Thursday, October 16, 2014

What do you do when you're fishing and bring up a creature that looks like a Greek mythology nightmare or a giant clump of onion wrings writhing indepently of each other? This being the Internet age, you make a video. VIDEO: Real Life Sea Monsters That's what Ong Han Boon, fishing in Singapore off the island of Sentosa, did. (Not to fear, mystery-creature lovers; he released it back into the water.) The fisherman posted the footage on social media, hoping someone would know what he'd caught. Over time, its identity emerged. Sad to say, it was not a new species or something left here by aliens centuries ago. Instead, it turned out to be a basket star -- a group of brittle relatives of the starfish. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), basket stars are multi-armed invertebrates that can grow up to 3 feet long. Their favorite meal is a helping of zooplankton, and they know how to regenerate limbs that have broken off or been sacrificed in a fight with a predator. NOAA features another up close and personal of this twisty, gnarly creature here. Hat tip New York Post, NOAA, USA Today http://news.discovery.com/animals/mystery-mini-kraken-hauled-in-from-the-deep-141016.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

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