Comments

  4. Sven DiMilo says

    of course, unlike the Borg queen, the “head” is not a head, but rather the mantle & visceral mass (basically the “abdomen” equivalent).

    but yeah, there’s a resemblence…

  6. Holytape says

    Great, first earthquakes and now this. And these creatures of the deep are truly evil and unstoppable. Any attempt at organizing a resistance to this tentacled horde is doomed to failure, as it will inevitably lead to an argument over the correct plural term ‘Octopi, Octopusses, or Octopodes’ which inevitably leads to lots of blood shed.
    Shnoah’s ark

  11. Givesgoodemail says

    This lovely picture put me in a mood to write this.

    If you squint really hard, the Eight-Legged One looks a little like Michelle Bachmann.

  13. Mike Wagner says

    If I saw that in the water unexpectedly I might leave my own trail of ink.

    I think the coolest thing I’ve ever encountered in the water was snorkeling in a bay here on Prince Edward Island as a kid. We swam into a wall of jelly globules, the size and shape of ping pong balls, with no visible stingers or orifice. The strangest “jellyfish” I’d ever seen. (At least that’s what we figured they were) And there were millions of them. We cruised around in them for quite a while once we established there wasn’t any stinging going on.
    It *might* have been the eggs of body snatchers, but I’m not sure. Would anyone like to go for a walk down to the water? It’s perfectly safe…

    Trust me.

    —
    Even creationists have the right to free (dumb) speech.
    http://bit.ly/8X7OPH

  14. Breton says

    Mike Wagner,
    You likely swam into a mass of comb-jellies or Ctenophores,organims which are jelly-like but are not true jellyfish (not even in teh same phylum, last I heard). Very common in Atlantic Canada waters, especially during the colder months. There are several species here in Nova Scotia, of which the spherical ones (Pleurobrachia spp) are the most common,in my experience. really neat critters, I love watching them move underwater..

  16. Die Anyway says

    Iconic to say the least. Wait… look… I think I see Jeezus… no, no, it’s just the Virgin Mary again.

    And damn you Tumsup… now I’ve got narwhals on the brain again. ‘Cuz they are so awesome. :-)

  17. David Marjanović says

    comb-jellies or Ctenophores,organims which are jelly-like but are not true jellyfish (not even in teh same phylum, last I heard)

    Indeed, one of these groups is more closely related to us than to the other.

    People used to think it was obvious that the comb-jellies are closer to us triploblastic animals, but that has become very controversial.

  18. Mike Wagner says

    @Breton #14
    Thanks for the info :)
    I’m glad they didn’t turn out to have some powerful toxin or a digestive enzyme that rendered me into paste, and left my disappearance a legend for the county.
    I guess it was silly swimming into the unknown but damn it if wasn’t cool. :)

    —
    Even creationists have the right to free(dumb) of speech.
    http://bit.ly/8X7OPH

  20. Sven DiMilo says

    Indeed, one of these groups is more closely related to us than to the other.

    Not so fast…the most recent study I’ve seen resurrected the Coelenterata (i.e. a diploblastic sister clade to bilaterians):
    Philippe, H., et al. (2009). Phylogenomics Revives Traditional Views on Deep Animal Relationships. http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2809%2900805-7

    (Note also the monophyletic Porifera…that paper made me happy.)

  22. David Marjanović says

    Ah. That’s a paper I haven’t seen yet; I’ll try to download it tomorrow.

    However, I can’t comment it anyway. Conflict of interest, you see. The thirteenth of the twenty authors is the head of the doctoral school I depend on… :-]

    (Of course, that’s another reason to read it.)