The animal kingdom is simply extraordinary, filled with creatures of all shapes, sizes, colors, and forms. From the mighty elephant to the humble squirrel, animals amaze us with their unique looks and features, time and time again.
But not all of them can be as graceful as a swan, as beautiful as a horse, or as majestic as a lion. In fact, some of them look a little bit silly, almost like Mother Nature made them in a bit of a rush! Here are 65 of the weirdest animals out there.
1) Jorunna Parva – The Sea Bunny
Affectionately known as ‘sea bunnies’, these funny little sea slugs are marine molluscs found in the waters around Africa and Asia. They’re funny little things, with those two little ear-like structures (scientifically known as rhinophores) looking just like bunny ears. They use them to scan the surrounding environment to find food and mates.
2) The Striped Possum Has A Funny Face
Striped possums are quite closely related to sugar gliders. They’re members of the marsupial family and they always have three white stripes running along their bodies, creating a Y-shape on their heads.
3) Camouflage Isn’t The Strong Suit Of The Golden Pheasant
The golden pheasant, also known as the Chinese pheasant, is quite a looker! The males are super colorful, with golden-yellow crests, orange ruffs, and plenty of red, blue, and green bits all over their bodies too. They definitely stand out in a crowd!
4) Nature Got Bored And Made A Bongo
Most types of antelope are pretty similar. They all tend to have quite plain fur patterns and simple bodily forms, but the bongo is totally different. It has patches on its cheeks, stripes all over its body, and huge horns too.
5) Colorful Sarada Lizards
Sarada lizards have these beautiful, colored fans beneath their throats. They actually become more colorful and vivid as the males reach sexual maturity, enticing any lazy lizards in the area to come over and say hello.
6) The White Faced Saki Stands Out
The funny-looking white-faced saki immediately stands out when compared to other primates due to its strangely-shaped white face. Only the males have this unique aspect, whereas the females tend to have darker faces that blend well with the rest of their fur.
7) Bearded Reedlings Just Look Like Little Blobs
The bearded reedling almost looks like a little squirt of whipped cream, sitting on a tree branch. These adorable little muffin-like creatures are super cute and only ever pair off with a single partner for their entire lives.
8) A Monkey With Almost No Nose
The black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys stand out for the fact that they have no nasal bones at all, giving their faces a totally different look when compared to many other monkeys. They were more or less unknown until the 1990s and can only be found in a certain part of China.
9) Is That A Pokemon? No, It’s A Boomer
Greater prairie chickens, also known as boomers, are found in North America. They’re quite rare nowadays, but were very common many years ago. They really stand out with their inflatable orange neck patches and orange feathers over the eyes.
10) These African Cows Do Something Different With Their Horns
The Ankole-Watusi African cow might not look too strange at first, but wait until you learn more about it. Like many cows, these ones have horns. Only they aren’t used for defense! Instead, these cows use their horns to cool down and they’re always warm to the touch.
11) A Teeny Tiny Unicorn Katydid
Unicorns are real, after all! Only they’re much tinier and definitely not as pretty as we imagined. The unicorn katydid is a member of the Orthoptera family and has a single long horn protruding from the top of its head.
12) No, It’s Not A Feather, It’s A Sea Pen
Sea pens look just like little colorful flowers bobbing around in the ocean. They were named due to their resemblance to old quill pens, which were made from feathers.
13) A Snake With Horns
The Saharan horned viper, also known as the horned desert viper, is a very venomous and dangerous species of viper found in Africa. It stands out from other slithery serpents due to the little horns on its head. It can’t really use them to attack, but they make it look almost like a dragon!
14) Von Der Decken’s Sifaka Are Too Cute
Von der Decken’s sifaka are found only in Madagascar. They live in forests and are great climbers. They stand out due to the fact that their fur is mostly white, with black bits only on their faces and lears. It almost looks like they’re dressed up like sheep! They were named in honor of the first European man to try and climb Mt Kilimanjaro.
15) A Stick Or An Insect?
Stick insects definitely deserve a spot on this list. They’re amazing at fitting in with their environment, but really, they’re just sticks with legs.
16) The Santa Monkey
The De Brazza’s monkey is named after an explorer called Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. They have a unique fur coloring that makes it seem like they’re walking around with big, bushy, white beards, just like Santa Claus.
