16 Animals So Weird You’ll Say, “How Horrible! Have more photos?”

Not all animals are lucky enough to be born as cute as a big panda or a koala. When we look at some of the representatives of the fauna, a shiver runs through the body: it seems that they came to our world directly from horror movies. However, even the ugliest animals play an important role in nature, and you can’t do without them.

The editors of awesome.club collected the ugliest animals on Earth for this post. We are sure they will leave you speechless.

The lesser pichiciego is a type of armadillo, the smallest in the world, that looks more like an ear of corn than an animal. However, in a few seconds, it folds under its carapace into a ball and transforms into an impregnable fortress. Lesser Pichiciegos are nocturnal animals, dig deep holes and feed on ants.

In the course of evolution, cyclocosmia has acquired a rather strange adornment: its body ends in a solid chitinous disk with a sophisticated pattern. However, this disk was not created to beautify it: with its help, these spiders seal their holes. Sometimes people take a hidden cyclocosmia, thinking it’s a rare coin, and when they pull it out of the ground, they extract an enraged spider from its den.

The kite frog is like a paver’s victim: its body is completely flat. But don’t worry, it’s always like that. The process of reproduction of these amphibians is more horrible than a horror movie: the male tramples the eggs on the back of the expectant mother, and after 3 to 4 months, the fully formed babies appear just under the mother’s skin.

The water cockroach is a giant aquatic insect (over 10 cm long) and a brutal killer. She easily gets rid of frogs, fish and turtles. And all this thanks to its bite: through it, the predator injects the digestive enzyme into the victim’s body and then eats the resulting “soup”. She also knows how to fly and her bite is very painful. No need to thank us for a new phobia!

These birds are frightening not so much for their appearance as for their shameless behavior. Guácharo pups take such advantage of their parents that they are forced to feed them almost non-stop. As a result, at 70 days of age, chicks weigh twice as much as their parents. However, the truth is that, as they grow, the fat is being consumed.

The flannel moth caterpillar is often compared to a kitten because of its long, fluffy fur. However, those who decide to pet it find an unpleasant surprise: these caterpillars are poisonous. Contact with the skin is very painful, and can also cause vomiting and headaches. However, caterpillars often find their victims alone, because in summer dozens of them fall from trees.

Mexican tetras are so tough they can live without eyes. This fish lives exclusively in flooded caves and underground rivers, so some specimens have lost most of the pigment and their vision has atrophied.

Salps are floating sea creatures, usually connected in chains that reach several meters in length. They help humanity in the fight against global warming by recycling greenhouse gases. Also, these amazing creatures glow in the dark.

The Onychophora looks like a snail without the shell or a small fluffy worm. However, in reality this is a relentless predator: the velvet worm immobilizes its victim with a precise jet of mucus, and then dinner begins. But if the worm is in a dry and windy place, it will die quickly as it really needs moisture. The onychophora’s habitat is due to this: it lives in the leaf litter of tropical forests.

The flat worm, Diplozoon Paradoxum, is an excellent demonstration of the newlyweds’ oath: “In joy and sorrow, until death do us part.” When mating, two individuals of this species join their bodies together forever, forming a cross.

The worm Leucochloridium paradoxum is a parasite that lives in the intestines of birds. But to get there, he performs a real special operation, during which he transforms snails
innocents into zombies.

The eggs of the parasites penetrate the body of a snail, become larvae and spread throughout the victim’s body. One of these outgrowths enters the eye tentacle, grows and becomes caterpillar-like. A zombie snail crawls into the blinding light (which it usually stays away from) and ends up in the beak, and then in the bird’s intestines. The leucochloridium mission is now complete.

Despite its strange appearance, the pig-nosed turtle has achieved a lot: it is represented on the currency of Papua New Guinea and its eggs cost around a thousand dollars (these turtles are of good character and widely requested by those they want to have. a different animal at home).

Do you think that in the Galapagos only huge tortoises live? Well, not so. Pink iguanas, which grow up to 1.80 m in length, also feel wonderfully at home. Well, from any point of view, it’s a heavenly place. Pink or marine iguanas, of course, can move on land, but they spend most of their lives in the water and can hold their breath for an hour.

All moray eels are ruthless predators, and the duckbill moray eel couldn’t go against their nature. Its mouth is provided with two rows of sharp, transparent teeth, like glass. They live in narrow burrows, so they can’t open their mouths wide to capture their prey, but they found an elegant solution: the jaws of these predators are extendable. Reminds me a lot of the movie Alien, the Eighth PassengerIs not it?

The tardigrade, or water bear, is the toughest creature in the world. These microscopic creatures are invertebrates that grow no more than 1.5 millimeters in length and live in water. The tardigrades were sent into space, exposed to radiation, frozen, boiled, placed in alcohol and glycerin, but these tough-as-nails critters felt good in any environment and even had time to multiply. They simply know how to stop and slow down their metabolism and face every problem head on.

This reaper (in English “daddy longlegs”: “daddy with long legs”) is not a spider, but a representative of an ancient genus, which still resembles dinosaurs. Its body resembles a wolf’s head with two glowing yellow eyes. In fact, the reaper’s eyes are below, and in general, despite its menacing appearance, it is not dangerous to humans.

Which animal surprised you the most?