# In the Siluruan Herefordshire Lagerstatte dread Sollasina Cthulhu lies fossilized **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328 "2019-04-10T11:54:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/1 "2019-04-10T11:54:20Z")
> [@](#): > > On Wednesday, an international team of researchers unveiled the fossilized remains of an ancient relative of the sea cucumber. It had 45 tentacles and lurked at the bottom of the seas some 430 million years ago. > They’ve dubbed it Sollasina cthulhu, after the tentacled Great Old One of H.P. Lovecraft’s weird tales, a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B said. > Unlike the massive Cthulhu of fiction, the creature unveiled by scientists this week was quite tiny, with the fossil measuring just about an inch across. > **[Cthulhu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu)** > > Cthulhu is a cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, this creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts it as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists, in the shape of a green octopus, dragon, and a caricature of human form. The Lovecraft-insp In... > **[Scientists Discover Ancient 'Cthulhu' Fossil That Will Give You Nightmares](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cthulhu-sea-fossil_n_5cad7dfee4b0e833aa330e5e)** > > With 45 tentacles, the Sollasina cthulhu could snatch food and creep along the ocean floor. I’m impressed that Lovecraft has so influenced a bunch of British palaeontologists so much that they took the name for a new species from his most famous creation. But, really – only an inch across. No massive wings? no humanoid face? or blobby pot-bellied body? And I’ll bet not one of the scientists had eldritch dreams about sunken cities or non-Euclidean Cyclopean cities. Not much of a “Cthulhu” Oh, yeah, they also either can’t properly pronounce the name\*, or don’t want to saddle future invertebrate palaeontologists with a Lovecraftian mouthful: [https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2018.2792](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2018.2792) > [@](#): > > (b) New species > > Sollasina cthulhu sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 4480289B-574C-4F7A-92F7-692DB3045B9E. > (c) Etymology > > Named for the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft [27], a fictional universe populated with bizarre tentacled monsters. Pronunciation: kuh-THOO-loo. According to Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as Khlûl′-hloo and said that “the first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness.”[4] S. T. Joshi points out, however, that Lovecraft gave several differing pronunciations on different occasions.[5] According to Lovecraft, this is merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language.[6] Cthulhu has also been spelled in many other ways, including Tulu, Katulu and Kutulu.[7] The name is often preceded by the epithet Great, Dead, or Dread. > > Long after Lovecraft’s death, the spelling pronunciation /kəˈθuːluː/[8] became common. Others use the pronunciation Katulu/Kutulu /kəˈtuːluː/.[9] \*although I agree that it tallies with the “long after Lovecraft’s death” pronunciation, it ain’t Lovecraft’s. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/2 "2019-04-10T12:07:30Z")
Feh. They found a living Purple People Eater at the bottom of the ocean. I started a thread about it, and it promptly sank into the same ocean without a trace. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/3 "2019-04-10T13:30:34Z")
This is a crock. Those are arms and tube feet, not tentacles. Anyway, that thing looks more like an Azathoth than a Cthulhu. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/4 "2019-04-10T13:34:00Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Feh. They found a living Purple People Eater at the bottom of the ocean. I started a thread about it, and it promptly sank into the same ocean without a trace. [See? Here it is!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=808113) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/5 "2019-04-10T13:37:31Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > This is a crock. Those are arms and tube feet, not tentacles. > > Anyway, that thing looks more like an Azathoth than a Cthulhu. Azathoth: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Azathoth.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Azathoth.jpg) You could also argue that it’s like _The Dunwich Horror_, but lacking the head. > **[The Dunwich Horror](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheDunwichHorror)** > > The town of Dunwich, Massachusetts is already a crumbling backwater with a vaguely sinister reputation ... and then Wilbur Whateley is born. His "decadent" (meaning genetically degenerate) and inbred family was already unpopular due to their … To tell the truth, it’s more like an organic Omnidroid, with those armored tube-feet: > **[Free CAD Designs, Files & 3D Models | The GrabCAD Community Library](https://grabcad.com/library/omnidroid-v-x-9-1)** > > The GrabCAD Library offers millions of free CAD designs, CAD files, and 3D models. Join the GrabCAD Community today to gain access and download! > **[Omnidroid - Pixar's Incredibles @ Pinshape](https://pinshape.com/items/30706-3d-printed-omnidroid-pixars-incredibles)** > > Download and 3D print this file (and many more) from Pinshape today! ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/6 "2019-04-10T13:37:38Z")
That’s not Cthulhu, it’s merely his, err, ‘Star-Spawn’… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/7 "2019-04-10T13:41:37Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > [See? Here it is!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=808113) I notice that they don’t show it eating any purple people, or giving evidence that it even wants to. Not much of a Purple People Eater.\* \*In fact, there’s no evidence that the Purple People Eater was itself purple in color, which seems to be the only reason they’re calling this new critter a “Purple People Eater”. > **[The Purple People Eater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purple_People_Eater)** > > "The Purple People Eater" is a novelty song written and performed by Sheb Wooley, which reached No. 1 in the Billboard pop charts in 1958 from June 9 to July 14, No. 1 in Canada, reached No. 12 overall in the UK Singles Chart, and topped the Australian chart. > "The Purple People Eater" tells how a strange creature (described as a "one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater") descends to Earth because it wants to be in a rock 'n' roll band. The premise of the song came from a joke told by t... ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/8 "2019-04-10T13:57:34Z")
If anything, this is Cthulhu’s eldritch skin parasite. “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits itching.” ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/9 "2019-04-10T14:42:23Z")
There is also a spider, _Pimoa cthulhu_, and a moth, _Speiredonia cthulhui_. picture of the spider: [Happy Arachtober: Spider Cthulhu | WIRED](https://www.wired.com/2014/10/happy-arachtober-spider-cthulu/) picture of the moth: [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/8-Habitus-of-Speiredonia-spp-1-S-cthulhui-sp-n-holotype-British-New-Guinea\_fig1\_254923044](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/8-Habitus-of-Speiredonia-spp-1-S-cthulhui-sp-n-holotype-British-New-Guinea_fig1_254923044) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/10 "2019-04-10T19:39:19Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > That’s not Cthulhu, it’s merely his, err, ‘Star-Spawn’… It’s Cthulu sperm? Little eldritch abomination homunculi spawning across the universe? The spuz of a Great Old One discarded in our oceans? (Guess he didn’t have a hankie handy…) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/11 "2019-04-10T20:02:30Z")
Semi- hijack Last week at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, I wore my cultist of Cthulhu ceremonial garb and handed out doom tracts. I got a 21.16666 out of a possible 30 in the costume contest. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/12 "2019-04-10T20:13:52Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Semi- hijack > > Last week at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, I wore my cultist of Cthulhu ceremonial garb and handed out doom tracts. I got a 21.16666 out of a possible 30 in the costume contest. Good to know that there are places that still account down to the closest 1/6 of a vote. MITSFS ought to be proud of them. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/13 "2019-04-10T20:28:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The spuz of a Great Old One discarded in our oceans? Not quite Aphrodite rising from the sea, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-siluruan-herefordshire-lagerstatte-dread-sollasina-cthulhu-lies-fossilized/832328/14 "2019-04-22T13:43:41Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Semi- hijack > > Last week at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, I wore my cultist of Cthulhu ceremonial garb and handed out doom tracts. I got a 21.16666 out of a possible 30 in the costume contest. I’m a Cthulhu cult leader, too, but my duties are mainly ceremonial.