Top 10 Scariest Real Life Creatures You've Never Heard Of

The sea is filled with beings that are frightening to look at. But the most scarily dangerous fish might be the Portuguese man o’ war. Due to its striking colors, you might want to touch it…but don’t do that. You’ll have a bad time. After all, this incredible invertebrate is very venomous. Their tentacles can extend up to 165 feet and are covered in venom-filled nematocysts. These are used to paralyze its prey. The soon-to-be food is then pulled upwards to the main body, where it’s then digested by other cells. For humans, the sting is said to be massively painful. Fun fact, the man o’ war is actually a siphonophore. This is when a single creature is actually made of a colony of organisms.

Bats get a bad rap from people. And this might be due to species such as the visored bat. Its appearance alone is unsettling. Little is known about the species as they are very rare. Found in South America, the bat gets its name from the visor-like horned growth on its face. This is something that’s not found with other bat species. The visor is more prominent in males than the females. While visored bats have sharp teeth, they – thankfully – only eat fruit. Another unique feature is the large fold of skin on the bats’ necks. When they sleep, they use it as a kind of mask, making them look like a furry vigilante.

It’s a fish that goes by many names. Seawolf, wolf eel, devil fish, and more that are equally as ominous. And with an appearance like that, it makes perfect sense. The wolffish is found in the cold sea but produces a natural antifreeze in its body so it can keep on truckin'. Known to grow up to 5 feet in length, wolffish have really strong jaws and prominent teeth. Considering its diet consists of crustaceans and other hard-shelled sea creatures, these features come in handy. The wolffish lives a pretty stationary life. It likes to hide in its cave and wait for prey to amble on by. So, if you’re a deep sea diver, you might be in for a shock coming across this critter.

You can’t have a video on ghoulish creatures without having a spider popping up. So we went with the ones known for their speed, size, and method of hunting. You’re welcome! The term “huntsman spider'' is actually used for a family of species, nearly 1400 of them altogether! Mostly found in warm climates, some of these spiders can reach up to 11.8 inches in leg span. These creepy-crawlies also produce venom that they inject into their prey via their sharp fangs. While rare, there are times when they’ve chomped on a human. Usually, people will be fine. But they can experience a load of effects such as pain, heart palpitations, vomiting, and more.

Imagine braving the ocean’s deep depths and coming across the dark red creature known as a vampire squid. Already, the name alone is unsettling, and you're probably wondering where the garlic or Blade is. Then, it inverts its cape to reveal its tentacles covered in spines…fear not though, the creature is all show, thankfully. It’s actually pretty harmless. Instead, it prefers to eat “marine snow,” which is bits of organic food from the upper depths. Weirdly, the vampire squid is neither a squid nor an octopus. Instead, it’s in its own order, the vampyromorphida. To survive the deep depths, this vampire is covered with light-creating organs called photophores. It’ll flash predators to confuse them and then escape.

Looking like something from “The Last Of Us,” the star-nosed mole will haunt your dreams. This North American species of mole is practically blind and so relies on its octopus-esque nose to get around. The nose is formed of 22 appendages that contain around 25,000 touch receptors known as Eimer's organs. Thanks to this, as it travels through the soil, it can touch up to 12 places in a second. Then, 100,000 nerve fibers send info on their surroundings to their brain. F.Y.I, that’s five times more fibers than in the human hand! The mole is even able to wolf down an insect in a quarter of a second. Probably not the best companion to share tapas with.

With a name like that, you can expect to find something dangerous about these aquatic critters. Known to reach lengths up to 37.4 inches, the needlefish is known for its long, thin mouth containing many sharp teeth. This carnivorous creature runs with a school and has been known to jump out of the water at up to 37 miles per hour - essentially becoming organic flying daggers! Found mostly in subtropical waters, it’s believed they’re attracted by lights from boats or reflections from jewelry. Due to this, they can become a big problem for humans. On occasion, needlefish have caused serious injury and even fatalities.

Not too long ago, the news was filled with the threat of Asian giant hornets popping up all over the place. And they’re nothing to mess with! But it’s not just humans they scare. It’s also honey bees. In just one minute, these hornets can tear through 40 bees! A whole colony can be gone in just a few hours. All thanks to the hornets’ strong mandibles, heavily armored skins, and massive size. But Japanese honey bees figured out that if they surprise a hornet and pounce on it altogether and vibrate, they can cause the hornet to perish from heat exhaustion. While painful, the Asian giant hornet’s stings are rarely fatal to humans. But it does happen, especially with many, many stings.

It’s unsettling to know that a bird that looks like a prehistoric Muppet exists. The shoebill stork gets its name from its unusual, shoe-like bill. But weirdly, it’s not a stork at all. It actually has more in common with pelicans. Reaching up to 4.6 feet in height, the shoebill can typically be found near freshwater swamps in east Africa. Here, they can feast on the creatures that reside there, like lungfish, frogs, and water snakes. But it’s even been known to eat young crocodiles! On the plus side, even with the shoebill’s intimidating look, they’re pretty docile to humans.

If you’re ever paddling in warm waters like the coral reefs near Japan or Australia and come across a small octopus with blue rings, don’t touch it. It may be tempting, but you’ll be playing a dangerous game. Several people have posted social media videos of them recklessly poking the tiny, Pokemon-esque critter. Yet its little frame contains enough venom to wipe out 26 humans in minutes! The bites are even painless due to their small stature, so people won’t know they’ve been nibbled until they’re experiencing grim symptoms such as paralysis. There’s also no antivenom available for blue-ringed octopus. While pretty, the blue rings are actually a defense mechanism to deter predators.