October 9th, 2009 by Amanda

I do love the weird animals, and thanks to Webecoist there are 15 even crazier ones to blog about. These are my favorites. You can view them all here.

Giant Isopod:

Cloverfield anyone? “If you’re afraid of bugs, you’re really not going to like the Giant Isopod. It resembles nothing so much as a cockroach the size of a guinea pig, but it’s actually a crustacean related to shrimp and crabs. These scavengers roam the cold, dark sea floor from 560ft to 7,000ft below the surface of the ocean, eating mostly dead whales, fish, and squid.” DEAD WHALES?!

Yeti Crab:

I’m sure our friends at Ilovetheyeti would like this. “With its long, furry appendages, the newly-discovered Yeti Crab looks like some kind of sea sloth. It was discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean during a deep-sea diving expedition in 2006 and is so unusual that a new taxonomic family had to be invented for it. The Yeti Crab is blind and white, with fur that supports colonies of bacteria. It lives near hydrothermal vents 7,540 feet under the surface.”

Horror Frog:

It may not look that creepy, but looks can be misleading. This little guy has the ability to break its bones so that they puncture its toe pads, producing extendable claws on demand when threatened. It was only discovered in 2008.

Dumbo Octopus:

It’s kinda cute. “Strange as the Dumbo Octopus may be, some people actually think it’s pretty cute” Hey that’s what I said!! “‘Dumbo’ can be found in the dark depths of any ocean on Earth and grows up to 20cm in length. It swallows its prey, made up of mostly worms and crustaceans, whole.”