6 Blobfish
NOAA
If you haven’t had nightmares about this guy already, you definitely will now. Named the “World’s Ugliest Animal” of 2013, the blobfish
(Psychrolutes marcidus) has made quite a splash (or maybe a flop) in the scientific and pop-cultural communities since its discovery in 2003. The blobfish is a gelatinous mass that floats above the ocean floor at depths of 600–1,200 meters. They have bones, but, because of the intense pressure they are exposed to at such depths, the bones are very soft and malleable. Since blobfish lack any substantial muscle, they feed only on crustaceans and other edible materials that happen to swim in front of their strange, strange mouths. Although these guys are absolutely ghastly looking on land and in observatories, their low-density flesh has led scientists to the understanding that they aren’t as, well, “blobby” when deep underwater. Their amorphous tendencies may fascinate scientists, but to laypeople the blobfish is just unsettling. Talk about a face only a mother could love.
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