Grey-faced sengi (Rhyncocyon udzungwensis

This sengi or elephant shrew was first discovered in 2006 in Uzungwa National Park, Tanzania. Italian scientist, Francesco Rovero, from the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences caught the tiny mammal on a camera trap. The grey-faced sengi is much bigger than any other - roughly the size of a rabbit. It weighs about 700g and has a long, flexible nose which resembles an elephant's trunk. Strangely, elephant shrews are not related to shrews but they do share a common ancestor with elephants

Langkawi bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus macrotuberculatus

This extraordinary gecko was first discovered in 2008 on an island off North-western Malaysia by Dr Lee Grismer and his team. It uses its amazing eyesight and grip to catch its forest-dwelling prey at night. But what made it a discovery of the decade was that this forest gecko has also recently been found in a limestone cave. The cave gecko looks similar to those living in the forest but has some remarkable visible differences. Dr Grismer believes this could be evolution in the making - a gecko that has evolved to live in a cave. The lizards may have moved into the caves to avoid predators - specifically pit vipers that live in the forest

TOOBED NOSED BAT

This bat with yellow ears and nose, reminiscent of Yoda from Star Wars, was discovered in Papua-New Guinea. Though seen on previous expeditions, the bat has yet to be formally documented as a new species, or even named. Like other fruit bats, though, it disperses seeds from the fruit in its diet, perhaps making the flying mammal crucial to its tropical rain forest ecosystem

SLOTH

This species, discovered on the island on Escudo de Veraguas off the Carribean coast, shows how quickly the process of evolution can happen. The pygmy sloth has been isolated on its tiny island habitat for just 9,000 years - when rising sea levels cut the island off from the mainland. The sloths are slower and more placid than their mainland relatives and, remarkably, they can swim. They seem suitably adapted to their Caribbean island lifestyle. Pygmy sloths are less than half the size of a normal sloth and they only eat mangrove leaves - a low-nutirent diet that explains their diminutive stature. There are just 200 of them on the island so every mangrove tree counts for these vulnerable creatures. Decade of Discovery, a collaboration between Conservation International and the BBC's Natural History Unit, will be broadcast at 20.00BST on Tuesday 14 Decmber on BBC Two 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcfuRpcJNsU&feature=player_embedded

ISOPODS

The giant isopod, known scientifically as Bathynomus giganteus, is the largest known member of the isopod family. It is very closely related to the small pillbugs that you can find in the garden. It is a carnivorous crustacean that spends its time scavenging the deep ocean floor. Food is extremely scarce at these great depths, so the isopod has adapted to eat what ever happens to fall to the ocean floor from above. It will also feed on some of the small invertebrates that live at these depths

LONG NOSED CHIMEAERA

Biologists have gone to great lengths to describe the long-nosed chimaera, Harriotta raleighana, whose kind can reach five feet in length. Its stiletto-like nose reminded one of "the nose contour of a supersonic jet aircraft." Others have dubbed it "rattail," for obvious reasons. In South Africa, it is known as the "ghost shark," though it is only distantly related to sharks. A touch of the venomous spine on the first dorsal fin can kill a person, though such a fate is unlikely given the 8,000-foot depths at which this creature lives.

WRINKLE FACED BAT

This creature is found in and around central America. It is a fruit eater but it does not come under the fruit bat category. t is classified as a leaf-nosed bat but does not have a leaf nose. It has an unusually shaped skull which is thought to allow the bat to eat a wider range of foods than other bats.

HATCHET FISH

Dubbed the fish of the damned by some it gets its name from the shape of its body. They vary in size growing from between 1 and 6 inches long. They are often mistake for fresh water hatchet fish commonly seen in people’s homes. These fish have the ability to create their own light – the process is known as Bioluminescence. Little is known about his fish’s life cycle or breeding habits.

SKULL CRAB SPIDER

Im sorry but this is just freaky looking lol, This spider is able to mimic flowers to catch prey they are known to be masters of ambush and disguise apparently. They range in size from 3-32 mm although they rarely exceed 11mm in body length.

