Weird Animals and Plants

Well lets start out with some cringeworthy creatures and not so pitiful plants!


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Ascaris.



Lovely close up of its mouth. This worm has three juicy lips that it will use again, to attatch itself to your intestine, rather like the hookworm. Ascaris is a roundworm that can reach up to 40cm in length. This parasite is most familier to humans, infecting around 25% of the whole worlds population. Symptoms include: fever, sweating, sickness, and heavy infestations blocking up your bowel. This kills up to 20,000 people a year.



Photo of the worms.

This parasite loves the warm, damp conditions of your bowel, and poor hygiene. The larvae of this parasite tends to penetrate the skin of its host, although infection usually occurs through the eating of food laced with shit that has Ascaris eggs in it. The larvae then hatch inside you, travel through your gut and respiratory system, before being reswallowed and nesting in your intestine. The female will then lay hundreds of thousands of eggs. Inside you.





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Now for a rare catch. The Frilled Shark.

This is a living fossil shark, the only member of the Chlamydoselachidae family. It can be found real deep in cold water, about 1,500m, at almost freezing temperatures. For this reason, there are only a few real images of this shark.



(Is it me, or does he look slightly stoned? :350:)

Now, time to talk a bit about that image. It was taken on the 21st of January 2001, after it was found alive on the coast of Japan. The shark was captured, but wasn't adapted to live in the warm conditions and shallow water it was provided with. The specimen died roughly 4 hours later. Apart from this, there is only been one other sighting of this shark, and that was video footage from a submarine, filming the shark in its natural habitat.



Take note of the depth and temperature.

The shark looks slightly like a grey or brown eel, but is identified as a shark as it has six gill slits. The tissue of the gills protude somewhat, giving it the name it has. They eat squid, other sharks, and bony fish. It is known as a living fossil, as it has hardly changed since pre-historic times. Not much else is known about this shark, so I hope i've cleared up some of the general ideas.


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Okay, it's time to pinch your nose, as up next is the Corpse Flower.



The Amorphophallus Titanum, more commonly known as the Corpse Flower, is the largest, unbranched inflorescence in the world. The tallest bloom being 2.04m, and having a record breaking weight of ~50kg. Thats not important though, what you want to know is what is so special about this plant, for it to be mentioned, right? Well, if you haven't guessed by now, or you don't know of this plant, is lets out a very potent smell that has been related to that of a rotting corpse, or rotting eggs.



Photo taken May 1st, 2009.

Don't get confused though, as this is not a carnivorous plant. The reason for the smell is so that it attracts carrion eating beetles and flesh flies, so it can be polinated. The tip of the plant can reach human body temperature during bloom, as this helps volitise the fumes, and the deep red colours help give the illusion that it is rotting meat. Both male and female plants bloom, with females blooming a few days before the male, so that there is no chance of self-pollinating.



10 Days before opening.

This flower can live up to 40 years, and will only bloom a few times in its lifetime. It is during these first 8 hours that it will let out the scent of rotting flesh. Once it has pollinated and has gained enough energy, the leaves break off, and becomes dormant. Rinse and repeat.


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Damn this is one cool bird. Say hi to Mr. Peregrine Falcon.



This bird has created many world records, such as the worlds fastest animal - can reach speeds of us to 200mph, and is the most widespread bird of prey - it lives in every single region of the world, except for polar caps, and New Zealand. The name simply means," wandering falcon". Commonly, the female is a lot larger than the male. It has a body length of up to 60cm, and a wingspan of up to 1.2m.



This bird feeds almost always on medium sized birds, such as Doves and Pigeons, however on occasions it will hunt mice, voles, squirrils etc. It hunts at dawn and dusk, when prey are most active, but will hunt nocturnally in cities. It requires open space to hunt, therefore this is often done over water, in valleys, fields, or tundras. The air pressure of a 200mph flight could damage the Falcon's lungs, but small bony tubercyles in the nostrils divert the shockwaves, making breathing easier. To protect their eyes, they have a 3rd eyelid to clear debris from their eyes while maintaining good vision. Prey is struck at massive speeds in mid air, or on the ground, stunning it and damaging it. If it is a bird, the Falcon will then catch it in midair. Prey is then taken to the nest, and ate, or if it is too heavy, it is eaten on the ground. All birds are plucked before a meal.




Look how perdy it looks there! I love this creature. Since the introduction of pesticides in the early 1900's, there was a decline in these birds, especially becuase of the pesticide DDT, however once it was banned in the 1970s, the population of these birds has gone back up, and they are thriving.


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Jellyfish now. Not the most deadly one, but it looks pretty freaky - Rhizostome Jellyfish.



