Mar 9, 2007

The Antartic Gives Up Her Uglies

Andrea forwarded to me links to several articles (1, 2, & 3) about recent exploration in Antarctic waters that have yielded about 30 new species of marine life. This study, which was led by researcher Julian Gutt, has discovered animals such as: "deep sea lilies, gelatinous sea squirts, glass sponges, amphipod crustaceans, and orange starfish." That's an impressive list!

But, of course, for our purposes here I am presenting you with some of the uglier critters.

This first one is an Antarctic octopus. It looks like an over-done photoshop project, like someone super-imposed a Hubble telescope image over a drawing. The makers of The Abyss would be so proud.

Photo source: E. Jorgensen, NOAA



















This one is a new species of
Shackletonia, an amphipod crustacean sampled near Elephant Island. That pink eye that's staring back at the camera is more than a little disconcerting. But I love that name, 'Shackletonia'. It rolls off the tongue.

Photo source: E. Jorgensen, NOAA



















This last one is my favorite. It's a high-finned ice fish. But it looks like a dragon got grafted to a fish. Are there such things as merdragons?

Photo source: Reuters



7 comments:

Arachnophile said...

These are some awsome finds. The folks over at FARK have played with that octopus picture, with some hilarious results.

Anonymous said...

That last fish is pretty cool looking. Looks like a cute little alligator/fish thing.
The 2nd thing is pretty neat looking as well. Looks like it would burn a hole into you and then proceed to chew your face off.. but it looks cool nonetheless heh.

Anonymous said...

I dunno...I kinda find 'em all cute! Especially that last one, reminds me of the dragons I used to draw...

Any way I can get a copy of that pic to play with? *brandishes stylus and whips out 12-inch Wacom artpad...*

Oh--and Howdy, "Wolf Who Cried Arachnid!" *cyberwave*

Arachnophile said...

Greetings Denita - my fellow cute/ugly appreciator! :)

Goalzilla said...

I think the big question is: do they taste good?

At least, that's what I think whenever I hear of a new species.

Unknown said...

"So who thinks that was a Russian water tenticle?"

Raging Wombat said...

I'm glad you got the reference, Kelly!