10 Reasons Why Polar Seas Animals Are The Weirdest On Earth

In honor of our month celebrating the polar seas, we bring you a list of the weirdest and wildest facts about some Arctic and Antarctic creatures. Feast your eyes on these spectacular animals that inhabit our coldest places.

A narwhal's tusk is actually a tooth

giphy.com / Via mentalfloss.com

Can you imagine trying to do anything with a 10-foot long tooth? While it might appear to be situated in the center of its head, the narwhal’s tusk is actually an exaggerated front left tooth that protrudes from the upper lip. The right front tooth is small, and usually remains in the mouth. Usually. One in every 500 males grows a second large tusk.

Icefish: saving our organs and frozen food

wikipedia.org / Via scienceblogs.com

The icefish is thought to be one of the only vertebrates that does not have circulating hemoglobin; the fish is almost transparent because of its lack of red blood cells. These fish also circulate antifreeze proteins that prevent them from freezing solid in their chilly homes. Synthetic versions of these proteins have been created to help frozen food and transplant organs from developing ice crystals.

Antarctic Krill travel in extreme packs

eatingjellyfish.com / Via coolantarctica.com

Although each individual Antarctic krill weighs about as much as 10 grains of rice, they can gather in groups that mass 4 billion pounds, or the equivalent of about 28.5 million human beings. It is estimated that the krill population of the world outweighs the human population.

Penguins: don't stand behind them

Flickr: eringobraugh84 / Via io9.com

Penguins can poop at four times the pressure of your typical human. The title of the paper that studied this fine subject is: "Pressures produced when penguins pooh – calculations on avian defecation." Yup, that appears in a peer-reviewed journal.

Read it here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00300-003-0563-3

Greenland Sharks are the grandpas of the sea

dailymail.co.uk / Via dailymail.co.uk

The Greenland shark is not as well-known as the great white, but it can grow just as big (more than 20 feet long) and it has been found with polar bear in its stomach. Plus, this species is estimated to be able to live up to 100 years, making the Greenland shark the grandpa of the sea (and it looks the part).

The Hoff crab farms its own food and has something in common with David Hasselhoff

earthfirstjournal.org / Via voices.nationalgeographic.com

The Hoff crab is a type of yeti crab and it's nickname comes from David Hasselhoff. The legend of his hairy chest lives on even in the animal kingdom. These crabs live on hydrothermal vents and actually farm bacteria on their furry chests as a source of food. Yum!

The colossal squid has eyes that are larger than your head

businessinsider.com.au / Via marinebio.org

The colossal squid has eyes that are larger than any other living creature on earth (about the size of a soccer ball) and possibly the largest ever in the history of the animal kingdom. Colossal squid can also grow up to 45 feet in length, they have three hearts, and their only known predator is the sperm whale. Above is a picture of a colossal squid eye in New Zealand after the second intact specimen ever found was dissected earlier this year.

Ribbon worms: seemingly indestructible

wikipedia.com / Via smithsonianmag.com

The largest species of ribbon worm is the bootlace worm. They have been found at lengths of over 30 meters (98 feet). Most ribbon worms produce a mucus they cover themselves in to help them navigate the ocean floor and to make it hard for predators to catch them. But even if the worms are caught and have a bite taken out of them it's not a problem because they can regenerate parts of their body, and sometimes the severed part of the body can just turn into a new worm. The ribbon worm wins evolution.

The red fox is the most graceful of all the hunters

gifbin.com / Via mnn.com

This species of fox can be found in the Arctic Circle (amongst other places) and has the best hunting technique you will ever see. It listens for the sound of prey, such as rodents, under the snow and then it pounces.

Antarctic springtail: the biggest land animal in Antarctica that you've never heard of

discoveringantarctica.org.uk / Via voices.nationalgeographic.com

The Antarctic springtail is only one to two millimeters long, and it's Antarctica's biggest land animal (seagoing animals such as seals and penguins are not considered land animals). And if being the king of the land weren't cool enough, these tiny creatures can be frozen solid, defrosted, and then walk around merrily like nothing ever happened.