Friday 25 December 2015

This is the problem with Christmas...

Image: Phillip Harpootlian
It's all that fatty food.

It goes straight to my eyes.

Wednesday 23 December 2015

Merry Christmas!


Having been forced to eat his reindeer during a camping trip gone horribly wrong, Santa was relieved to discover that the late Rudolph's red nose could pull the sleigh all by itself.

Wishing you all a fantastic season with lots of wonderful things right under your nose!

Friday 18 December 2015

Watering Pot Shell

Image: Ria Tan
Verpa penis
It's Verpa penis! Just sort of... lying there.

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Knob-tailed Gecko

Image: Michael Sale
Awwww! I don't know if Knob-tailed Geckos are wonky and cute or just wonky!

Monday 14 December 2015

Mushroom Coral

Image: Nick Hobgood
Hmm... Now what do we really want? A mushroom that has tentacles and a mouth? That would be nice to add a bit of cephalopod flair to our woodland walks. Or a coral that looks a bit like a mushroom?

Friday 11 December 2015

Trachelomegalus modestior

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Trachelomegalus modestior
It's a glorious, red millipede!

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Bullock's Mountain False Toad

Image: Edgardo Flores
Telmatobufo bullocki
Holy moley, that's one warty not-toad!

Sunday 6 December 2015

Mydas Fly

Image: Biologoandre
Mydas Flies are flies. Great, big, ENORMOUS flies!

Friday 4 December 2015

Bonnet Mould

Image: Mike Kempenich
Spinellus fusiger
It sounds like some terrible blight that might have struck Victorian Europe, destroying ladies headgear and leading to a devastating rise in the price of fashionable hats.

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Orbicular Batfish

Image: dachalan
Platax orbicularis
The Orbicular Batfish. A dead leaf mimic so expert, so elite, so dead leafy, that they... thought it was a bat? Hmmmm... Something fishy's going on here. Batfishy.

Monday 30 November 2015

Two-tailed Spider

Image: Chun Xing Wong
It's a spider with two tails!

Because the world was in need of just that little bit more spider.

Friday 27 November 2015

Mr. Pinch

Image: OCEANA
I miss Mr. Tickle.

:(

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Spionid

Image: Moorea Biocode
It's a worm! With a face made of worms!

Sunday 22 November 2015

Spider Wasp

Image: Eframgoldberg
If you're an arachnophobe, you might like to think of this as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Unless you also hate wasps. If you suffer from spheksophobia be aware that many Spider Wasps are scarier than your average wasp and the enemy of your enemy is a super-powerful enemy.

Friday 20 November 2015

Bluebell Sea Squirt

Image: Arjan Gittenberger
Perophora namei
Squirts on a stick!

Wednesday 18 November 2015

South American Leaffish

Image: Chris Geatch
It's a carnivorous leaf! The vegetables have finally had enough and are seeking revenge against us all! Especially vegetarians. Those juice-thirsty vegetarians.

Sunday 15 November 2015

Flying Dragon

Image: Psumuseum
*GASP* It's a dragon! A mighty, fire-breathing dragon of yore with teeth like daggers and eyes like embers. Look at his fearsome claws, his lashing tail, his majestically curved neck. He's spreading his majestic wings like a scaly but also majestic banner of unearthly power. Watch him take to the air with majestic flaps of the aforementioned majestic wings. I've never seen a majestic flap before but it's oh so very majestic.

Friday 13 November 2015

Wingfoots


It's those magnificent Wingfoots again! Or "Pteropods" if you insist on being all fancy and, you know, accurate.

Friday 6 November 2015

Just a Little Chocolate Snail

Image: John Slapcinsky
Naninia banggaiensis
Oh, lovely-lovely, sweetie-sweetie chocolate...

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Magnum Sea Cucumber

Image: Nick Hobgood
Neothyonidium magnum
Could it be? Could it really be? A Sea Cucumber that isn't crushingly unattractive and may even be sort of... pretty?

Sunday 1 November 2015

Spanner Crab


Uh oh... Looks like someone just threw a Spanner in the works!

Friday 30 October 2015

Stygiomedusa gigantea


What is a jellyfish to do when it has NO TENTACLES?

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Pentagrammatical Décor of the Hallowe'en Horrors


It's Halloween! That time of year when we kick the bucket with death, kick our heels with darkness, and kick angelic beings in the shins with evil! Woo!

Monday 19 October 2015

Siren

Image: Zruda
Sirens? Bah! Don't talk to me about Sirens. They sit on the rocks looking prettier than a dolphin. Sing better, too. And they're deadlier than... a dolphin. Essentially they're like sexy-but-evil dolphins. They sing to the sailors, and their song is death. It wreaks havoc on the tourism industry.

Err... not that kind of Siren.

Friday 16 October 2015

Palmate Sea Fan

Image: Peter Southwood
Leptogorgia palma
It's so difficult being gorgeous. Especially when you can't move at all.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Carpet Flatworm

Image: Seascapeza
Thysanozoon brocchii
Oooooo, look at that shaggy carpet! Can't you feel the soft papillae tickle your feet and squelch between your toes?

