January 2011
2 posts
July 2010
3 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Today’s Deep Sea Freak of the Week is the Anglerfish. Anglerfish are members of the order Lophiiformes, and are named for their characteristic method of predation. Anglerfishes typically have at least one long filament sprouting from the middle of the head, with some species emitting bioluminescence from the end of the filament to attract prey. Anglerfish: unlikely to compete for the title...
Shallow Sea Freak of the Week
This week’s freak is the Striped Pyjama Squid (Sepioloidea lineolata), a cuttlefish from off the coast of eastern, southern and western Australia. The species is also known as the Striped Dumpling Squid, and - along with the blue-ringed octopus and the fabulously-named Pfeffer’s Flamboyant Cuttlefish- is one of the few species of cephalopods known to be poisonous. A Striped Pyjama...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
In recognition of yesterday’s Canada Day, Deep Sea Freak of the Week presents this photograph from the Barkley Canyon, off the coast of British Columbia. These attractive Canadian freaks are a brittle star (or ophiuroid) climbing on a sea pen. Brittle stars are closely related to starfish, and have five whip-like arms, used for locomotion: Sea pens are colony animals consisting of a...
June 2010
1 post
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Today, Deep Sea Freak of the Week celebrates argonauts - a group of pelagic octopuses (also known as paper nautiluses). Angry argonaut, ‘maneuevered’ by biologist Julian Finn. Wired Science reported this week that biologists have discovered argonauts use trapped air within their shell cases to float at a comfortable depth. The discovery was apparently made after Melbourne scientist...
May 2010
2 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Today’s freak is the rare and disturbing Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus), an inhabitant of the deep waters off the coast of mainland Australia and Tasmania. Blobfish live at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
As Helen is so busy I have been given the task of providing the Deep Sea Freak of the week….Enjoy. - Carlia, Executive Assistant to the Stars
Tasmanian scientists have discovered a new species of jellyfish in Hobart’s River Derwent and given it this sexy name. The species is only a few millimetres wide and scientists say it looks like a flying saucer with a cluster of spunk tanks, or...
April 2010
3 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Super Nudibranch Frenzy Friday! Today’s Deep Sea Freak of the Week celebrates the nudibranch family of sea slugs. Nudibranches are hermaphroditic, largely carnivorous and often spectacular in appearance.
Vulnerable Deep Sea Freaks One of my snitches has informed me that me that a local resources services firm is doing work to facilitate the dredging of deep sea hydrothermal...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Italian and Danish scientists have discovered the first multicellcular deep sea freaks to live entirely without oxygen - a tiny new species called Loricifera. This raises hopes of encountering Off-Planet Freaks of the Week, in low or zero oxygen environments. (If Off-Planet Freaks are found, there will be a weekly mailout every Tuesday in their honour, so as not to displace Friday’s Deep...
March 2010
3 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Today’s freak, a Giant Isopod, was found attached to a robotic submersible at a depth of 8,500ft.
Giant Isopods are scavengers who feed on dead whales, fish and squid, and may also prey on slow moving sea cucumbers and sponges. Like [divisional name redacted -ed] staff at a quarterly function, when a significant source of food is encountered, giant isopods gorge themselves to the point...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Happy Friday! Today’s freak is the freaky Sea Spider. In Antarctica, they are said to grow ‘exceptionally large’, according to Some Guy Called Norbert From The Internet.
“Most pycnogonids or sea spiders are just 1-10mm long, but in Antarctica, they can grow to the size of a human hand. In the extreme cold, where metabolisms are slow and there are relatively few predators,...
Solar Powered Sea Freak of the Week
Today’s freak, is Elysia chlorotica, a species of green sea slug. Some facts about this freak:
It photosynthesises using genetic manner acquired from the algae it eats, turning sunlight into energy.
Young E. chlorotica, fed with algae for two weeks, can survive on sunlight for the rest of their year-long lives.
E. chlorotica are hermaphrodites.
When feeding, the slug “holds the...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
It’s been so long between Deep Sea Freak of the Week emails that some of us have never even experienced one, and for this I humbly apologise.
Today’s freak, provided for the enhancement of your Friday afternoon, is a newly discovered species of deep sea worm.