17) A Bird With A Beard
The male long-wattled umbrellabird definitely doesn’t look quite like anything else on Earth. It has a huge waffle of feathers around the throat area that actually dangles down when the bird is resting, but can be retracted when it needs to fly.
18) Tridacna Have Curvy Shells
Tridacna are marine molluscs, like clams, with folded shells that form in wave-like shapes. They live in coral reefs and can survive for centuries! One of their nicknames is ‘boring clam’.
19 Honduran White Bats Are Tiny Fig Fans
The Honduran white bat is a type of bat with beautiful white fur and very funny features. It has a nose and ears that almost look like little leaves. It has no tail either and it lives almost entirely on figs.
20) Leaf Tail Geckos Have The Perfect Camouflage
The leaf-tail gecko definitely knows how to blend in with its environment. It can easily be mistaken for a simple leaf, allowing it to catch little insects unawares and gobble them up.
21) The Southern Viscacha Is A Mixture Of Species
The southern viscacha is almost like a blend between a rabbit and a chinchilla. It has a huge, bushy tail, big front teeth, tall ears, and massive hind legs used for bounding across great distances very quickly.
22) Gharials Aren’t So Scary
If you spotted a gharial swimming towards you, you might freak out. They look a little like crocodiles or alligators, but they’re far less deadly. They have super narrow jaws that are only really suited to eating fish, so they can’t really handle big mammals like humans.
23) A Very Bright Bird
This bird has one of the best names around. It’s called the Andean cock-of-the-rock and is the national bird of Peru! Weirdly enough, the male’s body is totally black, but the head is bright orange in order to attract females.
24) The Radiated Tortoise Has Such A Pretty Shell
The radiated tortoise is one of the most beautiful tortoises in existence. It looks just like any other tortoise at first glance, but when you look closer at the shell, you can see lots of distinctive yellow lines and patterns that make it super pretty. The oldest radiated tortoise made it to 188 years old, but this species is critically endangered.
25) A Tomato Or A Frog?
Say hello to the tomato frog! It’s pretty easy to guess how they got their name. They always have a distinctive bright red color, just like a ripe tomato. You definitely don’t want to try eating one though. They can secrete a very toxic substance to keep predators away.
26) The Critically Endangered Red Ruffed Lemur
Found only in Madascar, these funny-looking lemurs immediately catch the eye due to their red ruffs and thick, bushy tails. They’re very clean creatures and can spend hours each day grooming themselves and others.
27) Indri Is The Biggest Lemur Around
Indri is the name of this type of lemur. It’s the biggest lemur known to man and is famous for its fuzzy ears and big green eyes, which almost make it look like a teddy bear brought to life.
28) The Bearded Barbet Is One Bristly Bird
The bearded barbet is an African bird in the Lybiidae family. They’re pretty birds, with red and black plumage, but their most distinctive feature is those little black bristles, that almost look like whiskers, sticking out all around the beak.
29) Cotton-Top Tamarins Always Look Like Old Timers
The cotton-top tamarin almost always looks old, due to the thick tuft of white fur sitting on top of its head. They have almost no fur on the face, which also adds to their unique aesthetic. One of the funny habits of this type of tamarin is showing its butt to others when it wants to be left alone.
30) The Spectacled Eider Seems To Be Wearing Glasses
The spectacled eider is a type of sea duck that lives in Alaska and Siberia. It was named due to the unique pattern around its eyes that make it seem to be wearing glasses.
31) The Shoebill Is One Funny-Looking Bird
The shoebill, also known as the whalehead, is famed for its massive bill that almost looks like a shoe sticking out of the front of its face. At certain angles, the unique bodily form of this bird also makes it seem like a little child wearing a bird suit!
32) The One And Only Blobfish
Voted the ugliest animal on Earth, the blobfish is an incredible example of seemingly lazy design on the part of Mother Nature. As the name indicates, it really does look just like a big slimy blob.
33) The Superb Bird Of Paradise Is Such A Show Off
With a name like ‘Superb Bird of Paradise’, you already know that this little guy thinks pretty highly of himself! The males of this species have bright blue throat shields that can be extended and used in mating dances to attract females.
