Exploring Our World
Earth's Amazing Creatures - Part 4
1. Umbonia Spinosa
These thorn bugs are related to cicadas, and use their beaks to pierce plant stems to feed upon their sap. Their strange appearance still poses many questions to scientists.
2. The Shoebill
This large stork-like bird gets its name because of the shape of its beak. Even though it was already known to ancient Egyptians and Arabs, the bird was only classified in the 19th century.
3. Venezuelan Poodle Moth
The Venezuelan poodle moth is a moth photographed in 2009 by Kyrgyzstani zoologist Dr. Arthur Anker in the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela. It is about 1 inch long.
4. The Tardigrades – or Water Bear
The Tardigrades (also known as waterbears or moss piglets) are water-dwelling, segmented micro-animals, with eight legs.
5. Promachoteuthis Sulcus
Meet Promachoteuthis sulcus, a bizarre creature straight out of your nightmares. As you can see, this thing looks like it has freakishly human looking teeth. They’re actually just flaps of skin, but they’re still pretty unnerving! It’s a species of promachoteuthid squid and only one specimen has been found to date. It was captured in the Southern Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 2,000m in 2007.
6. The Aye-aye
The aye-aye is a lemur native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out.
7. The Yeti Crab
This is the yeti crab (Kiwa hirsuta). Only discovered in 2005, the yeti crab lives in the South Pacific Ocean and grows to around 15cm long. Discovered at a depth of 2,200 metres (7,200 ft), it lives on hydrothermal vents.
Incredibly unique one-of-a-kind creatures!