Strange and Unusual Animals of Land, Sea and Air

by **HotParadox** Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:49 pm

There are so many fascinating animals that many of us know so little about or haven't even heard of.
I thought it might be interesting to have a thread dedicated to

Strange and Unusual Animals of Land, Sea, and Air.

Post your photos, stories, vids here.

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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."

Strange and Unusual Animals of Land, Sea and Air South-10

Strange and Unusual Animals of Land, Sea and Air South-11

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

by **Old Timer** Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:56 pm

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.

by **HotParadox** Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:25 pm

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

your animal is uglier than mine, btw.

by **Old Timer** Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:05 am

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

by **HotParadox** Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:33 am

oh yuk.

by **CarolinaHound** Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:27 pm

Human face fish

by **HotParadox** Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:15 pm

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

by **Old Timer** Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:58 pm

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.

by **CarolinaHound** Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:23 pm

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

by **Old Timer** Mon Apr 13, 2009 2:25 pm

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.

by **Kazza** Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:49 pm

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].