12 WORLD'S WEIRDEST CREATURES

Photo Gallery: World's Weirdest Creatures
By National Geographic, 17 October 2012.

1. Praying Mantis

The praying mantis, or mantid, is so weird that ancient Greeks believed it had supernatural powers, naming it "mantis" which means "prophet" or "seer." The carnivorous insect preys exclusively on living insects, seizing its prey with its spined front legs in a vice-like grip. During mating, the female often eats the male, first by biting its head off. As the dying male spasms, it often increases the amount of sperm delivered. Then, the female will eat the male's carcass, which provides her with additional nourishment that she can use when she lays her eggs... up to 200 of them.

2. Black Widow Spider

This femme fatale, the black widow, sits in her web and waits for food to come to her. She has eight eyes, but barely uses them, perceiving much of her world through her hairy legs - she finds her prey mainly by sensing vibrations along her web. Then she charges blindly across her high-wire grid. First she bites, the neurotoxins in her bite paralyzing the struggling moth. Digestive enzymes turn its insides into goo. Then she wraps it up. Her back legs pull silk from her spinneret and encase the moth, keeping the spider out of harm's way, and if she’s already eaten, preserving the snack for later. Once she's hungry, the spider sucks up the insides of her bug burrito like a liquid lunch.

3. Echidna

Being an egg-layer, an echidna - also known as a spiny anteater - is very different from other mammals. It also has a much lower body temperature compared to other mammals. To find its insect prey, the echidna senses vibrations with the bald, tubular beak that protrudes from its dome-shaped body covered in spines.

4. Sea Hare

Named for the rabbit-ear-shaped growths on its head, which are actually its nose, the sea hare is the swinger of the sea slug world. Sea hares are hermaphrodites, with both male and female sex organs. To reproduce, the first sea hare acts solely as a female, and is mounted by a second sea hare... who acts as a male to the first and female to a third... and so on down the line, to the last hare, who acts only as a male. A pregnant sea hare will lay spaghetti-like strands of millions of eggs, anchored to the kelp beds for safety.

5. Naked Mole Rat

The naked mole rat is neither a mole nor a rat. These pinkish, bald rodents spend their entire lives in virtually complete darkness, weaving their way through an underground network of burrows and tunnels. Within their dark universe, they’ve evolved a rigid society that has more in common with ants or bees than with a typical mammalian social circle. At the top is a long, strong queen. As long as she lives, she and a few chosen boy toys are the only ones that breed. The queen keeps the rest from mating by sheer intimidation. Some mole rats are drafted as soldiers to protect the colony from rival mole rats and predators. Other mole rats tend to the young, clean burrows, dig tunnels and look for food. Their giant incisors are actually outside their mouths, so the mole rats can shovel away without eating dirt. Though nearly blind, special hairs on their body help guide them and tell them where they are going.

6. Shaggy Frogfish

Instead of chasing their prey, frogfishes have become the masters of the ambush. Often patterned to blend with their surroundings, frogfishes lay quietly in waiting, enticing their prey with a "fishing pole" tipped with a piece of "bait" derived from the first dorsal fin spine. Without any teeth, they must use the "gape and suck" method to swallow their prey whole - dropping open their jaw to create a void of negative pressure. In this manner, frogfishes consume their prey faster than any other vertebrates, inhaling their food in 6 milliseconds.

7. Polyclad Flatworm

Flatworms are basically hermaphroditic, having both male and female sex organs. But when it comes time to procreate, they have to decide who plays which role - a fight that can sometimes be to the death. Flatworm sex consists of the two attempting to stab their lover with their pointed penis to inseminate the other - an act delicately referred to as “penis-fencing.”

8. Flounder in the Sand

When born, a flounder is bilaterally symmetrical, with one eye on each side of its head. After a few days, however, the eyes begin to migrate together to the same side of the head, as the fish begins to lean heavily to one side. An adult flounder lives along the bottom of the sea, with the "eyed" side facing up. The underside of the flounder also eventually loses its colour.

9. Horned Lizard

The horned lizard is also sometimes referred to as the horned frog or the horny toad, but it’s no amphibian. Found in the western deserts of North America, this lizard is a one-reptile wrecking crew with a bizarre self-defense strategy. When defending its own life from, say, a coyote, the horned lizard squirts blood from the thin blood vessels around its eyes that rupture under pressure. In addition to the ick factor, the blood contains canine-repellent chemicals, leaving the attacker disgusted, weirded out, and out of there.

10. Proboscis Monkey Sitting in a Tree

For the proboscis monkey, size matters. Nearly three feet tall, the males weigh twice as much as the smaller females. And a big nose generates big interest from the ladies. Living in the swampy mangrove forests of Borneo, proboscis monkeys are preyed upon by crocs and other predators. Males either live in an all-male group of bachelors, or as the one male leader of a small harem of females and young. When threatened, the male leader uses his large nose to emit a loud warning call, alerting the rest of his group of danger.

11. Kangaroo and Joey

A baby kangaroo, or "joey," will call its mother's pouch home for almost a year. At one month old, the baby roo, barely more than the size of a jellybean, emerges from one of its mother's two uteri. Once it’s outside her body, it grips her fur, and though it still hasn’t developed eyes, it instinctively relies on its forelegs to crawl up towards her pouch. Within minutes, it reaches her pouch and latches on to its mother's teat. Over the next few months it grows inside the pouch. Once it ventures outside, it's still not ready for cross-country trekking, yet. For nine more months, a joey will rely on its mother's pouch for shelter, transportation and protection if it senses danger. Even after it leaves the pouch, it stays by its mother's side, nursing for an additional one to six months. The pouch, though, is now off limits - its mother will already be carrying her next baby. From now on, the joey will have to travel on its own two feet.

12. Cape Gannet

 

The cape gannet is a sea bird that breeds on islands off South Africa. After locating fish in the ocean, cape gannets dive from as high as 300 feet to ambush their prey. Their capacious air sacs and extra fat deposits help cushion them when they hit the water.

[Source: National Geographic. Edited.]