15 Terrifying Animals That Are Way Smaller Than You

With a bell no bigger than a basketball and tentacles that, when retracted, measure only 15 centimetres long, you’d think that this was just another jellyfish, swimming aimlessly through the Pacific Ocean. Of course, nature loves to throw these little curve-balls at humanity, and that was done by giving this species of jellyfish the most toxic venom of its entire species.

The Sea Wasp’s venom is said to be so potent that a full dose can kill a healthy adult human being in only 5 minutes. Add to that excruciating pain akin to ‘getting branded by a hot ‘iron’, and you have one of the worst conceivable ways to die: snorkeling or swimming, when you suddenly find yourself thrashing about in the water trying to dull the terrible pain, only for your body to shut down as you swim desperately for safety. 

Sadly, you drown before you can even reach dry land or a boat, as the Sea Wasp’s venom is so fast-acting.

While antivenom does exist for Sea Wasp stings, it must be administered immediately; otherwise the victim’s still likely to die. That means you basically have to be right next to the victim wherever they are, with the medicine on you as they’re thrashing about in pain.

Considering how hard it would be to have all of those elements together, you might as well paint a big skull and cross bones on this thing, because it’s as synonymous with death as, well, death itself.