Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Self-portrait

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1. 1
   

   JohnnieCanuck

   11 February 2013 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   And Death stares back. Do not expect pity.

2. 2
   

   Lofty

   11 February 2013 at 7:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Hah! That thing’s no more real than the face on Mars! Poke it with your finger and you’ll see! It’s just a weedy roc………………………….

3. 3
   

   Cuttlefish

   11 February 2013 at 8:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Clearly a mimic octopus!

4. 4
   

   Dick the Damned

   11 February 2013 at 8:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Blehhhhhhhh! It’s only Jebus, again.

5. 5
   

   Dick the Damned

   11 February 2013 at 8:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Blehhhhhhhh! It’s only Jebus, yet again.

6. 6
   

   Ragutis

   11 February 2013 at 8:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Poke it with your finger

   Intimidating as that mug is, I wouldn’t worry much about giving it a poke. Stepping on one is what’ll far more likely make you rather dead. Venomous dorsal spines with a really potent neurotoxin. Anyone want to guess which Southern hemisphere, kangaroo-ridden, full of critters that’ll kill you country/continent has lots of ‘em?

   But what do I know? I thought it was a Wobbegong at first.

7. 7
   

   Lofty

   11 February 2013 at 10:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   From the wikipedia entry on Synanceia:

   “I got spiked on the finger by a Stonefish in Australia … never mind a bee sting. … Imagine having each knuckle, then the wrist, elbow and shoulder being hit in turn with a sledgehammer over the course of about an hour. Then about an hour later imagine taking a real kicking to both kidneys for about 45 minutes so that you couldn’t stand or straighten up. I was late 20s, pretty fit physically and this was the tiniest of nicks. Got sensation back in my finger after a few days but had recurrent kidney pains periodically for several years afterwards.” -Stonefish victim [6]

   I don’t recommend poking it with a finger unless you are really sure which way Stoneyface is facing.
   And on the southern edge of this place we have much more benign creatures to kill us, such as the blue ringed octopus. And jetskis.

8. 8
   

   Kagato

   11 February 2013 at 10:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Remember: “Science” rhymes with “compliance!”
   You know what doesn’t rhyme with “compliance?”
   Neurotoxin.

9. 9
   

   Ragutis

   12 February 2013 at 2:33 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   I got spiked on the finger by a Stonefish in Australia…

   Ok, point taken. Holy shit does that sound like it sucks.

10. 10
    

    paulburnett

    12 February 2013 at 6:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Remember, stonefish were intelligently designed by the same loving god that designed the malaria parasite.

11. 11
    

    slowdjinn

    12 February 2013 at 7:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Ob. Python
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPriOQkKd6k

12. 12
    

    onychophora

    12 February 2013 at 8:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    This is a nice video for Darwin Day. http://youtu.be/SSFL1Z1rMoE

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    esmith4102

    12 February 2013 at 8:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Beautiful, in an ugly sort of way!

14. 14
    

    jnorris

    12 February 2013 at 12:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    GODZILLA!!!!!!!