I saw this freak of nature on PZ Myers’ Pharyngula blog, and since I don’t want to be the only person with nightmares, I thought I’d share the photo.
(beyond the jump so as to protect the squeamish)
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rENNISance woman by Cath Ennis
Matt Brown said: "You can blog about whatever you wish, as long as it is related to science and research". His wish is my command! Here are some snippets from my life as a cancer research grant wrangler in Vancouver. Mostly the silly bits.
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Friday night horror
- Date:
- Saturday, 12 Sep tember 2009 - 00:10 UTC
The nasty little isopod beastie eats the fish’s tongue. And then replaces it – with itself.
GROSS!!!!!
Apparently the fish does perfectly well with its replacement tongue. I, on the other hand, will need at least four beers to recover from this information.
Last updated: Saturday, 12 Sep 2009 - 00:10 UTC
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Comments
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Oh my GOD, is that ever freaky!! Thanks for sharing :S
Why does it have people teeth? I find that even more disturbing than the tongue.
Not the most attractive creature, but doesn’t really freak me out, as it won’t ever end up in my hair or under my pillow in the middle of the night.
Unlike the striped bark scorpion I found scuttling across the bedroom carpet the other evening. :-P
Parasites are cool. (And, yes, usually also disgusting.)
Reminds me of Alien.
I’m with Eva. Somehow the teeth creep me out far more than the parasite. How do fish get along with a tongue, anyway? Or do they get to move the bug around, as if it were a replacement tongue? Maybe it’s the fish that are gross, not the parasite…
I thought first of Alien, as well.
Would you all rather your fish have only pharyngeal teeth? I find that pretty wacky. Cool from an evo-devo point of view, though.
I wanted to post a photo here of the many rows of teeth in the great white shark but I didn’t take any personally so will let you look for yourselves.
Fantastic photo!
There was a not entirely dissimilar picture in today’s Guardian that I tracked down on flickr. Again the fish is on the receiving end but it is the expression on his face that makes the photo.
H R Giger, all over my face.
Alyssa, any time!
Eva, I didn’t even notice that at first! Yurch!
Kristi, yeah, scorpions would not be welcome guests in my house either. The cats get excited enough with flies and spiders…
Steffi, kinda… but mostly gross!
Lee, me too. A friend on Facebook said it reminded him of the Cat in the Hat, which is much harder to understand!
Anna, the isopod clamps itself onto the stump of the tongue, and the fish then moves it around just like a normal tongue. I don’t know if you can really blame the fish though, I don’t think it gets much choice in the matter.
Heather, I didn’t realise that fish have such a diversity of teeth!
Stephen, thanks for the link – that’s a great shot!
Mike, cool stuff! I’ve bookmarked the webstore for certain people’s birthdays…
That is the most creepy thing I’ve seen in lo, these many months. Ick, and indeed, double ick.