Butterfly Has Snake Head Design (Cool Picture)

Image by Cordyceps

Lake Monster Photographed?

A supposed unknown lake monster was photographed earlier this week in Lake Windermere, England.  The "creature" was photographed by Tom Pickles, who was kayaking on Lake Windermere as part of a team building exercise with his company. He said he saw the animal swim past him and watched the creature for about 20 seconds.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph," the Telegraph quoted him as saying. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal - it's not like any animal I've ever seen before," he stated.

Although scientists are skeptical, this is reported to be the eighth sighting of a large creature at the lake in the last five years.  The creature has been dubbed "bownessie" by locals and the media.  Read a comprehensive summary here.

Here is the picture:

"Bownessie" - Photograph by Tom Pickles

Coconut Crab (Unbelievable Pictures) - Animal of the Week



From www.cryptomundo.com

 This amazingly large alien-like creature is this week's Animal of the Week.  According to wikipedia:

The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit of terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in today's atmosphere. The species inhabits the coastal forest regions of many Indo-Pacific islands, although localized extinction has occurred where the species lives in proximity to humans. Generally nocturnal, they remain hidden during the day and emerge only on some nights to forage. Their body is divided into four regions; the cephalic lobe, forepart, trunk, and opisthosoma. It is a highly apomorphic hermit crab and is known for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers to eat the contents. It is the only species of the genus Birgus.

Here's some more information from wikipedia about the crab's size:

Reports about the size of Birgus latro vary, but most references give a body length of up to 40 cm (16 in), a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9.0 lb), and a leg span of more than 0.91 m (3.0 ft), with males generally being larger than females. There have been reports in the literature of specimens measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) across the thorax and weighing 30 pounds (14 kg). They can live more than 30 years. 

Here are some other pictures from around the web:



From www.cryptomundo.com



 

http://www.cuteandweird.com



Amazing Pictures of New Species of Deep Sea Fish (treehugger.com)

 Check out these awesome pictures from "Edith Widder on Mimicking the Glow of Deep Sea Fish to Discover New Species" on treehugger.com:

A deep-sea fish with a built-in headlight used to seek out prey and attract mates. This fish, sometimes referred to as the rat-trap fish, has a remarkable jaw that can unhinge allowing the fish to swallow prey bigger than itself.

This shrimp spews bioluminescence out of its mouth like a fire breathing dragon in order to temporarily blind a predator allowing the shrimp time to escape into the darkness. The predator, in this case, is a viperfish that has bioluminescent light organs all along its belly that it uses to camouflage itself against downwelling sunlight. This trick, called counterillumination, is used by many fish, shrimp and squid to help them hide from predators swimming below them.

 

The electronic jellyfish lure designed to imitate the pinwheel bioluminescent display of the Atolla wyvillei (treehugger.com)

The common deep-sea jellyfish Atolla wyvillei as it appears under white light. Photos courtesy of Edith Widder

A new species of squid attracted by the electronic jellyfish lure.