What does the real anti-mi-mi-mi look like
Most of the animals on earth are touching and cause a smile. But there are several creatures that are unlikely to cause a storm of positive emotions. In our rating "Anti-mi-mi-mi" there are 10 creations of nature with a very peculiar appearance. Each of them can compete for the title of the ugliest creature on the planet.
Rukonozhka ay-ay
When scientists discovered this strange creature with huge eyes, protruding ears, strange teeth and long fingers in Madagascar in 1780, they did not know which order of animals to attribute it to. They wanted to consider it a rodent, but ai-ai has the weight of a cat, and the tail is fluffy, like a squirrel.
After a detailed study, scientists agreed that this outlandish beast belongs to the order of semi-monkeys, it is the largest among nocturnal primates.
The centipede looks a bit like a monster because of its elongated clawed fingers. The third finger on the forelimbs is especially valuable: the animal combs the fur with it, gets larvae, drinks with it, dipping the finger in water and carefully sucking.
And skillful clawed paws help the little hands to weave nests of shelter from branches and leaves high in the crowns of trees.
The development of the lands of Madagascar by humans has led to a reduction in the population of centipedes. There were only fifty of them left in 1972. In order to restore the species in Madagascar, 16 reservations were created, where the centipedes were able to live and reproduce in peace. So it was possible to save these not the most beautiful, but priceless animals — they live only in Madagascar and are the only representatives of the rukonozhkov family.
In 2003, an amazing underground frog was discovered in the jungles of the Western Ghats mountain range in India.
Biologists did not know anything about her, since she lived almost all year round underground and only in one place with an area of 14 km2. Thanks to its pointed nose, it received the Latin name Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (nasika means "nose" in Sanskrit). For its dark purple color, it is also called a purple (or purple) frog.
The jelly-like slimy amphibian grows up to 9 cm, lives underground, feeding on termites, and comes to the surface only for a couple of weeks for dating and procreation.
This unsympathetic underground creature lives in arid savannas and semi-deserts of African countries: Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The naked digger is a long—lived among rodents - it lives for about 30 years and of them practically does not spend a day on the surface.
The animal surprised scientists with a number of characteristics: it does not drink water, is insensitive to pain, cuts, burns, easily tolerates a large concentration of carbon dioxide and is completely immune to the formation of cancerous tumors.
The specific appearance is the result of the rodent's adaptation to underground life, the purpose of which is to dig, dig and dig again. A quarter of the muscle mass of diggers falls on the muscles of the jaws. They have poor eyesight, sharp claws and a bald oblong body up to 10 cm long, teeth are separated from the oral cavity by special lip growths, so that the earth does not enter their body during underground work.
It is curious that these animals live in colonies, like ants, and perform various roles depending on their size. The largest diggers protect a colony of relatives from predators, and the smallest ones are engaged in food extraction and raising cubs, and also maintain a complex tunnel system up to 3-5 km long. There is one queen queen in the colony, she mates with only two or three males and can give birth to up to 900 cubs in a lifetime, and the remaining males and females do not have an intimate life, remaining exclusively workhorses.
This deep-sea fish often tops the tops of the most bizarre creatures of nature. In 2013, she was chosen as a mascot by the British Society for the Protection of Ugly Animals. A jelly-like fish with an unhappy expression on its "face" then scored 10,000 votes, overtaking the snout monkey, the world's largest frog living on Lake Titicaca, the flightless parrot kakapo from New Zealand and the water "monster" axolotl.
The fish is very caring: she sits on the eggs like a hen on eggs, and after the appearance of the offspring looks after the cubs. The species has been poorly studied and is endemic to Australia, that is, it does not occur anywhere in the world except off the coast of the Green Continent and Tasmania. Recently, the dropfish is in danger of extinction due to the expansion of deep-sea fishing. In Asian countries, the psychrolute bull is considered a delicacy, hence all its troubles.
Stargazer
He's a stargazer. It lives only in eastern North America. Around each nostril of this mole there are 11 skin growths, which are organs of touch.
There are 22 of them in total, and they are able to move faster than the human eye can notice.
Only with the help of a camera, scientists managed to calculate that this animal can examine up to 13 small objects per second with its "tentacles". When the star-bearer eats, he collects his "rays" in a bundle, and when he drinks, he immerses them in water.
Two of the 22 antennae of the starfish do not bend, but are always directed forward. Photographers like to shoot the starfish with macro photography, aiming at the "tentacles", and therefore it looks especially ugly.
In 2012, scientists announced a new species of Hipposideros griffini bat. These animals with an unattractive muzzle have been found in several areas of Vietnam. The mice turned out to have completely different DNA than their relatives. Scientists have concluded that the unusual shape of the nose, formed by a skin fold, helps mice to use echolocation. The species was named H. griffini in honor of Professor Donald Redfield Griffin, a specialist in bat echolocation — it was his work that helped determine that a completely new species had been found.
Because of its appearance and habits, the marabou has a reputation as an ugly, evil and treacherous bird, a meeting with which is a bad sign.
The marabou has a bald head, a massive beak, a fleshy leathery bag hangs on its chest, the purpose of which is still unknown to scientists.
Marabou is the largest representative of the stork family, performing the function of a scavenger orderly. This bird feeds on carrion, but it can eat eggs and baby crocodiles, as well as eat its feathered relatives.
The digestive system allows the marabou to digest even large bones.
That's really who you can shoot in horror movies without makeup. The second name of this sinister fish is the sea devil. It lives at great depths of up to 3 km and hunts with a special fishing rod with a "beacon" at the end: the light attracts prey, and the fish has to open its toothy mouth wider.
Until recently, people imagined anglers especially ugly: with bloated bodies and bulging eyes. But this is how they look on the surface when they are pulled from the bottom by fishermen, and in the depths, where tons of water are pressed on them, they look a little different. It was possible to photograph the anglerfish in the natural environment only at the end of 2014: with the help of an underwater robot in Monterey Bay, American scientists made rare shots of one of the varieties of this terrible fish — Johnson's black anglerfish.
Beauty standards operating in the animal world do not compare well with human ones. For example, baboons. They also look... specific at normal times.
But the female baboon is even more "beautiful" during the mating period: her backside, devoid of vegetation, swells to an incredible size and becomes bright red.
What may shock zoo visitors, for the male serves as a call to mate. The bigger and redder the ass, the better the female is ready for pregnancy and motherhood.
The warthog is perhaps the ugliest representative of the pig family. Its flattened head is covered with growths resembling warts, and repellent fangs up to 60 cm long protrude from its mouth.
His hair grows unevenly: a kind of mane of stiff and sparse bristles covers only the back of his head and spine. He, like other pigs, likes to dig in the dirt and always looks dirty, he has big calluses on his limbs from constant digging.
The warthog is cautious and fearful, in case of danger it raises its tail up, for which it received the nickname "Radio Africa".
Keywords: Appearance | Ugliness