PDA

View Full Version : "Flamboyant" New Squid Worm Surprises, Delights Experts


Solace
11-27-10, 05:31 PM
This think looks wicked sick.

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/270/cache/census-marine-life-best-pictures-41_27022_600x450.jpg

Scanning the depths off the Philippines in 2007, an undersea robot beamed back video of a worm—or was it a squid, or a worm eating a squid?—with spiraling appendages, iridescent "oars," and a feathery "nose."

"When the image came onto the screen, everyone said, Oh my gosh, what's that?" recalled marine zoologist Laurence Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Thanks to a new study co-authored by Madin, we now have the answer. The animal—as suspected—turned out to be a bizarrely bedecked marine worm totally new to science. (See marine-worm pictures.)

The paper, published Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters, describes the new species at length for the first time and officially christens the creature Teuthidodrilus samae, or "squid worm of the Sama"—the Sama being a culture with ties to Philippine islands not far from the discovery site.

Read more: http://bit.ly/e8l3aZ

Platapus
11-27-10, 05:40 PM
What a beautiful creature. Never surprised at the beauty of nature.

Why explore the stars when there are life forms here on earth we still don't know about.

Task Force
11-27-10, 05:44 PM
Very cool animal theyve got there.

GoldenRivet
11-27-10, 06:01 PM
neat :up:

I always wanted to know what was down there.

we have a long distance to cover in our journey of discovery

darius359au
11-27-10, 06:25 PM
Goes to to show we know next to nothing about 70% of our planet ,it seems like every time there's a ocean research trip something new and/or weird is discovered:up:

Armistead
11-27-10, 06:28 PM
Dang, I bet largemouth bass would love those things.....

Wolfehunter
11-27-10, 10:13 PM
Dang, I bet largemouth bass would love those things.....Or it the bass muahahaaa... :O:

frau kaleun
11-28-10, 12:30 AM
What a lovely picture. I'm sure I'll be seeing it again soon... in my nightmares. :o :O:

papa_smurf
11-28-10, 06:01 AM
Why explore the stars when there are life forms here on earth we still don't know about.

True, we know more about space than the ocean depths.