South America

The Xingu river ray is the Amazon’s high-tech hover ship. Just mind the weapon system.

The male vicuña is basically a romantic hero wrapped in luxury wool.

Its name sounds like a double sneeze, but there are far stranger things about this dinky South American bird. It …

In Hollywood, skyscraper-sized reptiles flail around like toddlers and massive robots backflip before landing in a kung fu stance. Meanwhile, …

Wait! Before you spray me for slicing up your roses, there’s something you should know. I know the life of …

It might sound like an annoying sidekick, but Irritator has the backstory of a super-villain. Back when South America and …

Name: “Pteroglossus frantzii”, but everyone calls me “fiery-billed araçari”. Spell it with the accent if you want to impress me. …

Like other poison dart frogs, the Cainarachi wears the colours of its martyr. Thanks to at least one kamikaze frog, …

Interviewer 3: She’s late. Did she get lost in the jungle? Interviewer 2: [sighs] There aren’t that many pot plants …

A “tapir-nymph” sounds cute, cheeky and cuddly, especially when it has droopy ears. Unfortunately the Tapirê-iauara is none of these things. …

The grey bottlenose may steal the limelight, but the striped dolphin has some tricks and kinks of its own. In …

It seems a bit unfair calling this a “rat-tail” fish when it clearly just has a thin, tapering tail. But …

Unlike Bigfoot, though, it would stride towards the camera and mercilessly devour anyone behind it. Possibly via the horrible toothy …

Just to get this out of the way: yes, it’s actually called that, and yes, it lives near Cape “Horn” …

The “terrible reptiles” didn’t drop out of the sky, but one of the first was found in a lunar-like landscape. …

Stroking your lover’s hair can be romantic. For a chinchilla, pulling it is downright erotic. Of hair-raising value… That’s not …

It’s not just the punk-rocker neck spikes. Like many artists, Amargasaurus was discovered in the 80s but unappreciated for years. …

This flitter looks cute, but to a bug on the forest floor, it’s part of a post-apocalyptic motorcycle gang pillaging …

Clocking 48kmh (30mph) or more is pretty impressive for the ninth largest living animal, and handy if some orcas come …

Another potential supervillain either squandering its power or slowly building its empire. But unlike the others, it has its own …