Fa-reaks of nature

NONE OF THESE ARE PHOTOSHOPPED
Check them out yourself on a search engine if you like (then brace)

Isopods




no mate no



adopt me!



the tongue eating isopod, it eats the tongue then replaces it, NICE


little alien fecker




The maned fox




Mekong catfish, being stuffed



Amazon catfish




normal salamander



Japanese/Chinese Giant salamander (6.5ft/ 2m long),
the world's largest amphibian




the parasitic Candiru catfish
Do not swim in the amazon naked - it swims itself into peoples arses and imbeds itself inside.
Even worse it can get lodged in the head of the penis, and feed of fyour blood:






Giant jellyfish- dangerous




Tigerfish, Congo River




I don't know what the hell this is - any suggestions (no its not crocodilian, its a fish)
*edit* apparently its a long nosed gar native to the Southern US, able to live out of water for a time too



In Madagascar this animal is cursed, noone can even mention it's name.
To even see one means death. The aye aye:

Baby




Adult - check out the freaky fingers


wot?


http://members.tripod.com/~agifam/aye-aye_hand[/img



Flying snakes (of course theyre just tree jumping species):

[IMG]http://www.flyingsnake.org/images/looking-at-you.jpg




Indri, the worlds largest lemur, almost human sized:





Deep sea chimera


prehistoric shark rediscovered off Japan.
The frilled shark:




Goblin shark:







spooky, seal eating, polar bear chomping Greenland Sharks.
These are the biggest predatory sharks, not the Great White:



their teeth were so sharp Eskimos used to cut their hair with them


all sharks are blinded by a parasite (hence you can approach them). Noone really knows how they
are able to catch quick moving seals.


Oarfish, up to 50ft long








Megamouth shark, another rediscovered prehistoric species:








the Vampire squid, tendency to turn itself inside out:






New species, strange 23 ft long squid:




Cranchid Balloon Squid, cute lil fella:





33ft long Hamilton squid:



some weird spider - any guesses?


camel spiders. Theyre not that big actually, but they are fuzzy and have more than 8 legs.



the prehistoric Malaysian trapdoor spider
(count the legs again). It ambushes prey by flying out of a web
trapdoor at anything that rustles nearby e.g YOUR HAND.




someones gonna get a surprise:
Coconut crab:



Leopard Seal, 15ft long predator eats penguins and other seals.
Theyre as big as the biggest Great White sharks



they can weigh up to 11,000 lbs







The number of legs changes with the individual, from six to fourteen.
Sea spider (bit chewy).






twat







Giant spider crab




http://www.burtonbradstock.org.uk/He...spider%202.jpghttp://www.burtonbradstock.org.uk/He...spider%201.jpg


Watutsi cattle, native to Kenya:

Do not piss off

Growing stages





The horns on this guy weigh 100lb a piece


South American Longhorn Beetle 16cm:




worlds smallest monkeys, pygmy marmosets





baby albino twins:


Make wicked finger puppets.
They don't enjoy it much though.

alot of that gave me the heebyjeebies

Damn it. If there is one thing that freaks me out it is large bugs and spiders. I really shouldn't have opened this thread.

Great thread. Thanks for posting. That Madagascar creature looks very cute. I'd love to have the devil for a pet.

This thread rocks. I love being introduced to new species, without the obligatory crikey.

Nature is cool.

excellent post A+

Great post! Nature is amazing!

Oh I've seen one of these before:

Originally Posted by zupermaus

Click to expand...

someones gonna to get a surprise:
Coconut crab:
http://www.allthepages.org/images/blog/coconut_crab.jpg

I wonder how many of these animals LK wants to wear?

Agreed -- great thread, thanks.

This might put you off your dinner, be warned. Do not read further if you want to keep an appetite:

this is possibly the worst thing that can happen to an animal.

Leucochloridium paradoxum, a parasitic maggot.

The eggs are stored within bird faeces. The snails eat the faeces and are infected. The parasites hatch and slowly eat the snail from within, keeping it alive as long as possible. Slowly they tunnel to the brain and affect the behaviour of the snail. the snail crawls about in day back and forth across the leaf. By this time the maggots are in the antennal eyes with only a thin film of skin separating them. They squirm back and forth creating attraction.



A bird spots the snail and finally puts it out of its misery - thus eating the new eggs.

the pulsating antenna acting as a beacon:









the spores of a certain fungi in the Amazon are meat eating. They target mostly ants.


The ants grow a fuzz they cannot get rid off, it slowly consumes them, and grows from their collapsed body a 'flowering' stalk, feeding off the nutrients.

Now this is the creepy bit, this stalk changes form with different species:





an unfortunate spider:



mushrooms


killed beetle grub



ok on a less unsettling note BIRDS



the Pitohui, the world's only poisonous bird, discovered in Paua New Guinea.
Its skin, feathers, beak and claws are toxic




Sheep killing parrots of New Zealand, the Kea.
Known to attack weak and sick animals, also known to fly at them
and cause them to dash themselves off cliffs, farmers claim up to
500 sheep can be killed in a season by these birds.





Cassowaries, the worlds most dangerous bird

up to 6ft tall and armed with a lethal spike on its feet, it will strike out when provoked.
The last person to die was a teenager taunting an animal that sliced him open from neck to belly:



dont mess


dinosaur!



Great Gray Owl
constantly pissed off bird



Old Native American legends call them ghosts





I kid ye not, these are real

The photo of the ant titled "mushrooms" was photographed by Larry Gilbert of University of Texas. I used to work in his lab. He's a real badass and has done a lot of work looking at parasites of ants. He's been working on natural controls for the imported fire ants that have overtaken Texas and are spreading across the US.

nail eating maggots. Very interesting.

the proboscis monkey?









Sexy!

Originally Posted by texas_jack

Click to expand...

The photo of the ant titled "mushrooms" was photographed by Larry Gilbert of University of Texas. I used to work in his lab. He's a real badass and has done a lot of work looking at parasites of ants. He's been working on natural controls for the imported fire ants that have overtaken Texas and are spreading across the US.


Thats amazing. Did he infect them himself? What would happen if a human ate those eggs?