PURPLE FROG

This frog spends most of its life buied underground, only emerging for 2 weeks of the year during the monsoon season for the sole purpose of mating. Whats makes this different from other ground burrowing frogs is that it even eats underground foraging on grubs, termites and such like.

CANTERS GIANT SOFT SHELLED TURTLE

This is thought to be a rare species of turtle, and lives in fresh water. This specie can grow up to 6ft and can weigh more than 110 pounds. It was last spotted in 2003 by scientists in Cambodia and found in small numbers in Laos. It has rubbery skin – its ribs are fused together forming a protective layer over its organs and its jaws are powerful enough to crush bones, It spends 95% of its life hiding in mud or sand.

WOLF FISH

Wolf Although huge and scary this sea creature is no danger at all. Attacking only when attacked, wolfish is declared as the Species of Concern because of hugely decrease in their population. This rocky bottom resident inhabits cold Arctic waters. Nature took care of this one by providing it with natural antifreeze that their blood contains. Favorite meals for this sea wolf are crabs and urchins that this fish swallows whole and then crushes with its three rows of rough teeth

ANGLER FISH

In the depths of oceans all around the globe comes lies a little monstrous predator that can produce blue-green light, illuminating its way in its chase for prey. Fish with a lure, could it be more contradictory? The best is yet to come. You know how it is said that this is the world of men? Well it certainly isn’t the case in their world. In their habitat female is the originator. Males couldn’t even live long enough without the female. When found a female becomes his source of life. Biting into her skin and attaching him to her as a parasite. These two become one. His organs and the whole system slowly die, leaving only gonads alive which female uses when she’s ready to reproduce. What’s incredible is that in this way the female can carry the weight of several males on.

ORANGE FIRE WORM

Our list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Warm. Maybe not so weird warm but definitely spectacular. This segmented little fellow lives among the rocks in shallow waters of Florida, Indies and Gulf of Mexico. When touched it can pierce skin with its stings and release a toxin

CROWNS OF THORNS STAR FISH

Fully represented by its name, armed with venomous thorns it is a true solider who hunts alone. Not only that it has poisonous thorns but also enzymes that are produce in its stomach and is like acid for corals on which it preys on. This creature is capable to starve for six months, using energy reserved for survival. Nature was good to this colorful barbed star and gave it the power to regenerate by creating completely new sea stars.

THE GOBLIN SHARK

Coming from great depths of waters of Japan this pinky shark is well known for its large snout. It looks like somebody broke into two leaving it totally distorted. It’s assumed that its purpose is finding food in deep waters. Not much of it is known this rare fish.

ALBINO SNAIL

New Zealand is a truly beautiful country with really amazing people. The animal kingdom though is a tad weird.
The Daily Mail posted the picture of a giant albino meat-eating snail that was spotted by hikers in New Zealand.
This rare Powelliphanta is, according to the publication, at least 10 years old. This specie though can live as long as 20 years and grow as big as a man’s fist.

THE PENICAL EEL

Hey! You got pelican in my eel!
You got your eel in my pelican!

Yikes. Yes, the pelican eel is actually an eel, and its mouth is huge, hence the name. Also known as the umbrella mouth gulper, this is a deep sea fish that’s rarely ever seen by humans. It does occasionally show up in fishing nets, however.

Growing up to a meter in length, the jaw alone makes up for a quarter of the total size. Loosely hinged, the jaw can open wide enough to eat fish much larger than the pelican eel itself (its stomach is rather accommodating to this unique feature). However, such extreme measures are rarely needed in the pelican’s daily operations. Its diet consists mostly of small crustaceans and its teeth are too small to chew much else. While you wouldn’t want to see this thing come flying out of your toilet, it doesn’t pose much of a threat to you unless you are a crab

THE VAMPIRE SQUID

There’s a strong chance that Japanese cartoon pornography has ruined your perception of any creature that has tentacles. This, while ultimately scarring, is probably for the best.

The vampire squid more closely resembles a jellyfish than a squid. It does, however, live to its namesake. Fins at the top of its body resemble large pointed ears. Despite the body being six inches long, with another six inches of tentacles, it has very large eyes. The eight tentacles are webbed, linked together by black and red flaps of skin resembling a cloak. What’s more, the insides of the tentacles are covered in sharp tooth-like spikes. So yeah, there’s more than a passing resemblance to a vampire in this thing.

Having no ink sack with which to defend itself, the vampire squid will instead raise its tentacles up to create a sort of protective cloak with the teeth pointing outward. It has also developed an awesome means of catching its prey: two of the tentacles can extend to twice their normal length. Finally, the squid is covered with organs called photophores that can produce light. The vampire squid is capable of turning off these organs at will, practically rendering itself invisible in its natural depths. This may also mean that vampire squids beat Twilight to the sparkly vampire motif by simple virtue of existing

BLUE RINGED OCTOPUS

Standing high and proud at a whopping seven centimeters and wearing fifty to sixty tasteful blue polka dots; the blue ringed octopus isn’t going to win any fights through intimidation. Thankfully, that isn’t necessary since it’s one of the most venomous creatures in the sea.

The venom of the blue ringed octopus is created by bacteria in the salivary glands and is enough to kill an adult human. In fact, the palm-sized octopus carries enough venom to kill over twenty adult humans in a matter of minutes. The venom is capable of causing complete motor paralysis and respiratory arrest, both of which lead up to cardiac arrest. Oh, and th

Standing high and proud at a whopping seven centimeters and wearing fifty to sixty tasteful blue polka dots; the blue ringed octopus isn’t going to win any fights through intimidation. Thankfully, that isn’t necessary since it’s one of the most venomous creatures in the sea.

WHITE LION

The White Lions are rare animals found in South Africa. They are not albinos, but a inherited scarcity, unique to one common region on the glob. Their white color is a result of rare color mutation of the Kruger breed of lion.
In white lions, the males are full-size, weighty and slow. Whereas, the females do most of the hunting.
They probably have this great drawback of having no camouflage, and a simple wandering would almost certainly not be able to get within range of prey animals.
It is hard to establish accurately how many white lions there are today, an approximation by a trust states that there are less than 300 White Lions world-wide.
As the white lions are very rare, they are detached from their natural habitation into a confined breeding agendas in South Africa and are kept in Zoos or circuses. This has mainly been done to save this rare being from getting hunted down and fall ultimately into a total extinction. It is sad, but a fact that today all white lions are found captive, although with an intention of saving them and protecting them

MIND CONTROL FUNGUS

A stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani, grows out of a “zombie” ant’s head in a Brazilian rain forest.
Originally thought to be a single species, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus is actually four distinct species—all of which can “mind control” ants—scientists announced Wednesday.
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
(Related pictures: “”Zombie” Ants Controlled, Decapitated by Flies.”)
All four known fungi species live in Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.
Hughes and colleagues made the discovery after noticing a wide diversity of fungal growths emerging from ant victims, according to the March 2 study in the journal PLoS ONE.
“It is tempting to speculate that each species of fungus has its own ant species that it is best adapted to attack,” Hughes said.
“This potentially means thousands of zombie fungi in tropical forests across the globe await discovery,” he said. “We need to ramp up sampling—especially given the perilous state of the environment

BLOBFISH

The blobfish (Fathead, Psychrolutes marcidus) is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, it is rarely seen by humans.

Blobfish are found at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. The relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front of it.

YETI CRAB

Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta) is a crustacean discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean. This decapod, which is approximately 15 cm long, is notable for the quantity of silky blond setae (resembling fur) covering its pereiopods (thoracic legs, including claws). Its discoverers dubbed it the "yeti lobster" or "yeti crab" .

The ‘hairy’ pincers contain filamentous bacteria, which the creature may use to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water emitted by the hydrothermal vents where it lives. Alternatively, it may feed on the bacteria, although it is thought to be a general carnivore. Its diet also consists of green algae and small shrimp.

AXOLOTI

The Axolotl may not a common pet, but it is very unique. The axolotl is a type of salamander, native to Mexico. It’s scientific name is Ambystoma mexicanum. The common pet or laboratory Axolotl refers exclusively to A. mexicanum, although in Mexico the term Axolotl is used in reference to several species of Ambystoma, and is considered an edible food source!

The Axolotl is neotenic, meaning that it doesn’t routinely undergo metamorphosis from the larval to adult form, as happens with most other salamanders. Instead, the larval form (with gills) becomes sexually mature and reproduces, maintaining a strictly aquatic life style. Under some circumstances, the Axolotl can undergo metamorphosis into a terrestrial from, although this can be stressful on the animal.

PISTOL SHRIMP

http://www.youtube.click the link and see the video.

Pistol Shrimp

Pistol shrimps are fascinating crustaceans that have a very unique way of hunting. By an extremely rapid closing of their oversized claw, the shrimp produce a very loud snapping sound that stuns their prey. The noise made by the pistol shrimp is not caused by the claws hitting each other as scientists used to believe but by a jet of water created by the impact that shoots out at 100 km/h.

The jet of water creates a low pressure bubble for a tiny fraction of a second, which collapses with a bang louder than that of a jet engine. The resulting concussive shockwaves are not only able to stun small crabs and fish, but may even kill them.
Scientists revealed that as the bubble collapses the bubble reaches temperatures of over 5,000 degress Kelvin, similar to the surface temperature of the sun, and even emits not only sound but a flash of light.
Although the snapping sound, which can be heard from great distances, is mainly used for hunting, pistol shrimps also use it for communication.
com/watch?v=DeFUO2F7Gvw&feature=player_embedded

THE OCEAN SUNFISH

The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, or common mola, is the heaviest known bony fish in the world. It has an average adult weight of 1,000 kg. Sunfish live on a diet that consists mainly of jellyfish, but because this diet is nutritionally poor, they consume large amounts in order to develop and maintain their great bulk. Females of the species can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate. Sunfish fry resemble miniature pufferfish, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.

 

DUMBO OCTOPUS

Also known as the "Grimpoteuthis", is a benthic mollusc found on the ocean floor at depths of 300-400 meters. Dumbo octopuses, which can grow to up to 20 centimeters, are soft-bodied or semi- gelatinous octopuses with a pair of fins located on their mantle and webbing between their arms. Grimpoteuthis swim by moving their fins, pulsing their webbed arms, pushing water through their funnel for jet propulsion, or all three at once. They can swim up off the bottom and hover a bit just above the seafloor looking for snails, worms, and other food.

THE TASMANIAN DEVIL

The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial now found in the wild only in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Because they were seen as a threat to livestock in Tasmania, devils were hunted until 1941, when they became officially protected. Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease has reduced the devil population significantly and now threatens the survival of the species, which in May 2009 was declared to be endangered.

PANGOLIN

A pangolin, also scaly anteater or tenggiling, is a mammal of the order Pholidota. Pangolins have large keratin scales covering their skin and are the only mammals with this adaptation. They are found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The name “pangolin” derives from the Malay word pengguling (“something that rolls up”). Pangolins are nocturnal animals, and use their well-developed sense of smell to find insects. The long-tailed pangolin is

SEA PIGS

Sea pigs are also known as scotoplanes, a genus of deep-sea holothurians (sea cucumbers). This sea creature is like a cross between a pig and a slug. I still think it’s cute, despite the fact that it looks like it has human fingers

SOENODONS

Solenodons are venomous, nocturnal, burrowing, insectivorous mammals belonging to the family Solenodontidae. Only one genus, Solenodon, is known, although a few other genera were erected at one time and are now regarded as junior synonyms. The Solenodontidae family is interesting to phylogenetics researchers due to its retention of primitive mammal characteristics; their species resemble very closely those that lived near the end of the age of the dinosaurs

BABY HEDGEHOG

 ,When they are born some baby animals look exactly like their adult counterparts, however others do not. Today we are looking at some animals which appear rather unique at birth. These pictures and information were taken from Environmental Graffiti. See more information here.