A Tiny Dinosaur-like Creature

Here's one miniature alligator that looks like a shrunken dinosaur figurine. Alligator snapping turtles have spiky shells, which is the reason why they are often referred to as dinosaur-like creatures. Native to the United States, this little champ is a baby snapping turtle, but the species are the largest freshwater turtle.

Once fully grown, according to National Geographic, the reptile could weigh anywhere from 155 to 175 pounds. While a 400-pound snapping turtle was reportedly captured in 1937, the largest known is a 249-pound resident at the Chicago Shedd Aquarium. In the wild, their lifespan ranges from 11 to 45 years.

The Curious Case of the Hairless Chimp

It's expected to see Chimpanzees full of hair, but not this well-built guy. The resident of Twycross Zoo lost his hair after suffering from hereditary alopecia. The hairless chimp became an internet sensation after being filmed in a "fight" that attracted over a million views online. Zoo officials reported that it was displaying and not fighting normal behavior for the massive apes.

The apes are known to showcase dominance while making a lot of fuss and noise. They love to charge angrily and pound their chest, as the 2015 "King Kong" film depicts. As per Live Science, chimpanzees are one of our closest living relatives, sharing 98.7% of DNA with humans.

A Lighthouse Engulfed by a Massive Wave

This picture captured the precise moment when an enormous wave swept over a lighthouse and appeared to engulf it. A closer look reveals that a man is standing at the entrance to the lighthouse, and perhaps that makes the image even more ominous. Jean Guichard is the shutterbug behind this perfectly-timed photo, and he snapped the image in 1989.

Captured around Northern France, a low pressure originating from Ireland brought about gale-force winds resulting in the swelling waves. The waves, rising to a reported 20 to 30 meters, created the picture-perfect moment, and thankfully Guichard had his photography gear at hand.

The Sacred Oceanic Dolphin

Dotting a pronounced forehead and short snub nose, the Irrawaddy dolphin is primarily found in estuaries, close to sea coasts and rivers in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Bay of Bengal. They are known to squirt water when herding fish. Accidental entanglement in fishing gear significantly affects the mortality of mammals that have a lifespan of around 30 years.

Lao and Khmer people native to Southeast Asia and Cambodia respectively consider the aquatic mammals sacred animals. Like many other dolphins, they are well-known for their friendliness. The fish species have two stomachs that store food and the other for digestion.

The Burning Tree

They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, and an even rarer occurrence is capturing the natural phenomenon in action. Someone came across this real-life burning tree that had been struck by a natural electrical discharge leaving it burning from the inside out. Hollow trees can function as natural chimneys and accelerate the burning process.

Sometimes, there's little evidence that burning took place when observing a hollow tree at face value. To debunk the previous theory, lightning can strike the same place repeatedly. This is mostly the case if the said object is isolated and tall. For instance, lightning strikes the Empire State Building a reported 25 times annually.

Not your Average Eagle

Among the largest and most powerful raptors globally, the Harpy Eagle looks like a creature that has just stepped out of folklore. Native to South and Central America, Harpies use their sharp and powerful talons for hunting animals like monkeys, sloths, and opossums. The silent predator glides around like a stealth drone even though its wingspan reaches 6.5 feet.

The bird of prey can weigh up to 20 pounds and grows between 35-41 inches. Their talons measure around five inches. In addition to being Panama's national bird, it is also featured on the county's coat of arms. While eagles rule the skies, they also symbolize peace and freedom.

Yawn, It's Food O'Clock

We would be scared stiff being next to this humpback with its mouth wide open lest we fall prey. The enormous whale has overlapping fringed plates instead its teeth. Despite its sheer size, the cetacean isn’t the largest and that grand title goes to the Antarctic blue whale which just happens to also be the biggest animal on earth.

These marine creatures are known to migrate farther than all other mammals. The male kind is recognized for its haunting songs, a complex sequence of howls, cries, and moans as they try and attract potential mates. They mainly dine on krill, plankton, and small fish but don't eat for five to seven months yearly, living off fat reserves.

A Great Apes Play Date

This is one of those photos that should leave you feeling warm and fuzzy because it captures a baby chimp and gorilla playing together. Gorillas have an aggressive predisposition and they are also highly territorial. The two great ape species don’t get along and researchers have witnessed lethal fights between them.

