Manatee has been very ugdorable for a very long time

Horned fighting frogs!!

The familiar horned toad isn't a toad, but this is really a frog that really has horns, and it knows how to use them. Those nasty spines which are as sharp as a pencil point grow during breeding season and the males use them to fight (and also to "try to stab you a bit when you pick them up" according to the scientist who studied them). The fights happen because the males are protecting their eggs - which the females just lay and go back to the forests where they live the rest of the time. Nice to see that sort of division of labor in a species once in a while, if you ask me.

You can see video of a fight and read more at this link.

Giant cuddly isopod

Are you a fan of the giant tongue-eating isopod? You read this blog, so of course you are. So you will be soooo jealous of the lucky people who got one of these stuffed ones from an aquarium in Japan. Reportedly when it was introduced, the entire stock of 140 sold out immediately, even at about 60 dollars apiece.  Here's another photo with a guy from the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium for scale: