10 Weird Artificial Species

Here are 10 weird and wonderful artificial species.

Nature has, of course, produced many a stunning and intriguing creature, but scientists and breeders haven’t done so poorly over the years, either.

Here are 10 weird species brought forth by artificial means.

Number 10. Bubble eye goldfish. If their bulging, liquid filled eye sacs look fragile, it’s because they are. These swimmers require their very own no-frills tank as bumping into things can cause their eyes to pop. They’ll grow new ones, but it’s better to be safe.

Number 9. Glow-in-the-dark pigs. Making pigs glow under a black light wasn’t the primary intention of the experiments, but it is a pretty cool side effect. Pig embryos were injected with fluorescent jellyfish DNA as a means of discovering more cost-effective treatments for blood disorders.

Number 8. Budapest Short-Faced Tumbler. It’s a pigeon, but with a much smaller than normal beak and a very small skull. It took decades of artificial selection to create this bird, which some believe to be the fairest pigeon of them all.

Number 7. Scaleless Chicken. It turns out that if a couple of a chicken’s chromosomes malfunction while it’s still in the egg it’ll spend its life not only without scales but featherless as well. Since this cause of this naturally occurring anomaly was pinpointed, scientists have learned how to make it happen on demand.

Number 6. Cama. It’s what you get when you combine a camel with a lama, as scientists from the United Arab Emirates did in 1998. The hope was to get an animal that’s sturdy like a camel, but has an even temper and thick wool like a lama.

Number 5. Gibber Italicus Canary. The World Ornithological Confederation says the ideal posture of this bird resembles the number 7 - so, yes, breeders do that intentionally. It’s unclear when they were first created, but it’s believed to have happened in Italy.

Number 4. Belgian Blue Cow. These cows are super-buff and that’s no accident. Through the powers of selective breeding and time, scientists have learned what makes these super-cows so muscle bound and how to make more at will. Not everybody’s impressed by that, though. Some advocate for eliminating the strain once and for all.

Number 3. Blood Parrot Cichlids. There are a lot of fish in the sea, but it seems not enough really cool fish tank types. Humans took it upon themselves to make this one, which comes in a rainbow of colors and is said to be a real people-lover.

Number 2. Persian cats. Their highly recognizable squished faces have been getting more extreme in recent years. Making the noses shorter may be pleasing to some people, but it’s no fun for the cats. They have greater difficulty breathing and are prone to dental disease and infections.

Number 1. AquAdvantage Salmon. They grow faster and the developers are hoping their GMO darlings will end up on dinner plates within a couple of years. They’ve done the science part and are waiting for FDA approval, a process that has lasted over two decades already.

Which artificial species do you think is the strangest?