That’s why this photo snapped by Michael Poliza is every bit heartwarming, and it reveals that perhaps the hostility is something that the great apes learn as they grow. The gorillas are the largest great apes and the world’s largest primates. Fully grown male gorillas weigh in at around 300 to 500 pounds.

A Minute Baby Swordfish

Look at this tiny, gorgeous baby swordfish; it's hard to imagine it can grow up to 1,200 pounds and 14 feet in length. The tiny tots are born with prickly scales and a short snout. Juan Levesque, a marine biologist who took the photo, said that while they may look defenseless, they are fighters from the first day, and they already eat other fish larvae.

The babies grow pretty fast, averaging around fourteen inches yearly. Females typically grow faster, reach a larger size than males, and live longer. At birth, the fish has a set of teeth, but they disappear and the sword starts to grow over time.

A Newborn Fox Bat Hitching a Belly Ride

This is an elevating sight of an Indian flying fox with its newborn clinging to its belly. Newborn fox bats can’t fly for several months and they rely on their mothers to get around. Over 60 species of flying foxes exist spread across the Pacific islands, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

While the flying fox is the largest bat species, the largest of the Old World fruit bats has a wingspan of 5.25 feet. The fox bats can’t echolocate, unlike other bats that rely on sound waves to perceive invisible or distant objects. Their diet is mostly vegetarian and they mate in upside-down positions.

Different Shades of Alligator

Nature can, at times, be genuinely mind-blowing. In the alligator family, there exists a type that has melanism, a condition that makes them morphologically dark because of high melanin deposits. On the other hand, there are albino gators that cannot produce melanin to save their lives.

Sadly many albinos do not get to live their entire lives. Too much sun burns their skin, and they are an easy catch in the wild because they do not camouflage well. Myth has it that looking into the eyes of these unique creatures will bring a streak of luck. The American Alligator is also a state reptile in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.

Strange Seabed Circles

Anyone who has watched M. Night Shymalan’s “Signs” must have gotten shivers up their spine just by looking at this photo. It looks like the seabed version of crop circles, and given that we are yet to explore 80% of the world’s waters, who know if they harbor otherworldly creatures?

Fortunately, there’s a plausible explanation for these formations and pufferfish are responsible for creating the strange circles. The males reportedly move their bodies and fins in a manner that leaves the circular formations on the seabed. Female puffers then examine the formations and if they fancy what they see, mating occurs.

Tippi Hedren’s Love for Big Cats

Tippi Hedren, who is Dakota Johnson’s grandma, is the original “tiger queen.” Johnson told the New York Post in 2020 that her grandma has since scaled down from keeping 60 tigers and lions to only 13 or 14. “The Birds” star even shared the screen with her big cats in the indie film “Roar.”

Filming the production wasn’t without incident, and there were 70 reported on-set injuries. Johnson’s mom, Melanie Griffith, got tongues wagging when she snapped a photo in 1971 while swimming in their Sherman Oaks family pool. What made the photo even more iconic was how it captured her playfully interacting with Neil, one of their massive lions.

Whiskers to the Rescue

Seals are born with highly sensitive whiskers packed with nerve endings that enable them to hunt, even during poor visual conditions. These specially shaped whiskers help the marine mammals detect any disturbances that other creatures leave as they move through the waters. The wavy and irregular whiskers hold steady as their owners swim.

Whiskers also come in handy when the animals want to examine or touch something. Scientists continue investigating how the fish convert whisker vibration into the target location. Most seals can sleep underwater, and they only go to the land to escape predators like sharks and whales, feed, mate and give birth.

The Unicorns of the Sea

From the Lochness monster to Minotaurs; mythical creatures have a special place in our hearts. It’s implied that the Sphinx and other similar fabled beasts don’t exist, or for those that once walked the Earth, they’ve long been extinct. Narwhals fell in the grey area, having been considered mythical creatures that resemble unicorns.

That’s until they were discovered in the Arctic and tied to the illustrations created by the Olaus Magnus in 1555. The creatures have long tusks protruding from their heads, hence the reason they are dubbed the unicorns of the sea. Their tusks are as long as 10 feet and in the real sense, it’s a single tooth.

