Animals With SuperpowersQuiz Your Inner Zoologist

Unmasked: Peacock mantis shrimp

Odontodactylus scyllarus

The mantis shrimp stores energy in a spring-like structure in its arm, then releases it in a strike that reaches around 80 km/h underwater. The punch is so fast it creates collapsing bubbles of water vapor, called cavitation, which deliver a second shock right after the hit.

Bonus power: its eyes have 12 to 16 types of color receptors, compared with our three. Interestingly, research suggests this doesn't give it better color vision than ours. It may simply process colors faster, in a different way.

Found in

Warm Indo-Pacific coral reefs

Power source

Spring-loaded striking limbs

Unmasked: Horned dung beetle

Onthophagus taurus

A 2010 study found that males of this small beetle could pull an astonishing 1,141 times their own body weight. For a person, that would be roughly like hauling several fully loaded buses.

The strength matters underground, where males push and shove rivals inside narrow tunnels. Other dung beetles have their own talents. Some species roll balls of dung in straight lines by using the Milky Way as a guide on dark nights.

Found in

Native to Europe and the Mediterranean; introduced elsewhere

Power source

Powerful legs and body built for tunnel battles

Unmasked: Peregrine falcon

Falco peregrinus

In level flight, the peregrine is fast but not record-breaking. Its superpower is the hunting dive, or “stoop,” when it tucks its wings and drops from great heights. Dives of more than 320 km/h have been recorded.

Its body is built for this: a streamlined shape, stiff feathers, and small structures in its nostrils that are thought to help it cope with the rushing air. Peregrines were once endangered by pesticides but have made a remarkable comeback, even nesting on skyscrapers.

Found in

Every continent except Antarctica

Power source

Aerodynamic body and gravity-powered dives

Unmasked: Pistol shrimp

Family Alpheidae

The pistol shrimp's oversized claw snaps shut so quickly that it shoots out a jet of water and forms a cavitation bubble. When the bubble collapses, it makes a loud crack that can stun small prey, and for a tiny fraction of a second the temperature inside is estimated to reach thousands of degrees Celsius.

The collapse can even give off a brief flash of light. Colonies of these shrimp are so noisy that they can interfere with underwater microphones and sonar.

Found in

Warm coastal waters and reefs worldwide

Power source

A snapping claw that creates collapsing bubbles

Unmasked: Tardigrade (water bear)

Phylum Tardigrada

Tardigrades are usually less than a millimeter long and look like chubby, eight-legged bears. When conditions get harsh, many can pull in their legs, lose almost all their water, and enter a dried-out state called a “tun,” in which their body processes nearly stop.

In this state they have survived temperatures close to absolute zero, brief heating above 100°C, and exposure to open space on a 2007 satellite mission. Scientists are even studying a tardigrade protein that helps protect DNA from radiation damage.

Found in

Almost everywhere: moss, soil, oceans, mountains

Power source

Suspended animation through extreme drying

Unmasked: The “immortal” jellyfish

Turritopsis dohrnii

Most jellyfish grow from a small, stalk-like polyp into a free-swimming adult, then die. This tiny species can do something extraordinary: when threatened by injury, starvation, or other stress, its adult cells can transform and turn it back into a polyp, which then grows into new adults.

In theory, it could repeat this cycle again and again, which is why it's called “biologically immortal.” In reality, many are eaten or die from disease, so they don't actually live forever.

Found in

First described from the Mediterranean; now found in oceans worldwide

Power source

Cells that can change into different cell types

Unmasked: Wood frog

Lithobates sylvaticus

When temperatures drop, ice forms around the wood frog's organs and up to about two-thirds of the water in its body freezes. Its breathing and heartbeat stop. To survive, its liver floods the body with sugar, which works like antifreeze inside the cells and protects them from damage.

When spring arrives, the frog thaws, its heart restarts, and it goes about its business. This ability lets it live farther north than almost any other amphibian, including in Alaska.

Found in

Forests across North America, into the Arctic

Power source

Natural sugar antifreeze protecting its cells

Unmasked: Naked mole-rat

Heterocephalus glaber

Naked mole-rats live in crowded underground colonies where oxygen can run low. A 2017 study found they survived 18 minutes with no oxygen at all, apparently by switching their body's energy source to a sugar called fructose, a trick more typical of plants.

They're also famous among scientists because cancer is extremely rare in them, and they can live more than 30 years, an astonishing lifespan for a rodent about the size of a mouse.

