Places To Go

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

Ludicrously Ornate Sponge

It's a Venus Flower Basket!

Boxing Day Jellyfish

A Box Jellyfish on Boxing Day...

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!

Christmas Spider

Image: dilettantiquity
Austracantha minax

Nothing says "Christmas" like a small, spiky spider!

Right?

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.

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Miamira alleni

Image: prilfish

Hey look! It's a... er...

It's a....

Hmm.

Tiger Jaws

Image: Mike Keeling
Faucaria tigrina

You weren't planning on visiting the greenhouse were you?

Tube Anemone

Image: Nemo's great uncle

It's a sea anemone with a home to go to!

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.

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Bell's False Brook Salamander

Image: Sean Michael Rovito
Pseudoeurycea bellii

Wow! What a beauty!

Deep Sea Goosefish

Image: NOAA Ocean Explorer

Not all deep sea anglerfish look like infuriated demons!

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!

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.

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Sea Cucumber Succumbs

Image: Daniel Kwok

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

Idiomysis

Image: chickenvsdog

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

Cow Shark

Image: Peter Southwood

Cow Shark. Cow. Shark.

This is a most unlikely alliance.

Picasso Sponge 24

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

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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?

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.

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...

Black Sea Devil

Deep sea anglerfish par excellence!

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.

Banded Bull Frog

Image: Thomas Brown
Kaloula pulchra

A small frog with an ENORMOUS frog bursting to get out!

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.

Picasso Sponge 23

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

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Yet another one from Esther! Wowee!

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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?

Fairy Lantern, Thismia

Image: Tindo2

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

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.

Picasso Sponge 22

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

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Another one from Esther! Woo!

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Snipe Eel

Image: NOAA Photo Library

Eels are famously long and thin but none are as stupendously skinny as the Snipe Eel!

Crucifix Frog

Image: eyeweed
Notaden bennettii

The brutal, Roman execution device is now a snazzy pattern on a plump frog...

Metamorphosis complete!

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!

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.

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Humongous thanks to Dear Reader Esther for the picture!

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Cazira verrucosa

Image: 林 敬偉

!!

Who let this guy out of the isolation ward?

Dead Man's Fingers

Image: James Lynott
Alcyonium digitatum

Someone's sleeping with the fishes...

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!

Picasso Sponge 20

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

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The Blobs!

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

Strange Worm

Strange by name, strange by nature...

Chinese Crocodile Lizard

Image: spacebirdy
Shinisaurus crocodilurus

Hey, look! It's a Chinese Crocodile Lizard!

...

He blinked!

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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Toad Lubber

Image: Greg Lasley

It's the stone golem of grasshoppers!

Poralia rufescens

Image: NOAA Photo Library

TECHNOLOGY: Chinese scientists launch first living satellite into orbit.

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.

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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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.

Emperor Shrimp

Image: Nick Hobgood
Periclimenes imperator

The Emperor will see you now...

Spanish Dancer

Image: moments in nature by Antje Schultner
Hexabranchus sanguineus

Hey look! It's a slug!

Doing... the flamenco?

Picasso Sponge 17

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

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