Real Monstrosities

Hell as Habitat, part 2

Published on 2012-02-12 06:00:00

Image: NOAA Last time, we left the hydrothermal vents as steaming chimneys of boiling volcanic water, liquid smoke and underground flame. Minerals spew out and, through a process called chemosynthesis, bacteria are able to take poisonous hydrogen sulphide and make from it all the sugars they need for survival. They flourish in this deadly atmosphere and provide a source of food for a whole host of animals. They rely on energy not from the Sun, but from Earth herself. It's a community of life

Supergiant Amphipod

Published on 2012-02-10 10:53:00

So they found a massive amphipod over 4 miles deep in the Kermadec Trench off New Zealand. A good sized amphipod is usually a few centimetres long (an inch) but this thing is 28 cm (almost a foot)! And that's the biggest one they managed to drag up, they actually spotted on camera one that was 34 cm (over a foot) long. I guess they once found a 10 cm (4 inch) one and called it the Giant Amphipod. After that there was just one place to go. I beg the world to provide for me a Super-dupergiant A

Stalked Jellyfish

Published on 2012-02-10 06:00:00

Image: Wikipedia Stalked Jellyfish? What? It may seem strange but there really is such a thing as a jellyfish with a stalk. They have abandoned the usual life of swimming with the sea's most graceful wobble and have instead opted to attach themselves to the floor and stay there. The 50 or so species of Staurozoa range between a few millimetres to 15 cm in height. Most come from cold, coastal environments in the northern hemisphere, but some explorers find themselves around Antarctica and the b

Greenland Shark

Published on 2012-02-08 06:00:00

Image: Nick Caloyianis/National Geographic It snowed. I hate it when it snows because snow becomes ice and my utter loathing for ice on the pavement is matched only by my fear and hatred of slipping and falling. Next time you walk on ice, please tread harshly because you tread on my nightmares. Good job I don't come from the world's most ironically named country, like a certain shark I know. The Greenland Shark is the most northerly of all sharks. They live in the freezing waters of the north

Hell as Habitat

Published on 2012-02-05 06:00:00

Image: NOAA Darkness spews into the darkness. There is a Hell on Earth. A real one, not that silly fake one. It's a place where our glorious Sun is a long banished frivolity. A place of such insurmountable evil that chocolate is frozen by the cold, melted by the heat and crushed by the pressure. It's so dark that if you drop your chocolate, it will be lost and gone forever. Indeed, it's so dark that the Tree of Chocolate won't even grow. Chocolate! Why have you forsaken us! We're talking

Sea Apple

Published on 2012-02-03 06:00:00

Image: emmiegrn via Flickr What happens when you take a cucumber and squish it up a little? You get an apple of course! Or at least that's what happens in the sea... Image: dwward via Flickr Sea Apples are roughly spherical (ish) Sea Cucumbers from the Indo-Pacific. They come in all sorts of fantastic colours and are definitely the pretty-boys of the Sea Cucumber world. Many are nocturnal, spending the days in a protective ball. At night, they might shock you with their feeding method.

Eastern Tiger Salamander

Published on 2012-02-02 06:00:00

Image: J. N. Stuart via Flickr Do you remember the Axolotl? Well check out their close relative, the Eastern Tiger Salamander! Doesn't he look grown up? Adult Tiger Salamanders are completely land living. They have a wide range across the eastern half of North America, but you might not see them because they spend their time in underground burrows they dig for themselves. They are a kind of Mole Salamander, after all! Image: utahmatz via Flickr Baby Tiger Salamanders are aquatic and have g

Axolotl

Published on 2012-02-01 06:00:00

Image: Stephen Dalton In the face of terrible adversity the critically endangered Axolotl smiles cheekily, loses a place in the wild but gains a place in our hearts. Cheesy I know, but this is probably the only salamander most people can get weepy and sentimental about. So let's do it when we can. Image: Wikimedia The Axolotl is a neotenic salamander, meaning it's an eternal child who had a few too many at the Fountain of Youth. It's like pet dogs, who are all essentially wolf pups who get

Tiger Beetle

Published on 2012-01-29 06:00:00

Image: Ted C. Macrae, Beetles in the Bush Beautiful Tiger Beetle, Cicindela pulchra pulchra Tiger Beetles! Fast, powerful and often incredibly beautiful so long as they aren't tearing you to bits. In fact, just like with actual tigers, you may have to grudgingly admit to their handsome good looks even as they send your limbs flying and teach you all about your own internal anatomy. Image: Lisa Lawley via Flickr Green Tiger Beetle, Cicindela campestris The various species of Green Tiger

Immortal Jellyfish

Published on 2012-01-27 06:00:00

Image: Alvaro E. Migotto Turritopsis nutricula is the Immortal Jellyfish. You might think that your gigantic brain makes you all great or whatever and maybe you can get it frozen after you're dead so that it can be uploaded into a robot in a million years but this here is the real deal. It's in the class Hydrozoa, like Hydras and Blue Buttons (also Portuguese Man o' War, but I must have linked to that a million times by now) rather than Scyphozoa, which is where your classic jellyfish lik