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Weird Animals
Topic Started: Aug 19 2013, 04:34 PM (34,612 Views)
Ignacio
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Ex Corrupt Staff

So i was reading about this snake in facebook page called "Evolution" and i wanted to share it with you because i found it to be really interesting and i never seen it before. I was going to post this in the news and info section, but it isn't really a world new, so i figured this section was more appropriate for it. Then i thought, why not having a topic for this kind of things? So if you have info on a weird, strange or peculiar animal that you want to share, post it here.

I began with....

Pseudocerastes urarachnoides
The Spider-tailed viper

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Quote:
 
Fears of snakes and spiders are among the two most common phobias reported. For those who suffer from them, the spider-tailed viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) must seem like a nightmare incarnate.

While this unusual snake was described in 2006, researchers first encountered a specimen back in the 1960s. Given the strangeness of its tail and the lack of other similar vipers, it was assumed to be a tumour or some other deformity. It was only with the discovery of other spider-tailed vipers that scientists realised this was an unknown species.

The hypothesis that the tip of the tail functions as a lure has been supported by laboratory observations. When a chick was placed in the same enclosure as the viper, the viper began to twitch its lure. After half an hour the chick approached the "spider" and began to peck at it. The snake drew its tail towards its head and the chick followed, whereupon it has promptly bitten by the snake and died an hour later. Subsequent observation with a sparrow had the same result (though this time the snake twitched the lure right in front of its head).

It's thought that the snake exhibits the same ambush behaviour in the wild. Its mottled brown, rough scales allow it to blend in with its environment (burned gypsum in sunlight) and locals believe it can climb trees. It's known the viper eats birds, but it's also suggested it eats small reptiles and mammals.

Tail (or caudal) lures are not uncommon among snakes, but they're rarely this elaborate. Usually the lure is simply a thin tip that moves like a worm (as in the case of Australia's northern death adder). It's unknown why the spider-tailed viper has evolved something so ornamental when worm-shaped lures work so well.

To really appreciate the lure, you have to see it moving. See here: http://bit.ly/12fsV55

And the worm lure on the northern death adder: http://bit.ly/L3sro1
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Edited by Ignacio, Aug 19 2013, 04:35 PM.
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Bigwhale
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Yep, the fantastic arachnid tailed snake :D . Fortunately Kiwi made a Silhouette of one :P
Edited by Bigwhale, Aug 20 2013, 09:09 AM.
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philly
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Very weird critter, but also awesome. :)
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hananas59
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Evolving creatures from earth.

Such an awesome snake
I actually never heard about it ...
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CyborgIguana
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Cool snake, never heard of it before. Though to me its tail looks more like that of an ankylosaur than of a spider.
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Bigwhale
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Now we need an Azhdarchid tailed snake! JK xD *think my own joke is not funny ._. *
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Swimming Spaghetti Monster
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Weird.BTW, some time ago I have found site that is full of these strange animals: http://www.realmonstrosities.com/
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Ignacio
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Ex Corrupt Staff

That is a cool page!

My idea with this topic is that everyone that finds a weird animal can share information about it here xD That seems to be a nice source of material :P
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Mathius Tyra
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Rat snake is love... Rat snake is life

Here I found another weird animal.

Elepahnt Mosquito (Toxorhynchites sp.)
The Tyrannosaurus of mosquito's world


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Adult Elephant Mosquito

Toxorhynchites, also called "elephant mosquito", is a cosmopolitan genus of mosquitoes. The genus includes the largest known species of mosquito, and it is among the few kinds of mosquito that do not consume blood. The adults subsist on carbohydrate-rich materials, such as honeydew, or saps and juices from damaged plants, refuse, fruit, and nectar.

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Larvae, compare to the larvae of Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti.

The larvae of Toxorhynchites prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes and similar nektonic prey. In this respect, they contrast with blood-sucking species of mosquitoes. Toxorhynchites larvae live on a protein- and fat-rich diet of aquatic animals such as mosquito larvae. They have no need to risk their lives sucking blood in adulthood, having already accumulated the necessary materials for oogenesis and vitellogenesis.

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Munching!!!

Most species occur in forests. The larvae of one jungle variety, Toxorhynchites splendens, consume larvae of other mosquito species occurring in tree crevices, particularly Aedes aegypti. The adults of these mosquitoes are larger than Aedes and are harmless to humans.

Unlike Toxorhynchites mosquitoes, detritus feeder mosquitoe female larvae rely on blood meals to produce eggs more plentifully than a diet of nectar would permit. And even though blood sucking is a risky strategy that entails more casualties, and they could in principle subsist on nectar and the like as their males generally do, the risk is outweighed on average by the increase in the number and size of yolk-rich eggs that such protein-rich food permit.

Disease vector or toxin control researchers have suggested that Toxorhynchites mosquitoes be introduced to areas outside their natural range in order to fight dengue fever.

Source by Wikipedia and random pictures on the internet.
Edited by Mathius Tyra, Aug 25 2013, 12:21 AM.
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Jules
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo

Hell yeah, giant harmless mosquito.
Are we allowed to do extinct animals too ?
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Bigwhale
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If yes Drepanosaurus or a Andrewsarchus is quite one of them.
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Jules
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo

Nope, I was thinking about some Pterosaurs.
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Furka
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there's plenty of weird extinct critters: Diplocaulus, all the various shark (helicoprion, stetacanthus, xenacanthus ...), sea scorpions, epidexipteryx ...
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Swimming Spaghetti Monster
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So maybe weirdness in pure form?Thalassocnus, not only giant sloth, but also marine!
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It lived in late miocene & pliocene Peru and Chile at coasts and ate seagrass similar to today marine iguana.Probably it evolved like this because it lived near deserts, so all food was in the sea.He used his claws both to reap underwater plants and to anchor itself to the seafloor when feeding.First species lived in shallows, but new, younger species preferred deeper waters.
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Omenoor
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Zoo Designer

Lol, it looks like giant prehistoric Sea Otter combined with Sloth xD
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