5 Aquatic Creatures you don't want to see!

#1 Hatchet Fish

ALL IMAGE SOURCES : NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

 Given the extreme depths to which scientists must go to find these frightful–and tiny–fish, little is known about the hatchetfish. Making top models around the world jealous, the morose-looking creatures derive their name from how razor-thin they are.

#2 The Fangtooth

 Consider the fangtooth fish to be the underwater equivalent of a menacing pitbull with a heart of gold. Despite their threatening appearance, the fangtooth is incredibly benign–especially as its poor eyesight means that if it wants to hunt, the fangtooth quite literally has to bump into its prey in order to find it.

#3 The Sea Cucumber 

These icky echinoderms certainly boggle the mind. Lacking a true brain and any semblance of sensory organs, the sea cucumber boasts about the same mental capacity as the food for which it is named. Nevertheless, the cuke serves as vital part of the oceanic ecosystem, as it recycles nutrients and breaks down detritus that comes its way.

#4 The Goblin Shark

Deemed by some scientists as a “living fossil” and overshadowed by its flashy counterparts, the goblin shark leads a relatively mysterious existence deep below the ocean blue. The only extant survivor of a 125 million-year old family of sharks, the goblin is truly unique…and ugly. Apart from its most salient features (re: its long, flattened snout and protruding jaws), the goblin is relatively unremarkable.

 

#5 The Flamingo Tongue Snail

Shell collectors of the world, be warned. Though the saturated snail you see above bears a striking 

“shell”, the vibrant patterns aren’t part of the shell itself but rather the mollusk’s living mantle tissue. Located in the Atlantic and Caribbean waters, the flamingo tongue snail feeds on toxic sea fans and, like Bruce Willis in “Unbreakable”, suffers no harm. In fact, the cunning snail absorbs the venom and–to the chagrin of its potential predators–becomes toxic itself.