Here is my own entry, the bloodybelly comb jelly. The video is a few years old, but it was new to me. The shape-changing form and “glowing” lights really make it look very odd and alien to me.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium says: " Brilliant and seemingly glowing, the bloodybelly comb jelly comes in different shades of red but always has a blood-red stomach. The sparkling display on the outside comes from light diffracting and refracting off tiny transparent, hairlike cilia. These beat continuously, propelling the jelly through the water.
This species has only recently come to the attention of scientists thanks to images like this, supplied by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s remotely operated vehicles."
This “spider”. Unfortunately, I can’t find a clip that doesn’t spoil the whole thing right from the start, but I learned about this animal from an Attenborough documentary, Seven Worlds, One Planet, that preserves the surprise.
I watch a lot of nature documentaries and have read quite a bit on biology, it’s really hard for me to still come across an animal I don’t have at least a slight familiarity with (like your comb jelly). This one was completely new to me. And it made me jump.
Yikes! You have those carnivorous “hammerhead worms”? I’ve read about those being an invasive species in France and also in Georgia in the US. They eat your normal earthworms, which are beneficial to the soil.
One of these was on our front storm door one day a couple months back when I was coming back from walking the dog. It was huge! After we got inside, I snapped a couple photos of it then tried to figure out what it was. I found a website for insects in Kansas, with pictures (nearly 2,000 entries) but they were in alphabetical order, so it took me forever to finally find it.
It’s hard to see from the Wikipedia picture unless you zoom in, but there is a spiny semi-circular fin on the back behind the head, which I guess is where the name comes from. It’s a member of the assassin bug family and will f*** you up bad if you mess with it, so I’m glad I left it alone. It was gone the next day.
I think it’s a childhood rite of passage to be grossed out by the knowledge that there are microscopic beasties living among our eyelashes. But these visuals gave me a whole new level oh wig.
(Side note: they’re arachnids. I.e. arthropods. This made me wonder at what level of tinyness do the materials of their exoskeleton no longer support the mechanics of mobility? What’s the lowest size limit of working arthropod joints?)
I like bats and would like to know more about them. Occasionaly I stumble in the net accross a particulatly weird looking species, today it was this one: Male wrinkle-faced bat ( Centurio senex )
Great photo! When I was a young kid, maybe 6 or 7, my mom caught one in a glass jar. If I recall correctly, she had a friend at the local hospital who was researching an antivenin for their nasty-as-hell stingbite. She killed it with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball, and I sobbed at the cruelty.
They’re reasonably common where I live, and I see them a few times a year. Fascinating little creatures.
