Triton vs. Crown of Thorns Starfish

Image: Jonathan Lavan, Underwater Pressure World

We looked at the vicious Crown of Thorns Starfish and its arch nemesis the Triton snail a while ago. Here we see them in battle and to make it clear, the Triton will kill and eat the starfish. In fact, that process appears to be well under way.

Giant Gippsland Earthworm

Some things in the world are just wrong. Amiss. Askew. Perverse... BAD! I think an earthworm that can stretch to over 3 metres (10 feet) in length may well be one of those.

Venus' Flower Basket

Wow! This Venus woman sure likes beautiful things! Not for her some pot made out of brown clay - her flowers are kept in a beautiful, glass, latticework affair. They're also kept in cold, dark seawater so the flowers are probably dead, but the vase is looking great!

Laetmogone violacea, A Deep Sea Sea Cucumber

Image source

I know near enough nothing at all about this creature but, somehow, I just love this gloomy picture.

Arrow Crab

Image: NOAA Photo Library via Flickr

These fellows just make me smile, I love 'em! Although I must admit that I was quite surprised at the intimidating guy on the left there! They usually remind me of Bert from Sesame Street. Then again...

Emerald Cockroach Wasp

Image: Wikipedia

Oh, wow! Look at this sexy, young thing! She's certainly gone to some effort. Look at her sparkle, catching the light and returning it to the world in a form more beautiful than she found it. Her second and third pair of legs are adorned with beautiful, orange detail, as if to draw the eye to her shapely thighs. How risqué!

It is no wonder that she is also known as the Jewel Wasp. This 'Cockroach' thing raises questions, though. Gosh, I sure hope her personality is as utterly charming as her visage! (Literary device)

Platyctenid Comb Jelly

Image: Wikipedia

We've learnt a lot about all sorts of Comb Jellies, but now it's time to look at a rebel in their ranks, the black sheep of the family. Actually it's the black sheep of the entire phylum.

Vegetable Sheep

Image: Nuytsia@Tas via Flickr

Pardon? Vegetable Sheep? I thought vegetable, animal and mineral were a tad more separate than that? Which is it? Or maybe it's just a very lazy sheep? A rather vague but filling meal?

Moray Eel

Image: California Academy of Sciences

I absolutely adore Moray Eels.

They look so angry and spiteful and haggard. That's 3 of my favourite things right there! Beady eyes. Sharp teeth. Wibbly-wobbly throat. Oh come on, now you're just spoiling me!

Coot Chick

Image: Wikimedia

Do people still call ladies "chicks" these days? Hmmm... looks like they do (amazing story!). Anyway, we got Coot Chicks today! Coot and naked as the day they were born! Phwoar! It's just that they were probably born a few days ago.

Tailless Whip Scorpion

Image: Troy Bartlett, Nature Closeups

Scorpion. Whip Scorpion. Tailless Whip Scorpion. Also known as Whip Spider.

That's right folks, when it comes to arachnids the imagination involved in their common names is approximately nil. It's no wonder that these other arachnids are so little known despite looking so distinctive and alarmingly creepy. It's all just "spider thing" and "scorpion thing".

A to B in the Deep Sea

I think it's great to move around sometimes. Quite a few animals in the world seem to disagree, to say nothing of plants, but I find that movement can give one some really welcome options.

Get this:

Imagine you're at A. You see B. You like B. B looks good. Why not just go over to B? Sweet! I don't even have to think about it.

There's a saying: "the grass is always greener on the other side." It actually means that no-one is ever satisfied with A, and B always looks better for some reason or other. And once you're at B both C and A start to look increasingly appealing.

Anyway, in the deep sea, there is no grass. And all the green looks a bit sickly and murky. Still, those deep sea oddities still like to move about a bit, and that's great. Some of them have really odd ways of doing it, which is also great.

You know what else is great? That's right! The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. That's exactly what I was thinking! They do a whole bunch of great stuff, one of them is making great videos like this one. So why don't we check it out:

MBARI Video

Wow! Great stuff! And you know what? Some of those weird animals there look pretty familiar. In fact, a lot of them do, because weird is what we do here!

Pigbutt Worm

Tail end

A handsome pair of pert buttocks. On a list of what you might expect to see through your camera as it descends thousands of feet beneath the waves, a disembodied bum is probably quite low. Maybe even right near the end. The END? Hahaaaa! I made a funny!