Eye Tricks

Is this a tiny dinosaur we are looking at? Obviously not, but the resemblance is uncanny. The Natural History Museum reports that some bird species evolved from meat-eating dinosaurs known as theropods. The oldest bird fossils are around 150M years old.

The fowls had large snouts, very sharp teeth that transitioned into beaks, and not much going on between the ears. The feathered friends evolved in multiple ways in a bid to survive modern habitats. It is said that their ability to fly, size, and the fact that they could eat different foods allowed them to survive longer than the extinct dinosaurs.

The Herbivorous Climbers

Search for “Alpine ibex defies gravity” on YouTube to see this incredible gravity-defying sight in action. Professor Brian Cox captured the incredible occurrence for the BBC’s docu-series “Forces of Nature.” The particular clip showcased mountain goats scaling up the walls of a vertical dam in Italy to get to the salty stones.

Salt sediments dissolved in water are deposited on the dam’s walls, and in turn, it provided much-needed sustenance for the herbivorous climbers. The ibex is a wild goat species that reside in the European mountains Their hooves feature rubbery pads, much like the soles on shoes, allowing them to maintain a strong grip when scaling up vertical walls.

An Upclose Encounter with a Mola Mola

The Ocean sunfish is one enormous marine creature, and this photo of a diver taken next to one puts its sheer size into perspective. Weighing in at  540 to 2,205 pounds and stretching out to 5.9 feet, the sunfish are amongst our planet's heaviest-known bony fish.

The Ocean sunfish is considered a weird ocean inhabitant,  starting from its appearance to its shapeshifting abilities. With the third discovered in 2017, three species of the Mola genus exist.  The Mola Mola, which inhabits temperate waters, is the largest, and the southern ocean sunfish, Mola ramsayi, prefers the waters below the equator.

The Two-inch Snail Shell

Well, here is exhibit A. Also called the horse conch, this is Florida's state shell. It is the second-largest living snail globally and the largest in North America. The invertebrate animal boasts of a distinct shell that grows up to two feet lengthwise. The shell is orange when it is younger, and adults have a white or paler salmon hue.

The snail in this magnificent shell is brick red and can weigh up to 11 pounds when fully grown. The slow-moving creatures can be seen with various barnacles and worms attached, making the shells appear more enticing. The carnivorous predators eat tulip snails, clams, and lightning whelks.

The Tale of the Bladerunner

The Bladerunner whale got its name from the 11-inch incisions running along its left side. There are also similar scars on its right tail fluke, and the Humpback whale got the incisions after an encounter with a propeller in 2001. Two decades after the incident, the Bladerunner was spotter there around the Tasman Penninsula off the Cape Huay coastline.

Rosalind Butt, a New South Wales whale-watching business owner, told ABC that she had spotted the Bladerunner twice. The first was in 2009 and her husband noted that it looked like a zebra. When she saw the Humpback again in 2013, she had a calf with her.

Mom is the Best Teacher

What a heart-warming sight. We can only assume that the mamma wolf is teaching her young ones how to howl. The social animals howl as a means of communication. They use the sounds to tell their pack members about their location, show affection, or scare off rivaling packs or lone wolves from their territories.

A wolf's howl can travel up to 10 miles. The Wolf Conservation Center states that each coyote's close relative has a unique voice with its distinctive feature allowing family members to identify one another. A chorus howl is when a pack howls simultaneously, and it often helps them mark and maintains the large territories they are known for.

A Rainbow Killer Whale is Here

In 2018, a killer whale, also known as Orca, was spotted carrying a dead calf for about 17 days. The calf died after birth, and the mum was seen pushing it through the waters for about 1000 miles, often diving deep to retrieve it each time it fell. In 2020, she got the chance to become a mum again after scientists saw a calf swimming next to Orca.

The kid named Tahlequah was seen in waters bordering British Columbia and the US state of Washington. The birth of the new addition brought hope to the endangered species. Female killer whales usually breed for 25 years, getting four-six surviving offspring in a lifetime.

Just In Case you've Always Wondered How a Kangaroo Foot Looks Like

Kangaroos belong to a family known as "big foot" or Macropus. The mammals can leap up to nine meters in one bound and travel over 48 kilometers per hour. Their distinct appearance features muscular legs, heavy and oversized hind paws, small forepaws, and a stout and long tail.

