creature

Identification

The Black Dragonfishes (Family Idiacanthidae) are long, slender fishes.

These fishes are sexually dimorphic. The top two images show a female with its small eyes, chin barbel, and long fang-like teeth. The male is much smaller. It lacks teeth, lacks the chin barbel, has a non-functional gut, and is dark brown rather than black. Continue Reading »

If you thought the fictional Ningen was bizarre, behold the Helicoprion. And this horrifying sea creature is, or actually, was very real, as evidenced by their peculiar lower teeth, fossils of which have been found. It may have grown up to 20 feet long. Continue Reading »

When originally discovered and prepared, fossils of the animal Hallucigenia appeared to have preserved two rows of spines on one side of the animal and one row of tentacles on the other. Identifying its head was a problem - the fossil showed only a rounded, dark stain at one end and a narrower, dark stain at the other. Continue Reading »

THIS weird and wonderful creature is the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata), a small, semi-aquatic mammal which inhabits the low wetlands of eastern North America. Like other moles, it ekes out an existence in a network of narrow underground tunnels, and digs shallow surface tunnels where it forages for insects, worms and molluscs. Living as it does in almost complete darkness, the star-nosed mole has poorly developed eyes, and is virtually blind. Instead, it relies heavily on its remarkable star-shaped nose. This organ enables the star-nosed mole to decide whether something is edible with astonishing speed - in fact, it recently entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s fastest forager - and also to sniff out food underwater. Continue Reading »

Description: Wingspan 102-135mm. The forewings are mainly black suffused with brown with some patches of lighter scales. The abdomen has a wide dorsal stripe with yellow patches on the sides. The thorax is marked with the skull-shaped marking from which it takes its name. The hindwings are bright yellow with two thick, black crosslines. Continue Reading »

The gulper eel, known scientifically as Eurypharynx pelecanoides, is one of the most bizarre looking creatures in the deep sea. Its most notable attribute is the large mouth. This enormous mouth is much larger than the eel’s body. The mouth is loosely hinged, and can be opened wide enough to swallow an animal much larger than itself. The hapless fish is then deposited into a pouch-like lower jaw, which resembles that of a pelican. In fact, this eel issometimes referred to as the pelican eel. The gulper’s stomach can also stretch to accommodate its large meals. This giant mouth gives the eel its other common name of umbrella mouth gulper. Continue Reading »

Legless amphibians

Caecilians (pronounced seh-SILL-yens) are tropical amphibians that look like large worms or slick snakes. They have no arms or legs, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which end is the head and which is the tail! Their shiny skin is ringed with skin folds called annuli, and they usually come in shades of gray, brown, black, orange, or yellow. Some species have tiny, fishlike scales within the rings. Continue Reading »

What Are They?

Water Bears belong to a lesser known phylum of invertebrate animals, the Tardigrada. The first tardigrades were discovered by Goetz in 1773. Over 400 species have been described since that time. Continue Reading »

Imagine that you’re diving in an alien environment — a few feet down in the middle of the ocean — when you come face to face with a creature with giant eyes, big claws, and a mouth that rips apart its prey. You’ve just met phronima, a marine creature that may have inspired the design for the monster in the “Alien” movies. Fortunately, though, you’re not in any danger, because Phronima is no more than an inch long. Continue Reading »

Majestic in purple, a spotted cleaner shrimp in the waters off Bonaire Island in the Caribbean works hard for its customers. Continue Reading »