Vampire sea creature! Baffling scientists!

If ever I seen something that looked alien then this is it! It even looks plastic in the picture, not saying aliens are plastic but you know what I mean right?

from abc.net
Weird spider-like creatures that live at the bottom of the ocean and use a 'straw' to suck on their prey are baffling scientists.

Scientists are even having a job finding a place for them in the tree of life! Very strange.

Over to you

McP

How about a link to the story? I'd definately like to read more.

Sorry!!!!

Here you go..

www.abc.net.au...


Mcp

Amazing find!

How the heck do those 70cm long legs work underwater, especially at such high pressures? I'd say it were a hoax if it wasn't found by scientists.

These days, biologists are more interested in classifying organisms instead of actually studying them as individuals. One of the first things that baffled the scientists who found this underwater spider was what group to label them as. They should really concentrate on understanding how they function and what unique abilities they have.

[edit on 8/16/2006 by TheB1ueSoldier]

Is it just me or does that TOTALLY look like the alien from the movie Alien getting ready to jump on your face and lay eggs in your stomach? THAT IS WEIRD bizarre

Just looked at the pic again. Is it me or as that thing got 10 legs?

ever seen a king spider crab ? Can get to twenty feet at the span and at depths that crush steel, yet moves like a ghost along the sea bed.

BUT - that critter made me recoil from the screen in terror! I see alien far FAR too many times to EVER want to go near that creature...

maybe a deep sea uso has lost fido on a sight seeing trip??

Wow. It looks like something you get in a mc Donalds happy meal. Weird plastic critter thing. This is not the only weird thing found in antarctica, though. There are alot of weird things below the ice.

Originally posted by Mcphisto
Just looked at the pic again. Is it me or as that thing got 10 legs?

Yep - and they confirm it in the article...

I wonder what the hard-core evolutionists/Darwinists have to say about this...?

Originally posted by Gemwolf
I wonder what the hard-core evolutionists/Darwinists have to say about this...?

"As far as we know, this creature is birthed from a large, fleshy egg. This creatures sole purpose in life is to find and impregnate a host with an egg. This egg will then hatch and the offspring will mature within the chest region. After an as yet undetermined amount of time, the offspring will violently burst forth from the chest, pushing out the rib cage, and retreat to a safe hole.
"After feeding on several smaller creatures (preferably small mammals), the creature will enter a cocoon and emerge as a full grown Xenomorph, of any number of castes."


At least thats what I'd think they say!

I gotta say that thing creeps me out, and not many things do.

It does look very plasticy.

I wonder what the hard-core evolutionists/Darwinists have to say about this...?

What would you expect them to say, it's some very creepy and
nasty looking sea creature that evolved to fit it's environment.

That must be a pic of the artic thingy that has the 10 legs instead of 8 like the rest.

Really, Pro-Eviloutionists come in diffrent packages. Some are just going to say WTF like eveyone who's not an Eviloutionist who's not on their hobyhorse/highhorse tonight.

Oooo, we may get one of those who goes on about that not being something a God would create, with his ordered mind, so another score for the Eviloutists, in your face, blah, blah blah...

But what I really expect to hear is: Hey, maybe this group is A) the missing link between crabs and spiders, or B) These creatures are the decendants of Spiders that went back to the sea, just like the Seals did.


...hey, just because I'm rabbidly pro-creation doesn't mean I can't think outside my own box (I REFUSE to call it little, it's biggest box there is), thank you very much. I've read more scifi than most here...hence my relatively anti-christian quote below.

Originally posted by iori_komei
What would you expect them to say, it's some very creepy and
nasty looking sea creature that evolved to fit it's environment.

Uhuh... The fact that they can't fit it into any particular "family". You know. They're not sure from what family it "evolved"...
I know creationists will have a field day with it - much like they have with the platypus. I don't have any view on this matter myself, but I know these two groups can go on and on about such matters...

I can honestly say if I were to ever believe aliens were dropping things on our planet, this would be one of them.

I have seen many weird things in my 43 years but this thing is.......

I need to get a few of those for my fish tank

too cool.

Originally posted by Gemwolf
Uhuh... The fact that they can't fit it into any particular "family". You know. They're not sure from what family it "evolved"...
I know creationists will have a field day with it - much like they have with the platypus. I don't have any view on this matter myself, but I know these two groups can go on and on about such matters...

So what, it's a new species, you can't expect to know
everything about it instantly.

Creationists have a field day with the Platypus..wow,
I did'nt know that.
Than I tend not to go into those debates since I find the
whole creationism thing silly and not worth even reading.

I don't think it can be classified as a cryptid. According to the article, they have been known to science for a hundred years. The fact scinetists have not figured out exactly where to hang it on the tree of life does not make it a cryptid either.

The beginning of the Cambrian period is often refered to as "The Cambrian explosion". This is because fossils were rare before this, and most creatures were soft bodied and without shells. Things changed at the beginning of the Cambrian period, creating what appears to be a sudden proliferation of life. Part of this proliferation was the appearnce of numerous strange groups of arthropods, which do not exist today. Trilobites are an example. It is quite possible that sea spiders are from one of these groups, or is from a group of its own that is not represented in the fossil record.

Originally posted by iori_komei
So what, it's a new species, you can't expect to know
everything about it instantly.

Actually this is far from a new species. Sea Spiders (class Pycnogonida) have been discovered ages ago. The reason this news article is important is because they can't fit this creature into a family tree - thus my comment on how creationists and evolutionists will react to this...

Edit: As Boingo the Clown also pointed out.

Originally posted by iori_komei
Creationists have a field day with the Platypus..wow,
I did'nt know that.
Than I tend not to go into those debates since I find the
whole creationism thing silly and not worth even reading.

Maybe you shouldn't "disagree" with people if you're a little unsure about the topic?


[edit on 18-8-2006 by Gemwolf]

This is the deep sea creature that was the inspiration for the Alien creature in Alien. The hatching from the egg/face sucking one. I remember seeing sometin about it on the discovery channel a while back.It's also in the "Blue planet" documentary thats been airing recently.I recommend catching the show if you can. There's all kinds of wierd animals/life down there.

Not sure if this is the right creature in the video....

terpfan1980.joeuser.com...