Apart from the tree kangaroos, the other species have five toes, each clawed and curved, used for fighting, grabbing, grooming, eating, and keeping themselves cool by smearing saliva on their bodies. On the other hand, the larger hind paws act as an alarm that warns other herbivores of danger. When a mob is in danger, they beat their feet, immediately alerting other marsupials.

The Great White in Comparison to the Extinct Megalodon

For centuries, scientists have stumbled upon heaps of megalodon teeth across the globe. They were often called tongue stones, and people thought they were the tips of a dragon’s tongue. The megalodon teeth were shrouded in myth, and folks believed that they could cure various ailments or function as luck charms.

That’s until scientists studied them and revealed that the teeth belonged to the extinct sharks. Based on computer renderings, the megalodons resembled the great white sharks but were much bigger. The photo above reveals just how big they were by showing the contrast between a great white and a megalodon’s jaw.

Moroccan Climbing Goats

When visiting southwestern Morocco it’s not uncommon to come across hordes of goats. Only that instead of foraging for food on the ground, you’ll often find them perched on top of trees, much like what’s seen in this photo. Morocco is a mostly dry country and with scarce vegetation, the hardy ruminants adapted to scaling up argan trees to search for food.

Farmers even encourage the domesticated creatures to feed off the trees because they can’t digest the argan nuts. The farmers then collect the nuts excreted by the goats, and perhaps it’s worth mentioning that they are cleaned before being ground up to produce argan oil.

The Same Whale 35 Years Later

Some photographers have all the luck. Picture this: the first image of the injured whale was taken in 1985 in Nayarit, and the second pic, a replica, was shot in 2020 at Los Cabos. While it is awe-inspiring, it is no surprise because the humpback can live up to 90 years.

The baleen whale can eat up to 1.4 metric tons of food daily. They also grow up to 60 feet long and 80,000 pounds. The whales are active, breaching out of the water, twirling underwater, and slapping surfaces with tails and fins. The mammals also record-long migrations, with some populations swimming over 8K kilometers between feeding and breeding grounds.

Lion Versus Giraffe, the Tooth Lost.

When asked which animal would win in a fight between a giraffe and a lion, most people would be quick to say the lion. Nature, at times, however, can be pretty unpredictable. The photograph above shows a hurt lion whose tooth was surprisingly knocked off by a giraffe kick.

The graceful creature's kick is strong enough to disable or kill a predator. It is one of the reasons you will not find safari guides getting too close to the tallest terrestrial animals. Professionals state that the hoofed mammals do not kick out of aggression but when scared or defending themselves.

Flashback of Jaws

This stunning picture captured by a British cage diver conjures up the image of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic “Jaws.” Captured around the waters of West Mexico, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the image that inspired the “Jaws” poster. Roger Kastel designed the iconic image for Peter Benchley’s paperback edition of the same-titled novel that inspired the movie.

Kastel drew inspiration from a great white diorama found at the American Museum of Natural History. The female swimmer at the top is based on a model who posed for  Kastel’s sketch for an ad published in Good Housekeeping. She agreed to stay for an extra 30 minutes, and she posed for the “Jaws” image standing on top of a stool.

An American Buffalo Survives a Lightning Strike

There are once-in-a-lifetime moments that slide by unnoticed but you can strike out a bison getting struck by lightning from that list. If not for this photo taken in 2013, perhaps it would remain one of those unanswered questions about the universe that haunt some folks.

Impressively, the bovine survived the ordeal and went about its life roaming around the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa.
The American buffalo known as Sparky was in the woods for a while and wasn’t expected to survive and the Refuge decided to leave it up to nature. Before getting struck by lightning, Sparky left his legacy behind by fathering three calves.

A Beached Angler Fish

A fascinating fish found deep in the ocean was found on a beach in California. Known as an Angler fish, this is a sea creature we do not want to look at twice. It comes with sharp teeth and a body that looks like a football. The black-colored creature must be one of the ugliest animals on earth.

People in Japan and Korea consume anglerfish meat, but sadly, they may be endangered soon. Their mouths are also giant as they extend over the entire head circumference. They can also be fast swimmers if they want to, especially when they sense danger.

