Not an accident

Via National Geographic, this is a new species of leaf-nosed bat discovered in Vietnam.

We've seen other leaf-nosed bats and many other bats with strange facial protuberances, but this has got to be the saddest-looking. It seems to have been involved in some kind of terrible accident, or perhaps a dramatic incident where a crazed rejected lover threw acid in its face.

In reality, all of thse strange bat face shapes assist in echolocation, helping focus and bounce sound waves off their prey. On the one had that's pretty cool, but on the other, it makes be glad that we humans have developed our advanced technology as separate machines and not part of our actual bodies.

Because it can't get by on looks, this bat apparently relies on having a nice personality. "While captured, some similar body-sized bats, i.e. [the] great leaf-nosed bat, reacts very angrily," said the scientist who discovered it. "But Griffin's leaf-nosed bat seems quite gentle."

-Wombat (No Relation)