Teuthidodrilus samae

November 24, 2010 8:48 AM

Introducing the 'Squid worm' - a new species in a new genus discovered 3,000 metres down off the Indonesian coast.
posted by Artw (41 comments total)

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 8:55 AM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Who comes up with these names? It's obviously a centipede shrimp.
posted by theodolite at 8:56 AM on November 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

Shai-hulud fhtagn!
posted by kmz at 8:56 AM on November 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I bet it tastes like chicken.
posted by mooselini at 8:58 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

It always fills me with wonder when another living organism on Earth, a place we've been cataloging since we've had awareness, is discovered.
posted by xingcat at 9:00 AM on November 24, 2010

....is neither a squid nor a worm. Discuss.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:04 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Augh! Centipede!
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:05 AM on November 24, 2010

What I think needs calling out is that for the first time ever a science journalist has linked to the actual publication (probably for the pictures).
posted by a robot made out of meat at 9:06 AM on November 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

It needs to go in the middle of one of these.

Just sayin'.

Barring that, I am ready for my canistered trip to Yuggoth now! This planet sucks!

No, really. Gravity is an illusion. Earth sucks.
posted by Samizdata at 9:08 AM on November 24, 2010

Great post - as playful as a squid, and as insistent as a worm!

On topic: I fundamentally believe that such hybrid or chimerical creatures are actually the solution to the great catastophe of our age, the dramatic reduction in the world's biodiversity. Basically, the solution I propose here is that we all have sex with monkeys.

Hear me out: we are losing lots of species, right? Species which have EVOLVED over a long time - yeah? So what we need to do is roll the clock back by RECOMBINING our DNA with that of the diferent branches of the evolutionary tree - dig?

So as a first step, let's all have sex with some monkeys. The resulting ape-persons (or, if you prefer, person-apes) can then cross-breed with lower beings, say some ferrets or a tapir. And then these quarterlings can go on mating with more and more primative life-forms, such as slugs or the cast of "Two and a Half Men".

Eventually we will have replaced the entire stock of biodiversity and we'll be surrounded with NEW animals, which may be half-washing machine and half-walrus; or which combine the genes of a peacock, a water buffalo and a chain of hairdressing salons.

But - please! - don't just go out there and try to date a chimpanzee without first giving me any constructive feedback on this idea.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 9:09 AM on November 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

I really don't need Earth to have one of these.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:09 AM on November 24, 2010

I'm not going to look at the link until well after I've finished my mackerel sandwich...
posted by i_cola at 9:14 AM on November 24, 2010

What I think needs calling out is that for the first time ever a science journalist has linked to the actual publication (probably for the pictures).

Well, it is the Royal Society, eh, what?
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:15 AM on November 24, 2010

the quidnunc kid: totally species-ist. Quarterlings? Really?

If this squid-worm can fly, I'm totally out of here. Yuggoth, here I come!
posted by S'Tella Fabula at 9:16 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I bet it hates Sponge Barb.
posted by The World Famous at 9:19 AM on November 24, 2010

It always fills me with wonder when another living organism on Earth, a place we've been cataloging since we've had awareness, is discovered.

Scientists discover new species pretty much every time they look closely at an acre of rainforest. It'll be a long time before we know all the insects (and there are often exciting discoveries of bigger things, too.) Time may vary if we simplify the job by destroying all the rainforest.
posted by Zed at 9:33 AM on November 24, 2010

Looks kinda like anomalocaris. Kinda sorta.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:35 AM on November 24, 2010

It does have a bit of a Burgess Shale look to it, doesn't it?
posted by Artw at 9:39 AM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Who comes up with these names? It's obviously a centipede shrimp.

Centipede? Also a stupid name, they don't even have 100 legs. At an apartment I rented with some friends years ago in an older wood frame building, we referred to our house centipede co-inhabitants as "speeding eyebrows". These? These are clearly "sea eyebrows."
posted by Hoopo at 9:40 AM on November 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Aren't these the things I sometimes see swimming around in my eyeballs?
posted by neuromodulator at 9:48 AM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Fucking scientists, man.
posted by contessa at 9:49 AM on November 24, 2010

Love the way it dances through the water with those hypnotic screensaver appendages.
posted by naju at 9:59 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I've found a better picture of it here.

oh wait, you said squid WORM
posted by davejay at 10:13 AM on November 24, 2010

So as a first step, let's all have sex with some monkeys.

Hey, quit reading my wife's blog!
posted by nomadicink at 10:13 AM on November 24, 2010

and the world famous beats me to it, damn
posted by davejay at 10:15 AM on November 24, 2010

Ah, and it was discovered in the Celebes Sea which is where the coelacanth was also rediscovered a few years ago. There's definitely a chance that something Cthulhu-esque is lurking about around there.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:18 AM on November 24, 2010

Somebody get that "Riding on a Pig Baby Money" guy on this.
posted by cmoj at 10:19 AM on November 24, 2010

Monkey!
posted by cmoj at 10:19 AM on November 24, 2010

Team Zissou observed a swarm of these when they were free-snorkeling off the Marianas Trench in 1972. They would have submitted the detailed sketches to the Royal Society, but upon running dangerously low on vermouth and the subsequently making an emergency stopover to Aagoashima Island for supplies, the Luxembourger intern lost them while loading a valuable case of Petrossian caviar.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:29 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Nature has placed these marvelous wonders 3,000 meters under the water, which is Her way of saying we should leave them the hell alone before they eat our souls.
posted by The otter lady at 10:33 AM on November 24, 2010

Reminds me of the later staged of the fl0w critter...
posted by The otter lady at 10:36 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

So as a first step, let's all have sex with some monkeys.


[Morbo voice]EVOLUTION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY![/Morbo voice]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:37 AM on November 24, 2010

I really don't need Earth to have one of these.

With you there. See also: hagfish.
posted by sonika at 10:42 AM on November 24, 2010

if it's such a genus how come it got caught?
posted by kitchenrat at 10:54 AM on November 24, 2010 [18 favorites]

Artw:
That was my first thought, too. Reminds me of the Burgess Shale's Hallucigenia.
posted by emyd at 10:54 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The discovery has surprised scientists because the creature appears to be so common. […] "How could such an animal evade collection until now?" the team writes in the journal Biology Letters.

Oh man, the Chtorr books are not the science-fiction future I wanted to live in.
posted by hattifattener at 11:13 AM on November 24, 2010

if it's such a genus how come it got caught?

You are my favorite.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:21 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Sounds like some crazy movie: that i would watch !!
posted by mel001 at 12:58 PM on November 24, 2010

Am I the only one who thinks these are quite beautiful?
posted by mkim at 4:59 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just needs some wasabi.
posted by bardic at 7:06 PM on November 24, 2010

I can't wait for the moment we find out that this is the tiny, new-born baby larval form of a beast that occasionally snacks on blue whales.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 6:10 AM on November 25, 2010 [1 favorite]