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[JoshuaFH]

Those stick bugs are hard to see.

[Jude]

Tarsiers, I can't decide if they're cute or terrifying. I certainly never want to wake up and see one staring at me.

[Tormy]

Tarsiers, I can't decide if they're cute or terrifying. I certainly never want to wake up and see one staring at me.

You gotta be kidding, they are cute!  Here is a pygmy tarsier:

[Siquo]

I agree with Jude. It looks as if it wants to eat my soul.

[Duke 2.0]

I agree with Jude. It looks as if it wants to eat my soul.

And I don't know if I would mind that or not.

[Jude]

Their eyes alone look like they could drain me of my life essence.

[Wiles]

If they were bald they'd look exactly like the mini-aliens you'd expect to find walking around in human suits.

And speaking of small primates, I bet these guys would make dwarves proud. 

Emperor Tamarin

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Tormy]

Monkeys? Allright, let's see...here is an interesting looking one. 
Uakari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uakari

Uakari is the common name for the New World monkeys of the genus Cacajao. The common name is believed to come from the indigenous term for "Dutchmen"; their red faces apparently reminded the locals of sun-burned Europeans. Cacajao is also believed to be an indigenous name, of unknown meaning now, as the tribe and language is extinct.

The uakaris are unusual among New World monkeys in that the tail length (15-18 cm) is substantially less than their head and body length (40-45 cm). Their bodies are covered with long, loose hair but their heads are bald. They have almost no subcutaneous fat, so their bald faces appear almost skull like. Like their closest relatives the saki monkeys, they have projecting lower incisors.

The four species of uakari currently recognized are all found in the north-western Amazon Basin. The Bald Uakari is found north of the Amazon River, and south of the Japurá River in the Mamiraua RDS. The Black-headed Uakari is found north of the Amazon and south of the rio Negro. The Neblina Uakari is found north of the rio Negro, west of the rio Marauiá and east of the Casiquiare canal. The Ayres Uakari is currently known only from the rio Curuduri basin.

Uakaris are typically lethargic and silent in zoo conditions, but in the wild they are agile and active, capable of leaps of over 6 meters. They have been observed both in small groups and in larger troops of up to 100. When traveling through the forest they move in the lower branches of the trees, though when foraging they also go up to the canopy. They eat fruit, nuts, buds and leaves.

Henry Walter Bates, the nineteenth century zoologist, recorded that the Native Americans captured uakaris alive by using blowpipe darts or arrows tipped with diluted curare; once captured the animals were revived by putting a pinch of salt in their mouths. Those animals that survived were kept as pets.

[Raz]

This thread rocks.

Immortality!? Holy shit, I didn't even know that was genetically possible.

[Tormy]

Cuttlefish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida belonging to the Cephalopoda class (which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses). Despite their common name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs. Recent studies indicate that cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrate species.
The origin of the word cuttlefish can be found in the old English term cudele, itself derived in the 1400s from the Norwegian koddi (testicle) and the Middle German kudel (pouch), a literal description of the cephalopod's shape. The Greco-Roman world valued the cephalopod as a source of the unique brown pigment released from its siphon when alarmed. Hence, the word for it in Greek and Latin is sepia (later seppia in Italian).
Cuttlefish have an internal shell (cuttlebone), large W-shaped pupils, and eight arms and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey.
Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals and other cuttlefish. Their life expectancy is about one to two years.

Changing color
Cuttlefish are photochromic, and are sometimes referred to as the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin color at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish and to camouflage them from predators. This color-changing function is produced by groups of red, yellow, brown, and black pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective iridophores and leucophores, with up to 200 of these specialized pigment cells per square millimeter. The pigmented chromatophores have a sac of pigment and a large membrane that is folded when retracted. There are 6-20 small muscle cells on the sides which can contract to squash the elastic sac into a disc against the skin. Yellow chromatophores (xanthophores) are closest to the surface of the skin, red and orange are below (erythrophores), and brown or black are just above the iridophore layer (melanophores). The iridophores reflect blue and green light. Iridophores are plates of chitin or protein, which can reflect the environment around a cuttlefish. They are responsible for the metallic blues, greens, golds, and silvers often seen on cuttlefish. All of these cells can be used in combinations. For example, orange is produced by red and yellow chromatophores, while purple can be created by a red chromatophore and an iridophore. The cuttlefish can also use an iridophore and a yellow chromatophore to produce a brighter green. As well as being able to influence the color of the light that reflects off their skin, cuttlefish can also affect the light's polarization, which can be used to signal to other marine animals, many of which can also sense polarization.

Blood
The blood of a cuttlefish is an unusual shade of green-blue because it uses the copper-containing protein hemocyanin to carry oxygen instead of the red iron-containing protein hemoglobin that is found in mammals. The blood is pumped by three separate hearts, two of which are used for pumping blood to the cuttlefish's pair of gills (one heart for each gill), and the third for pumping blood around the rest of the body. A cuttlefish's heart must pump a higher blood flow than most other animals because hemocyanin is substantially less capable of carrying oxygen than hemoglobin.

Flamboyant Cuttlefish



Broadclub Cuttlefish

[Tormy]

Star-nosed Mole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-nosed_Mole

The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States. It is the only member of the tribe Condylurini and the genus Condylura.


Nose
The incredibly sensitive nasal tentacles are covered with minute touch receptors known as Eimer's organs. The nose is approximately one centimeter in diameter with approximately 25,000 Eimer's organs distributed on 22 appendages. Eimer's organs were first described in the European mole in 1871 by German zoologist Theodor Eimer. Other mole species also possess Eimer's organs, though they are not as specialized or numerous as in the star-nosed mole. Because the star-nosed mole is functionally blind, it had long been suspected that the snout was used to detect electrical activity in prey animals[3][4], though there is little, if any, empirical support for this contention. It appears the nasal star and dentition of this species are primarily adapted to exploit extremely small prey items. A report in the journal Nature gives this animal the title of fastest-eating mammal, taking as short as 120 milliseconds (average: 227 milliseconds) to identify and consume individual food items. Its brain decides in the ultra short time of 8 ms if a prey is comestible or not. This speed is at the limit of the speed of neurons. They also possess the ability to smell underwater. It is done by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry the smell back through the nose.

The star of tentacles is formed in a unique way so far not seen other places in the animal world. Instead of growing in the same way fingers grow outward on a hand, they start as swellings on the face around the nose, and some days after birth they break free and move forward in the same way a banana is peeled.

[woose1]

First one: Testicle Fish? Damn nords....
Second one: Looks preety cute.... especially the third picture.

[soup_alex]

Star-nosed Mole

Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Are you sure it's actually a mole, and not a pygmy moon-beast?

[woose1]

Why yes... they do seem to be... related....

[soup_alex]

Aaaah, you know what I mean.




Star-nosed mole