12 of the World's Weirdest Animals

Sea pigs can be found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, usually at depths of 1 km or greater. They feed by extracting organic particles from the mud on the ocean floor. There are a total of 5 species, all belonging to the Scotoplanes genus.

Despite its zebra-like appearance, the Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is the closest surviving relative of giraffes. It naturally occurs in Central Africa. Along with the giraffe, they are the sole members of the family Giraffidae.

The shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) is also known as whalehead or shoe-billed stork. It is a very large and tall stork-like bird that lives in tropical east Africa, from Sudan to Zambia. Its common name derives from the shoe-shaped bill it features.

This frog comes by many common names, like purple frog, Indian purple frog or pignose frog. The purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) was only recently discovered, in 2003. Why? It spends all its life underground, except only for short periods of time when it comes out to reproduce.

The Blue Parrot fish lives exclusively in the Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly it spends about 80% of its life hunting for food!

Looks like someone put lipstick on this one! The red lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) is one of the weirdest looking aquatic creatures out there. It occurs exclusively around the Galapagos Islands at depths of 30 meters or greater. A funny thing about them is that they are really bad swimmers as their fins are modified and more suitable for walking on the ocean floor!

This bizarre creature has no common name. Scientifically described as Atretochoana eiselti, it is a caecilian, a class of amphibians that superficially resemble earthworms or snakes.. Looks like something totally different to me...The species is only known from a handful of specimens and can get at least 80 cm long.

Yes, its carnivorous! On the bright side, you have nothing to worry as it lives deep, deep in the oceans. The giant isopod passes most of its time scanning the ocean floor for dead animals that ended up there. 

Mutillidae is a family containing more than 3,000 species of wasps. Some of these species have wingless females with a panda-like coloration pattern. 

The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orarella brevirostris) is a species of dolphin found along the coastlines and estuaries of Southeast Asia, especially in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. Over the years, they have developed a strange and unique partnership with local fishermans. They drive fish towards their nets, and in exchange they eat some of them before the nets are hauled in.

The platypus is one of nature's greatest wonders. The weird appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal has baffled researchers for many years, with early naturalists considering this strange animal to be an elaborate hoax! It is one of the few venomous mammals, one of the few egg-laying mammals and one of the few mammals capable of electroreception. And the only to combine all three in one nifty package!

Although it may look like the result of some short of crazy scientist bioengineering experiment,it is actually a species of fly. What appears to be a stinger is actually the fly's male genitals! There are many species of scorpionflies, with the most popular being Panorpa Communis.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these strange animals. Hopefully you weren't familiar with most of them. I plan this to be an on-going project and I will add more and more weird creatures every now and then. If you didn't had enough then I suggest you to check out this extended strange animals list. Youtube is also a great place to check.

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