2016 year in review: When animals crawl into the limelight

As always, animals and insects played a huge part in our world this year.

The surprise discovery of a rare and mysterious trilobite beetle in Singapore became big news in November when the National Geographic Society shared a video of the creature, saying that the "ancient-looking insect has kept scientists baffled for nearly two centuries". And then, there was the spikeless hedgehog named Nelson which requires an oil massage thrice daily.

[embed]https://studio.brightcove.com/products/videocloud/media/videos/5188258121001[/embed]

But our pick for animal sighting of the year goes to Hermie, a giant Huntsman spider which was caught on video dragging a mouse up a fridge. Around the same time, Charlotte, the world's biggest Huntsman spider to ever be photographed, was also spotted in Queensland, Australia.

chenj@sph.com.sg

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