• Question: What's your favourite weird animal? I like the kinkajou!

    Asked by cillian to Sive on 13 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Sive Finlay

      Sive Finlay answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      Hi Cillian,

      I had to look up the kinkajou – very weird and cool!
      I love lots of different types of weird animals like the blobfish (recently voted the ugliest deep sea creature) and axolotls which are amphibians from Mexico which never grow up! They stay in a juvenile state even when they reach sexual maturity so they’re the peter pans of the amphibian world. They can also re-grow their limbs so scientists are interested in studying them to see if we could ever get to a stage of re-growing human limbs or tissues. I wrote an article about axolotls in this edition of science spin http://www.sciencespin.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/
      Another weird animal which I like is the stoplight loosejaw fish; deep sea creatures that produce their own red light and use it to sneak up on their prey. I wrote a bit more about them in response to Caoimhin’s question /lithiumn13-zone/2013/11/13/what-is-the-wierdest-animal-youve-came-accross/
      Do you have any other favourite weird animals?
      Sive

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