Giant Isopod Hitches Ride on ROV

[PPI Brian]

A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified.

In a posting to social bookmarking site Reddit, a deep-sea technician detailed the finding, asking the site's readers to help identify what exactly the bizarre looking creature was.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/30/terrifying-sea-critter-from-oceans-depths/?test=faces

[PPI Debra]

A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified.

In a posting to social bookmarking site Reddit, a deep-sea technician detailed the finding, asking the site's readers to help identify what exactly the bizarre looking creature was.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/30/terrifying-sea-critter-from-oceans-depths/?test=faces

Wow!

There's so much we humans don't know about life on our own planet.

[Damian]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!

Before I got into the Telecom industry, I was studying Marine Biology.  I'm sure you all have noticed by now that there's a lot of things I'm interested in, and marine life is definitely in the upper reaches of my list of interests.

I can't believe how huge that thing is.  It's literally a giant oceanic "bug".  I was actually thinking that it looked like a new species of pillbug.

Debra, you're completely right about how little we know about our own world.  Look at the variety of life found on those deep-sea oceanic vents; places where up until recently we didn't think life could exist because of the lack of sunlight and oxygen, the extreme heat of the water, and the toxic elements spewing forth from within the Earth.

It's mind-blowing to apply that thinking beyond Earth...who knows what environments lurk in our solar system and beyond where life might exist in places we consider dead and inhospitable.  Could there be micro-organic life or massive beasts living in liquid beneath the massively thick ice on Saturn's moon, Titan?

When we stop and think about how little we actually know, it's humbling.  Simply amazing stuff!

And Brian, you always find the best stuff to post!

[PPI Tracy]

HOLY CRAB!!

If this had come out today instead of yesterday, two words come to mind:  "April Fools"!

[PPI Jason]

HOLY CRAB!!

If this had come out today instead of yesterday, two words come to mind:  "April Fools"!

My thoughts exactly Tracy.

Here's a cool website I came across today.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

[Damian]

Spaghetti Tree!!!  Aaaaahahaha!  I can't believe people fell for that.

[PPI Brian]

OMG! I remember the article about the Hot Heads. I fell for it hook line and sinker for a couple of weeks before I finally figured out that Discover Magazine was pulling a fast one. 

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Hotheaded_Naked_Ice_Borer/

[ljiljanac]

It looks like a big gi-normous cockroach!!!  I'd TOTALLY shoot it!   

[PPI Karl]

It looks like a big gi-normous cockroach!!!  I'd TOTALLY shoot it!   

Is it just par for the course on Fox News, or is it the least bit suspicious that they named the html page "terrifying-sea-critter-from-oceans-depths"?  (See the value of proper file naming protocols?!!!)

Besides, if this is for real, you just know, somewhere on the planet, a Black Marketeer is convincing some schmo that eating the tale of this thing will make him the most virile man in his village.  ("Here, try just this sample abdominal segment for free.  If giant isopod tail didn't do something amazing, could we afford to do this?")

[PPI Jason]

So Lillie can shoot it, and the rest of us will eat it. Maybe we could sacrafice it during our Ouija Board experiments. Or better yet, I would stuff it's dead carcass, stick it on the end of a hydrolic anamatronic arm, then charge people money to walk through a "Haunted House of Horrific Horrors" (trademark pending). I can see it now (queue the "Jason's messed up imagination harp music")

Jason the Paratainer: Okay everyone, we're coming to "Cryptozoologyland," make sure you have your complimentary PPI KIIs, which you purchased prior to our tour for $49.99, switched to "ghost detection."

Wanda the Psychic: "Oooooh, I feel a presence. Quick, everyone hold hands while I chant the lyrics to 'All Along the Watchtower' backwards to protect us."

Small boy in the crowd of overcharged paratainment victims: "Hey Mommy, look, my PPI KII ghost detector is spiking at 20+ milligauss."

[The group turns the corner into a darkened room. When they reach the middle, Miller, hiding in a darkened rear area of the "crypto room," activates a switch that activates speakers, hidden at the the top of the room, which start playing loud breathing sounds which Miller has chosen from his CD titled "Loud Disemboided Breathes: The Best of PPI EVPS Vol. II." Miller also whacks Tim (who up til this point had been sleeping on a beach chair nearby) on the head with a broomstick. Tim awakens with a start and instincitively flips the switch that turns on the lights.

Suddenly, the light in the room reveals a giant Isopod, on a stick, moving around franticly. Screams of terror arise from the crowd as they flee in horror.]


