Handfish

Handfish are fish. They have fins that look an awful lot like hands. Instead of swimming, they walk on these fins. If you ever suspected that anything remotely approaching the status of "missing link" would end up looking patently ridiculous—congratulations, you're right. At that handfish's expense.

Above is a pink handfish, one of nine newly identified species of the handfish family. Only four specimens of pink handfish have ever been found. And nobody has spotted a living one since 1999. (The inevitable crushing self-esteem issues must be keeping them out of public view.) The line between different species, in this case, seems to be mostly drawn along physical differences, according to National Geographic, which has organized the wide array of handfish diversity into a fascinating slideshow.