Strange but true animals

Aye-Ayes are great! I used stats for an osyluth IMC for an aye-aye demon, giving it enchantment powers from its freaky yellow eyes and putting the poison tail attack on its freaky big long fingers.

One of my players is deathly afraid of aye-ayes; it worked beautifully.

Daniel

The duckbilled platypus is one of the strangest-looking creatures in the world. It has a beak in the manner of a large duck. Its body is covered in fur with four legs, webbed feet and mammary glands, which are unusual for an animal of this stature, and a flat tail in the manner of a beaver. Looked at from the side, it is not hard to believe that someone stitched together several parts of different animals.

To protect itself, the male platypus has a poisonous spur on its hind legs. It grows up to 50 centimeters, or 20 inches for the male, 17 inches for the female. It moves with an awkward, rolling gait, and protects itself by living in a burrow that can be up to 55 feet long! Although they are seemingly harmless, the venom of a platypus can kill a dog or cat quickly.

The effect of the platypus poison on humans has been documented a few times in history. It is not a pleasant experience. There are at least 25 elements in platypus venom. When the poison enters a victim, one protein in it causes blood to flow to the area of the bite. Acid in the venom causes a burning sensation. Another protein lowers blood pressure, causing shock and fainting, and certain components dssolve tissues and blood vessels, allowing poison to spread more rapidly. The strongest element of the poison works directly on the receptors to nerves that register pain. While an antidote exists, few visitors to a platypus home take their chances. Being bitten means a long hospital stay.

I wish I could remember this cirtters name. Anyways its this small crab, that has this cool claw. It cocks the claw, and then snaps it together. Somehow this motion besides generating a big noise, also generates a lot of heat.(A tiny spot as hot as the sun) This vaporizes water creating a vacum. The shape of the claw, somehow chanels the resulting shockwave forward stunning its prey. Go Discovery channel.

RakeRon is a strange and unusual animal.

Shard O'Glase said:

I wish I could remember this cirtters name. Anyways its this small crab, that has this cool claw. It cocks the claw, and then snaps it together. Somehow this motion besides generating a big noise, also generates a lot of heat.(A tiny spot as hot as the sun) This vaporizes water creating a vacum. The shape of the claw, somehow chanels the resulting shockwave forward stunning its prey. Go Discovery channel.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure, but I think that that is a type of mantis shrimp.

Demiurge out.

demiurge1138 said:

I'm not sure, but I think that that is a type of mantis shrimp.

Demiurge out.

Click to expand...

It's a snapping shrimp, which I don't think is a mantis shrimp. Scientific name: Alpheus heterochaelis. Check this link.

The mantis shrimp are also cool. They use their forelimbs as spears or hammers. Even starred in a sci-fi short story ("Smasher" by Fred Saberhagen).

I was just reading through the thread thinking "I wonder if anyone's mentioned mantis shrimp" -- and then there it was.

Here's a little blurb from "The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods"


"Stomatopods (mantis shrimps) are predatory crustaceans that live in the shallow waters of tropical and subtropical seas. They use specialized raptorial appendages to capture and subdue prey by either "spearing" the animals or "smashing" them with heavily calcified clubs. The force of the strike of a large Californian species approaches that of a 22 caliber bullet, and is capable of breaking double layered safety glass. They are, weight for weight, probably the most formidable animals alive".

Oh... and slave-making ants are quite cool.

There are many species. Each of these social parasites is specialized for raiding one or a few host ant species. Scouts find a nest and recruit a raiding party to it's location where they kill or drive out the adults, then grab all the pupae and larve they can and carry them back to their nest. They don't eat them, their in-house previous generation of slaves raise the brood to adulthood and make the foreign workers part of their colony. These stolen workers are added to the colony's workforce and do all of the everyday tasks that are required to maintain the nest. The slave-maker workers themselves do little more than sit around in the nest waiting for the next raid while they are fed and groomed by the enslaved workers.

The most specialized species of slave-makers are so dependent that they have actually lost the ability to feed themselves if their slaves are removed.

My favourite RL weird creatures are the lyre bird and the gigantopithecus.

The Australian lyre bird is widely recognised as the best audio mimic in the animal world. As well as perfectly imitating other birds, it can also copy dingoes and virtually any other animal. Recently, it has taken to imitating cameras and even mobile phones! On a nature programme, I heard a lyre bird imitate a camera - it was uncanny. My ability to hear different pitches is better than many concert pianists and I couldn't tell the difference between the bird and a real camera!

The other beasty I like is the extinct (?) gigantopithecus, the largest primate that ever lived. It is thought that male gigantopitheci may have stood up to 10 feet tall. Yeti anyone? Here's a pic of a model next to an average guy...

Re: Re: Strange but true animals

Aeolius said:

I used goblin-sharks as the basis for my sea goblins (blinogo). I used the coelacanth as the basis for my sea bugbears (kolocanth), etc etc

Click to expand...

I remember there was Koalinth, sea-hobgoblins. Strange that they didn't got a mention in the MM, like the scrags, merrows and lacedons.

Some other comments:

Wooly mammoth were, contrarily to common belief, smaller than modern elephants.

If noone had mentioned them before, I would have talked of the platypus and the lyre bird. Edit: And the flying snakes, too.