[20 years in the future. One of the boys in that tour group is now a man. He is lying on a psychiatrist's chair in a psychiatrist's office. A stearn, but intrigued, psychiatrist is seated nearby, smoking a pipe with spectacles resting on the tip of his nose, carefully taking notes.]

Small boy in the crowd now a man: "And that's the day the nightmares started doc. I still wake up at night, crying and screaming."

[PPI Tim]

I think I would put a saddle on that thing and sell tickets for rides.

[PPI Brian]

[The group turns the corner into a darkened room. When they reach the middle, Miller, hiding in a darkened rear area of the "crypto room," activates a switch that activates speakers, hidden at the the top of the room, which start playing loud breathing sounds which Miller has chosen from his CD titled "Loud Disemboided Breathes: The Best of PPI EVPS Vol. II." Miller also whacks Tim (who up til this point had been sleeping on a beach chair nearby) on the head with a broomstick. Tim awakens with a start and instincitively flips the switch that turns on the lights.

Suddenly, the light in the room reveals a giant Isopod, on a stick, moving around franticly. Screams of terror arise from the crowd as they flee in horror.]


[20 years in the future. One of the boys in that tour group is now a man. He is lying on a psychiatrist's chair in a psychiatrist's office. A stearn, but intrigued, psychiatrist is seated nearby, smoking a pipe with spectacles resting on the tip of his nose, carefully taking notes.]

Small boy in the crowd now a man: "And that's the day the nightmares started doc. I still wake up at night, crying and screaming."

ROFLMAO! I nearly shot coffee out my nose when I read that! You're killin' me, Jason. LOL! That was too funny.   

It looks like a big gi-normous cockroach!!!  I'd TOTALLY shoot it!   

Is it just par for the course on Fox News, or is it the least bit suspicious that they named the html page "terrifying-sea-critter-from-oceans-depths"?  (See the value of proper file naming protocols?!!!)

Besides, if this is for real, you just know, somewhere on the planet, a Black Marketeer is convincing some schmo that eating the tale of this thing will make him the most virile man in his village.  ("Here, try just this sample abdominal segment for free.  If giant isopod tail didn't do something amazing, could we afford to do this?")

LOL! Yeah, they are real. They are Bathynomus giganteus, a species known to science for nearly two hundred years. As you pointed out, Fox News has a tendancy to, shall we say, sensationalize even the most trivial discovery. You're exactly right, Damian -- these critters are close relatives of sow bugs and pill bugs that we see in the garden. In fact, sow bugs are the only crustacean that lives on land. They have to stay moist because they breathe through their gills

Here are a couple of links about them:

Ocean Explorer




Greetings From Your Isopod Overlords



Apparently giant isopods love Doritos:

[Damian]

Awwww, ain't that sweet?  They're holding it like a beautiful 14-legged segmented baby.

[Gary]

You guys seen that 'Surprised Kitten' viral video?  Can't you just see a 'Surprised Isopod'!??!  LoL.... wow!

[PPI Tracy]

I'm sorry.  This soooo smells of "April Fools". 

[PPI Debra]

Even though it's Faux (Fox) news, the story was actually posted on March 30th.

[ljiljanac]

That is and always will be cockroach-like to me, and I am SO BEYOND grossed out.  I throw up in my mouth everytime I see it.  You all really want to scare me?  Stick a cockroach in the same room with me.  Bring it near me and prepare to die right along with it.  lol

[PPI Tracy]

That is and always will be cockroach-like to me, and I am SO BEYOND grossed out.  I throw up in my mouth everytime I see it.  You all really want to scare me?  Stick a cockroach in the same room with me.  Bring it near me and prepare to die right along with it.  lol

Shhhhh!!!  Lillie!!  Don't give Jason any ideas!

[PPI Jason]

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Shellshock]

Its little face is a trip! Love learning about this stuff. Thanks for sharing the links ! 

[PPI Karl]

isoPod?  I'm a little surprised Apple hasn't hit on the idea of using this cute little guy for its next wave of advertising.

[PPI Tracy]

Even though it's Faux (Fox) news, the story was actually posted on March 30th.

Knowing them, they probably can't read a calendar.

[PPI Debra]

Even though it's Faux (Fox) news, the story was actually posted on March 30th.

Knowing them, they probably can't read a calendar.

Or they read it and deliberately alter the date....
or maybe they consult that sarah creature.
They are an enigma of the "make it go away" kind.

[Damian]

Karl, I got a mental image of this creature as a shadowy profile against a bright solid color background, with the tell-tale white earbuds, and doing some hippy dance while rocking out to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  Awesome!