Amazing animals — A look at the weird and wonderful species that live on our planet

Qinling pandas were officially recognized as a subspecies in 2005, but the mystery of their brown fur was only resolved almost two decades later.

This eel-like fish lives on the seabed over 300 feet below the surface where it feasts on dead animals and protects itself from attack using a suffocating slime.

Aardwolves — the "weird cousin" of the hyena world that has peg teeth and only eats insects — are an evolutionary mystery, stemming from a ghost lineage that scientists haven't been able to figure out.

Hammer-headed bats are named after the males' oversized boxy heads, which evolved to amplify and project the honking sounds they produce to impress females during courtship displays.

Bizarre worm that looks "like the rump of a pig from one side and Mick Jagger's lips from the other" may be in the middle of an evolutionary leap, scientists say.

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

The blue dragon may be too weak to resist the ocean's current, but it can take on a Portuguese man o'war and even steal its venom.

Scientists discovered this little panda skeleton that lives off the coast of a Japanese island was a new species after scuba divers posted photos of it online.

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.

Just as humans rely on their eyes to make precise movements with their hands, hummingbird hawk-moths use continuous visual feedback to precisely position their proboscis in the center of flowers.