Monday, May 13, 2013

They come from beneath the sea!


Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that every day I post something called The Daily Pin Board. Basically, it's a Pinterest board that I find interesting or fitting to share that day. Many of these are Halloween or spooky themed, and some are just goofy. You can catch up on all the pin boards I've posted by going here:

Justine's #DailyPinBoard

Get ready, because there's a lot to look at! Today's pin board was a collection of strange sea creatures. Paging through the board, I was fascinated by what I saw. There are so many creatures we'll never see and are not even aware of. Many of these creatures are in Asia. That's one of the fun parts of the internet - being able to see things you'd have to travel pretty far (and in this case, pretty deep) to see in real life. Here are the sea creatures:

Strange Sea Creatures Pin Board

The creatures ranged from adorable to horrifying. Seriously, movie monsters could be based off some of these. I've seen some B-Movies that could have used a little help, as far as sea monster design. This comes to mind:



So, here are my picks as far as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, under the sea. This is just my opinion. You might find some of the ugly ones really cute for all I know!

The Good:


Nembrotha Cristata - It looks like a little undersea Pretty Pony to me!


A Flying Fish, Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Looks kind of like an undersea hummingbird.


I love this little guy. Thanks to Arsenic and Old Lace, I now know he is an Axolotl, also known as the Mexican Salamander.



Glaucus Atlanticus - This one is making it in the "good" category for being so cute and Pikachu-like. I've read that it can give you quite a poison sting, so maybe it's not all that good.

The Bad:


The Goliath Tigerfish from the Congo River in Africa - Locals say it's the only fish that doesn't fear crocodiles. It's been known to eat some smaller ones and even attack people!


A Moray Eel in Indonesia


I don't know what this is, but I'm afraid.


Lamprea - I don't really know how "bad" this is, it just looks menacing. I'm sure it's menacing to some creatures! I watched a video of another worm-like critter that is definitely menacing to its tank mate. I'll warn you, this is creepy. Giant Bristle Worm:




I guess anything with a mouth full of teeth looks mean to me!

The Ugly:


This is the Blob Fish. Doesn't this look like Ziggy?


I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like a character off SpongeBob. If anyone out there is familiar with some of the unnamed ones, please let me know what they are! 


It was hard for me to decide if this is "bad" or "ugly" but yikes. It's a Northern Skygazer, which is a pretty name for something that looks like it would bite your ankles as you walked by.

I'd say these pictures would make a good warning for what to watch out for at the beach, but chances are you won't be seeing any of these!

There's one more creature I want to share, that doesn't really fit any of the above categories. It's an Oarfish.


Have you ever seen anything like this? I watched a video of one of these slithering around the water at a beach. At least, I assume I was watching an Oarfish. Maybe it was Nessie's Tropical Cousin!




This video makes me think of every beach party monster movie I've seen. Except, these people don't seem all that unnerved by these things! Wouldn't you want to move away if something this large swam up to you?

10 comments:

  1. The cute little pink guy in the third picture down is an Axolotl also known as the Mexican Salamander! I've wanted one as a pet for years! They're so adorable!

    I really enjoy watching documentaries about sea creatures, they're so fascinating, weird and wonderful! We've probably not even discovered half of what is lurking deep down in the depths, in fact they say we know more about space than we do about our own oceans!

    I have watched many a YouTube video in the past about creepy, ugly and scary sea creatures.. to the point of getting paranoid that something might come up the toilet whilst I'm sat on it! XD hahaha! Most of them are far creepier than anything we see in horror films!

    The Northern Skygazer has to be the freakiest creature you've pictures here.. those toothpick teeth.. those googly eyes.. it doesn't even look real! God knows how they ever evolved! So so very bizarre! Eeek! ♥

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  2. And these are the reason I like my fish in the shape of sticks (get it? fish sticks? LOL) :0)
    I saw an episode of River Monsters last nite where Jeremy went in search of something that had attacked a swimmer in one of the Great Lakes - he was after a lamprea. Wicked!

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  3. Mantan ~ Ha! Now you have this in my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK5jyVCdXwc

    Arsenic and Old Lace ~ Hey! It's nice to see you around here again! Thanks for answering my question. I'll have to update this post with that information. I wouldn't mind having one of those around either. I wonder how large a Mexican Salamander is?

    Sounds like you'd be the one to ask about exotic sea life, since you watch all those shows! I like nature shows too. That's crazy to think that there's more we don't know about under our oceans than out in space. It makes me wonder how much weirder the sea creatures get. :)

    Haha! Well, I think you're probably pretty safe as far as things coming out of the toilet. Although, I remember a teacher we had in middle school who used to tell a tale of a snake that came out of the toilet. The story gets a little more colorful from there, since the teacher's (male) friend was on the toilet at the time. There was some biting involved. Considering that I'm not comfortable finishing this in my blog comments, that was probably a really inappropriate story to tell a bunch of 13-14 year olds! Anyway, aside from snakes, rats, and baby alligators, you're probably fine. For a while there was this problem with people's exotic pets getting in the sewer, hence the baby alligators in the plumbing.

    You ought to read the comment under the "Skygazer" on Pinterest:
    http://pinterest.com/pin/547468898422039655/

    I got such a kick out of that!

    Jeanne ~ Haha! Gotcha. :) I didn't even know there was a show called River Monsters. So, they go out in search of crazy water creatures? Um... Which Great Lake were they searching in? I ask, because I live pretty near one of them! I don't want those creepy things near me!

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  4. Yikes! Those are the weirdest collection of creatures I have ever seen.

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  5. Julie ~ Yeah, I wouldn't want to run into most of these at the beach! Maybe I wouldn't mind seeing the ones in the "good" category, but even one of those is poisonous! These are fun to look at from the safety of a computer screen, though. :)

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  6. I've never actually seen that 'Creature from the Haunted Sea' movie. What a doozy!

    The Nembrotha Cristata is making me think of SpongeBob's seahorse, Mystery. The Flying Fish is amazing. It's like some kind of fairy fish with butterfly wings. (There I go with the fairies again!) Some of the "ugly" and "bad" fish look like they're straight out of a horror movie. The sea really does have it all.

    Now I'm wondering what on earth that was in the last video.

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  7. Little Gothic Horrors ~ It's a doozy, alright. I put that movie in the so-bad-it's-good category. I'll definitely be watching it again for laughs. The monster isn't the only funny part, although it is the highlight for me! I seem to have a Roger Corman theme going lately, since I watched "Attack of the Giant Leeches" last night.

    Yeah, a lot of these creatures are reminiscent of Spongebob. Those cartoon critters aren't much goofier than the real thing. Aww... a "fairy fish". It is quite delicate. That thing under the eel is the worst for me. If people were still making those giant creature movies, I think that would make the best inspiration. Yes, the sea does have it all!

    I'm going to guess that's an Oarfish in the video, or something the people are familiar with anyway. They didn't seem at all alarmed!

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  8. When I was a child I used to make sea monsters out of clay and submerge them in the bathtub - O what joy! These creatures look gruesome. In the right setting, on the right beach, in the right movie, they would be downright terrifying!

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  9. Matt ~ So, I'm guessing clay sea monsters don't float all that well? Or maybe there's a special type of clay that could? I had some little toy mermaids floating around in the bathtub as a kid. :)

    Oh, I agree. It would be scary to run into most of these creatures at the beach. If you think of how huge the monsters are in the movies, it gets even more scary. How about a giant Lamprea slithering after people? Yikes!

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