Animals you didn’t know existed

There are still many animals mankind has not yet discovered, but from the ones we’ve already seen there are some animals not like any other:

1. Giant Basket Star: This starfish lives among the British Virgin Islands reefs, where during the day, it curls up into a basket shape to defend itself. But at night it begins to feed on plankton by extending its branched feeding arms in a bowl-like shape. Then, it coils around its prey and its tiny hooks latch on to its pray preventing it from escape.

2. Umbrella Mouth Gulper Eel: The Umbrella Mouth Eel can open its mouth to giant proportions thus earning the name of Umbrella Mouth. The Eel also has the ability to stretch and expand its stomach according to the prey it’s hunting. A full-grown eel can grow up to one meter in length and will be able to take up prey 1.5 meters long.

3. Axolotl: The Axolotl is one of Mexico’s most famous neotenic salamanders. (Neotenic means that even as the animal ages, it still retains much of the same look as it had as a child). As an adult it can become as large as 18 inches, although its average size is 9.1 inches.

4. Star-Nosed Mole: At first glanced the Star-Nosed Mole seems like a regular mole with its head decapitated, but in truth the star on its nose is resembles another hand. Since it lives underground it has no use for eyes, so instead of eyes it has hand like mouth with 25,000 sensory receptors to feel for its food.

5. Yeti Crab: Have you every seen a hairy crab? In 2005 a six inch crab was discovered in the South Pacific Ocean at the depth of 7,200 feet. It had silky blond fur covering its legs and claws, but instead of being carnivorous it feeds on bacterial. It is almost completely blind in both eyes.

6. Giant Isopod: Most of you don’t know what an isopod looks like, but just imagine a three pound, 30 inch giant brown Woodlouse (Rollie Pollie). There are nine species of giant isopods throughout the deep waters of the Atlantic oceans. Just like a Woodlouse it can curl into a ball and it has two pairs of antennas. It can live up to 7,020 meters below the surface although 80% of the population lives between 1,198 to 2,400 ft below. They are carnivores who feed on dead and slow-moving prey.

Although it seems like we have already discovered every animal in the word, there are still an infinite amount of animals to find, and along the way we might find more oddities in these newly-discovered animals.



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Ryan Liu
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There are still many animals mankind has not yet discovered, but from the ones we’ve already seen there are some animals not like any other. We may know a lot of animals, but some we know are more different than others. Some have no eyes, some have giant mouths, and some are hairier than they should be.

1. Giant Basket Star: This starfish lives among the British Virgin Islands reefs, where during the day, it curls up into a basket shape to defend itself. But at night, it begins to feed on plankton by extending its branched feeding arms in a bowl-like shape. Then, it coils around its prey and its tiny hooks latch onto its prey preventing it from escape.

2. Umbrella Mouth Gulper Eel: The Umbrella Mouth eel can open its mouth to giant proportions, thus earning the name of “umbrella mouth.” The eel also has the ability to stretch and expand its stomach depending on the prey it’s hunting. A full-grown eel can grow up to one meter in length and is able to take up prey 1.5 meters long.

3. Axolotl: The axolotl is one of Mexico’s most famous neotenic salamanders. (Neotenic means that even as the animal ages, it still retains much of the same look as it had as a child). As an adult it can become as large as 18 inches, although its average size is 9.1 inches. It looks much like a tiny blue swimming lizard.

4. Star-Nosed Mole: At first glance the star-nosed mole seems like a regular mole with its head decapitated, but in truth the star on its nose resembles another hand. Since it lives underground it has no use for eyes; instead of eyes it has a hand-like mouth with 25,000 sensory receptors to feel for its food.

5. Yeti Crab: Have you ever seen a hairy crab? In 2005, a six inch crab called the Yeti Crab was discovered in the South Pacific Ocean at the depth of 7,200 feet. It has silky blond fur that cover its legs and claws, but instead of being carnivorous, it feeds on bacteria. It is almost completely blind in both eyes.

6. Giant Isopod: Most of you don’t know what an isopod looks like, but just imagine a three pound, 30 inch giant brown woodlouse (roly-poly). There are nine species of giant isopods throughout the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Just like a woodlouse it can curl into a ball and has two pairs of antennae. It can live up to 7,020 meters below the surface, although 80% of the population of giant isopods lives between 1,198 to 2,400 ft below. They are carnivores that feed on dead and slow-moving prey.

Although it seems like we have already discovered every animal in the word, there are still an infinite amount of animals to find, and along the way we might find more oddities in these newly-discovered animals. All animals are different from each other, but some are really different.


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Ryan Liu
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