34) A Furry Crab
This is the yeti crab, also known under its more scientific name of kiwaidae. They’re named in honor of the legendary yeti due to the fact that they have furry-looking claws and bodies, all covered in bristles.
35) The Zebra Duiker Needs To Make Its Mind Up
The zebra duiker almost looks like it can’t decide whether it wants to have stripes or not! Half of its body is covered with them, but the rest isn’t, creating this weird creature that looks a little like a Photoshop of two different animals blended together.
36) What Big Eyes You Have!
The Sunda colugo, also known as the Sunda flying lemur, actually isn’t a lemur at all and doesn’t fly. It can glide between trees, however, and looks very unique with its massive eyes, used for seeing in the dark, and its spotty fur pattern.
37) What A Weird Nose
Found only in North America, the star-nosed mole is quite a creepy creature. It’s super tiny, about the size of a hamster, and is named of its weirdly-shaped nose that has thousands of little sensory receptors to help it get around and avoid danger.
38) Cat-Dog
The fossa has been quite a controversial creature among animal experts, as many of them don’t agree on how it should be classified. It clearly has cat-like characteristics, but it also has some other features that are definitely not very catty at all. It’s almost like someone tried to mix a cat and a dog together.
39) Nightmare Creatures
Lampreys are the stuff that nightmares are made of. They basically look like long tubes filled with sharp teeth. There are many different types of lamprey, but they all have similar traits and scary feeding habits. They latch on to other fish and suck their blood.
40) It’s A Painful Life For The Babirusa
The babirusa is a very odd looking creature with two sets of tusks. One set sticks out of the sides of the mouth, but the other set actually sticks through the roof of the mouth and juts out of the middle of the head, piercing the animal’s flesh and curving around towards its eyes.
41) Dugongs Are Strictly Vegetarian
The dugong is a member of the Sirenia family and is the only exclusivley herbivorous marine mammal on Earth. It has no dorsal fin and looks like a big bundle of blubber, swimming slowly along and dining on little bits of seagrass whenever it can find them.
42) The Gerenuk Walks Like A Person
Gerenuks are long-necked antelopes found in Africa. They have a funny way of feeding, often standing on their hind legs like a person in order to reach up and munch on leaves and grasses that are located high off the ground.
43) Irrawaddy Dolphins Have Unusually Shaped Blowholes
Located around Southeast Asia, especially in the Irrawaddy River, for which it is named, the Irrawaddy dolphin is a cute marine mammal with a totally curved head and a U-shaped blowhole.
44) Naked Mole Rats Are Tougher Than They Look
The naked mole rat is a fascinating creature. With no fur whatsoever, you might think that this animal must live a cold and painful life. In reality, naked mole rats have no real pain sensitivty in their skin and have an amazing ability to regulate their own body temperature, allowing them to survive in harsh conditions with ease.
45) The Patagonian Mara Is A Mix Of Dog And Rabbit
The Patagonian mara looks like someone decided to mix up features from dogs and rabbits. It has the basic form of a rabbit, but with smaller ears, a stronger and flatter snout, and a larger body.
46) Dumbo Octopuses Have Ear-Like Fins
The dumbo octopus, also known as grimpoteuthis, is a type of octopus named after the classic Disney elephant due to its ear-like fins sitting over each eye. The biggest ever dumbo octopus was almost six feet long!
47) The Tufted Deer Looks Like A Vampire
The males of the tufted deer look a little eerie due to their huge, protruding canine teeth. They’re located in China and Myanmar, but are under threat due to hunting and habitat destruction.
48) The Maned Wolf Isn’t Actually A Wolf
The biggest canind in all of South America, maned wolves look like foxes mixed with wolves, but aren’t actually either one of those things! They’re part of an exclusive family called chrysocyon, which translates to ‘golden dog’.
49) Aye-Ayes Are Much More Than Just A Funny Name
This odd-looking creature is called an aye-aye. It’s a type of lemur with super long fingers and teeth that never stop growing. They also have extra long middle fingers, used for plucking grubs out of holes in trees.
50) The Pink Fairy Armadillo Is Simply Adorable
Located in Argentina, the pink fairy armadillo, also known as the pichiciego, is famed for its yellowish fur, tiny eyes, and uniquely pink shell. It dines on bugs and plants and is super sensitive, threatened by even the slightest changes in its environment.
