Animals I didn't Know Existed Until Few Days Ago

3 days ago

I have seen a few animals both in reality and from documentaries and I know very little. You wouldn’t blame me, i am not a zoologist and I do not know a lot of animals but there are so many that do not fascinate me because I have seen them in the past but there are a few animals that i never knew existed and when I found out, I was fascinated. So let me share them in this post.

I saw an animal recently while scrolling through the internet named the dhole. Canid animals closely related to wolves, cayotes, and domestic dogs. They may be a close relation between wolves and wild dogs, they are not foxes even when they look like one. They live in male dominated pack as the females disperse as they mature which isn't the same with our common domestic dogs. It looks like wild canids live in pack so we must have done something for domestic dogs not to entirely live in packs even when they try to.

Image From Wikimedia

The Sea Pig is one of those animals and it looks like a gigantic tardigrade which is a water bear. Sea pigs possess six pairs of tube feet which look more like legs than tube feet generally which they use to move through the soft sediments of the ocean floor. Asides from the tube feet, Sea pigs have 6 dorsal pili which they use to smell and sense and it is located on their back but that’s not all there is to the animal. Towards the front is front is a feeding tentacle known as the buccal tentacle which they use to smell and feed on decomposing organic matter in the water. Sea pigs do not have any eyes and they breath through their anus.

https://s3.animalia.bio/animals/photos/full/original/scotoplanes-globosa-and-crab.webp
Image From Animalia

Halitrephes jelly is another animal that caught my attention and before I continue, the animal is not actually a true jellyfish and while it is referred to as firework jelly, it isn’t a jelly fish that has firework, in fact a lot of animals with the name jellyfish aren't true jellyfishes. This organisms are not common because they live in the Bathypelagic zone of the ocean which are dark zones. The tentacles of Halitrephes jelly are covered with venom in their cnidocyte which injects the venom into the innocent organisms that come in contact with them after which they are swallowed through their opening and excreted out through the same opening when they are done. Another jelly that isn't a jelly fish is Comb Jelly (Venus Girdle).

Image From picryl

Next is another animal but this time, it is found in Africa and only in one region which is the waters of South Africa. It is known as the Black Mussecracker. This fish is the only member if its genus and so it is not surprising why it hasn’t made news rounds more time and they eat preys like Mollusks and echinoderm. This fish can grow up to half a century, they grow slowly and age well, with the older ones having nasal bulb which is present in males. All Small black Mussecrackers are females as there are no young males. They are sequential hermaphrodites and turn male if they survive to become old and large.

There are a lot of animals I am certain I haven't heard about but I needed to share these ones I just found out and hopefully I will be able to find out about more of them and possibly see a lot physically when I have enough money to go on such trip.