Sea Krait

Image via Wikipedia

So we've seen the Kraits, now it's time to have a look at some of their close relatives, the Sea Kraits. As you will have guessed, Sea Kraits are aquatic and have many similarities to the usual land living Kraits. I have to be honest though, I don't actually know if Sea Kraits are really, really closely related to Kraits or only quite closely related. Still, they're definitely at least quite closely related!

Let's take a look at some of those similarities. For one, they are found in the same part of the world, just the more watery bits. Sea Kraits range from India to all those southeast Asian islands but also all the way across to Fiji and north to Japan. They also have the round pupils of elapid snakes and most have the black and light banded pattern of Kraits. Another similarity between Kraits and Sea Kraits is an interesting one - land.

Violet Sea Snail

Image source

I'm very intrigued by these aquatic gastropods, I'm so accustomed to good, ol' garden snails that these underwater varieties are extremely fascinating to me. The fact that so many of them seem to be carnivorous just about turns my world upside down! I suppose there's far more slow moving prey for a slug or snail underwater than there is on land. As it turns out, the Violet Sea Snail turns my world upside down more than most, because it's upside down and, as it happens, only just barely underwater.

Shrike

Image via Wikipedia

On the face of it, the Shrike is entirely unsuitable for a blog that investigates the Monstrous and bizarre side of nature. It's a bird. It's a cute, fluffy, little bird, not unlike sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes and all sorts of other darling lovelies. Why on earth would I be concerned with what at first glance appears to be a complete sweetheart?

Scorpion

Image via Wikipedia

You have got to love scorpions, at least somehow, somewhere, sort of, in a sense. They look so unique and dignified, such elegance and grace; nothing else looks quite like the scorpion (not quite...). They appear ever prepared for only the most genteel of dances, the most dignified of entertainments. A night at an aristocratic ball with the best of society, perhaps. Or a lavish yet refined feast with only the most sophisticated of company, full of elevated discussion on the most cultivated of matters. Port and cigars at the gentlemen's club? What's that you say? Nocturnal walks in the countryside? That's nice! To poison and butcher wild animals so that you can suck out their insides?

Oh...
That sounds... great.

Turtle Frog

This is one weird looking frog. From some angles he looks like a sumo wrestler. From others he looks more like a young, carefree Jabba the Hutt. Very young, since they only reach about 5cm long (and, from the looks of it, 5 cm across, too). From above he looks a bit like a dead frog that got crushed to death and now he's dead. Not so carefree, that one.

Oh yeh, and a turtle. He looks a bit like a turtle.

Benthoctopus

Image: © MBARI

I love this name! "Benthoctopus"... wonderful! Benthoctopus is actually a genus of deep sea octopus with about 25 members known so far. The "benth" part comes from a Greek word meaning "depths of the sea". Where plankton are those that drift around in water, the benthos is the community right at the bottom of lakes and oceans. They aren't necessarily at great depths, it just so happens that Benthoctopus are. Specifically, they are found at depths of 200 to 3,000 metres, apparently all over the world.