51) The Critically Endangered Cantor’s Giant Soft Shelled Turtle
There sadly aren’t many Cantor’s giant softshell turtles left in the wild. As their name indicates, these turtles have soft shells and look very soft and squidgy on the outside, so they don’t have too much protection against predators. They spend most of their time underwater and only come up for air a couple of times per day.
52) The Goblin Shark Is A Living Fossil
As its name suggests, the goblin shark seems like it belongs in the fantasy worlds of writers like J. R. R. Tolkien, but it really does exist here on Earth, very deep down in the sea. It’s known as a ‘living fossil’ since it’s the only surviving member of a family that has been around for over 125 million years.
53) The Lush Lips Of The Red-Lipped Batfish
This little fish looks like it swam into some lipstick while roaming around the ocean floor, but that’s actually how it looks naturally. It’s not a great swimmer and actually tends to use its fins to walk around, rather than swimming.
54) The Gobi Jerboa Has Huge Hind Legs
The Gobi jerboa almost looks like a little hamster at first glance, except with a massive tail and huge hind legs! It uses the legs and tail to get around with amazing speed, but it really seems to be very weirdly proportioned.
55) The Japanese Spider Crab Has Crazily Long Legs
The Japanese spider crab has the longest legs of any arthropod on Earth. They can measure up to 18 feet from claw to claw and are considered quite a delicacy in Japan. Overfishing has actually put this species under threat, and efforts are underway to try and protect it.
56) The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth Is A Very Strong Flier
Hummingbird hawk-moths are found all throughout the Old World and are a kind of moth that look more like super small hummingbirds. They even make a humming sound just like them as they fly and feed on flowers too.
57) The Lowland Streaked Tenrec Communicates With Its Spines
The lowland streaked tenrec is a fascinating little creature. Found in Madascar, it’s covered in spines and actually uses them to make high pitched sounds that are used to communicate with other members of the species.
58) Scientists Are Baffled By Umbonia Spinosa
The umbonia spinosa is a creature that still confuses many scientists. Related to cicadas, these bugs use their little beaks to penetrate plant stems and suck out the sap inside, but nobody can figure out why they have this weird body shape.
59) The Atretochoana Has Quite An Unfortunate Appearance
There are no prizes for guessing how atretochoana got its number one nickname of ‘penis snake’. It’s one of the only lungless tetrapods in the world and was first spotted by explorer Sir Graham Hales in the Brazilian rainforest.
60) The Panda Ant Is Actually A Wasp
The funny black and white panda ant was named due to the fact that it has similar coloring to a panda and the same body shape as an ant. It’s actually a type of wasp with a super painful sting, so be sure to run in the opposite direction if you see one.
61) Giant Isopods Look Like Aliens
It almost seems like the giant isopod must have crash-landed here from another galaxy! They’re very strange creatures to look at and they’re a bit of a pest for fishermen as they often prey on fish that have been caught by trawlers.
62) The Pacu Fish Has Human-Like Teeth
If you put the teeth of a pacu fish and the teeth of a typical person side by side, it’s actually very hard to tell the difference! They look like regular fish on the outside, but when they open their mouths, we can see those human-style teeth, perfect for cutting and grinding up their food.
63) The Venezuelan Poodle Moth Is A Mystery
This weird, fluffy moth was only discovered in 2009 and no specimens have actually been caught or investigated, so we don’t know much about them except for the fact that they look like aliens or mini monsters.
64) The Colorful But Deadly Mantis Shrimp
Mantis shrimp are also known as prawn killers and sea locusts. They’re highly efficient aquatic predators, found living in tropical waters, but researchers don’t know too much about them. Despite their bright colors and weird appearances, these little critters are very good at hiding.
65) Glaucus Atlanticus Is Too Weird For Words
The glaucus atlanticus is also known as the blue dragon and really looks like a mythological creature or something that belongs in the world of Harry Potter. It’s a type of sea slug found in warm ocean waters, proving that some of the weirdest-looking creatures on Earth live under the sea.
What a weird world we live in! There truly are some incredible creatures out there, many of which we still know little about. And the crazy part is that there are still vast areas of land and sea that remain unexplored, so there might be even more abnormal animals out there, just waiting to be found. Which one did you think was the oddest of all?