Alien Beast?! Terror from the Deep?!?

[Fujisawas Sake]

Okay, just playing around... I know this isn't ceph, but you might like this. This is an actual deep-sea creature from around my area of the world (California), probably from the Monterey Canyon. Its big (almost about a foot long), and yes, its alive...

Can anyone guess with it is?

Oh, and Kat and Steve: you already know, so don't give it away, okay?

Sushi and Sake,

John

 

[Tintenfisch]

Why, that's a...

OK, OK.

It's an animal I started my systematic career on, though. Cool 8)

 

[Fujisawas Sake]

No way!! Really?

Sweet, dude!! Er... dudette...

Where'd you get the specimens?

 

[Phil]

I believe what you have here is an example of the deep water isopod Bathynomus. This lives at a depth of 700-1000m and is a voracious carnivore and scavenger. It is known from Australian waters and the Philippines, though a second species, Bathynomus giganteus is known from the Western Atlantic. This creature is frequently caught by fishermen eating its way through fish trapped in their nets. It grows up to 30cm long.

Either that or you have a living trilobite. If so, I suggest you delete the picture here and ring The Discovery Channel immediately!

Do I win a coconut?

 

[Fujisawas Sake]

You rock, Phil!!

Or I can fake it, and sell it to the FOX network... :P

John

 

[Tintenfisch]

Where'd you get the specimens?

Well, OK, not that particular isopod - some little ones from Papua New Guinea. But I do have a Bathynomus egg at home - it's about a half inch in diameter!

 

[Phil]

Bah.

Go on, spill the beans..........................

Was ist das?

 

[WhiteKiboko]

i saw one of those at an aquarium one time.... i was shocked that there were foot long deep sea cockroaches/pillbugs.... since it was in charleston i decided it definitely qualified as a 'palmetto bug'

 

[rrtanton]

Yuh, I think that's an Isopod too. Good one, Phil. Rather ancient (yes?) crustaceans, and the familiar tiny terrestrial Pillbugs or Roly-polies as many of us here call them are in fact isopods, so technically crustaceans! :P

rusty

 

[Melissa]

I agree with WK, this looks like one of them crustacean bugs of the sea. Mentioning shellfish makes me hungry but Mystery Ocean Bug doesn't look good to eat. I wouldn't eat a palmetto bug - isn't that just a cockroach by another name?

Melissa

 

[diveseen.com]

Man, I used to REALLY love crustaceans.... I have eaten about 40 shrimp in a single sitting, and crabs and lobsters.... OH so yummy!

Then I started diving, and I started watching what shrimp, crab and lobsters eat for a living. Their sustenance is basically carrion and feces.

They ARE the cockroaches of the seas....

 

[tonmo]

They ARE the cockroaches of the seas....

lalalalal i'm not listening lalalala

 

[WhiteKiboko]

- isn't that just a cockroach by another name?

yes but a bit larger than the ordinary ones...walking down the back streets of charleston at night you'll see some rather huge ones...

 

[Clem]

Though it's been years since last I visited the New England Aquarium, they did keep a few of those things in an "abyssal" tank. Anyone who wants to see a peculiar crustacean doing absolutely nothing should check it out.

Clem

 

[Tintenfisch]

Yup, 'twas a tank of Bathynomus and a few dogfish... though I think as my time there went on I noticed a mysterious decrease in the dogfish population...