Found in

Underground in dry parts of East Africa

Power source

Unusual metabolism and cell protection

Unmasked: Platypus

Ornithorhynchus anatinus

The platypus's soft, rubbery bill is packed with tens of thousands of receptors that detect the faint electrical signals produced by the muscles of shrimp, insect larvae, and other prey. Combined with touch receptors, this lets it hunt in murky water without seeing a thing.

As if that weren't enough, it's one of very few mammals that lay eggs, and males have venomous spurs on their back legs.

Found in

Rivers and streams of eastern Australia and Tasmania

Power source

Electroreceptors in the bill

Unmasked: Rattlesnake (a pit viper)

Genus Crotalus

Rattlesnakes and other pit vipers have a heat-sensitive pit on each side of the face, between the eye and the nostril. These organs detect infrared radiation, the warmth given off by animals, and can sense very small temperature differences.

The snake's brain combines this heat information with what its eyes see, creating something like a built-in thermal camera that helps it strike accurately at night.

Found in

North, Central, and South America

Power source

Infrared-sensing pit organs

Unmasked: Loggerhead sea turtle

Caretta caretta

Research suggests loggerhead hatchlings learn the unique magnetic “signature” of the coastline where they hatch. After spending years, even decades, traveling thousands of kilometers across the ocean, adult females use that magnetic memory to find their way back to the same region to lay their eggs.

Their magnetic sense also helps young turtles stay on track along major ocean currents during their first long journey.

Found in

Oceans worldwide; nests on warm sandy beaches

Power source

Magnetic sensing and navigation memory

Unmasked: Archerfish

Genus Toxotes

The archerfish presses its tongue against a groove in the roof of its mouth to form a tube, then squeezes its gills to shoot a jet of water. It can hit insects resting on leaves more than a meter above the surface, and the falling prey becomes an easy meal.

What makes this truly impressive is that light bends when it passes from air into water, so the target isn't exactly where it appears. The archerfish learns to compensate. Studies have even shown archerfish can learn to recognize human faces.

Found in

Mangroves and estuaries of Southeast Asia and northern Australia

Power source

Mouth-made water cannon and sharp eyesight

Unmasked: Axolotl

Ambystoma mexicanum

This smiling Mexican salamander keeps many of its youthful features, like feathery external gills, throughout its life. It's also a regeneration champion: it can rebuild complete limbs with bones, muscles, and nerves, and repair damaged organs.

Scientists study axolotls to understand how regeneration works and whether those lessons could someday help human medicine. Sadly, wild axolotls are critically endangered and survive naturally only in canals and lakes around Mexico City.

Found in

Wild only in the Xochimilco area of Mexico City

Power source

Cells that rebuild complex body parts

Unmasked: Electric eel

Genus Electrophorus

Most of an electric eel's long body is filled with thousands of specialized cells called electrocytes, which work like stacked batteries. Firing together, they produce powerful shocks. In 2019, scientists described a species, Electrophorus voltai, that recorded discharges of about 860 volts, the strongest known from any animal.

Plot twist: despite the name, it isn't a true eel at all. It's a type of knifefish, more closely related to catfish and carp, and it must surface regularly to gulp air.

Found in

Amazon and Orinoco river basins, South America

Power source

Electrocytes stacked like batteries

Unmasked: Bombardier beetle

Several genera, including Brachinus

The bombardier beetle stores two chemicals in separate chambers in its abdomen. When threatened, it pushes them into a reaction chamber with special enzymes, triggering a rapid reaction that heats the mixture to around 100°C and blasts it out in rapid pulses, with a popping sound.

Many species can swivel the tip of their abdomen to aim. One study even found that toads that swallowed these beetles sometimes threw them back up, and the beetles walked away alive.

Found in

Every continent except Antarctica

Power source

A built-in chemical reaction chamber

Unmasked: Mimic octopus

Thaumoctopus mimicus

Discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the mimic octopus doesn't just blend into its surroundings. It appears to impersonate specific animals. By arranging its arms and changing its colors, it can resemble a striped, venomous lionfish, a sea snake, or a flat, gliding flounder.

Researchers have observed that it may choose different disguises depending on the threat, such as posing as a sea snake when approached by fish that are prey for sea snakes.

Found in

Sandy seafloors of the Indo-Pacific

Power source

Color-changing skin and flexible body