This jellyfish can reach up to 90cm in diameter from its umbrella, and swims in depths of water from sea level, to just about to deep that we cannot give an actual statistic. Male ones are generally blue, females are generally orange/red. They have no tentacles, and the mouth-arms have grown together and have the same diameter of the umbrella. The whole body has a relatively solid consistancy. This jellyfish can swim very fast, as the mouth-arms have a very exstensive system of canals in them. Water is pumped in and out, allowing the jellyfish to swim faster, as well as filtering out food particles.



That thing looks pretty sketchy to me.

However, there are stinging cells on the umbrella, but they are so weak that they hardly irritate human skin. The species is found in Scandinavian waters, rarely, although in summer and winter they have been found to drift into nordic waters. Becuase of their size, some people have used them as a food source. Not much else is very interesting with this jellyfish, so i'll leave you with one final image.




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I just had to add the Tawny Frogmouth!



Although often thought to be an owl, this Australian bird, is, a bird! The males and females look the same, with yellow eyes, and weird looking beaks, which they use to eat and make weird clacking sounds. They are lazy bastards, and instead of going out in search of prey, they tend to sit around and wait for prey to come to them. They do have good camouflage though, so hunting isn't too difficult. He's so cute though.



They feed on mice, rats, beetles, frogs and other small prey. They will catch with their beaks, and not with their talons, another difference to owls. Eggs take about 30 days to hatch, and both the male and female birds will feed their young, and sit on their eggs.

Thats about all the interesting stuff there, so i'll leave you with a few pictures.

Racial Harmony



"I haz' no feet!"



Rawr!




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Acanthoscurria Geniculata



Well damn; just look at that. Its furry all over, and has awesome looking stripes!

The Acanthoscurria Geniculata, which may be more commonly known as the A. Geniculata, or the Brazillian Whiteknee Tarantula, originates from, thats right, you guessed it, Brazil! It is a relatively large tarantula, with a legspan reaching almost 9 inches on a female. This creature is very colourful, unlike a lot of large tarantuals, featuring white stripes on leg joints. (The colour can vary, it looks most awesome on some of them that have a very dark black fur, and vibrant white stripes)

They are very greedy, and will almost always accept any food they are given. One of the main reasons being that they grow very fast. Commonly used as pets, people feed them things such as giant crickets, mice, rats, frogs, and the sort.

Now onto the awesome part!

-They have urticating hairs, which can be very irritating to human skin.
-Although they have a venom, its the actually bite that will do the most damage, due to its large size. These can often be very severe and require medical treatment.
-They have a very unique temperment, they are very defensive, however they will face a threat face on, with great efficiency.



OM NOM NOM

Now how about a live action video of a lovely A. Geniculata vs mr mouse?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cHP5RD4fic


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Second up, the Bot Fly.

Some of you may have heard of this, some of you may not. They have many other names, such as Horse Stomach Bot, Sheep's Nose Bot, and... Human Bot.



Mainly found in Central and Southern America, these flys have adapted to target a specific animal; or human. They all have different reproductive cycles, although these all end in a fat, half an inch maggot, stuck inside living flesh... eating.



These sick bastards have all sorts of methods of getting their eggs inside an animal. For example, the Horse Stomach Bot lays its eggs in grass. Horse eats grass. Heat of horse's mouth makes eggs hatch. Larvae dig through tounge and body until they're in the stomach. Live on the stomach until turned into a fly. Shitted out.

I mean seriously, what the fuck is with that? Sick stuff right there. The Human Bot Fly lays its eggs on the skin, and body heat will make it hatch. It will then burrow into your skin and eat away at you until its fat enough to come out and turn into a fly. These eggs can land anywhere, and by that, I mean it.

Now onto the awesome part!
-Human Bot Larvae have been found in: arms, legs, brains, and eyes.
-...Can't think of another awesome part. I'll go straight to sick images and a video to finish off.


Click these links to see more pictures. Some Might see them as disturbing.
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img229/4990/botflybrain.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img230/2316/botflyeye.jpg

Removing a Bot Fly Larva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFYdgXbCZoc


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Part Two:

Next up on the agenda; the Monkey Cup.



This Carnivorous plant works very much like the Pitcher Plant. This plant can reach up to 40cm tall and 20cm wide, holding more than 3 and a half litres of water. They rely on the pray climbing inside it in search of food, slip down the slippery sides, and cant get out. The Monkey Cup will then slowly digest it as the prey tires itself out trying to escape. They can catch allsorts of creatures, ranging from mice, frogs, or even birds.

It is said to be one of the most facinating carnivorous plants, and originates in and around Malasia. It can take days for some critters so be digested into a lovely plant soup for it to digest, or it could take weeks for some larger animals to be digested. Some people have even found birds that are still being digested after being inside the Monkey Cup for more than a month!



