The mantis shrimp is one of the most unique creatures you’re going to see on this list. They’re known as sea locusts, prawn killers, and “thumb splitters.” But why, you might ask.
Here’s one of the most interesting animal facts you could learn: the mantis shrimp is a predator in tropical and subtropical waters, hunting with only its fists. They’re able to strike underwater with such speed and power — an acceleration of more than ten thousand times the force of gravity — that the water they’re punching through creates special cavitation bubbles. The bubbles collapse around their prey, creating a force of fifteen hundred newtons.
Umbonia Spinosa
It's a little hard to tell what this animal actually is, but look close enough and you'll see a bug down there. These creatures are also called thorn bugs and are closely related to cicadas, those noisy guys in the trees.
They use their beaks to pierce plant stems and suck out the tasty sap. Their defining characteristic is the large and colorful dorsal horn. The horn gradually tapers to a point, giving it its thorn name. The indigenous people of South America consider the juvenile form of this bug edible since their spines are still soft after molting.
Hummingbird Hawk-Moth
What happens when you jam three flying animals together into one body? You get the hummingbird hawk-moth. So, which one is this? It turns out it's actually a moth, but just like a hummingbird it feeds on flowers and makes a similar humming sound. It also looks similar to a hummingbird. We're unsure why they decided to add “hawk” to the name. Those scientists are a kooky bunch.
The hummingbird hawk-moth can be found in a great swathe of the northern hemisphere aside from the Americas, from Portugal to Japan, as far south as the equator, and as far north as the Arctic Circle. It's also quite good at recognizing colors.
Pacu Fish
In most ways, the pacu fish is just like most other fishes. In most ways. As you can see from the picture, the pacu fish has a healthy set of chompers that look uncannily like human teeth.
Fishermen from Papua New Guinea, where the fish is found, had to take special precautions to protect...sensitive areas from this fish, which can be aggressive. The pacu fish is related to the piranha, another omnivorous fish with teeth. However, while the piranha has pointed, razor-sharp teeth, the pacu feed mainly on plant material, meaning their teeth are made more for grinding and chewing, not tearing. Pacu can grow up to almost four feet long.
Giant Isopod
Isopods, for the most part, don't grow to be so large. Something that, as you look at the picture, you're probably happy to hear. Giant isopods are one of the almost twenty species of large isopods in the genus Bathynomus.
Found mostly in the cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, their large size is due to something called deep-sea gigantism. It is the tendency for creatures of the deep sea to grow much larger than similar species that reside in shallower water.