Snake on the Roof

Picture this, you are having a quiet day indoors when a noise on the roof catches your attention. You walk outside the house to the sight of what’s depicted in this image. That describes what a rural Palmwoods homeowner went through, and fortunately, they shared the photographic evidence.

Netizens chimed in and some identified the bird as a magpie while others thought it looked more like a currawong. Given that the image originated from a resident of eastern Australia and currawongs are native to the region, it’s more than likely that it’s the passerine bird. The homeowners called the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers for help.

This is One Brave Seagull!

This photo gives a different meaning to the fight-or-flight concept. A brave seagull is depicted attempting to help his mate captured by an eagle. Despite what seems like a futile attempt, we could all learn a thing about courage from this seagull. Bald eagles weigh as much as 17 pounds and are known for being ferocious hunters.

Eagles have a long lifespan, and they are known to live for 25 to 40 years. They also “lock talons” for life with the courtship process involving a ritual that sees males and females soar to high altitudes. The loved-up pairs then lock talons and proceed to perform cartwheel-like motions towards the Earth.

Baby Elephant Stuck in a Manhole

This baby elephant got itself in quite a pickle after falling inside a manhole. The incident happened in Thailand’s Rayong province just after the young animal’s handler took it for a walk. It’s not something you see every day, and even sadder, the elephant looks like it had tears in its eye.

The poor calf stayed wedged in the hole for three hours, and rescuers had to bring in bulldozers to widen the hole so that they could get the elephant out of the tight spot. In Thailand, elephants are trained to move and carry heavy loads. They also ferry tourists going on jungle treks.

An Elephant  Squishes a Car

A video went viral in 2019 showing an elephant squishing a car. Taken at the Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, the enormous land mammal named Deu sidled up to the vehicle and started rubbing against it. The elephant then slumped its weight on the automobile, as if getting ready to move it.

The elephant's actions sent the driver into full panic mode, eventually he managed to drive away. Thankfully, the driver and a passenger escaped uninjured with only damages caused to the vehicle. Kanchit Sarinpawan, the park’s director, explained that Deu is a friendly elephant who likes getting up-and-close to tourists.

A Beached Moray Eel and its Final Meal

This 4-foot moray eel found washed up at a Cook Islands beach died while having its last meal. The eel ensnared a pufferfish which had the last laugh by inflating itself, and in turn, the scale-less fish ended up getting lodged up its predator’s throat. Pufferfish are known to inflate up to three times, hence the name.

The poor swimmers rely on the ability to puff up as a defense mechanism. When threatened, they take in massive amounts of air or ingest plenty of water to increase their body size. Puffing up turns them into massive ball-like creatures, and it must have been what happened when this eel attacked the puffer.

The Skeleton of a Pufferfish

Pufferfish are quite interesting creatures, beyond their ability to inflate up to three times. 120 pufferfish species exist and the majority are marine-water fishes. They are a delicacy in Japan and China but given that they are toxic to predators, including humans, only trained chefs can masterfully handle the fish.

The picture depicts what a pufferfish skeleton looks like, and their spines are on full display. Unlike most other fish that have scales, puffers have spines that are not visible until they get inflated. They contain tetrodotoxin which is a neurotoxin said to be 1200 times more potent than cyanide.

A Hyena Taking on a Pack of Wild Dogs

Brawls constantly happen in the wild, and in this case, this incredible photo-documented one between wild dogs and a hyena. Known for their ferocious temperament, rarely fight for their food and mostly plunder their meals A pack of hyenas can expel lions and there are instances when they kill cubs.

On the contrary, hyenas are quite friendly to humans and even interact with them. Tribes living close to hyenas forge such friendships by leaving bones around for the feliform carnivoran mammals. In some accounts, packs of the carnivores formed circles of protection around humans to shield them from other beasts.

Birds Making the Most out of a Pike's Carcass

This image, while gnarly, backs up Dr. Ian Malcom’s sentiments in “Jurassic Park” that life will always find a way. A flock of birds converted a northern pike’s carcass into their nest. It leaves you wondering how the pike ended up impaled in the tree. Perhaps it happened when flooding occurred or the carnivorous predator simply leaped out of the water to its death.

