In the deepest parts of the ocean lies a creature that turns bones into life. The Bone-eating snot worm (Osedax) doesn’t have a mouth, stomach, or eyes. Instead, it uses root-like structures that secrete acid to bore into whale bones on the seafloor, dissolving them to extract nutrients with the help of symbiotic bacteria. It lives exclusively on the bones of dead marine animals, recycling their remains and returning vital nutrients to the deep-sea ecosystem.

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YouTube video by Andy Marshall

YouTube video by Andy Marshall

Some rivals you can reason with. Others you can’t even see coming. Enter the mosquito, humanity’s deadliest enemy. Forget lions, sharks, or snakes… this tiny airborne vampire has taken more human lives than every war in history combined. It doesn’t roar. It whispers. It hunts in silence, armed with anesthetic saliva and a needle so precise it pierces skin without detection.

YouTube video by Andy Marshall

Meet the Arctic fox, the true master of survival at the edge of the world. This small predator is built for extremes, with fur so insulating it’s been recorded as the warmest of any Arctic mammal. In winter, its coat turns pure white to vanish against snow and ice. In summer, it shifts to brown or grey, nature’s camouflage changing with the seasons.

In the coral kingdoms of the reef, one tiny creature runs the most important business under the sea: the cleaning station. Meet the Cleaner Shrimp, nature’s underwater negotiator. The deal is simple: predators promise not to eat them, and in return, the shrimp gets to climb right into their mouths, picking off parasites, dead skin, and leftover gunk like a five-star spa therapist with nerves of steel.

YouTube video by Andy Marshall

When it comes to intricate design, nature’s got the edge. Meet the Ornate Box Turtle, a North American original dressed in golden lines and dark spirals — like a living mandala carved by sunlight and soil. Each marking is a fingerprint of survival, a story etched over decades beneath the wide, open prairie sky. Unlike most turtles, these land-dwellers have traded swamps for grasslands.

Extended Patreon Episode In this engaging conversation, Raheem Nelson shares his journey as a graphic recorder, photographer, and vlogger, emphasizing the importance of style as a form of self-expression. He discusses his recent achievements, including a magazine feature and his approach to YouTube content creation. Raheem offers valuable networking tips for creatives and delves into the intricacies of graphic recording, highlighting its value in client engagements.

Ah, the Dodo — nature’s most famous “oops.” Once strutting proudly across Mauritius with not a single predator to fear, this plump, flightless bird had no idea that humanity would turn out to be its ultimate blunder. Within less than a century of our arrival, it was gone, wiped out by sailors, rats, and pigs that devoured their eggs before anyone thought to say, “maybe we should stop.”

Meet the Ragged-Tooth Shark, a calm hunter with a grin that could star in a horror film. Those jagged teeth are perfectly designed for gripping slippery prey like fish and squid. Each tooth is long, thin, and needle-sharp, and when one falls out, another slides forward from the back row like a conveyor belt of replacements. The Ragged-Toothed shark glides slowly through coastal waters, often seen hanging motionless with its mouth slightly open, a ghostly silhouette among the reefs.

That little trunk says it all. Meet the Tapir, a rainforest survivor straight out of the Ice Age, equipped with a short, flexible snout that works like a snorkel and a fruit picker all in one. It’s how they sense the world, plucking leaves, foraging in the undergrowth, and slipping silently through rivers and jungle shadows. But even ancient masters of camouflage can’t out-hide deforestation.

Meet the Thorny Devil, the desert’s spikiest survivor and one of nature’s strangest drinkers. No bottles. No bowls. Just skin. Every groove and channel in its scales pulls in precious water, from rain, dew, or even damp sand, and funnels it straight to its mouth. It doesn’t just survive the desert, it drinks it. Drawing this one felt a bit like wrestling the desert itself.

If you’ve ever watched An American Werewolf in London and winced through that transformation scene, skin tearing, bones cracking, pure primal chaos, you’ve already glimpsed the spirit of the Wolverine. It’s nature’s own were-creature: short, stocky, and absolutely unhinged when hungry. When it hits the scent of prey, it doesn’t stalk, it erupts. Claws rip, teeth tear, and snow flies. Caribou, fox, even a bear if it’s desperate, everything’s on the menu when this beast decides to go full moon.

Meet the Tarantula Hawk, part beauty, part nightmare, all purpose. With a sting ranked among the most painful in the natural world, this wasp doesn’t fight for sport. It paralyzes a tarantula, drags it underground, and lays a single egg inside the still-living host. When the larva hatches, it eats from the inside out, carefully avoiding the vital organs until the very end.

Extended Patreon Interview In this conversation, Zed Anwar, also known as Zedtrafficker, shares his creative journey from the NHS to the world of advertising and NFTs. He discusses the challenges of being an artist, the importance of activism in his work, and how art can drive social change. Zed emphasizes the need for artists to align their morals with their work.

In this episode of the Fork in the Road podcast, Andy Marshall talks with artist and musician James Lee aka Jams2blues, about the transformative power of art, creativity, and mental health. James s…