8 Straight Up Revolting Things In Nature

All things bright and beautiful indeed.

surinam toad eggs
Imgur

Nature is beautiful, for sure. Rainbows, sunsets and kittens and all that.

However, there's also evidence to suggest that Mother Nature had some serious off days, producing a hellscape of hideous creations to counteract the lovely stuff. 

For every beautiful sunrise, there's a parasite burrowing into somebody's eye, for every pristine beach, there's a deep sea fish with a bad attitude, and for every trill of children's laughter, there's a bug biting off the head of its mate and laying eggs down its neck.

A gross as this stuff is, it's also equally fascinating, so long as it remains safely on the internet where we can observe from a distance and close our browsers at any time.

8. Birth: Surinam Toad

surinam toad eggs
National Geographic Channel

Hey, so do you know what's not fun? Surinam toad birth.

This toad, found all over South America, is brownish, flatish and has possibly one of the most revolting reproductive processes in the animal kingdom.

Rather than laying a load of spawn and leaving it to fend for itself, the female Surinam toad releases her eggs and then has them embedded into her skin. The look created is a trypophobe's worst nightmare, and it only gets worse.

The larvae develop through the tadpole stage whilst still stuck into mum's back before emerging, fully formed, nightmarishly through the holes in scenes that resemble a cross between Alien and squeezing blackheads.

 
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