Strange but true animals

Is all this talk of mimic octupi making anyone else think of Illithids with changeself at will?

One of the coolest places I've ever visited was the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse.

http://www.beringia.com/

Make sure you check out the Research Library, where they give details about several unique creatures that once roamed the Earth.

Jefferson's Ground Sloth
Woolly Mammoth (an oldie but a goodie)
American Mastodon
North-American Short-Faced Bear
American Lion
Giant Beaver
American Scimitar Cat
Steppe Bison
Alaskan Camels
North American Saiga
Ancient Caribou
Helmeted Muskox

Very cool ancient animals.

{EDIT}

The American Lion deserves a more detailed look.

American lions (Panthera leo atrox) were among the largest flesh-eating land animals that lived during the Ice Age (Quaternary the last two million years) in America. They ranged from Alaska and Yukon as far south as Peru. Because so many well-preserved specimens (over 80 individuals) have been found in tar pits at Rancho La Brea (Los Angeles, California), we have an excellent idea of their body structure. And unique, vivid glimpses of their past, about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, have been recorded in European caves by our Paleolithic ancestors. Intriguing details in these artistic works suggest that the lions of Eurasia and America differed in some features from the living African lion.

American lions were characterized by their enormous size and relatively long, slender limbs. Males were nearly 25 percent larger than male African lions. According to calculation of body weight based on femoral (thigh bone) size, male American lions would have averaged about 235 kg, females about 175 kg. They were larger than their heavily-built "cousins" the sabretooth cats (Smilodon), yet smaller than the rangy short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) fellow large carnivores of the period. But in features of the teeth and skeleton, American lions strongly resembled modern ones.

{RE-EDIT}

The virtual tour...

http://www.beringia.com/01/01maina.html

American Lion sketch

From the Beringia site...

Sea Scorpions.

http://www.palaeos.com/Invertebrates/Arthropods/Eurypterida/Eurypterida.htm

Fossilized, but up to two meters in length.

Gotta love that.

-Tacky

While we're on the topic of strangely intelligent creatures, how about another weird New Zealand parrot, the kea? It's a carnivorous mountain parrot. I've seen them working in teams to demolish a motorbike's cargo while the owner was away. Smart, like all parrots, and quite destructive, but cute in their own way.

The giant squid is another cool one, and not just because they're sometimes called kraken. (We've got a few of those in deep New Zealand waters too. Pity they explode if they approach the surface, or tourism would be far more interesting.) Some people speculate that they can grow to sizes far beyond that of any recorded specimen, because they've found sucker marks on sperm whales (that's the cachalot if you swing that way) that are many times bigger than any sucker found on a kraken yet... and those puppies are big.

Lungfish are always good. "Ack! There are fish falling from the trees!"

There are birds in the Amazon that have teeth, but I've forgotten their name.

Speaking of the Amazon, ever hear of the Basilisk Lizard? It doesn't petrify its victims, but it can run on water, thanks to its long toes, low body weight and immense speed.

Or the extinct Madagascan Pygmy Elephant? (I think it was Madagascar. I'm not sure.) Just to prove that today's elephant is not in fact a shrunken, stunted version of the woolly mammoth, but is a more average historical pachyderm.

Giant, flightless vultures like (larger, stumpy, carnivorous) ostriches? (Also extinct, and a good thing for us I might add.)

For the fellow who mentioned horseshoe crabs... aren't they related to trilobites? Those things that went exting, like, one or two hundred million years ago? I've got a fossil trilobite on my shelf. And an ammonite (the ones like squid in spiral shells).

For the really cool and freaky stuff, I'd investigate cryptozoology. By its very nature it's unproven, but things like the Gobi Desert Spitting Death Worm do sound cool, don't they? And a hundred years ago (give or take), the mountain gorilla and giant panda were unknown to Western science, thus cryptozoological specimens themselves. Just to put that in perspective.

No links, sorry. But I'm sure a few creative searches will turn up something...

Armadillos just a lot of strange facts about them.

http://www.msu.edu/~nixonjos/armadillo/facts.html

I've always thought deep sea fish were cool. Check these out.

http://marinediscovery.arizona.edu/lessonsF00/tube_worms/wonder.html
Thaumatichthys axeli: Also known as "Prince Axel’s wonder-fish," this fish has a bioluminescent organ projecting from its toothy jaws. This serves to light the dark habitat for this bottom-dweller, who lives in depths of up to 11,778 feet. The fish shown in the photograph was found in the Atlantic Ocean.

More stuff can be seen here.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/abyss/life/bestiary.html

Yeoman said:

I've always thought deep sea fish were cool.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I have angler beholders (eye of the deep), which have a modified luminescent eyestalk. And it goes without saying, that hagfish are fascinating.

There is a desert hawk in the Southwest US that works in a team of five in the hunting of prey. Forget its name but it sets up watch post, one would flush the prey and the would be grabbed or herded by the others.