The seahorse, well known felon. Just an observation, I know Steve Irwin's attack was flukish, but he wasn't actually wrong place, wrong time. He was well within its comfort zone and that usually comes at a price. My dive( spearfishing) buddy has also had a stingray strike to the chest, didn't kill him but he wasn't altogether happy about it.
The question is about animals and viruses are not animals. In fact, they don't fit into any of the six kingdoms of living things: animals, plants, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria. Other classification systems have been proposed but none include viruses. So it's not quite correct to say that viruses are even alive.
For the benefit of our young members, non-anglophones, and others like myself who just don't understand sarcasm... Seahorses are not dangerous. Although they are carnivorous, they are classified as ambush predators, waiting for brine shrimp and other crustaceans to come along, then grabbing them. They're very slow-moving, not poisonous, and as far as I can tell they have no teeth. They are fairly popular pets, but if kept in an aquarium with the wrong tank-mates, they can end up starving because somebody else gets all the food. The way male seahorses fight with each other over a female is by tail-wrestling. Nothing to worry about, folks!
In mosquitoes it's only the females, in humans it's males and females. Of course, the majority of kills are because of males.
"When researchers first discovered agents that behaved like bacteria but were much smaller and caused diseases such as rabies and foot-and-mouth disease, it became the general view that viruses were biologically "alive." However this perception changed in 1935 when the tobacco mosaic virus was crystallized and it was shown that the particles lacked the mechanisms necessary for metabolic function. Once it was established that viruses consist merely of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein shell, it became the scientific view that they are more complex biochemical mechanisms than living organisms. "Viruses exist in two distinct states. When not in contact with a host cell, the virus remains entirely dormant. During this time there are no internal biological activities occurring within the virus, and in essence the virus is no more than a static organic particle. In this simple, clearly non-living state viruses are referred to as 'virions'. Virions can remain in this dormant state for extended periods of time, waiting patiently to come into contact with the appropriate host. When the virion comes into contact with the appropriate host, it becomes active and is then referred to as a virus. It now displays properties typified by living organisms, such as reacting to its environment and directing its efforts toward self-replication". http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html
.....these creatures ARE animals!!!!!!! What on this earth would make you think otherwise?!?!?!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
During WWII we were killing about ten million of ourselves per year. Maybe the bloodiest wars since then, like the Congo and Chinese civil wars, killed two million per year. But during peacetime, or even the less bloody wars of the past 60 years, I don't think it comes to two million. Not unless you count accidental killings like road accidents. Hehe. I missed that. What does he think we are, plants? Fungi?
I was reading the other day in a LIFE book on WW II, and they set the number of dead at 60 million. I just can't fathom...
Even though I'm sure someone already did this... WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS ANIMALS: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! KILL ANY YOU SEE!