Grooved Razorfish

Fish > Syngnathiformes

The Grooved Razorfish (Centriscus scutatus) is an astonishingly eccentric marine fish belonging to the family Centriscidae. Celebrated for its knife-thin, razor-sharp body encased in rigid, translucent bony plates, this fascinating syngnathiform moves through tropical...

Sunda Frogmouth

Birds > Caprimulgiformes

The Sunda Frogmouth (Batrachostomus cornutus) is an extraordinary, nocturnal avian phantom native to the dense equatorial rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Renowned for its enormous frog-like gape and uncanny ability to mimic a broken tree branch, this secretive bird...

Crawford’s Gray Shrew

Mammals > Eulipotyphla

Crawford’s Gray Shrew (Notiosorex crawfordi), also known as the desert shrew, is a remarkable physiological marvel of North America’s arid southwest. While shrews are traditionally associated with damp, cool forest floors due to their ferocious metabolisms...

Visser’s Hydnora

Plants > Piperales

Visser’s Hydnora (Hydnora visseri) is one of the most astonishingly bizarre, alien-like parasitic plants on Earth. Native to the harsh, hyper-arid deserts of southern Namibia and western South Africa, this obligate holoparasite lives its entire life...

Japanese Sea Wasp

Invertebrates > Cubomedusae

The Japanese Sea Wasp (Carybdea brevipedalia), known locally in Japan as andon-kurage (lantern jellyfish), is a small but potent box jellyfish native to coastal waters of the northwest Pacific. Exhibiting the box-like cubic bell characteristic of the class Cubozoa,...