Weird Animals – A List Of The World’s Strangest Species

Giant Isopod
Giant Isopod
Eric Kilby from Somerville, MA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientific name: Bathynomus

Type of animal: Crustacean

Family: Cirolanidae

Where found: Deep-sea habitats worldwide

Giant isopods are large crustaceans found in deep-sea waters around the world. These large invertebrates have a distinctive appearance, with flat, oval-shaped bodies and seven pairs of legs. Additional appendages are used for respiration and swimming.

These weird sea animals look like overgrown woodlice, which is unsurprising, because that’s (kind of) what they are; both they, and the woodlice you might find in your backyard, belong to the invertebrate order Isopoda.

Giant isopods are scavengers, feeding on dead or decaying animals that sink to the ocean floor. They can survive for long periods without food; over five years in the case of one captive individual.