Pikes are agile and excellent swimmers. On average, they swim between 8 to 10 miles per hour. They are also masters of camouflage thanks to their uncanny ability to stay perfectly still, when hunting prey, for lengthy periods. They prey on worms, small fish, frogs, and just about anything else that moves.

The World's Strongest Tree

Floods are natural hazards that wreak havoc and leave trails of distraction in their wake. This photo reveals the aftermath of one such overflow, and it also proves that this is one strong tree. For the shipping container to wrap around the tree that way, it must have been a catastrophic flood as well.

Flash floods send walls of water rising 10 to 20 feet high, after frozen grounds and snow melts in the spring. Torrential rains, runoffs, and mudflows also cause flooding in different regions across the globe. Low-lying areas, downstream locations, and areas near water are particularly flood-prone.

Meet Roge, the World's Ripped Kangaroo

This is Roger, a ripped red kangaroo that once gave most gym rats a run for their money. Roger lived at The Kangaroo Sanctuary in Australia until he died in 2018 at the age of 12. Standing at 6 feet 7 inches tall, he tipped the scales at 200 pounds. When photos of the roo made the rounds online, they were flooded with words of admiration.

Roger wasn’t buff simply for the aesthetics but he put his muscles into use as a ferocious fighter. Red kangaroos are the world’s largest living marsupials, and the males establish dominance by boxing. Therefore, it isn’t suprizing to encounter male red roos that have similar athletic physiques.

The Friendly Wolf Eel

With a name like the wolf eel, these grotesque creatures strike fear while roaming around the seas. Despite their monstrous jaws, the wolf eels are gentle giants. The marine animals are even cuddle with divers on the occasion. The marine inhabitant grows up to 8 feet in length, and to put it into perspective, the one pictured is a young eel.

The long skinny animals are fish belonging to the wolf fish family, and not exactly true eels. They feed in hard-shelled invertebrates and rarely bite divers. The young spent their initial years out in the open waters while mature wolf eels take shelter in underwater caves or coral reefs.

The Moment of Terror, a Bobak Marmot Faces off with a Tibetan Sand Fox

Yongqing Bao won the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for taking this photo. Awarded by the London National History Museum, Bao’s photo captures the moment of terror when a bobak marmot faced off with a Tibetan sand fox. Receiving the award made him the first Chinese photographer to receive the honor.

Bao explained that he spotted the fox lying in wait by a marmot’s burrow. He got his camera ready and magic happened when the fox went in for the kill. Two other mamorts attempted to rescue their companion but in the end, the fox emerged the victor.

A Coyote Caught with a Squirrel in its Mouth

This is a coyote caught savoring its meal, only that it happens to be a live squirrel that had just been scurrying around moments before the photo was taken. While coyotes are typically pack hunters, they occasionally break from the group when going after small prey like squirrels.

However, when the meal in question is a deer or larger prey, the Coyotes share several similarities with wolves, and even domestic dogs. For instance, they are territorial and urinate to mark their area. They are also known to breed with domestic dogs, and February is their mating season. Pups can go out on solo hunts by the time they are six months old.

A Chick with Four Legs

Even with four legs, this chick is still irresistibly cute. The genetic birth defect is known as polymelia, which is defined by the growth of additional limbs, more than the expected number. In this case, this chick grew an additional pair. Just like humans, chickens with polymelia can lead normal, healthy lives even with the extra limbs.

Chickens have quite the memory. They can distinguish 100 or more different faces of their species and also recognize human beings. The domesticated birds can perceive colors, iridescent hues, and ultraviolet rays. Chicks are also great at making friends, and they form strong interspecies bonds and even grieve the loss of other chickens.

An Impala Wears its Scars with Pride

On the surface, the marks on this impala’s body don’t look irregular until you realize that they are healing scars. This antelope survived a lion attack, something that doesn’t happen too often in the wild. Half the newborn impalas don’t make it past a few weeks of life because they fall prey to the king of the jungle or other wildlife predators.

Known for their agility and speed, impalas run at 16 miles per second. They are also fleet runners and leap up to 9 feet high. Females, known as ewes, can delay giving birth for up to a month in unfavorable weather conditions.