Wednesday 31 December 2014

Places To Go


Most Monkfish are content to rest on the sea floor every available moment of the day and night.

Sunday 28 December 2014

Friday 26 December 2014

Boxing Day Jellyfish


A Box Jellyfish on Boxing Day...

Wednesday 24 December 2014

Merry Christmas!


Hey! Has Santa lost weight? And his face?

At least he's getting around on his own steam now. Those reindeer must be exhausted.

Have a great holiday, everyone!

Sunday 21 December 2014

Christmas Spider

Image: dilettantiquity
Austracantha minax
Nothing says "Christmas" like a small, spiky spider!

Right?

Saturday 20 December 2014

Picasso Sponge 27


This Picasso Sponge depicts a blaze of pale blue light exploding over Lapland as Santa Claus starts up the Gravimetric Field Displacement Manifold of his sleigh.

.....

Friday 19 December 2014

Miamira alleni

Image: prilfish
Hey look! It's a... er...

It's a....

Hmm.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Tiger Jaws

Image: Mike Keeling
Faucaria tigrina
You weren't planning on visiting the greenhouse were you?

Sunday 14 December 2014

Tube Anemone

Image: Nemo's great uncle
It's a sea anemone with a home to go to!

Saturday 13 December 2014

Picasso Sponge 26


This Picasso Sponge depicts Pinocchio sitting in a candlelit basement. The skins of several children are neatly piled on a workbench as he works on his 'real boy' suit.

.....

Friday 12 December 2014

Bell's False Brook Salamander

Image: Sean Michael Rovito
Pseudoeurycea bellii
Wow! What a beauty!

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Deep Sea Goosefish

Image: NOAA Ocean Explorer
Not all deep sea anglerfish look like infuriated demons!

Sunday 7 December 2014

Stingless Bee

Image: Bibafu
What happens when a hard-working, busy, busy bee with a hive full of honey doesn't have a sting? Surely it's certain death and constant disaster! Gluttonous bears and nonchalant bee keepers!

Saturday 6 December 2014

Picasso Sponge 25


This Picasso Sponge depicts an unlikely alliance as Spiderman and Batman join forces with Doctor Octopus and The Penguin to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.

.....

Friday 5 December 2014

Sea Cucumber Succumbs

Image: Daniel Kwok
There's only one thing worse than a sea cucumber sitting quietly in the mud...

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Idiomysis

Image: chickenvsdog
This is what happens when a whole crowd of minute E.T.s go for a swim!

Sunday 30 November 2014

Cow Shark

Image: Peter Southwood
Cow Shark. Cow. Shark.

This is a most unlikely alliance.

Saturday 29 November 2014

Picasso Sponge 24


This Picasso Sponge depicts a self-absorbed tree who is unable to see the wood for himself.

.....

Friday 28 November 2014

Halcampa arctica

Image: SERPENT Media Archive Project
Halcampa arctica
Well, would you look at that. It's a water resistant camp fire! Whatever will they think of next?

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Goldentail Gecko

Image: Dave Fleming
Strophurus taenicauda
Wow! Look at this beauty! That black and silver scale pattern would make for a sweet tie. Maybe a pair of shoes to go with it. Maybe a suit, too. And a couch? Carpets? Duvet cover!

That'd be one sassy bachelor pad.

Sunday 23 November 2014

Moon Snail

Image: Lynette
I guess I'm still stuck with a blinkered, terrestrial view of things but I can't help it. I'm constantly surprised by predatory, meat-eating snails!

And this one even couples it with a bit of carpentry...

Saturday 22 November 2014

Black Sea Devil


Deep sea anglerfish par excellence!

Friday 21 November 2014

Glowing Worms of Someone's or Something's Death

Image: Jeff Cremer
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train heading straight for you.

Other times it's a meat-eating worm! Though that's admittedly more rare.

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Banded Bull Frog

Image: Thomas Brown
Kaloula pulchra
A small frog with an ENORMOUS frog bursting to get out!

Sunday 16 November 2014

Lampshade Spider

Image: Ryan Kaldari
At last! Spiders who use their silk to make useful, household objects! Someday we'll be able to go to IKEA and instead of taking home an annoying flat pack bookcase to assemble, it'll just be a box of trained spiders.

Saturday 15 November 2014

Picasso Sponge 23


This Picasso Sponge depicts Truth and Beauty. They're not on speaking terms.

.....

Yet another one from Esther! Wowee!

Friday 14 November 2014

Phyrella mookiei

Image: Michonneau F, & Paulay G
Good grief! Is that a sea cucumber attempting to be fuzzy AND wuzzy, both? Does it expect a cuddle?

