Strange and Unusual Animals of Land, Sea and Air

This little animal is called the Naked Mole Rat and is from North Africa (Heterocephalus glaber).

Article excerpts from the last link posted below:
"These three inch long creatures are neither moles nor rats and have broken many mammalian rules and evolved an oddly insect-like social system. Scientists hope that further research on these elusive creatures will shed light not just on mole-rats’ secret lives, but on the evolution of social systems in mammals more broadly. After millions of years of living in the dark, the naked mole-rat’s eyes have shrunk to the point that they can hardly see."

“There’s still so much to learn", says David Kessler, an animal keeper at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park's Small Mammal House. "They are fauna incognita.”

Colony members are so closely related that their DNA “fingerprints” are virtually identical. Even though individual workers may not reproduce, many of their same genes are carried and passed on by others in the colony. In this eusocial scheme, naked mole-rats that sacrifice the opportunity to reproduce pass down their genes indirectly by caring for their colony mates."





Watch them live on the naked mole-rat cam at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/SmallMammals/default.cfm?cam=NMR

"The Naked Truth About Mole Rats" is a very interesting and fascinating read:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2002/3/nakedmolerats.cfm

I LIKE THIS THREAD.



Pucker up. The star nosed mole is a tenacious creature, able to withstand severe cold and burrow easily through ice to make its home and find food. It lives in Canada and the East Coast of the United States. It favors a high protein diet of clams, snails, small rodents, mollusks and worms. It’s not a very big creature - about the size of a hand. But its 22 nose tentacles are hard to miss. They help the mole find food.

Ii thought you'd like it, ot. it's a real guy thread.

your animal is uglier than mine, btw.

This is not shopped. This is not a hoax. That is a giant crab on a garbage can. They’re native to Guam and other Pacific islands. Coconut crabs aren’t endangered, per se, but due to tropical habitat destruction they are at risk. In WWII, American soldiers stationed in the Pacific theater wrote home with tales about entire atolls being covered in the armor-plated giants. These crabs can crack a coconut in one swipe; but they’re generally too slow to be very dangerous to humans. Children pass lazy afternoons by picking the crabs off tree trunks and watching them crash to the ground; it’s reportedly great fun. And kind of messed up

oh yuk.

Human face fish

that's crazy! almost looked like a cat's face to me.

The Pelochelys cantorii, or Cantor’s Giant Soft Shelled Turtle, is one of the most unusual looking animals on earth and certainly one of the most odd looking turtles in existence. Yet few people have seen it or know about it. It’s not a sea turtle - the Cantor prefers to inhabit inland, close to streams and wetlands. It grows very large, with adult shells often spanning more than six feet. They are native to Cambodia but are very rare.

I saw a turtle that looked like that on I-95 the other day as I was passing over the river.

People were shocked to find the fish with “hands” - and now scientists are even more shocked to find a fish that happens to be a skilled rock climber. It would seem the march of evolution is indeed inexorable. Lithogenes wahari is a type of catfish with specialized pelvic fins that act as gripping “hands” to climb rocks, walls and other terrain. The fish is incredibly rare and the most recent sighting occurred after twenty years of research. There are actually a number of so-called walking fish although not all are true fish.

Called "sea locusts" by ancient Assyrians, "prawn killers" in Australia and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters" by modern divers — because of the relative ease the creature has in mutilating small appendages — mantis shrimp sport powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning or dismemberment. Although generally considered an urban legend due to few occurrences, some larger species of mantis shrimp are capable of breaking through aquarium glass with a single strike from this weapon [4].






Mantis shrimps are aggressive relatives of crabs and lobsters and prey upon other animals by crippling them with devastating jabs. Their secret weapons are a pair of hinged arms folded away under their head, which they can unfurl at incredible speeds.
The ‘spearer’ species have arms ending in a fiendish barbed spike that they use to impale soft-bodied prey like fish. But the larger ‘smasher’ species have arms ending in heavy clubs, and use them to deliver blows with the same force as a rifle bullet.

The only immortal animal. It goes through a circular lifecycle - same as if every time you had children you became a child yourself again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

Turritopsis nutricula (highlander jellyfish) is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.[2] It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.[3] Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body.[3]

Evolution in progress!

Offspring of Hound and Peregrine

Angler Fish

"Some guys just can’t catch a break. The male angler fish is 1/20th the size of the female angler fish. The huge, traumatizingly ugly spiny fish with the glowing “fishing rod” lure you saw in Finding Nemo? That’s the female. The male is that tiny little blob attached to his horrific goddess that you never noticed. He burrows in with his teeth and she “feeds” him ex-utero style until he eventually loses his eyeballs, then internal organs and finally his life. By then, she’s got his sperm so it doesn’t matter. Anglers are deep-sea fish, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe from threat. "

Leaping Lesbian Lizards!

