Once again, the real world proves infinitely more fascinating and beautiful than supernatural mythology. What a thrill it would be to see one of these in person.
'Tis Himself, OMsays
Both cephalopods and gastropods are mollusca.
A. Rsays
Oops, thought I saw tentacles! Right Phylum though.
An anthropomorphic creation that is a hexapod instead of a tetrapod
Worse than that, aren’t they described somewhere (Isaiah 6:1–3) as decapods!
(six wings, a couple of arms and a leg or so)
Why, they could almost be cephalopods. PZ take note!!
CompulsoryAccount7746says
Fiery… check.
Flying… check.
Serpent… erm, tubish and wriggly, close enough. (Hey, bats get to be birds)
briancoughlansays
Hey! Mary is the Mother of God not an angel …
Sir Shplane, Grand Mixmaster, Knight of the Turntablesays
I see a face in it, wearing a mushroom cap hat… Praise Mario, it’s Toadette!!!
gravityisjustatheorysays
richardelguru says:
31 January 2012 at 6:18 am
@JonnieC
An anthropomorphic creation that is a hexapod instead of a tetrapod
Worse than that, aren’t they described somewhere (Isaiah 6:1–3) as decapods!
(six wings, a couple of arms and a leg or so)
Why, they could almost be cephalopods. PZ take note!!
Clearly they must belong to the same class or phylum as the Hindu deities, and have just evolved several of their arms into wings.
In any case, the critter in the pic is clearly a Vorlon without it’s encounter suit.
endosymbioticsays
PZ guess how these ‘angels’ eat? Through the top of their heads! my friend in Japan sent me this footage of when this creature was featured on Japanese TV:
Sandiseattlesays
Truly bordering on cute. But pretty cool too.
thunderbird5says
I vividly remember the first time I “saw” these – on David Attenborough’s superb “Life on Earth” series (on the telly, 1979). The family just sat in stunned silence. We couldn’t quite believe that something so beautiful existed and that someone had been able to film it and that we were able to see it.
You definitely have an eye for beauty, PZ.
And a highly developed sense of self preservation, I’d note.
No wonder Mary loves you so.
Silly little evolutionary adaptation. A lot better to believe in than something someone conjured up from a human and bird wings.
It did make me curious as to how it swims. Not especially striking, but it works.
Glen Davidson
So real angel wings evolved from snails’ feet. Makes more sense than those images that Christians conjured up.
I mean, come on. An anthropomorphic creation that is a hexapod instead of a tetrapod? What were they thinking?
Wonderful, my week is going to be book-ended by cephalopods!
That’s not a cephalopod.
Once again, the real world proves infinitely more fascinating and beautiful than supernatural mythology. What a thrill it would be to see one of these in person.
Both cephalopods and gastropods are mollusca.
Oops, thought I saw tentacles! Right Phylum though.
It’s got foot wings?
Holy Paradolia Batman!
@6: They have Sea Angels on display here at the Singapore Underwaterworld. I’ve seen them a few times now. They’re pretty fascinating :)
It’s. A horned angel.
Video of sea angels and another (shelled) swimming gastropod. No, they’re not really “gelatinous”.
What does gelatinous even mean in this context?
Melt Banana!!
Nonsense! Thats clearly some kind of prototype Russian submersible. Or an NTI.
Jumpin’ Jeezus on two sticks, that’s not an angel, it’s a homunculus!
@JonnieC
Worse than that, aren’t they described somewhere (Isaiah 6:1–3) as decapods!
(six wings, a couple of arms and a leg or so)
Why, they could almost be cephalopods. PZ take note!!
Fiery… check.
Flying… check.
Serpent… erm, tubish and wriggly, close enough. (Hey, bats get to be birds)
Hey! Mary is the Mother of God not an angel …
So you’re saying that angelfish are imaginary?
Angelfish? The word doesn’t even make sense.
I see a face in it, wearing a mushroom cap hat… Praise Mario, it’s Toadette!!!
richardelguru says:
31 January 2012 at 6:18 am
Clearly they must belong to the same class or phylum as the Hindu deities, and have just evolved several of their arms into wings.
In any case, the critter in the pic is clearly a Vorlon without it’s encounter suit.
PZ guess how these ‘angels’ eat? Through the top of their heads! my friend in Japan sent me this footage of when this creature was featured on Japanese TV:
Truly bordering on cute. But pretty cool too.
I vividly remember the first time I “saw” these – on David Attenborough’s superb “Life on Earth” series (on the telly, 1979). The family just sat in stunned silence. We couldn’t quite believe that something so beautiful existed and that someone had been able to film it and that we were able to see it.