Megan Shersby

The southern grasshopper mouse is largely immune to the venom of the Arizona bark scorpion and will resort to cannibalism when times are tough.

One population of Eleonora's falcon is reported to keep little birds alive inside rocky prisons — a behavior not seen in any other raptor species.

Shoebills reach up to 5 feet in height and they are formidable ambush predators, standing still in swamps before lunging forward to swallow their prey whole with their giant bills.

The Mary River turtle has adapted to life underwater after splitting from all other living turtle lineages more than 18 million years ago.

These tiny white bats, which can construct a leaf-made tent, are extremely picky eaters.

Diving bell spiders are also weird when it comes to sex, with males occasionally gobbling up females in reverse sexual cannibalism.

The flightless Aldabra rail went extinct 136,000 years ago when its atoll home sank beneath the waves. Then it evolved again.

Indian giant squirrels, with their extraordinarily colorful fur, are found in forests and woodlands of India.

Loggerhead shrikes can kill prey bigger than themselves by stabbing and shaking them, before impaling them on sticks to eat later.

American burying beetle parents work together to find and bury a dead animal that its brood can consume after hatching.

Paradoxical frogs — also known as shrinking frogs — are about three times bigger as tadpoles as they are when adults.

Sand strikers — also known as bobbit worms — reach up to 10 feet long. They have razor-sharp jaws they use to catch unsuspecting fish and can split into bits to regenerate.

Clouded leopards can rotate their ankle joints by almost 180 degrees and they kill prey by biting the back of their necks with their huge teeth.

De Winton's golden mole, last sighted in 1937, has been found alive swimming through sand dunes in South Africa after an extensive search for the elusive species.

Hercules beetles can grow to almost 7 inches long and are among the largest flying insects on Earth.

Rather than throw its old head cases away, the gum leaf skeletonizer wears them like a hat to protect itself from predators.

Darwin and fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace predicted the existence of Wallace's sphinx moth from an orchid with an extremely long nectar tube.

This parasitic worm crawls into the eyestalks of snails, takes over its brain then pulsates to make the mollusk look like a dancing caterpillar.

The maned wolf, a gorgeous canine from South America, is neither a wolf nor a fox, despite resembling both.

The "yeti" crab is white and hairy, as its nickname suggests, and it thrives in hydrothermal vents in Antarctica's frigid waters.

From blue-ringed octopuses to stonefish, here are some of the most venomous, deadly species in our planet's oceans.

The invasive yellow-legged hornet, which preys on honey bees, has been spotted in Georgia for the first time.

Believed to have gone extinct at the time of the dinosaurs, the coelacanth has one of the longest gestation periods on Earth — and it can hunt in a headstand.

Gibbaeum heathii is endemic to a valley in South Africa that is surrounded by mountains and receives very little rainfall, allowing a huge range of succulent species to thrive. This bababoutjies — or baby's bum — is one of them.

The Mexican salamander is only found in two lakes and is considered critically endangered, with pollution and invasive predators driving the species' decline.