Weird Animals - Tumblr Posts

Yo. Why’d I think a pheasant was a mammal??? That things a bird? Wacky absolutely wacky

Have any of you ever heard of the hummingbird moths we get in Britain?

So, I thought I saw a hummingbird last year. It was much bigger than a bug could be, I thought, and it hovered around flowers and looked like it had feathers.

I got pretty close but it was never still enough to see clearly. Then, when I told my parents they said "oh! it was probably a moth!" and I was baffled for a long time. Like, how could a moth look like and act so much like a hummingbird?

Until I googled "hummingbirds in the UK" and this fucker comes up:

Everyone, meet the hummingbird hawk-moth; one of the weirdest and coolest cases of convergent evolution on this planet.

This is the kinda thing I'd see in fiction and go "oooh cool, bug hummingbird! Wish we had those on earth!" But we do. We really do have them on earth!! Isn't that nuts?!?!?

Wind deers :] weird mimic-esque animals that look like wind turbines. they settle down in one spot and open their face panels during the day to absorb solar energy & they often camp out for weeks by windmill farms before moving on. People sort of just leave them alone when they show up

I've just lost myself for a couple of hours reading about siphonophores... I swear that before Tumblr, the only siphonophore I'd ever heard of was the classic Portugese Man o' War... Some of these critters use jet propulsion!

In short, siphonophores are colonial animals related to corals and jellyfish. They consist of a colony of connected, interdepentent individual zooids, which individually are often highly specialised (for instance, for feeding, reproduction, or propulsion). Because they are not just a single organism, they can get pretty big...

Top one is an Apolemia, not sure of the species, this one was spotted off the coast of Western Australia, estimated at over 100m long...

Second one, not sure but may be the same as the 6th one below...

Third one, not entirely sure but the bioluminescence looks similar to one spotted by the Hercules remotely operated vehicle in 2005, I believe...

Fourth one is Nanomia.

Fifth one from the top (Bell-like float at the end, with tentacles hanging from the stalk) is Praya dubia, the 'giant siphonophore', up to 50m long... Note that this is an illustration by a furry artist (Kolossus154 - note I do not believe that the siphonophore is a fursona, though I could be wrong), rather than a photo or video, still cool though

Sixth picture, can't ID but looks similar to one spotted by Nautlius live in 2014

Nautilus Live

Stunning Siphonophore Sighting

This beautiful colonial organism drifted past Hercules' cameras, and we followed it for as long as we could keep track. They are made up of

Believe that last one is Bathyphysa conifera (aka the Flying Spaghetti Monster...)

(please anyone, correct me if I'm wrong!)

siphonophores will never not freak me out. stop doing that its SCARY but also please don't ever stop doing that you ethereal marine cryptid

I was not aware this was a thing Okapi were capable of.

This is an okapi. It’s related to the giraffe. IT CAN LICK ITS OWN EYEBALL.

I have just became aware of these little guys, how was i not aware of their existence till now?!? (Its a chiton)

(Photo credit goes to nuytsia@Tas)

I just found out that the heart of a shrimp is located in its head

shrimp? you okay?? seriously are shrimps okay?????