Now onto the awesome part!
-These plants have a better mechanism for stopping prey escaping than the Pitcher Plant.
-They have inward and outward spikes and blades as one form.
-The other one being a toxic enzyme!
-The reason its called the Monkey Cup is because many larger forest animals try to get inside them for the water, but are fended off by the spikes. Monkeys simply get round this by tearing them open!


Sorry for the lack of media, I was unable to find much of it.


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Om nom nom. Up next is the Hookworm.



What a sketchy looking fucker. This parasitic worm will find its way into its host in many different ways, such as through wounds, or orally, such as through infected food or water. This lowlife could sit in your intestine for months, or even years. It will attatch itself to your intestine, latching itself to the tissue with that mouthful of teeth. It will suck, suck, and suck more blood until it is too fat to live inside you anymore. Sometimes, these fuckers can suck so much blood that you can get anemia, or an iron defficiancy.



Ew. That isn't actually the worms there, at least, i dont think so. That is the path the worm has taken, and the trail it leaves behind.

Now the awesome stuff!
-Was a major problem in South America, where it infected a large portion of the population in the early 20th century.
-It remains a large problem in developing countries, causing retarded growth, and intellectual impairment. (-5int fffff)
-It is said that around ~740 million people currently have Hookworm.


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Yay, now time for a classic. The Venus Fly Trap.



Dont we all love that? The Venus Fly Trap is another carnivorous plant that catches its prey in its teeth like leave blades. The leave blades have a scent that is appealing for spiders and flys, as well as a lovely scent that will attract them. When they go to investigate, if they touch the hairs inside the leaf, maybe 2 or 3 in succession, the leave will shut. Tight. Pretty clever really, as it will only shut if the hairs are touched a few times, so that energy isn't wasted on closing when maybe nothing is there.



This plant can get its neutrients from the soil and air, but they usually grow in areas lacking nutrition such as nitrogen, so they rely on the catching of their prey as the main source of food. The plant needs insects that are the perfect size. Too small, and about 12 hours after catching it, the trap will release it, and "spit it out", as it wouldnt provide enough energy. For proper, effective digestion, the trap needs to be sealed, airtight, so that the digesting enzymes will not leak out, and bacteria cannot get in. If the insect is too big, bits will stick out, which will also let in air. The insect will rot, and bacteria sets in, killing the leaf.

Now the awesome part!
-Suprisingly, no one knows how the Venus Fly Trap Closes. It doesn't have any muscles, tendons, or the sort. Some people have theorised that it closes by the movement of fluids, set off by a real electrical current running from the lobes (the hairs.)
-Lots of people cultivate these to create different strains, which have bigger traps, awesome colours, etc.
-They can also catch other things, such as... Frogs!

Here, a Venus Fly Trap eating a fly, then a frog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG9PvoORmIw

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Thanks to sloppy_joes for this one. Toxoplasma Gondii.

This is pretty complex. Dumbed it down for easy digestion.



Basically, this is a Parasitic Protozoa. The main host is cats, although any mammal can carry it. The cats catch this from eating dead, delicious, and mouldy rats and mice. It is this Parasite which we can blame Toxoplasmosis on. However, i will go into this in a bit. Although not a major worry for humans, it can damage unborn featus' if contracted by a pregant female. It can be contracted from unwashed or uncooked foods, or an immunocompromised cat.

I'll go a bit into its life cycle, and how it works when inside you, or, uh, the cat. It has two stages of its life, the sexual part, and the asexual part. The sexual part takes place in cats, and the asexual part can take place in any warm blooded mammal. In the sexual stage, inside cats, the parasite will invade cells. Here it will hide inside the vacuole, and replicare itself. This happens mainly in the muscle, or brain tissue. It does this in the vaculole, as the immune system cannot detect its going ons inside cells. Once it has reproduced so enough times, the cell bursts, and Tachyzoites are released. This is the parasite, but in its asexual form. As it travels around the body looking for new cells to infect, it can be killed by the immune system, but usually, some of the parasite will find a new cell. And this is how it survives.



^ Replication inside the mother cell.

Now the awesome part!
-Toxoplasmosis, which I started to go into, is an infection that rats and mice get. What it does is teach the rat/mouse to not be afraid of cats, instead of shitting bricks when they see them. The weird part is that it does this with surgical accuracy, so that not one other part of the rat/mouse is affected, only how it reacts to cats. This is a fucking awesome way of helping this parasite to spread.

Dumbed down. A lot.


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Here's the Candiru. That's the fish that swam up that kids dick. Thanks to iamgnome for the idea.



