Twin Peaks icon Julee Cruise sings at Creatures of the Wind Spring Summer 2017 collection

Dr Mike Gil is a research fellow at the University of California, but also, perhaps not surprisingly, a National Geographic Explorer. He told MailOnline Travel about his epic adventures.

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

Hayden Library - PN6747.A53 N4413 2017

Hayden Library - PN1999.R4 E58 2018

Korsgaard, Christine M. (Christine Marion), author

In Brett Ratner's new big-budget flick Hercules, the title star portrayed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson battles mythical creatures, including a three-headed dog, giant boars and lions, and multi-headed serpents. Mike Seymour shows how the visual effects experts at Double Negative created the complicated, yet lifelike beasts.

In the world of horrifyingly painful stinging creatures, the tarantula hawk ranks so high that the actual scientific advice if you're stung is to lie down and scream. Dandy if you're a human, but if you are a tarantula, the wasp's prey, it's even worse.

The ocean sunfish, equipped with thick, mucous-covered lips, can grow to 10 feet long and 5,000 pounds on a diet of calorie-poor jellyfish.

Hippos are tough animals with tough hides. So tough that there's a species of leech that has evolved to live and feed in the only part of the hippo where the sun don't shine. Ladies and gentlemen, the life and times of the hippo butt leech.

It hasn't been seen in more than 30 years and it lives on dead fish. No, it's not Gollum, it's called the crusty nautilus. Not because it’s brittle or irritable or anything, it’s just encrusted with a layer of slime.

The tree weta, which looks like a cricket, is not cricket sized, it is the heaviest confirmed insect on earth. Males throw that weight around fighting for females, mostly by trying to dismember each other with their giant pincers.

The jerboa looks like a cross between a mouse and a tiny kangaroo and wow, can it hop! The rodents' elongated, powerful legs can propel the little fur balls as far as six feet.

Mantis shrimp have a pair of hammer appendages that pack a powerful punch. They use them to smash prey open and fight each other for territory. Researchers at Duke University set up a mantis shrimp fight club to study their sparring behavior.

Caterpillars are sort of the Cheetos of the animal world. They're just waiting to become someone's snack. Some species have developed defense mechanisms. This caterpillar, found in Peru, has weird appendages it throws in the air when it senses dangerous sounds.

The axolotl is not only weirdly cute for an amphibian but it can also regenerate its own limbs. Scientists are studying how the salamanders regrow legs and how humans might someday do the same.

Put the comb jelly in the spotlight and watch it groove. The sea creatures turn into pulsating rainbows of movement under the right lighting, no disco ball needed.

Bats are awesome. They're the only mammals that truly fly, they have echolocation and, scientists have recently discovered, tiny hairs that helps them fly by feel.

Love white sand beaches? Thank the bizarre parrotfish which eats coral and poops out sand. Oh, it also sleeps in a pile of snot.

The stargazer spends its entire life looking like it just walked in on something...unseemly. The fish, which ambushes prey from the sea floor, also sports venomous spines and an electric shock.

There's a terrifying hunter lurking on the bottom of tropical seas. It's called the bobbit worm, and it can destroy.

Meet the tarsier, the wide-eyed staring contest champ of the animal world. Its eyes have evolved to be so enormous, it can’t even move them in its head. Which means you can say whatever you want to a tarsier and it can’t roll its eyes at you.

The shrike may look like a songbird but the only tunes it knows are METAL! The cute little bird kills its prey then impales them on spikes.

The pygmy seahorse is cute, that much is clear. It’s got amazing camo. Also clear. But the big mystery: How on Earth it changes to so perfectly match its surroundings.

The Fennec fox is the smallest, and arguably the cutest, fox on earth. Its enormous ears make it look like a cartoon character and help it hear prey and keep cool.

Fair warning. This video is about the botfly's horrific larvae, which grow and feed in human flesh. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Look at the nudibranch. Beautiful, right? That's its way of saying it will mess you up. You see, the nudibranch packs a punch–in a very unusual way

Hey listen, we’re all lopsided. You’d look weird as hell if you were perfectly symmetrical. But the strawberry squid is really lopsided, with one tiny eye and one giant eye.

The silky anteater isn't high. It's just tired, because this proficient nocturnal hunter has no business being up during the day.

The hydra's got kind of a jellyfish thing going on, with tentacles it uses to snag prey. But this tiny freshwater creature regenerates itself over and over again.

The frogfish is a vicious hunter that swallows its victims whole, but it doesn’t really bite its prey. By rapidly expanding its mouth to 10 times its normal volume, the predator creates a vacuum that sucks victims in.

Our childhood hermit crab has a rather more … sizable cousin: the 3-foot-wide, 9-pound coconut crab that can rip coconuts and sometimes, well, kittens to pieces.

For a bird called the kingfisher, stealth, dive-bombing and impalement is a way of life.

The binturong has a prehensile tail, crazy feet, and excretes a scent that smells like popcorn. Just call it Orville Smellenbacher.

It’s called a remora, and you’ve probably seen it before. It attaches to fish and marine mammals all the time. But get this: It doesn’t attach with its mouth. It’s got a suction cup it wears as a hat.

For a tiny arthropod called a globular springtail, life is about being generally spherical and generally pissed-looking.

The tree kangaroo may have shrunken hind legs, but hey, at least it can walk backwards unlike regular roos. Oh, also: It can plummet out of trees and not suffer the consequences.

In South America, the peanut bug ambles around with a goofy-ass head. And that’s not its only clever defense against the bullies of the rainforest.

The sea spider isn’t actually a spider, but it’s genitals are on its legs. Which is nice.

May I introduce you to the rotifer, a magical microscopic critter that uses a buzz saw to suck its victims into its face.

Say hello to the secretary bird. It’s a bird of prey, but it ain’t doing no swooping. Instead, it kicks the everloving crap out of its victims.

Meet the bizarre sea pig, a kind of sea cucumber that walks along the sea floor on little squishy feet. Oh, and it shoves dead things into its mouth with tentacles.

The agouti ain’t no sewer rat: It’s actually a pivotal part of the rainforest ecosystem. Like a weird-looking squirrel, really.

The leafy and weedy seadragons might not breathe fire, but they’re every bit as majestic as real dragons.

The mudskipper is a fish marvelously adapted to terrestrial life. From it's powerful fin-feet to its googly eyes perched on top of its head, it's made for boogying across terra firma.

Revisit WIRED's favorite Absurd Creatures of 2016 – the magnificent sex, food and fighting obsessed rhino beetle, the fish-bashing kingfisher bird and the aptly named peanut-head bugs.

Hayden Library - QH641.A53 2018

Dewey Library - PR468.A56 K73 2018

Hayden Library - PT2621.A26 A2 2017

Scherer, Manual