Real Monstrosities: gastropod

Showing posts with label gastropod. Show all posts

Friday, 16 March 2018

Wentletrap

Image: Steve Jurvetson

Proof yet again that nature is the best sculptor!

That's what happens when you have a billion years of experience.

Ocellate Phyllidia

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Phyllidia ocellata

Oooh, ouch!

I've heard of rashes and boils, spots and pimples, warts and buboes... but clouds? Who comes up in clouds?

Liguus Tree Snail

Image: Rafy Rodriguez
Liguus virgineus

You don't have to take a dip in the ocean to be wowed by a beautiful gastropod.

Some of them are right there in the trees!

Seventh Seal of the Hallowe'en Horrors

It's Halloween! That time of year when we eat humble pie with death, eat a whole bottle of bitter pills with darkness and eat lead with evil. Woo!

Veils From the Crypt

Video: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Cryptic monsters... undercover horrors... sleeper creepers... From the monsters under the bed to the ghosts in the attic, the vampire on the board of directors to the werewolf in the historical reenactment society, there's no getting away from them. Is your paperboy a ghoul? Is your sister-in-law a zombie? Are you absolutely sure you're not a fish-person?

Doto varaderoensis

Image: Linda Ianniello

I'm sure this sea slug is meant to avoid predators by using camouflage...

But I can't help but think that it avoids predators by looking contagious.

Striped Bubble Shell

Image: Sylke Rohrlach
Hydatina physis

What is a shell? Armour? Home? Laborious burden? How about fashion accessory?

And the Number of the Hallowe'en Horrors is 666

Its Halloween! That time of year when we draw black waters from the well of cosmic truth with death, draw deep breaths of chill, grave-leaden mist with darkness, and draw white, chalk outlines around corpses in the alleyway with evil. Woo!

Behold Death. He's wearing his Loch Ness Monster costume this year. Basically it's a dark green robe, a dark green handle for his scythe and a kind of lizard mask on the blade. It looks great and boy is he committed to the role. We've been trying to get him out of the swimming pool for hours!

Here be Darkness. She's been trying to teach the zombies about the miraculous power of make-up. I don't think it's going too well. Lipstick is supposed to stick to lips, not the other way round. There's bits of face everywhere!

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!

Urocoptid

Image: Carlos De Soto Molinari

Look at this cute, little snail!

Angaria

Image: Shellnut

Here come those snails again, showing us once more that you don't need to live fast to leave a good-looking corpse.

Bryozoa Nudibranch

Image: Donna Pomeroy

This has to be one of the more eye-bending examples of camouflage out there.

Phylliroe

Image: Fabien Michenet/nuditahiti.com

It's a sea slug that thinks it's a fish! And it's so good at being a fish you may well need a second look to decide if it's a weird-looking sea slug or a weird-looking fish.

Crowned Nudibranch

Image: John Turnbull
Polycera capensis

Crowned in tentacles, that is.

The Blues V

Image: Hiyashi Haka
Lamprotornis caudatus

It's time for the blues! Either that or I'm a week late... Oh dear. Failure upon failure! Blues upon blues! Well, I guess it makes sense, really. Blues are eternal, after all. Haven't you heard? It's blues all the way down! At least on this page...