Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1Star-nosed moleStar-nosed moleThat pink starburst is not a nose ornament but a hand for feeling the world. The star is 22 fleshy tentacles packed with more than 25,000 tiny touch sensors called Eimer's organs, all in less than a square centimeter, and it sweeps the soil so fast it blurs, touching up to 12 objects a second. The…0
  2. 2Psychrolutes marcidusPsychrolutes marcidusBlobfish The saggy pink face voted World's Ugliest Animal in 2013 is a photo of an injury. The famous specimen, nicknamed Mr. Blobby, was netted on a 2003 research expedition between Australia and New Zealand, and its tissues fell apart on the way up from the deep. At home, roughly 3,300 to 4,400…0
  3. 3AnglerfishAnglerfishDeep-sea anglerfish The glowing rod dangling over a female anglerfish's head, as on the humpback anglerfish pictured, is a fishing lure. It hangs just in front of her mouth, enticing smaller fish in the dark, and its tip glows thanks to bioluminescent bacteria that it gathers from the water as she…0
  4. 4Saiga antelopeSaiga antelopeThe saiga's huge, mobile nose drapes over its mouth like a deflated trunk, and it is built for the steppe's extremes. Each nostril is a sac lined with mucous membranes, which may help filter dust out of the air in dry summers and warm and moisten frigid air before it reaches the lungs in…0
  5. 5Proboscis monkeyProboscis monkeyThe male proboscis monkey of Borneo grows a huge, drooping nose, and it works as an advertisement. A 2018 study of these monkeys found that males with bigger noses tended to be heavier, had larger testes and kept more females in their harems. The nose also changes his voice. It enhances his calls…0
  6. 6ShoebillShoebillThe shoebill's bill really does resemble a wooden shoe: an enormous structure ending in a sharp, curved hook, with sharp edges that help it catch and eat prey. Its main food is lungfish, along with other fish and some amphibians and reptiles, and the bill is built to grab and hold them. That bill…0
  7. 7Aye-ayeAye-ayeEvery odd part of Madagascar's aye-aye belongs to one foraging kit. It taps on wood with a slender, flexible, elongated middle finger, listening for hollow spaces under the bark where grubs hide, and its large, naked ears are thought to sharpen that hearing. Ever-growing incisors, coated with…0
  8. 8Naked mole-ratNaked mole-ratWrinkly, pink and almost hairless, the naked mole-rat looks unfinished, but it is dressed for life in underground tunnels. Its lips close behind its big front teeth, so it can dig with its incisors without getting dirt in its mouth. Workers form a digging line, one gnawing at the front while the…0
  9. 9Hammerhead sharkHammerhead sharkWhy would a shark flatten its head into a wide hammer? The best-tested answer is hunting by electricity. In experiments, hammerheads detected hidden prey 40% farther from their swimming path than sandbar sharks with ordinary heads, because the wide head carries electroreceptors across a broader…0
  10. 10Amazon mata mataAmazon mata mataMatamata With a flat, triangular head, a snorkel of a snout and a fringe of knobbly skin, the matamata hardly looks like a turtle at all. The snorkel lets it breathe at the surface without showing its body, so it can lie still on the bottom of slow-moving South American waters. The real surprise…0