know about fish (and bats). Red-mouthed batfish are unique to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and have fins that resemble bat wings. But one more surprise: they don’t use them to swim (nor fly), but to walk on the ground at the bottom of the sea. To top it off, this very curious animal has a bright red color, almost fluorescent. Oh, and he also has a forward-projecting horn! 🇧🇷

It’s not just Australia that has peculiar animals. The magnificent dogfish can be found in the Galapagos Islands, Central and South America. It has this name because, in addition to being magnificent, its tail is in the shape of a V. They are birds that live close to the beach and feed on fish. But we’re sure what you really want to know is this huge red talk of his, right? Only males have this pouch, which they inflate to attract mates. They, for some reason, find this attractive. Go figure…

We can see how many animals may have served as inspiration for the fantasy stories. Now, how about inventing your own fantastic animal? Join two or more animals and say what their name would be.