It’s been a good couple of weeks when it comes to the discovery
of hideous and terrifying new animals. In addition to some
creepy amphibian worms and the world’s deepest dwelling land
animal, a study in the Journal of Mammalogy has shown that a
terrifying variety of leaf-nosed bat, found in Vietnam and
pictured above, is genetically distinct from any other known
species of bat. It’s also distinctly better at causing
nightmares. This leaf-nose bat isn’t exactly new to the animal
scene; it was first spotted in Chu Mom Ray National Park way
back in 2008 by Vu Dinh Thong and his team of researchers. At
the time, it was unclear whether the bats spotted were members
of a new species, or simply specimens from one of the many known
— and slightly less horrific — species of leaf-nosed bats. While
there was a chance that this was not big discovery, Vu Dinh and
his team decided that they had to know for sure, and captured a
few specimens for study. Despite some pretty serious hurdles (a
massive amount of leaches, for ex