London, Europe Brief News – The natural world contains about 8.7 million species. However, many scientists say the true figure could be millions more. Here are five of the most bizarre animals that inhabit our planet.
Frill-necked lizard
A menacing appearance with its giant frill, the frill-necked lizard, endemic to northern Australia and southern New Guinea, the docile, low-key critters are actually only interested in insects.
But plenty of animals are interested in the lizard, so it has adapted its body to ward off potential predators and has the ability to run extremely fast and are capable of running on just their hind legs when they pick up speed.
Blobfish
The Blobfish is a deep-sea fish which inhabits waters just above the seabed at depths of 600 to 1,200 meters (2,000 to 3,900 feet), off the coasts of mainland Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
The blobfish is a rather odd-looking fish out of water, but this is due to the strange adaptations to its preferred waters. While many fish use gas bladders to create buoyancy, the blobfish does it by being made up of gelatinous mass with a slightly lower density than water. The blobfish is also lacking in muscle, so much of its existence is spent floating along with the current and eating whatever floats right in front of it.
Goblin shark
The goblin shark is a rare species of deep-sea shark and the only extant representative of the Mitsukurinidae family, a lineage some 125 million years old. This pink-skinned animal has a a long, pointy snout and crooked, nail-like teeth and can move incredibly fast. It is usually between 3 and 4 m (10 and 13 ft) long when mature, though it can grow considerably larger such as one captured in 2000 that is thought to have measured 6 m (20 ft).
Komondor Dog
The Komondor, also known as the Hungarian sheepdog, is a large, white-colored Hungarian breed of livestock guardian dog with long, noticeably corded white looks like dreadlocks or a mop. The coat is soft and feathery. But the coat is curly and tends to twist as the puppy matures. A fully mature coat is shaped naturally from the soft basecoat and the coarser outer coat uniting to form fringes.
Aye-aye
With bulging eyes, giant ears, and tufts of hair, the Aye-aye is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate.
It 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.
