Animals that are too big
A while back I posted the above photo of a eurypterid. It is, thank goodness, fake; it has to be, since the eurypterids became extinct before the beginning of the age of dinosaurs (the biggest species were much larger than what this picture shows -- they were the biggest arthropods that have ever lived). In the course of roaming the internet, though, I've run across plenty of other pictures of animals bigger than they have any decent right to be -- and as far as I can tell, these are all real.
Yes, that's a jellyfish.
One of those Russian snails featured on Murrmurrs, perhaps?
What's going on here? Genetic engineering by mad scientists? Wormhole from the Land of the Giants? Something to do with Chernobyl?
Check out the look on that cat's face. I know just how he feels.
posted by Infidel753 at 5:14 AM
16 Comments:
I saw a moth with an 8 inch wingspan in Texas. I indentified it as (what else?) a giant moth!
WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT THING CLIMBING ON THE GARBAGE CAN!? Grab a can of Raid!
LA: Well, that's Texas for you. We have moths, they have Mothra.
Ahab: I'm not sure that thing is from Earth, actually. I know garbage attracts bugs, but this is ridiculous.
I've a spider living in my car...he's called Cyril. If he gets that big I'm selling the car!!!
JP: If he gets that big, maybe he'll buy it.
I ran the top image through tineye and found the highest resolution version i could and I must say, it's a very good photoshop. The shadows & lighting are right, the only thing that suggests fakeness is the terrible .jpg quality setting. And of course the whole thing about that thing being extinct.
That big snail has got to feel *interesting* crawling on your hand. Not that I'd want to find out how interesting, personally.
GL: I'm not expert on picture-faking, but that one looked pretty convincing to me, until I realized it was an eurypterid.
The first time I posted it, a couple of people talked about eating that thing, possibly not realizing that eurypterids were more closely related to scorpions than to lobsters. As for the snail, perhaps some escargot chef is even now typing a comment on cooking that monstrosity.
One thing's for certain. You'd need a lot of garlic butter to prepare an escargot that size.
Those photos--shopped or not--will now haunt my night terrors for the next month.
Thanks.
Or not.
But seriously, they are all real except for the eurypterid?
SK: But seriously, they are all real except for the eurypterid?
As I say, I'm no expert on faking photos. I have my suspicions about the rabbit one. But I know there are snails that big, and I know the creature in the last picture is real because I've seen pictures of them before -- it's called a "giant isopod". It's a sea creature, as were the eurypterids. The oceans are full of weird life forms that we, being land animals, never run into.
Actually, the rabbit one is quite real, that's a Flemish Giant. They used them on the toddler TV show "Teletubbies" and they really are that big. The Teletubby costumes ranged from 6 - 10' with their giant heads, so they needed massive bunnies to kind of even things out, or something.
And the thing on the trash can is a giant coconut crab.
Google image searches for both those things are wonderfully interesting.
The first image is photoshopped, though the critter shown, the Lion's Mane Sea-Jelly (Cyanea capillata), is the largest species of Sea-Jelly with the largest having a bell diameter of 7 and a half feet and tentacles trailing 120 feet, native to northern waters (here is a more appropriate image)
The second is the species used in Russia, they are East African Snails (Achatina fulica).
The Third is the Gray Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), a native of Australia and the largest living bat.
The fourth is real, it is a breed known as the German Giant, the largest getting to 3 feet in length (here is the Snopes article if you don't believe me)
The fifth is the giant stag beetle (Lucanus elaphus), a native of North America.
The sixth is the Coconut Crab, AKA the Christmas Island Robber Crab (Birgus latro) from, you guessed it, Christmas Island. They are the largest living land arthropod.
And finally, as Infidel said, the last is the Giant Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) and is native to the Atlantic.
Hope this helps.
Well, there speaks an expert on nasty critters, as any long-time reader of Cyc's blog knows. Thanks.
That first pic is fake
It was my Eurypterid fetish that drew me here, but I was taken aback by your words "...it has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spiritual" concepts of any kind" for it was the Jesus who led me to understand sub-atomics described by VAASTU. Further, you state "I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that it is technology rather than ideology or politics that has been the great liberator of humanity" and may I remind you that only a Sith Lord speaks in absolutes. Please learn to meditate and do drugs before you make such audacious claims, sir.
AW: You think Jesus (a) really existed and {b) has something to do with "aub-atomics", and you quote Star Wars clichés as if they told us something about reality, and you accuse me of making "audacious claims"?:-)
Post a Comment
<< Home