Jun 4, 2008

Of Pigs and Cucumbers

Only on the ocean floor would you find a pig as a subcategory of a cucumber. That's exactly what a Sea Pig is: a variety of Sea Cucumber. My one hope is that this creature oinks when it eviscerates itself in a toxic goopy plume.

Thanks for the sea pig, Lee Ann.

Photo source: Galathea 3
at

14 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 04, 2008

    Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a hard time gauging size. How big (or small) is that thing?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 04, 2008

    wow, that is UUUUUGLY

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 05, 2008

    looks like Mr. Hand has a young stunted brother. Whoa

    ReplyDelete
  4. BillyWitchDoctorJune 05, 2008

    Didn't this guy have his own cartoon?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 05, 2008

    Teeth? claws? tentacles? horns? It's got all-purpose pointy bits. That is the most seriously bizarre yet possibly slightly endearing creature I've seen on here yet.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 05, 2008

    Here's a link with a human for scale...
    http://www.thistasmania.com/2008/04/new-sea-pig-found-off-antarctica/

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJune 06, 2008

    Aw c'mon, you are kidding us! That is a sheep's gut with extras sewn on, surely? Kind of like a haggis with teeth? If that thing is real, nothing will surprise me ever again :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJune 06, 2008

    What the heck...? Although it would be quite funny if it was possible to train it to clean the walls of your aquarium with it strange tentaculous "snout"(???)

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJune 06, 2008

    This looks like a creature from Doctor Who circa 1978. : )

    Sherry Sofn

    ReplyDelete
  10. ChicChickoryJune 06, 2008

    This reminds me of the old potatoes in my grandma's cellar...they always gave me the willies!

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownJune 06, 2008

    Jenjen - the human looks so happy to be holdin the sea pig. Huh.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousAugust 24, 2008

    They actually look a lot less ugly than this (I guess that depends on opinion, thoug...). Deep-sea animals have high internal pressure to counteract that of the water bearing down on them, so when exposed to the much lesser pressure of air on a boat, they explode, like this:http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_full/australia/admin/slideshow-images/deep-sea-life/so-here-the-last-of-the-beauty.jpg
    Here's the real sea pig (Scotoplanes globosa):http://www.mbari.org/news/homepage/2007/deepchange-scotoplanes-350.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  13. Raging WombatAugust 25, 2008

    Thanks, PousazPower

    ReplyDelete
  14. ChrisMJuly 05, 2009

    Finally..a blog post about sea pigs!

    http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/because-you-demanded-it-sea-pig-aka.html

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.