The strangest creatures on Earth
By Contributor
By BBC Earth
When Steve Backshall and his Deadly team began their expedition to find 60 of the world’s deadliest animals, little did they know that it wouldn’t just be the dangerous animals that would send a shiver up their spines.
When the Deadly team travelled to Madagascar they discovered that it was definitely home to the weird and wonderful.
It’s not only Madagascar that boasts the bizarre. During Deadly 60 Steve has encountered his fair share of freaky creatures around the world, here’s a few of his favourites.
- Wolf eel – British Columbia: The strange monstrous looking wolf-eel, with its football sized head, spiky chisel like front teeth and crunching molars means it can devour sea urchins with ease.
- Solifuge – Mozambique: Described by Steve as the creepiest creature he’s ever seen, it’s also the fastest invertebrate on the planet with the biggest jaws relative to body size of any animal on earth. Legend has it that they chase after people and eat them alive.
- Wrinkle lipped bats – Borneo: with its peculiar thick wrinkly lips, heavy jowls and horny big ears it certainly looks odd.
- Whip spider – Philippines: The spider with a set of bizarre long legs several times the length of its body which act as sensory organs. They’ll walk about sideways on their six walking legs, with one of the “whips” pointed in the direction of travel while the other probes for its prey.
- Giant Candiru – Brazil: A bizarre flesh eating parasitic fish that lives inside the Amazonian Catfish and makes the local piranhas seem positively tame.
- Masked Hunter – Costa Rica: More like a bit of fuzz than an insect, this member of the assassin bug family is covered in tiny hooks which trap debris to make it perfectly camouflaged. Strangely effective!
- To see these images and more, link to: http://bbcearth.posterous.com/the-strangest-creatures-on-earth
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