# Bizzaro life forms

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 2, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503 "2021-07-02T13:06:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/1 "2021-07-02T13:06:20Z")

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The link is to a series of photos of creatures living in the ocean’s twilight zone. No need to look to outer space for aliens. You couldn’t make these things up. Evolution is an amazing process.

> **['What we know now is how much we don't know': Enter the strange world of the...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/02/world/ocean-twilight-zone-whoi-c2e-scn-spc-intl/index.html)**
>
> Home to a host of ocean oddities and the most abundant fish on earth, scientists are racing to learn more about this underexplored environment.

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**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/2 "2021-07-02T18:40:23Z")

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No need to look underwater for bizarro - or revoltingly gross - lifeforms:

> **[Peculiar parasitic fungi discovered growing out of the rectum of a 50...](https://www.livescience.com/parasitic-fungus-infects-fossilized-ant.html)**
>
> It is the oldest example of an ant infected by a fungal parasite ever found.

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/3 "2021-07-03T09:02:18Z")

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I was SO hoping that would say “Peculiar parasitic fungi discovered growing out of the rectum of a 50 year old man”.

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**Author:** ![Steve\_McQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Steve\_McQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_McQwark)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/4 "2021-07-03T12:18:56Z")

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As a 50-something year old man, I was so relieved that it _didn’t_ say that.

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/5 "2021-07-03T15:19:26Z")

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The one in the OP looks like Kermit the…Krab.

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizzaro-life-forms/945503/6 "2021-07-04T05:04:42Z")

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I’ve seen references to one of the fish, the bristlemouth, as being the most abundant vertebrate genus on the planet “numbering in the hundreds of trillions” but I can’t trace WHY that’s believed to be so.

Are fishermen pulling up that many of 'em? Showing up as bycatch?

> **[Gonostomatidae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonostomatidae)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
> 
> 			 
> Bonapartia
> Cyclothone
> Diplophos
> Gonostoma
> Manducus
> Margrethia
> Sigmops
> Triplophos
> The Gonostomatidae are a family of mesopelagic marine fish, commonly named bristlemouths, lightfishes, or anglemouths. It is a relatively small family, containing only eight known genera and 32 species. However, bristlemouths make up for their lack of diversity with relative abundance, numbering in the hundreds of trillions to quadrillions. The genera Cyclothone (w...