The natural world is full of wonder. But there’s more to flora, fauna and meteorology than flowers, bunnies and rainbows – as this set of disconcerting images reveals.
Collated by Bored Panda, these pictures of the natural world illustrate the eerie side of Mother Nature.
And, as you might expect, the curious collection ranges from the creepy to the downright disgusting. It includes a volcanic pit that looks like charred bodies and a dead fox, frozen in a block of ice.
Others show freshly-hatched pythons dividing by colour, sharp-toothed fish, partially-digested insects and a motorway covered in earth following a landslide.
But which are the scariest? And which are the most revolting?
Brace yourself for some of the most alarming natural occurrences…
This poor fox drowned in a frozen lake and was cut out and placed on display as a warning for people to keep off the ice
Despite appearances, this isn’t a bloody claw emerging from the ground. It’s actually the aptly-named Devil’s Finger Fungus
The Cymothoa Exigua is the stuff of nightmares: A parasite that breaks into a fish’s gills before eating its tongue and then replacing it
Mind-boggling: This lizard appears to have grown another foot on its tail
Shut up: A snake shows this white egret who’s boss, by tying its beak shut
Creepy: A swarm of wasps has built a formidable nest out of a discarded child’s doll
Brutal: This is a nest of over 70 freshly slain lemmings, arranged by the owl who killed them
Extra value for money: This mussel contains a tiny, partially-disgested crab
A mother’s love: A protective centipede forms a barrier around her babies inside a bucket
Bees build their nest around a set of wind chimes (left), while the image on the right is of honey leaking from a bees nest, built behind a wall socket
Fireants group together to make a giant raft out of themselves during the recent floodings in Houston (left). The burnt lava surrounding this volcanic pit (right) looks like charred bodies being sucked in
This centipede was devoured by a viper, but fought back by managing to eating its way back out
This Antarctic worm species, Eulagisca Gigantea, has enormous jaws, suggesting it is a formidable predator
The sheepshead fish (Archosargus probatocephalus) has multiple human-like teeth. It is found in the western Atlantic ocean and is edible
Sss-urprising: These just-hatched pythons instantly divided themselves based on colour
Hornets built a nest around a figurative sculpture, with creepy results (left). The image on the right shows a hermit crab that has adopted a doll’s head as its shell, in a horror-movie move
A Caribou bull sheds furry ‘velvet’ skin from his antlers. Velvet covers antlers while they are growing
A landslide in Taiwan obliterates multiple lanes of a motorway. Its scale is just staggering
Bizarre: This caterpillar appears to have a snake’s head. In fact, it’s the caterpillar’s tail, mimicking a snake’s face as a means of protecting itself from predators
A face only a mother could love: This vision of this extraordinary fish with huge, staring eyes will haunt your dreams