These creatures have developed unique looks, impressive superpowers, and some strange habits.
1. Glass frog
Most organisms hide their internal organs beneath multiple layers of protection such as skin, tissue, and bone. But what if these layers were see-through? The glass frog’s see-through skin shows its internal organs.
Looking at a glass frog from above, you might not notice anything out of the ordinary. But if you flip it over, you’ll see a small, fast-beating heart, a long red pulse, and a shriveled segment of intestine breaking down food. These amphibians have evolved to have extremely thin and translucent skin.
According to a study published June 9 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, while the thin skin of these frogs was fully visible, when light hit the frogs from above, Their silhouette becomes difficult to detect for predators.
These frogs live in the rainforests of Central and South America and spend a lot of time perching on the leaves of trees. Because frogs are surrounded by lush greenery, their vibrant green coating is ideal for camouflage. Meanwhile, their more transparent legs blur the outer contours of the body, making it difficult for predators to recognize the frog’s shape.
2. Wasps
The wasp found an ideal home inside the fig. Figs are essentially a bunch of small flowers, called inflorescences, that rely on wasps for pollination. In turn, the fleshy inflorescences provide a comfortable and safe home for the wasps during their very short life span.
According to the Dutch Insect Society, when wasps give birth, they have the ability to “sniff” receptive figs, or plants with flowers that are ready for pollination. Instinctively, wasps seek out the particular scent emanating from female fig flowers. Once they find the fig fruit, the wasps find their way into the soft, sweet flower through an opening at the “fruit” end of the fig.
Once inside, female wasps are protected and out of sight, and they can lay eggs. Wasps will never see the outside world again. Females die only 24 hours after laying eggs.
When the wasps hatch, the hatched males mate with the females, before digging their way out of the figs for the females. Male wasps spend their entire lives in figs and die shortly after creating the tunnel.
According to an article published in 2005 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this strange behavior has kept this wasp species alive for more than 60 million years. Fig trees give these insects thanks for their continued existence, as their movement from fig to fig spreads their pollen.
3. Fish walking
Mexican walking fish (Ambystoma mexicanum), also known as axolotls, are quirky creatures: These “fish” not only have protruding, spiky plumage, but they can also “walk”. When approaching the bottom of a lake or canal, they will pull their four legs out from the sides to crawl around their swampy habitat in Mexico City.
Although they look like fish, they are actually amphibians. Often amphibians begin life equipped with gills so they can breathe underwater until they reach adulthood and lose their gills, ready for life on land. But axolotls still carry their young and stay in the water.
When growing up to 30 cm long, they feed on small insects, worms, mollusks and crustaceans.
4. Pregnant male seahorse
The female seahorse may focus solely on egg production (leaving the rearing roles to the male), the seahorse may give birth in the morning and become pregnant again in the evening. This helps to increase the number of species for a better chance of survival. Male seahorses are pregnant for 10 to 25 days. According to Scientific American, for seahorses, pipefish and sea dragons – members of the family Syngnathidae, the males become pregnant. Seahorses and tubefish carry their young brood pouches inside, delivering nutrients such as energy-rich fats through the sac tissue, while sea dragon eggs simply stick to the outside of the male’s tail.
With males bearing offspring, the females also experience less energy depletion. Normally, females expend more energy producing eggs than males producing sperm. By transferring the responsibility of carrying the eggs to the male, energy needs are shared more evenly.
5. Bioluminescent fish to attract mates
Found mostly lurking in the darkest depths of the Atlantic and Antarctic Oceans, female angelfish look like nightmares: Light sticks hanging from their faces and terrifyingly large fangs protruding from the mouth. Male and female anglers are so diverse in appearance that at first glance you might think they are different species. Females are up to 60 times longer and half a million times heavier than their males; so, when scientists first observed the male with the female, they thought it was the mother and the fry.
According to New Scientist, when mating, a male angler acts like a parasite. Biting on the side of his chosen female, the tiny male fuses his body with that of the female so he can get the female’s nutrients by sucking blood. The male gets everything it requires without much effort, while its sole responsibility is to provide reproductive cells when the time is right. At that time, the male and female respectively drop their sperm and eggs into the water to fertilize.
6. Immortal jellyfish
At its largest, the adults of this jellyfish are still less than 5 mm across. These jellyfish were first discovered in 1883 in the Mediterranean Sea, but they were only called immortal jellyfish in the mid-1990s. Immortal jellyfish are found in warm waters around the world. . According to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), when injured or facing starvation, this jellyfish can press the “reset” button. With that reset, the adult jellyfish will revert back to their previous stage of development, in this case a tumor. Scientists think that the immortal jellyfish uses a process called genetic modification to induce rejuvenation. In this process, an adult cell that has become specialized for a certain tissue can transform into another type of specialized cell.
The researchers hope to figure out how the jellyfish completes its eternal life. The Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish genome being studied and decoded will be the first step towards finding the ‘immortal switch’ ‘.
