The Blobfish

Okay, you’ve probably seen this little guy before, but I just couldn’t consider my “Bizarre” collection complete without adding him. This is the Blobfish. He was voted the ugliest animal in the world. Poor guy.

Blobfish look like they do because they live so deep in the ocean (2,000-4,000 feet deep) where the water pressure is up to 120 times greater than it is at sea level. That pressure would explode the bones of normal creatures.

Found near Australia and Tasmania, the Blobfish (or Psychrolutes Marcidus as it’s more formally called) have practically no muscles. Their bodies are like gelatinous masses. They don’t have swim bladders that help most fish stay afloat either, but luckily, their bodies are less dense than the water, so they’re good. They just float near the bottom of the ocean all day eating whatever is unlucky enough to float or swim by their mouths.

They’re very rare, and I wouldn’t recommend trying to swim down to the bone-crushing depths to try to see one. Just be content looking at pictures online.

Little Skulls

Who could imagine that underneath the beautiful Snapdragon flower lurked such a macabre sight. These little skulls are the seedpods of the Snapdragon. They contain the flower seeds and are, apparently, rather difficult to break open, like real skulls would be I’d guess.

Snapdragons are so named because they are said to look like dragon faces, and, after all, every face needs a skull.

The Corpse Flower

The largest single flower in the world, and also the worst smelling, is the Rafflesia Arnoldii, or as it is more commonly known, the “corpse flower.” You get one guess as to what it smells like. That’s right, decaying flesh. This is probably not the flower you would want to grow in your garden unless you really, really don’t like company. They are pretty rare and are usually only found in the Asian rainforests.

Antoine Hubert