10. Blanket Octopus
Location: World
Tremoctopus is a genus of pelagic cephalopods, containing four species that occupy surface to mid-waters in subtropical and tropical oceans. They are commonly known asblanket octopuses, in reference to the long transparent webs that connect the dorsal and dorsolateral arms of the adult females. The other arms are much shorter and lack webbing. These species exhibit an extreme degree of sexual dimorphism. Females may reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length, whereas the tiny males are at most a few centimeters long. The males have a specially modified third right arm which stores sperm, known as a hectocotylus. During mating, this arm detaches itself and crawls into the mantle of the female to fertilize her eggs. The male dies shortly after mating. The females carry more than 100,000 tiny eggs attached to a sausage-shaped calcareous secretion held at the base of the dorsal arms and carried by the female until hatching.
9. Glass Frog
Location: Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama
The glass frogs (or glassfrogs) are frogs of the amphibian family Centrolenidae (order Anura). While the general background coloration of most glass frogs is primarily lime green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is translucent. The internal viscera, including the heart, liver, and gastrointestinal tract, are visible through this translucent skin, hence the common name.
8. Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Location: Madagascar
Uroplatus phantasticus, the Baweng Satanic Leaf Gecko, is a species of gecko indigenous to the island of Madagascar. First described in 1888 by George Albert Boulenger, U. phantasticus is the smallest in body of the Uroplatus geckos, though there is an ongoing debate as to whether one of its cousins, U. ebenaui, is smaller because of its shorter tail. It may also be known as the eyelash leaf tailed gecko or the fantastic leaf tailed gecko.
7. Leafy Sea Dragon
Location: Australia
The leafy seadragon or Glauert’s seadragon, Phycodurus eques, is a marine fish in the family Syngnathidae, which includes seadragons, pipefish, and seahorses. It is the only member of the genus Phycodurus. It is found along the southern and western coasts of Australia. The name is derived from the appearance, with long leaf-like protrusions coming from all over the body. These protrusions are not used for propulsion; they serve only as camouflage. The leafy seadragon propels itself by means of a pectoral fin on the ridge of its neck and a dorsal fin on its back closer to the tail end. These small fins are almost completely transparent and difficult to see as they undulate minutely to move the creature sedately through the water, completing the illusion of floating seaweed. Popularly known as “leafies”, it is the marine emblem of the state of South Australia and a focus for local marine conservation.
6. Olm
Location: Slovenia, Italy, Croasia, Bosnia, Herzegovina
The olm, or proteus (Proteus anguinus), a salamander, is the only cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic; it eats, sleeps, and breeds underwater. Living in caves found in Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through extensive limestone of karst of Central and Southeastern Europe, specifically southern Slovenia, the Soča river basin near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina. It is also occasionally called the “human fish” by locals because of its skin color, similar to that of white people (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica and Croatian: čovječja ribica), as well as “cave salamander” or “white salamander.” In Slovenia, it is also known by the name močeril, which translates as “the one that burrows into wetness.” It was first mentioned in 1689 by a local naturalist Valvasor in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola reporting that after heavy rains the olms were washed up from the underground waters and made local people believe they saw a cave dragons’ offspring.
5. Chinese Softshell Turtle
Location: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, USA, China, Taiwan,
Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, Russia
The Chinese softshell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) is a species of turtle that was first described by Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann in 1835 (as Trionyx sinensis). The species is also referred to as the Asiatic soft-shelled turtle. There is a subspecies japonicus which is sometimes erroneously listed as Pelodiscus japonica. The Chinese softshell turtle is found in China (including Taiwan), North Vietnam, Korea, Japan and Russia. It is difficult to determine its native range due to the long tradition of use as a food and “tonic” and subsequent spread by migrating people. The Chinese soft-shelled turtle has been introduced to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Timor, Batan Islands, Guam, some of the Hawaiian Islands, California and Virginia.
4. Star-Nosed Mole
Location: Canada, USA
The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) is a small mole found in moist low areas of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, with records extending along the Atlantic coast as far as extreme southeastern Georgia. It is the only member of the tribeCondylurini and the genus Condylura. The star-nosed mole is easily identified by the twenty-two pink fleshy appendages ringing its snout, which is used as a touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer’s organs, with which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around. With the help of its Eimer’s organs, it may be perfectly poised to detect seismic wave vibrations.
3. Snake Caterpillar
Location: United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, North Korea
The larva is about 75 millimetres (3.0 in) long, green and brown in colour. Like most hawk moth caterpillars, they have a backward curving spine or “horn” on the final abdominal segment. The anterior of the caterpillar appears to have the shape of a trunk-like snout. It is this elephant look, rather than its large size, that gives the moth its name. When startled, the caterpillar draws its trunk into its foremost body segment. This posture resembles a snake with a large head and four large eye-like patches. Caterpillars are preyed upon by birds, but these shy away (at least for some time) from caterpillars in “snake” pose. It is not known whether the birds take the caterpillar to actually resemble a snake, or are frightened by the sudden change of a familiar prey item into an unusual and boldly-patterned shape.The preferred food plants of the caterpillar are willowherb (Epilobium) and bedstraw (Galium), though it will also take fuchsias.
2. Aye-Aye
Location: Madagascar
The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. This foraging method is calledpercussive foraging. The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the striped possum. From an ecological point of view the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within. The aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus Daubentonia and family Daubentoniidae. It is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN; and a second species, Daubentonia robusta, appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years.
1. Blobfish
Location: Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand
The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. It inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, as well as the waters of New Zealand. Blobfish are typically shorter than 30 cm. They live at depths between 600 and 1,200 m (2,000 and 3,900 ft) where the pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats in front of it such as deep-ocean crustaceans.Blobfish are often caught as bycatch in bottom trawling nets. Scientists now fear the blobfish could become an endangered species because of deep-ocean trawling.
Video Here:
SOURCE : top10videolist
No comments:
Post a Comment