"Officially named Cnemidophorus uniparens, these American desert lizards reproduce despite the fact that they’re all female. Interestingly, some of them simulate sexual acts (above, left) with each other just like male and female lizards, and it’s been discovered that when they do they reproduce more successfully than their abstemious sisters."

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

HotParadox wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

I think I married that once. I'm tellin ya, I use to drink.... a lot.

CarolinaHound wrote:

HotParadox wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

I think I married that once. I'm tellin ya, I use to drink.... a lot.

Sorry but I just googled " weird animals" and found it there someplace.

HotParadox wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

http://divaboo.info/

"The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.

Daubentonia is the only genus in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. The Aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus (although it is currently an endangered species); a second species (Daubentonia robusta) was exterminated over the last few centuries. "

Qi123 wrote:

HotParadox wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

http://divaboo.info/

"The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.

Daubentonia is the only genus in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. The Aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus (although it is currently an endangered species); a second species (Daubentonia robusta) was exterminated over the last few centuries. "

Primate huh? Uses it's middle finger? There's the missing link folks. Must be a lot of the aye-aye gene left in my family.

CarolinaHound wrote:

Qi123 wrote:

HotParadox wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

OT, could you tell us a little bit about this creature, maybe add a link! for starters, could you tell us what it is?

http://divaboo.info/

"The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.

Daubentonia is the only genus in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. The Aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus (although it is currently an endangered species); a second species (Daubentonia robusta) was exterminated over the last few centuries. "

Primate huh? Uses it's middle finger? There's the missing link folks. Must be a lot of the aye-aye gene left in my family.

Hey Dawg, you eating to many bananas again. hehhehe

Kazza wrote:The only immortal animal. It goes through a circular lifecycle - same as if every time you had children you became a child yourself again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

Turritopsis nutricula (highlander jellyfish) is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.[2] It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.[3] Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body.[3]

This is really cool. I am very fascinated by this. You really know a lot about many different subjects.
There is a radio show in the US called coast to coast am. It is the most listened to late night radio show in America, about 10 million plus listen every night. Over 500 stations broadcast this show.

I would like to recommend you as a guest on that show. I really think you could get on this show. They are into paranormal stuff such as UFO's, ghosts and the like. They also are very into science, and so are the listeners.

You could teach people a lot. I am sure it would be welcome to hear about different subjects from someone like yourself.

If you were well liked, and I am sure you would be.

You could make really good things happen if you were a guest on the show.

I won't recommend you as a guest without your permission.

So with your permission, I will recommend you as a guest on coast to coast am.

Theophilus wrote:

Kazza wrote:The only immortal animal. It goes through a circular lifecycle - same as if every time you had children you became a child yourself again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

Turritopsis nutricula (highlander jellyfish) is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.[2] It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.[3] Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body.[3]

This is really cool. I am very fascinated by this. You really know a lot about many different subjects.
There is a radio show in the US called coast to coast am. It is the most listened to late night radio show in America, about 10 million plus listen every night. Over 500 stations broadcast this show.

I would like to recommend you as a guest on that show. I really think you could get on this show. They are into paranormal stuff such as UFO's, ghosts and the like. They also are very into science, and so are the listeners.

You could teach people a lot. I am sure it would be welcome to hear about different subjects from someone like yourself.

If you were well liked, and I am sure you would be.

You could make really good things happen if you were a guest on the show.

I won't recommend you as a guest without your permission.

So with your permission, I will recommend you as a guest on coast to coast am.

Well thank you, but I don't really know all that much about things, at least not outside of physics. I read a lot, and with something like this, I just remembered that I had read about it once and had to google "Immortal Jellyfish" to find out what it was called.

I'm afraid I've never heard coast-to-coast. I'm in Australia so I guess I would have to tune in via the internet to hear it. It would probably make it difficult for me to be a guest as well.

Kazza wrote:

Theophilus wrote:

Kazza wrote:The only immortal animal. It goes through a circular lifecycle - same as if every time you had children you became a child yourself again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

Turritopsis nutricula (highlander jellyfish) is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.[2] It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.[3] Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body.[3]

This is really cool. I am very fascinated by this. You really know a lot about many different subjects.
There is a radio show in the US called coast to coast am. It is the most listened to late night radio show in America, about 10 million plus listen every night. Over 500 stations broadcast this show.

I would like to recommend you as a guest on that show. I really think you could get on this show. They are into paranormal stuff such as UFO's, ghosts and the like. They also are very into science, and so are the listeners.

