Tiny Animals with Weird Shapes

In National Geographic's column called "Weird Animal Question of the Week," someone asked if any microscopic animals have horns. At the microscopic level, it's hard to define horns, but they came up with some creatures that appear as if they have horns. That resulted in a weird gallery of creatures. Shown above is a virus, which is not classified as an "animal," and may not even fit the definition of a living organism, but you know what viruses are. This one is a bacteriophage, which means it's a virus that only infects bacteria. It's an electron microscope image, but it's still amazing that anyone can photograph a virus. This virus is described as looking like a lunar lander. Yes, it does. Other entries in the gallery are microscopic water fleas, rotifers, and dinoflagellates, each one weirder than the one before. -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: PhotoResearchers, Inc.)