The animal kingdom is an endless source of fascination but seriously, there are some really strange and alien animals that look like they belong in another world or straight from a sci-fi movie. Give a child a piece of paper and some colored pencils and ask them to draw an imaginary animal and you might well end up with something like the strange and alien animals that actually exist for real; like any of these for example:
1 Blue Dragon Sea Slug
The word slug makes you think of the things like the garden slug. This creature should be called something such as the Blue Dragon Cruiser because it is far prettier than a slug. It is a shocking color blue and has lots of skewers and appendages like those strange and alien animals you see in the movies. When they float on the surface they look like a spider walking on water. They also swallow stinging little organisms so that animals get a nasty surprise if they try to eat them.
Frequently asked questions
2 Tarsiers
Tarsiers have very big and scary eyes when they are open and look like Yoda when their eyes are closed. They are a species of monkey that people have had trouble classifying into primate groups. They do have a very mixed up physiology that places them with primates and simians but they even have similarities with the Peruvian guinea pig. So difficult is it to classify them that some scientists feel the group should be split, with some saying they should name three species and others saying that the group should be made up of at least seven subspecies.
3 The Bat-eared Fox
The next of my strange looking animals is an African fox that some Australians may liken to their native Dingo (but with more hair that is grey). They evolved big ears which appear from a very young age which gives a very distinctive look. Many people find their babies cute because they have less hair and have big eyes and ears. The people who have tried to keep them as pets have discovered that they are expert escape artists.
4 Giant Siphonophore
This is a big transparent sea worm that you would expect to see coming out of an alien space ship. It looks like some sort of alien device and lives at depths of around 130 foot down. That is why it is transparent, since at that depth there are animals that can pick out changes in the darkness. It makes being transparent the best way of avoiding your predators. They live in pressures that are of 40 tonnes per square centimeter. If you capture one and try to bring it to the surface it will pop.
5 Atolla Jellyfish
This creature is a dead ringer for a spaceship. It is a very common type of jellyfish but they are unlikely to be seen washed up on the beach because they live 2200ft under the water. The great thing about this jellyfish is that it is one of the few creatures to bring light to the otherwise dark underwater world. They light up as a warning and if a fish grabs them then they strobe blue lights. This attracts bigger fish that know that strobing jellyfish light means there is a predator fish they can eat.
6 Antarctic Ice Fish
Of all the weird looking animals on this list, this one is the most fascinating to look at. It is basically a see-through fish that even has see-through blood. It can live in a block of ice (or it could if it could still breath the water) and the only opaque thing about the fish is the things it eats. How this fish evolved is a mystery. Remember in the Alien film when the Alien had acid for blood? Well this fish literally has antifreeze in its blood. It is truly one of the most remarkable pieces of evolution in Earth's history.
7 Golden Lion Tamarin
This is one of the many species that lives in the Brazilian rainforest and so is heavily endangered. So thick and yellow is the fur of this monkey that the first people to photograph it were thought to be pulling a hoax. That was deemed untrue once the Walt Disney Corp caught a few of them. They are now part of the Disney’s Animal Kingdom conservation scheme.
Do you know of any weird and strange looking animals you think we should know about?
