Is it a leaf? Is it tree bark? No, it’s the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Cleverly disguised as a rotting leaf, Madagascar’s camouflage king has red eyes, pointy horns and a taste for night hunting: it’s nature’s most devilish deceiver. The twisted body and veiny skin echo the detail of a dry leaf, which ensures the gecko blends in with its forest home. The mottled tail appears to have sections missing, as though it has withered over time. This mini-monster epitomises survival of the fittest, having adapted gradually to become today’s extraordinary leaf impersonator. (Photo by Thomas Marent/ARDEA)

A woman washes her dishes outside the temporary shelter built near the houses damaged during an earthquake earlier this year, in Bhaktapur, Nepal December 28, 2015. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

A resident removes mud on a street brought by monsoon rains in San Mateo, Rizal, Philippines, August 14, 2016. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first battle of the Somme, 1916. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Many of the 12 million people who entered the US through New York’s Ellis Island wore traditional dress from their homelands. Here: A Ruthenian woman circa 1906 from the region historically inhabiting the kingdom of the Rus, incorporating parts of modern-day Slavic speaking countries. Her outfit consists of a shirt and underskirt made from linen embroidered with traditional floral-based patterns. (Photo by Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library/The Guardian)

Commuters hang off a local passenger train in the morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka September 8, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)