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Fairy Lantern, Thismia

Image: Tindo2
A tiny, wondrous cheat? Or a glimpse into fairy biotechnology?

Sunday 9 November 2014

Tanaid

Image: Moorea Biocode
You know when you turn over a stone and find half an ant's nest in all its bustle, a small community of millipedes waking up from its slumber and a surprisingly large spider scurrying away into the undergrowth and you think "wow, who knew there would be so many legs under this one stone?"

That's pretty much how I felt when I found out about the Tanaids.

Saturday 8 November 2014

Picasso Sponge 22


This Picasso Sponge depicts the ghostly apparition of a housing development as it haunts a moonlit forest clearing.
.....

Another one from Esther! Woo!

Friday 7 November 2014

Snipe Eel

Image: NOAA Photo Library
Eels are famously long and thin but none are as stupendously skinny as the Snipe Eel!

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Crucifix Frog

Image: eyeweed
Notaden bennettii
The brutal, Roman execution device is now a snazzy pattern on a plump frog...

Metamorphosis complete!

Sunday 2 November 2014

Rhinoceros Viper

Image: Josh More
Bitis nasicornis
Vipers already have two long, sharp things sticking out of their upper jaw, so what do they need with yet more sticking out of their snout?

So unfair!

Saturday 1 November 2014

Picasso Sponge 21


This Picasso Sponge depicts a dystopian future in which the sky above the port is the colour of television, tuned to Saturday morning cartoons.

.....

Humongous thanks to Dear Reader Esther for the picture!

Friday 31 October 2014

Cazira verrucosa

Image: 林 敬偉
!!

Who let this guy out of the isolation ward?

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Dead Man's Fingers

Image: James Lynott
Alcyonium digitatum
Someone's sleeping with the fishes...

Sunday 26 October 2014

Call Forth the Hallowe'en Horrors


It's Halloween! That time of year when we listen for the lifting of coffin lids with death, eavesdrop on the whispering chants of mournful forests with darkness and hear the lamentation of our enemies as we drive them before us and crush their women with evil. Woo!

Behold Death. He's taken up gardening. Or so he claims. I don't think he's supposed to bury the seeds 6 feet deep. And aren't you meant to take them off the tree first?

Here be Darkness. She's teaching the ghouls how to cook. It's quite easy because the ghouls eat raw meat but her three-tier offal cake with carved bone colonnade is quite a sight!

Yonder is Evil. He's dressed up in a long, white robe with a little cardboard halo fixed onto his head with a piece of wire. He does that every year but it's hilarious every time!
Let's see who joined the party this year!

Saturday 25 October 2014

Picasso Sponge 20


This Picasso Sponge depicts a zombie and a skeleton taking off their human-suits to enjoy Halloween.

.....

Friday 24 October 2014

The Blobs!


Check out this beautiful octopus! Is that a devil costume?

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Strange Worm


Strange by name, strange by nature...

Sunday 19 October 2014

Chinese Crocodile Lizard

Image: spacebirdy
Shinisaurus crocodilurus
Hey, look! It's a Chinese Crocodile Lizard!

...

He blinked!

Saturday 18 October 2014

Picasso Sponge 19


This Picasso Sponge depicts a post-apocalyptic world of darkness and fallen skyscrapers in which a man receives a parking ticket.

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Friday 17 October 2014

Toad Lubber

Image: Greg Lasley
It's the stone golem of grasshoppers!

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Poralia rufescens

Image: NOAA Photo Library
TECHNOLOGY: Chinese scientists launch first living satellite into orbit.

Sunday 12 October 2014

Razorfish

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Can you believe this? There are cut throat razors drifting about in the sea! If you happen to come across an unusually hairy merman on your travels, tell him to be more careful.

Saturday 11 October 2014

Picasso Sponge 18


This Picasso Sponge depicts two worlds in a savage fight to decide which is the best possible world.

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Friday 10 October 2014

Sloane Englewood: Web of Lies


Sloane Englewood jumped into the Volkswagen Polo Mk2 and sped away as fast as he dared down the wet dirt track. He was tired and filthy. Every muscle in his body ached and he could feel a fever coming on. He hadn't been prepared to spend a rainy night in the woods, hiding from Scorpion Agents and fearing an ambush behind every tree.

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Emperor Shrimp

Image: Nick Hobgood
Periclimenes imperator
The Emperor will see you now...

Sunday 5 October 2014

Spanish Dancer

Image: moments in nature by Antje Schultner
Hexabranchus sanguineus
Hey look! It's a slug!

Doing... the flamenco?

Saturday 4 October 2014

Picasso Sponge 17


This Picasso Sponge depicts a painter painting a painter painting a painter painting a painter...

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