In recent years scientists have discovered five weird animals that baffle the mind.
1 Sneezing monkeys
The sneezing monkey ‘Snubby’, is nicknamed for its upturned nose that collects rainwater on wet days.
The unusual white-and-black monkey lives in northern Myanmar, and can be heard sneezing off its ‘nose puddles’ when it rains.
Rhinopithecus are often found tucking in its head between its knees when it rains, so it won’t spend all its time sneezing.
Researchers announced these speciies to the world in 2010.
2 Smallest snail on Earth
A tiny snail in Borneo edged out a species in China for the title of the world’s smallest snail.
The tiny Acmella nana has a shiny, translucent white shell that measures about 0.7 millimeters, and it lives on the tropical island’s limestone hills.
These species feed on films of bacteria and fungi that grow on wet limestone.
3 Demenator wasp
Researchers named a newfound wasp Ampulex dementor or dementor wasp. The name was inspired by Harry Potter’s dementors, ghostlike creatures that suck away a person’s happy thoughts.
The wasp eats cockroaches in an impressively scary way.
It injects venom into the cockroach’s belly, turning its prey into an immobile ‘passive zombie’.
The venom does not actually kill it, meaning the cockroach gets eaten alive by the dementor wasp afterwards.
4 Four-legged snakes
Modern snakes slither around on their bellies, but 120 million years ago their ancestors sported four feet, each with five digits.
The new species was serendipitously discovered in a museum exhibit of fossils from the Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil.
Researchers named the 20 centimeter snake Tetrapodophis amplectus, literally, four-legged snake.
5 Pig-nosed rat with vampire teeth
An elusive rodent from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a newly identified species, and a weird one at that.
The critter Hyorhinomys stuempkei has a hog-like nose and oversize upturned teeth that would make a vampire envious.
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