Sunday 11 October 2015

Black Scorpionfish

Image: zslamaj
Scorpaena porcus
It's the original Scorpionfish!

Look how amazingly scorpion and fish she is.

Friday 9 October 2015

Blind Octopus

Cirrothauma murrayi
Octopuses are famous for having eyes remarkably similar to those of humans but without the blind spot.

The Blind Octopus is different in that it has nothing BUT a blind spot!

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Leaf-rolling Cricket

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Silk and anger!

Sunday 4 October 2015

Gasflame Nudibranch

Image: Graeme Kruger
Bonisa nakaza
They have water-resistant gas fires, now? This opens up a whole new world of camping experiences for the more adventurous traveller!

Friday 25 September 2015

Firebrick Starfish

Image: Richard Ling
Asterodiscides truncatus
Who knew bricks could look so pretty!

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Tickle of the Crab's Claw


Getting tickled in the belly is bad enough as it is. The INDIGNITY!

Monday 21 September 2015

Crested Chameleon

Image: Bernard DUPONT
As if chameleons weren't weird enough already, they go all Spinosaurus on us.

Saturday 19 September 2015

Elephant Ear Sponge

Image: Richard Ling
Ianthella basta
If it's bad to make a pig's ear of a thing, how much worse an elephant's?

Thursday 17 September 2015

Arms, Arms, Everywhere


Nor any hand to shake.

Monday 14 September 2015

Stonefish

Image: revjlw
What do you get when you combine a fish and a stone?

Friday 11 September 2015

Tentacle Heaven

Image: Nick Hobgood
Now THIS is a Decorator Crab who knows what decoration is all about! Forget your wallpaper and papier mache dragon heads. Forget even about the lumps of sponge so many other Decorator Crabs swathe their bodies in. Nope. It's all about the tentacles. It's ALL about the tentacles!

By covering itself head to claw in hydroid polyps this crab not only looks good, it also gains protection since all those tentacles happen to be bristling with stinging cells. And it's pretty good for the polyps, too, as they get ferried around to all the best feeding areas their faithful mount can find.

It's a match made in heaven. Tentacle Heaven. And it's ALL about Tentacle Heaven.

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Antenna Ray


It's the one thing every creature with a long, thin tail wants...

A longer, thinner tail!

Friday 4 September 2015

Egyptian Sea Star

Image: Alexander Vasenin
Gomophia egyptiaca
It's what I've always wanted!

A demonic starfish.

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Inner Monster Unleashed


It's a glorious deep sea siphonophore!

Monday 31 August 2015

File Shell

Image: Ria Tan
Tentacles. They are the crowning glory of Mollusca. Cephalopods like octopuses and squid are clearly the anointed kings and queens of this tentacle-blessed race. Just look into their large, intelligent eyes and you know they're asking one thing: where are your tentacles, peasant?

Friday 28 August 2015

Sea Sweep

Image: Saspotato
Scorpis aequipinnis
If a chimney sweep is someone who cleans chimneys...

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Gelatinous Spaceship



I just can't resist these Atolla jellyfish!

Monday 24 August 2015

Bongo Shrimp

Image: Rickard Zerpe
Phyllognathia ceratophthalma
It's the Bongo Shrimp! So named because it's a shrimp that... bongo.

Friday 21 August 2015

Gliding Spider

Image: Stephen Yanoviak
INCOMING! After falling out of a tree, this skydiving spider can swerve through the forest to make absolutely sure it lands squarely on your head! Or another tree. Whatever seems best at the time, I guess.

Thursday 20 August 2015

The Daisy Chain... of DEATH


Hailing from Cambodia, this undescribed species of ant is a disturbingly effective predator of millipedes. Watch as they encircle their trembling prey, waiting for the poor soul to uncurl itself from its defensive coil. Gaze in astonishment as a single sting from a single ant signals the commencement of a whole bunch of stings from a whole bunch of ants.

Gasp in horror as the merry murderers haul the enormous body home. They do so in a remarkable daisy chain, workers pulling on workers in a deadly caravan of communal carnage. Can't you hear them sing?

Hi ho. Hi ho. It's home from work we go.

It's scenes like this which make you realise that ants don't have to be that much bigger than they are to pose a serious threat to humanity. Shrink rays at the ready...

Monday 17 August 2015

Cuyaba Dwarf Frog

Image: Felipe Gomes
Eupemphix nattereri
It's a frog with eyes in the back of his... end.

Friday 14 August 2015

Chubby Spiders

Image: Robert Whyte
You know, you look around at some of the spiders out there...

Sunday 9 August 2015

Cockatoo Waspfish

Image: Daniel Kwok
Ablabys taenianotus
No, it's not the Flamingo Dogfrog or the Hummingbird Antelopewhale, those are obviously completely made up.

Friday 7 August 2015

Button Top

Image: Ria Tan
Umbonium vestiarium
It's the Cute-as-a-button Snail!

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Cigar Jelly

Olindias phosphorica
After a long day plotting the global downfall of the terrestrial world, there's nothing better than stuffing your face with tentaclefuls of seafood and curling up under a warm duvet.