15 Terrifying Animals That Are Way Smaller Than You

When one goes to the beach, they keep a sharp eye out for particular threats. Sharks and other carnivorous fish tend to top that list, followed by stingrays and jellyfish. In that latter case, it’s relatively easy to spot most species of jellyfish, as their translucent bodies (and painful stings) tend to be quite obvious in the ocean.

However, there’s one subspecies of jellyfish that’s not only extremely venomous, but is only 1 cubic centimetre big: the Irukandji Jellyfish.

This nearly-invisible terror from the deep is so hard to see that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many people touch it accidentally. And when they do, they suffer from this tiny devil’s incredibly powerful venom which, unlike the toxins of other animals on this list, has psychological effects on top of direct medical effects on the sting victim. On top of your regular dose of nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting and hypertension, this animal’s sting is said to cause victims to be stricken with ‘a sense of impending doom’. In other words, victims are physiologically convinced that they’re going to die, even if the sting is mild and non-fatal.

That’s right: you have an animal whose venom causes victims to believe they’re going to die, and are so convinced that there are some reports that victims have asked their doctors to ‘get it over with’ and end their lives.

Makes you really second-guess going into the water now, doesn’t it?