22 animal species so gross, they’ll make your skin crawl

This eel is the largest of its kind. Its scientific name is Pylorobranchus hearstorum, or worm eel, and it was first discovered in 2014. It measures 130 centimetres long from head to tail, which is about twice as long as every other type of eelworm.

The horned lizard, found wandering drier climates from Arizona to Guatemala, is a tasty morsel. The morsel in question, however, has a neat trick to fend off hawks, snakes, canines, and other hunters: it shoots blood from ducts in the corners of its eyes into the eyes and mouths of stunned predators, allowing the lizard to make a hasty retreat. The blood can travel up to 120 centimetres and is thought to contain a substance that’s unpleasant for dogs and coyotes.

These sponges use their hooked appendages to grab passing sea creatures, enclose them in a thin membrane (think: spider’s web), then devour them, Live Science reports. So better, double-check your loofah.

Read on for the reasons why dermatologists don’t use loofahs – and you shouldn’t either.

If you learned of a frog that was constantly breaking its bones, you’d probably think, wow, that’s one careless amphibian. But the 10cm hairy frog of western Africa knows what it’s doing. When threatened, it can contract muscles that are connected to its hind claws, breaking the bones. The frog then thrusts the shards through the underside of its toe pads, turning them into weapons. When the foe has been vanquished, the bones retreat back into the foot, where it’s believed the tissue around the bony claws eventually regenerates. Superhero fans may recognise this move. After all, the creature’s nom de guerre is the Wolverine frog.

This tiny chameleon sub-species called a Brookesia marca is small enough to rest comfortably on the tip of a match. No worries; you aren’t likely to encounter one. The mini reptile is at risk, due to deforestation and general habitat loss, reports Live Science.  

Read on to find out which beautiful animals could disappear in your lifetime.

Nearly one thousand kilometres below sea level in a Croatian cave system, scientists discovered a creepy snail that has a translucent shell. Good luck trying to find one, though. Even if you could dive deep enough, the creatures are as tiny as they are rare. Though the cave was home to many types of snails, scientists only recovered one specimen of this species.

Remember the film Alien? The title character, Xenomorph, injects its embryo into the body of an astronaut. A few days later … BAM! A baby alien pops out of the poor guy’s chest. Well, about a year ago a researcher in Australia discovered a wasp that injects its eggs into its victim, such as a moth caterpillar. As the eggs grow, they consume the caterpillar’s insides until they burst out of its body as fully formed larvae. It doesn’t end there. Sometimes the caterpillar survives in a zombified state, doomed to live out its life protecting the new communal cocoon until the day the larvae emerge as wasps. The researcher, obviously a sci-fi fan, dubbed the wasp the Dolichogenidea xenomorph. Think of it as another sequel in the Alien canon.

Is that a monkey … or Voldemort? Either way, you wouldn’t want to run into one of these in the darkest jungle. Or maybe you do? According to Wired.co.uk, these critically endangered snub-nosed monkeys from Myanmar tend to get water in their nose when it rains, so do what researchers do and locate them by their sneezes.

Tiny and rare, this skeletal-looking translucent shrimp has only been seen in caves off the coast of Southern California, according to CNN.com. Then again, just because an animal doesn’t look creepy doesn’t mean it’s safe.

This little octopus is only 18 centimetres long. Though discovered in 1990, researchers are still studying it’s living patterns. It has small wing-like fins and is adorable according to Inquisitr. We have to agree.

Read on for some of the smartest animals that learn even faster than you.