Here we go. This is a parasitic fish. Also known as the Toothpick Fish, it can grow up to sizes of ~15 cm in length. They are found in the Amazon River, and some people say that they are more feared than Pirhana's. They are Eel shaped and translucent, making them impossibe to see in water. They feed off of the blood of larger fish, and can appear to have distended bellies after a large 3 course meal of, blood.



They have an ability to detect respitory currents in the water, which allows them to swim into the gills are larger fish, and feed on their blood. They also have a subfamily, which feeds on scales and mucus. This sneaky fish will lie and wait at the bottom of a river, occasionally sampling the water for excreted chemicals such as urea or ammonia, which are released from the gills. Once a fish has been detected, the fish will dart with great speed towards the fish, and lodge itself in the fish's gills, with its spines. It will then gnaw a hole in the fish until it hits a blood vessel, which then it will feed for a few minutes, then leave and hide, and await its next victim. This is usually very fatal for the fish.

Now the awesome part!
-Although it is said that attacks on humans are very rare, there has been one documented case. It has been a myth that the fish will swim into a victim while they are urinating, although there was one case where a boy was said to have been urinating about thigh deep, and the fish jumped up, and BAM! It was inside him. The fish was inside his dick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQWgUht-ObI
An informative video from BBC concerning the threat it poses to humans.


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Thought i'd go for a pretty one now. The Uroplatus.



YAY! Damn, that hits 100% on my cool face'ometer.

The Uroplatus, or more commonly known as the Giant Leaf Tailed Gecko, is only found in Madagascar. Its generic name Uroplatus is greek for Uro - flat, and platus - tail. Flat-tail! They are both nocturnal and arboreal. They tend to spend most of their day hanging vertically from tree trunks, head down, resting. The smaller ones tend to "hang out" in bushes and twigs and crap. At night, they go out to hunt. They are insectivors. Very unique creatures. They are distunguished among Gecko's as having the most teeth and highest among all living amniote's. Other types of this Gecko can have extra ribs, and altered anatomy of the lungs and heart.



These critters love to camouflage themselves. There are two main types, Leaf form, and Bark form. It will usually be blackish-brown, or a dark green colour. They all blend in exceptionally well in their surroundings, as they are able to break up their outline with the vivid shapes they grow in. Some grow an extra flap of skin on their back, so that when they are resting during the day, it flops down, breaking up their outline, thus hiding them more.

Now the (not so)awesome part!
-As they are only found in Madagascar, they are hunted, and traded, thus, their numbers are dwindling.
-Many are threatened by deforestation, and habitat loss.
-The WWF have them on their "top ten most wanted species" list, becuase of the illegal wildlife trade.


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Ugh. What a contrast. Awesome Gecko's... to the Camel Spider. (Thanks to Mrpfoot for mention.)



What the shit? Just look at that beast. The typical name for them is Solifugae, and there are many different types, the Camel Spider is just a general name, not a specific one, don't get confused! Technically, these aren't spiders, they are from a different group, Araneae, just like scorpians are distant from spiders. They love hot temperatures, and desert. Found in both eastern and western hemispheres, these carnivorous and omnivorous things feed on beetles, termites, and such. However, they have been found to om nom on lizards and other creatures. They locate their pray with their pedipalps, and killed and chopped up into bits with the chelicerae. They are then liquified, then it is injested through the pharynx. They don't normally attack humans, although this world aint normal, and shit has happened.



There are SO MANY urban legends for these guys. Such as how big they get, how fast they can move, how leathal they are, etc. The fastest can run ~16pmh. That is nearly half as fast as the fastest human sprinter. So-called, they don't have vendom (although some do in India), and they don't spin webs. One pretty awesome myth going around British and American military is that these spiders will attack soldiers during their sleep. The spider will inject them with an anaesthetizing venom on an exposed area of skin, eat it, and the soldier will wake up in the morning with a gaping wound. However, they dont have such venom, and only attack victims larger than themselves if they feel threatened.

Now, the awesome part!
-Just some pictures of injuries here, so-called inflicted by Solifugae.
-Dont know if these are real, or were actually inflicted by a Solifugae though.


https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img413/3750/closespiderbite.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img2/4888/spiderbite.jpg


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KNOW ANY AWESOME CREATURES/PLANTS? TELL ME, AND I'LL DO SOME RESEARCH AND PUT THEM UP IF THEY ARE THAT AWESOME.

The first link on the "Camel Spider" bites is actually a bite from the infamous Brown Recluse.

PH3AR wrote:

The first link on the "Camel Spider" bites is actually a bite from the infamous Brown Recluse.

That's what I thought. I'll go ahead and take it off.

that feet thing is Gross

the owls are awesome

that first bird is pretty badass, i want it..

u spent ur time lookin at that

Meow!

lol under hypno name it says noob