The 14 Most Incredible Animals We Encountered in 2014

1.

Officially the world's largest insect, the Giant Dobsonfly was found in China and now resides in your nightmares.

2.

The leaf-tailed gecko was discovered in Madagascar this year after scientists looked extremely close.

3.

It might look like an alien creature, but earlier this year a fisherman came across this basket starfish off the coast of Singapore.

4.

An extremely rare and incredibly adorable set of twin elephants were born at the Pongola Game Reserve in Pongola, South Africa.

5.

This 18-inch mantis shrimp was caught by a Florida fisherman--talk about a jumbo shrimp cocktail, amirite?

6.

This is probably the only camel who wasn't camera shy, spitting, or biting when some tourists wanted to take a selfie.

7.

A rare megamouth shark was reeled in by a group of fisherman in Japan.

8.

Proof of how little we know about the deep blue sea, a scarce 10 foot, 200 pound giant squid was picked up by a fisherman off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.

9.

As if to one-up the giant squid, this colossal squid, the second one ever found, was discovered defrosting in Antarctic waters. It certainly lived up to its name weighing in at over 770 pounds.

10.

Normally solitary creatures, this unusually non-stealthy oarfish was spotted swimming by some kayakers in Baja, Mexico.

11.

This adorable new species of round-eared shrews are now believed to be the smallest breed of sengi. Incredibly, they're actually more closely related to elephants than they are rodents.

12.

This gorgeous blind owl appeared to have stars in his eyes when we met him for the first time.

13.

Take, for example, the South American Goliath birdeater spider, which is roughly the same size as a small puppy.

14.

This terrifying, adorable, and 100% real animal appeared to be part-deer, part-vampire. It was sighted in Afghanistan earlier this year.