Weird Animal Day

Because I have nothing else I want to post about. Seriously- I could have written about Swine flu, the new HIV vaccine or climate change or something else more serious and relevant. But you know what? It’s Friday and when I mentioned the shark with a member on its head (no really, read further), everyone on this side of the office had a strong reaction.

So today’s fluff post brings you animal oddities for your viewing pleasure:

…Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?:

I came across an i09.com post on a new species of cartilaginous fish called chimaera that has a (rhymes with weenus) on its forehead. Right. New species- always cool. But I dug a little further and found that Chimaeras are cool little freaks of nature. They’re distantly related to sharks but unlike sharks, male chimaeras have retractable sexual appendages on their foreheads.

Above is an image of the Hydrolagus melanophasma- the new species. I couldn’t find a picture of a Chimaera with the retractable, um, member but you can search for one yourself with a nifty thing called the Intertubes.

…His Friends Call Him Hop:

Uh, yeah. This one is pretty self explanatory. The backstory is that an old woman in Suining, a region in China found a snake “clinging” to her wall. I’m not exactly sure how anything could “cling” to a wall with one foot and no Gecko-like fingers but whatever.

Check out the rest of the pictures from the  Unbelievable Stuff blog and be horrified. I’m trying to figure out if it really is possible for a snake to grow a freaking FOOT- yes, there are mutations but dude. It’s a snake with a foot. It’s not another head (which is a rather common mutation… common in the loosest sense of the word) or another tail, but a foot. As in, a feature the animal does not have normally. Not trying to make the case for evolution here, but uh, clearly something was going in this snake’s past…

Anyway, I pose you fine readers with this question: Photoshopped or real?

…What I Wanted for my Fifth Birthday:

Last year in a nature preserve in Italy, a deer was born with a single horn on its forehead. Park officials named the deer “Unicorn”… which is pretty uncreative if you ask me. Personally, I would have named my unicorn (if mom had ever come through on the birthday, sheesh), Giggles.

 …You Thought Jaws was Scary?:

By now most of you have heard of the Anglerfish (another sea creature with a stylish forehead accessory) via the Discovery, Travel or Animal channels... or Finding Nemo. If you haven’t, Anglerfish are basically bony fishes with a fleshy, glowing “lure” on their foreheads to attract and catch prey (similar to the method of fishing called angling).  Note that only the females have this accessory.

It’s not a very big fish (average size is about a foot) but OMG check out the freakshow of a thing this fish calls a face:

Not something you’d want to run into in a dark alley… underwater. But the cool thing about this fish is the way it mates.

Remember how I said only the females have that cool rod? Well, the males don’t need this adaptation because they’ve become almost like parasites when they mate. They are fed and cared for by the much larger female.

Once the male of the species finds a mate, he latches onto her with his sharp teeth.  The male Anglerfish then physically fuses his own body with that of the female’s own. Their bloodstreams fuse as well… and everything else pretty much. He loses his eyes and all of his internal organs except for  the testes, and remains there for the rest of his life.

The female fishes have permanent mates and can/will carry as many as ten males on their bodies. The average is about five or six though.

What a lazy bum the male Angler is, right? But consider this: when mature, the male's digestive system shuts down, rendering him unable to feed independently. So he has to find a mate or else he dies.

Anyway, that’s it from me. Have a great weekend, folks!

Comments

[Frank]

Mutated animals are fun, but when will we have humans with super powers. Then I'll be impressed.

Have to admit, I prefer the name Giggles to Unicorn though...

[warren]

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