Tag

#Squamata

3 matchups tagged Squamata.

A plump, dark purplish-grey Indian purple frog with a tiny head and pointed snout sitting on wet ground.

Close-up looking into the open mouth of an Atlantic wolffish, showing its fang-like front teeth and rows of blunt crushing teeth.

A black marine iguana basking on lava rock in the Galapagos Islands.

A dense pile of pale, hairy Kiwa yeti crabs swarming a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney on the Antarctic seafloor.

Purple Frog vs Atlantic Wolffish vs Marine Iguana vs Hoff Crab: A Purple Water Balloon That Lives Underground, a Fish With Three Kinds of Teeth, a Lizard That Sneezes Salt and Shrinks Its Own Skeleton, and a Blind Crab Named After Hasselhoff's Chest

Four animals from four different classes, zero good decisions between them. We rank them on cool, weird, and gross, and somebody has to win.

4 weeks ago · 6 min

A marabou stork standing with hunched shoulders, bald pink head, and a long dangling throat pouch, looking like it is about to read you a eulogy.

A pale, armored giant isopod on the dark Gulf of Mexico sea floor, its overlapping plated body and many legs making it look like an alien parking clamp.

A thorny devil lizard on red desert ground, its whole body covered in conical spikes, with a large spiny knob behind its head.

A large brown goliath birdeater tarantula specimen shown from above, its thick hairy legs spread across nearly the width of a dinner plate.

Marabou Stork vs Giant Isopod vs Thorny Devil vs Goliath Birdeater: An Undertaker Bird That Pees on Its Own Legs, a Deep-Sea Roly-Poly That Skipped Food for 5 Years, a Lizard That Drinks Through Its Skin, and a Dinner-Plate Spider That Hisses

A bird that cools off by defecating on itself, a crustacean the size of a football that fasted longer than most gym memberships, a desert lizard that turns rain into a beverage, and a spider you can hear from across the room. One crown, four bad decisions by evolution.

5 weeks ago · 6 min

A tiger pistol shrimp, banded and cream-colored, at the entrance of its sandy burrow

A Texas horned lizard on dry ground, showing its spiky crown of horns and mottled tan camouflage

A hoatzin perched in foliage, showing its spiky rufous crest, blue face, and red eye

Tiger Pistol Shrimp vs Texas Horned Lizard vs Hoatzin: A Shrimp That Fires a Sun-Hot Bubble, a Lizard That Shoots Blood From Its Eyes, and a Bird That Ferments Like a Cow and Smells Like One

One crustacean, one reptile, one bird, and three completely unrelated ways to horrify a predator. Let's judge them on cool, weird, and gross.

6 weeks ago · 5 min

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