Home Animals Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
Animals By Trista -

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
Tim Laman / NG

The Spike-Nosed Tree Frog

Also called the long-nosed tree frog, the spike-nosed tree frog has a funny projection on the end of its nose. Only the males of the species have this distinctive trait. Experts also refer to this cool animal as the Pinocchio frog for apparent reasons. The protuberance points upward when the male calls and deflates when the male is resting. However, the size of this spike plays no role when females choose males to mate with. Scientists believe that this spike only helps the frogs differentiate themselves from other species of frogs that live in the forests.

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
World Atlas

The Hammerhead Shark

Many people are familiar with how bizarre the hammerhead shark appears. With eyes on either side of their wide head, it’s a wonder that they can even see anything at all. However, sharks don’t need to see very well to catch their prey, and that’s what their broad heads are for. They have a sensory organ on their heads called a cephalofoil that senses the electrical fields created by any prey or threats from several miles away. Because their eyes are so far apart, they can rotate their eyes to the point that they actually have 360-degree vision.

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
National Museum of Nature and Science

The Chinese Water Deer

The Chinese water deer is one of the only deer species that doesn’t grow antlers. Instead, they produce large fangs protruding out of their mouths, like vampire fangs. Both males and females have fangs, but the girls have much smaller ones. These large teeth are nothing to worry about since the Chinese water deer is still an herbivore. They only use their tusks to fight off other males during the mating season before claiming females, and they use them to fend off predators in any way they can.

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
steptacular Wikipedia

The Lykoi

People think werewolves are creatures of fiction, but there is a real cat species that looks like it could be related to the werewolf. This species of cat is called the lykoi and is a natural mutation found in the domestic shorthair cat. This gene mutation causes Lykoi cats to have short hair or be completely hairless. Despite their somewhat feral appearance because of their fur, they’re actually quite affectionate towards their owners and are very unchallenging in their behavior. They tend to shed a lot as they grow older, but the hair grows back later in their lives.

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
Keith Kissel Flickr Wikipedia

Heterochromia Iridum

Heterochromia iridum is the technical name for any animal with eyes of different colors. One of the most prominent examples of this unique animal is a husky with one brown and one blue eye. It doesn’t happen very often, but scientists have agreed that the reason for heterochromia is the lack of genetic diversity. Having heterochromia iridum doesn’t affect a person or animal’s vision at all since it only affects the pigments in the iris and not the functional structure of the eye itself. In some cases, this condition could result from injury or disease later on in life.

Insanely Unique Animals that Made Us Do a Double Take
Caters

The Barn Owl

Barn owls, and all owls, are capable of doing strange things with their bodies. Because their orbital sockets are very shallow in their skulls, it means that their eyeballs can’t move. They can blink, but they cannot move up and down or side to side. That means that they compensate for this by moving their heads. Moreover, they can move their heads an impressive 270 degrees. That means that they can see almost everything around them just with a turn of their head. And they can even turn their heads upside down!

Advertisement
Advertisement