You could teach people a lot. I am sure it would be welcome to hear about different subjects from someone like yourself.

If you were well liked, and I am sure you would be.

You could make really good things happen if you were a guest on the show.

I won't recommend you as a guest without your permission.

So with your permission, I will recommend you as a guest on coast to coast am.

Well thank you, but I don't really know all that much about things, at least not outside of physics. I read a lot, and with something like this, I just remembered that I had read about it once and had to google "Immortal Jellyfish" to find out what it was called.

I'm afraid I've never heard coast-to-coast. I'm in Australia so I guess I would have to tune in via the internet to hear it. It would probably make it difficult for me to be a guest as well.

They talk to people all across the world. If you are interested the website is www.coasttocoastam.com

Personally I think you would make a great guest.

Just give me the OK to recommend you as a guest. I think it would work out great.

Theophilus wrote:

Kazza wrote:

Theophilus wrote:

Kazza wrote:The only immortal animal. It goes through a circular lifecycle - same as if every time you had children you became a child yourself again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

Turritopsis nutricula (highlander jellyfish) is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.[2] It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.[3] Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body.[3]

This is really cool. I am very fascinated by this. You really know a lot about many different subjects.
There is a radio show in the US called coast to coast am. It is the most listened to late night radio show in America, about 10 million plus listen every night. Over 500 stations broadcast this show.

I would like to recommend you as a guest on that show. I really think you could get on this show. They are into paranormal stuff such as UFO's, ghosts and the like. They also are very into science, and so are the listeners.

You could teach people a lot. I am sure it would be welcome to hear about different subjects from someone like yourself.

If you were well liked, and I am sure you would be.

You could make really good things happen if you were a guest on the show.

I won't recommend you as a guest without your permission.

So with your permission, I will recommend you as a guest on coast to coast am.

Well thank you, but I don't really know all that much about things, at least not outside of physics. I read a lot, and with something like this, I just remembered that I had read about it once and had to google "Immortal Jellyfish" to find out what it was called.

I'm afraid I've never heard coast-to-coast. I'm in Australia so I guess I would have to tune in via the internet to hear it. It would probably make it difficult for me to be a guest as well.

They talk to people all across the world. If you are interested the website is www.coasttocoastam.com

Personally I think you would make a great guest.

Just give me the OK to recommend you as a guest. I think it would work out great.

Hmm... let me have a listen to it a bit first. I won't be in at uni again till monday, but I'll listen to some of it online then and let you know.

Imagine living through it, looking like a buck-toothed dick!

DM007 wrote:

Imagine living through it, looking like a buck-toothed dick!

No that is bad

Old Timer wrote:I LIKE THIS THREAD.



Pucker up. The star nosed mole is a tenacious creature, able to withstand severe cold and burrow easily through ice to make its home and find food. It lives in Canada and the East Coast of the United States. It favors a high protein diet of clams, snails, small rodents, mollusks and worms. It’s not a very big creature - about the size of a hand. But its 22 nose tentacles are hard to miss. They help the mole find food.

looks like the mouth a once old girl friend had on her!

Old Timer wrote:

People were shocked to find the fish with “hands” - and now scientists are even more shocked to find a fish that happens to be a skilled rock climber. It would seem the march of evolution is indeed inexorable. Lithogenes wahari is a type of catfish with specialized pelvic fins that act as gripping “hands” to climb rocks, walls and other terrain. The fish is incredibly rare and the most recent sighting occurred after twenty years of research. There are actually a number of so-called walking fish although not all are true fish.

I saw quite a few of these little critters on Guam. THey're fascianting to watch. They can skitter easily across wate [on the tsurface] and very readily walk on land. They also interract with each other quite a bit.

Qi123 wrote:Angler Fish

"Some guys just can’t catch a break. The male angler fish is 1/20th the size of the female angler fish. The huge, traumatizingly ugly spiny fish with the glowing “fishing rod” lure you saw in Finding Nemo? That’s the female. The male is that tiny little blob attached to his horrific goddess that you never noticed. He burrows in with his teeth and she “feeds” him ex-utero style until he eventually loses his eyeballs, then internal organs and finally his life. By then, she’s got his sperm so it doesn’t matter. Anglers are deep-sea fish, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe from threat. "

that's truly: "mating FOR LIFE!"

Swimming sea cucumber....

While most sea cucumbers are bottom dwellers, this beautiful pelagic species swims in the water column. Recent advances in submersible and ROV technology have allowed scientists to observe these, and other mid water animals in their natural environment. If captured in traditional trawl nets, such a creature would be hauled to the surface and reduced to an unrecognizable blob of jelly.

lol

I guess this would be called a Cat-Bird?
Big head, little body.