Animal, vegetable or mineral? Even once you’ve worked that one out, the fur and walking legs might throw you.
Hairy frogfish, like other anglerfish, tempt prey by waggling a worm- like lure at the end of a modified spine of the dorsal fin.
Curious victims are sucked up by the current created when the predator opens its enormous mouth, which can accommodate prey larger than the frogfish itself.
More unusually, the four pectoral and pelvic fins are modified for crawling over the seafloor. The species occurs in yellow, red, black, white, spotted and striped forms, according to habitat.
The hairstyle is variable, too – spikier types are thought to mimic sea urchins.
- It's bigger than a king-size bed and is as flat as pancake: Meet the deadly ambush predator lying in wait on the ocean floor
- 10 deadliest ambush predators – the animals with killer techniques such as corpse camouflage and impalement
- Reef rockstars: Meet the fish that disguise themselves as rocks to ambush their prey – with deadly consequences