Last year, researchers in the Gulf of Mexico lifted the creature from 990m below sea level, only to discover crude oil...
February 2010
1 post
Shallow Sea / Onshore Freak of the Week →
(via Allister)
December 2009
1 post
Deep Sea Freak Special Report! →
Scientists discover coconut-carrying octopus!
October 2009
3 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week: Special Guest Edition!
Provided for your amusement by Shauna:
Red Lipped Batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) Also known as the Galapagos batfish, this oddball seafloor dweller is a poor swimmer that spends an abundance of time “walking” on its pectoral fins. In addition to its freaky walking ability, its body is covered in gnarled lumps, so it’s no wonder this warm water species looks like it’s wearing lipstick—how else...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week: Immortality Special!
This week’s freak is the Turritopsis nutricula, an apparently immortal species of jellyfish.
Jellyfish usually die after propagating; however, T. nutricula has developed the ability to return to a polyp state. The ability to reverse the life cycle is probably unique in the animal kingdom, and allows the jellyfish to bypass death, rendering T. nutricula biologically immortal. Only one...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week: Arctic Special!
This week’s freak is the narwhal (Monodon monoceros), a medium-sized, tusked whale that lives year-round in the Arctic:
Narwhal Facts
The species’ name is based on the Old Norse word nár, meaning “corpse”, in reference to the animal’s greyish, mottled pigmentation, like that of a drowned sailor.
Some medieval Europeans believed narwhal tusks to be the horns...
August 2009
2 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week: Special Double...
Here are two wonderful freaks for your amusement and education, making up for last week’s Great Internet Cock-Up, during which no freaks could be distributed: 1. Whale Shark (Rhincodon typhos) The Whale Shark is truly a vacuum cleaner of the deep, using its capacious mouth (up to 1.5m wide) to filter-feed on plankton, krill, larvae and small squid. The species is also identified with a...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
This week’s freak is Kiwa hirsuta, a blind crustacean discovered at a depth of 2,200m in the South Pacific Ocean in 2004. While sometimes referred to as the ‘Furry Lobster’, ‘Yeti Lobster’ or ‘Yeti Crab’, K. hirsuta is not a true lobster and is so unique that the species has been deemed to form a new genus and family (Kiwaide). K. hirsuta’s...
July 2009
4 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
This week’s freak is a Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (Sphyrna lewini), the most common of all hammerheads. The hammerhead is a notable freak not only for its oddly shaped face, but also for the recently discovered fact that it can reproduce by parthenogenesis: “In late 2007 scientists discovered that hammerhead sharks can reproduce asexually through a rare method known as parthenogenesis...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week by Request
Today’s freak is, by special request, the Sea Dragon - a marine fish related to the seahorse. Sea Dragons are only found around the coasts of South Australia and Western Australia, and are noted for their leaf-like protrusions which serve as camouflage.
Weedy (or Common) Sea Dragon (Phycodurus eques)
Leafy Sea Dragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus)
Bigfin Freak
Today we feature the elusive Bigfin Squid family on Deep Sea Freak of the Week. Only two clear pieces of footage of the Magnapinna genus have ever been captured, the most recent of these being taken by a camera mounted on Shell’s Perdido oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. No undamaged adult specimens of the squid have been recovered to date, and very little is known about the creature, other...
June 2009
1 post
May 2009
2 posts
Freak of the Week By Request
This week’s freak is not a deep-sea freak, but a disturbing and unnatural cross-species freak: the Liger. Important things your should know about Ligers:
A liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress.
Due to genetic freakishness, ligers never stop growing during their lifetime, and thus, are HUGE.
Ligers are Haydon’s favourite animal. See him if you need...
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
This week’s freak is the Giant Squid (genus: Architeuthis). The giant squid pictured below can be seen demonstrating behaviour typical to the genus:
The giant squid is the second largest mollusc and the second largest of all extant invertebrates. It is only exceeded in size, awesomeness and prowess in mortal combat by the Colossal Squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni.
April 2009
2 posts
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
This week’s freak is a Comb Jelly or Ctenophore:
A comb jelly can eat ten times its own weight in a day!
Deep Sea Freak of the Week
Today’s freak is a Dumbo Octopus from the floor of Monterey Bay, California:
