No topic on weird creatures is complete without the Botfly!

A creature so disgustingly offensive, the very mention of the name makes my wife angry and queasy!

Botflies actually look somewhat cute. That said, laying your eggs in my skin isnt cool.

Let's not forget the Giant Spider Crab

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhtpYSmpvOM

I've seen bigger lobsters in some restaurants, sitting in a tank waiting to be cooked. Maybe not as big as the big one in that video, but the others didn't impress me at all.

ED:




They also taste really good.

I want to cook that thing and eat it after smashing it open like a pinata.

I don't like lobster and I'm a Mainer.

Here in Maine a lobster is going for about a third of what it normally goes for right now, so I may have to like eating it.

There is certainly something terrifying about the ocean itself, I'd say. Especially the separation between what lies below the surface and what does above, for, from the surface of it, it seems harmless, and somewhat peaceful, yet knowing that things like this lurk underneath gives it a mysterious, ominous characteristic that is just incredibly frightening. Also the whole nature of the habitat seems to have more in common with the celestial than the terrestrial, particularly in the way that those animals are just suspended there.

The fact that they are so far away that we can't get to them almost makes it seem as though they are in a different world to us.

And there are things down there that we don't know about. Fuck knows what might be down there. To me, it's even more interesting than the possibility of aliens.

^^^ Possibilities of things lurking down there that we don't know about are incredibly high. I can't find a source for it after some quick searching, but I heard one scientist predict that we have only discovered 3% of life on Earth. What remains undiscovered lies in the depths of the sea. I must admit that 3% is a quite unbelievable figure but that's what they said. Regardless of the number, their is no doubt that there is some more crazy shit left to be discovered.

Speaking of things lurking in the depths, thought I'd post this for anyone who has not seen it or one like it:



If there is one thing that disturbs me about this thread, it is this god damn picture. It's a blue hole. This one is the Great Blue Hole, off the coast of Belize; it is 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. I don't know how the rest of you feel about these, but frankly, I find them very unsettling to look at, and I would NEVER want to be within the circumference of one, whether in a boat, swimming, or diving. FUCK THAT. Just look at how small the boat is compared to the hole. I recall reading that people indigenous to the area have tales about the blue hole, saying that a monster of some sort resides within it. Stuff that for a scary story: all you need to say is that it is a gigantic fucking pitch black hole in the ocean floor and I'll be outta there.

I'll just post this here because the other thread was locked and since this thread doesn't seem to be limited to sealife anymore.

www.japanesebugfights.com

That deep hole is actually really cool. Reminds me of going to the beaches in low tide and looking at the rock pools, how each one was like an aquarium, with shells and weeds and various animals, like anemones and cucumbers. It's like that on a larger scale.

Those rock pools are the epitome of awesome. Notable features:
- Neat little isolated habitats
- Crystal clear water
- Colourful plantlife
- All manner of scurrying/floating creatures
- NO CHANCE THAT YOU WILL BE SUCKED IN BY MALEVOLENT CURRENTS TO MEET AN UNTIMELY DEATH IN A WATERY FUCKING GRAVE

According to the wiki link you provided, "Their water circulation is poor, and they are commonly anoxic below a certain depth; this environment is unfavorable for most sea life, but nonetheless can support large numbers of bacteria."

Of course, sea monsters could be that fragment that can live there.

It's a beautiful thing, that. I've read about other blue holes, though, where there is in fact a regular current. Descent is only safe at certain times of the day, because at other times there will be a current that forces the swimmer out, or sucks the swimmer in. I love the sea - love swimming around in the deep parts, watching coral reefs and such, but being sucked into the gaping oceanic maw of the Earth and dying there is not my idea of a holiday in the sun.

Haha, no shit! I did a water color painting of that same exact thing a couple years ago. I'll take a pic later, I guess!

I think squid are some of the most fascinating animals in the world. That recent show on Discovery about the captured Colossial Squid was freakin sweet. I'd rather be attacked by a Giant Squid than one of those things. Rather than suckers, the Colossial Squid's arms are lined with sharp hooks the size of a tiger's canine teeth.

That's a jim-dandy right there:



And it was barely over a year old. Something like 480 days.

I really hope this will fit in my sig.

Anyways, sea life doesn't have to be huge to be fucking bizarre. Observe the humble sea cucumber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber

That's right. Some species, in self-defense, will eject sticky white stuff from their anus. They shit themselves to defend against predators. If humans could do that, I assure you most monster-based horror movies would end quite differently.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget their infamous penis fencing. Again, I think this only applies to certain species, but they are hermaphroditic, and non-self-fertilizing. Thus, to mate, they stab at each other with their penile organs until they ACTUALLY FUCKING PIERCE the other one.

Don't squids have ridiculously short lifespans anyway?

If the Giant Squid is any indication, it takes them a few years just to reach sexual maturity. So take something 32 ft long that is a year old and add a potential two more years of growth.

Blue holes are far more frightening than black holes will ever be. At least I know that something will happen the instant I come in contact with a black hole. With a blue hole you're going to have to spend a good 5 or so minutes (maybe less, maybe more) dying a slow, painful death as the light around you blackens and disappears.

EDIT: My own self-made deep sea beastie: http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1570 ... er2iv5.jpg

I'm glad that we're on the same page with this. The only thing that could be more frightening about blue holes would be if there was a gigantic whirlpool within its circumference (with downward vortical flow, not one of those harmless suckers that just turn around slowly while the people on the boat giggle like schoolgirls and dance the Hokey Pokey).

I consider myself a relatively stable individual, but if there is one thing that consistently frightens me, it is whirlpools (or just vortices). Even looking at a photo of a vortex (be it a whirlpool, the top of a hurricane, or even the body of a tornado) makes me feel nervous.

Aerial vortices dont seem to frighten me in the least. Its the water that gets me - if I get sucked into an aerial one I know Im going to experience a lot of pain very, very soon. I have no chance to escape that, so I can accept death more easily. With a blue hole you've got the teeny tiny chance to escape, but the fact that its basically impossible for you to do and theres so much... SPACE below you. You're left to think while the OCEAN ITSELF fucking EATS you. There is no sea monster more frightening than the sea itself, my friend!

Those things are bad ass.

Fuck that...

Dude that thing is awesome, but when I look at it as a whole, it looks like a joint.

I actually own three hatchetfish. Not those, obviously. Unfortunately, their freshwater counterparts aren't nearly as awesome...

Anyway, not really super big/threatening but kinda cool (I used to have one of these, too but it kind of...died):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/38764 ... cf.jpg?v=0

EDIT: it's sometimes called a freshwater lionfish.

There's a reason the oceans are warming up you know. Isn't because of global warming. Incidentally, whales are going extinct due to an unknown populace of Megalodon shark with the munchies.

Fuck that mainstream species, we're all about the underground here!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself .

That ship with the wave ripples looks almost like a giant snake/worm coming out of the blue hole. Amazing.

Haha! It does! Moby Spliff?



Hey, that never struck me but it does indeed look like a massive snake emerging from its lair. Jörmungandr, perhaps? Thanks for pointing that out - an interesting illusion, and one that could probably be further realised with a bit of Photoshop trickery.

Tis not Jörmungandr. Tis Moby Spliff.

My mistake. If you ever think of renaming your sea creature (which is pretty cool, by the way - kind of looks like a giant, souped up and blood thirsty Coelacanth), you should consider naming it the Moby Spliff leviathan (Latimeria Gigantosplifficus), or even the Spliffgard Serpent.

It is now official. Should I ever recieve a title, it simply MUST be Latimeria Gigantosplifficus.

The Tripod Fish is pretty cool. It can stand on the ocean floor.

Probably the most frightening thing I've seen in this thread is that bigfin squid. I imagine myself in one of those exploring submarines, and encountering one of those in the pitch black of the deep ocean, it gives me the chills.

Man, you can't even see the hooks on those tentacles. They don't have suckers:



They get as large as a tiger's canines, and they swivel 180 degrees.

Not sealife, or even landlife, but with the posting of that huge hole in the ocean it made me think of the "Devil's Kettle" in Minnesota.

It apparently doesn't go anywhere good, nothing thrown in has ever been seen again.

http://www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfall ... ttle.shtml

http://www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfall ... ettle2.jpg

What exactly is that? A salamander centipede?