The secret of survival for many animals lies in their strength and size, while others rely on the ability to remain unnoticed. A vast number of animal species live on our Pale Blue Dot, some of which are worthy weird as hell and deserve a closer look. Take translucent animals, for example. How are these things not from a different planet? Their futuristic appearance is kind of similar to the cloaking technology from the movie “Predator” and makes them look like they’re made of glass.
1. Tortoise Beetle
You can find several types of these beetles all over the world, but they all have one thing in common — a translucent shell with dark spots.
2. Translucent Sea Cucumber
This bizarre organism crawls on the bottom of the ocean, sucking in every bit of edible material it can find with it’s short tentacles. It’s like an ocean Roomba!
3. Glass Squid
There are over 50 different species of these barely visible fellas. Cranchiidae, also known as glass squids, spend most of their lives chilling in the upper layers of the ocean, trying to camouflage themselves.
4. Transparent Amphipod Phronima
This tiny shrimp’s body size is only 2 cm, but this does not prevent it from being a brutal predator. Due to its perfect body, the shrimp is like a ninja in the water — an unseen killer that slays its prey with sharp claws.
5. Cyanogaster
This little fish was discovered just a few years ago in the Amazon River. As you can see, it has nothing to hide.
6. Sea Angel
These critters are predatory gastropods, whose favorite snack is sea devils. Get it? Angel-fish, sea devils… It’s very poetic! Fun fact: their appearance inspired the designs of two Pokemon species — Phione and Manaphy.
7. Barton Springs Salamander
If you’re ever in Barton Springs near Austin, Texas, go check out these dope salamanders. You won’t find these lizards in any other location in the world, since they require extremely specific water conditions.
8. Glass Octopus
These ghost-like cephalopods can be found swimming in tropical and subtropical waters all over the world. We don’t know a lot about these octopuses and their behavior but we can easily see their insides by just looking at them.
9. Glass Catfish
Meet one of the most translucent vertebrates on the planet. Glass catfish can be found along the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
10. Translucent Jumping Spider
Spiders are scary, there’s no need to make them any scarier, said every person ever. But Mother Nature would like to disagree. That’s how we got invisible jumping spiders! At least they’re quite tiny, so they don’t pose a threat.
11. Glass Shrimp
This little rascal is also known as the ghost shrimp. It’s pretty much your usual freshwater crustacean, but it looks fantastic.
12. Glass Frog
If you want to see a glass frog, you’re going to have to travel to the rainforests of Central and South America. But note that when glass frogs sit motionlessly, they are virtually invisible, so your passive perception is the key.
13. Greta Oto
Also known as the glass butterfly, this beauty can be found in the forests of Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Those transparent wings are like tiny windows. So cool.
14. Antarctic Icefish
This nasty sea dweller lives in ice-cold waters and for some reason, its blood and skin is almost entirely transparent, or rather, colorless. Icefish is the only vertebrate without red blood cells or hemoglobin.
