File Shell

Image: Ria Tan

Tentacles. They are the crowning glory of Mollusca. Cephalopods like octopuses and squid are clearly the anointed kings and queens of this tentacle-blessed race. Just look into their large, intelligent eyes and you know they're asking one thing: where are your tentacles, peasant?

Sea Sweep

Image: Saspotato
Scorpis aequipinnis

If a chimney sweep is someone who cleans chimneys...

Gelatinous Spaceship

I just can't resist these Atolla jellyfish!

Bongo Shrimp

Image: Rickard Zerpe
Phyllognathia ceratophthalma

It's the Bongo Shrimp! So named because it's a shrimp that... bongo.

Gliding Spider

Image: Stephen Yanoviak

INCOMING! After falling out of a tree, this skydiving spider can swerve through the forest to make absolutely sure it lands squarely on your head! Or another tree. Whatever seems best at the time, I guess.

The Daisy Chain... of DEATH

Video: Stephane De Greef

Hailing from Cambodia, this undescribed species of ant is a disturbingly effective predator of millipedes. Watch as they encircle their trembling prey, waiting for the poor soul to uncurl itself from its defensive coil. Gaze in astonishment as a single sting from a single ant signals the commencement of a whole bunch of stings from a whole bunch of ants.

Gasp in horror as the merry murderers haul the enormous body home. They do so in a remarkable daisy chain, workers pulling on workers in a deadly caravan of communal carnage. Can't you hear them sing?

Hi ho. Hi ho. It's home from work we go.

It's scenes like this which make you realise that ants don't have to be that much bigger than they are to pose a serious threat to humanity. Shrink rays at the ready...

Cuyaba Dwarf Frog

Image: Felipe Gomes
Eupemphix nattereri

It's a frog with eyes in the back of his... end.

Chubby Spiders

Image: Robert Whyte

You know, you look around at some of the spiders out there...

Cockatoo Waspfish

Image: Daniel Kwok
Ablabys taenianotus

No, it's not the Flamingo Dogfrog or the Hummingbird Antelopewhale, those are obviously completely made up.

Button Top

Image: Ria Tan
Umbonium vestiarium

It's the Cute-as-a-button Snail!

Cigar Jelly

Olindias phosphorica

After a long day plotting the global downfall of the terrestrial world, there's nothing better than stuffing your face with tentaclefuls of seafood and curling up under a warm duvet.

Worm in a Wig?

We all know how dark and drab it is in the abyssal depths of the sea. All is inky blackness, with the bottom composed primarily of deserts of mud decorated with drab stones.