That is a very good question.

I do not see any reason why not as many animals are vastly underrated in the cognitive stakes.

In fact it would be interesting to read on the web if anybody does this now.

I'm such a masochist, underwater sea creatures are my worst nightmares yet I'm addicted to them. I love watching The Blue Planet but have a cushion handy to hide behind and I have been clicking on these links with one hand covering my eyes looking through little slits through my fingers! There was one on page 2, I'm not even going back to see which one it was, that finished me off, was so scary, some huge picture of a giant thing with its mouth open. *Shudder*

I wonder what species you are referring to?

I think I will post more on this thread in the future.

There are so many incredible (and awesome) underwater beasts - perhaps this should be merged with my shark thread?

Some excellent articles on five little known shark species (with plenty of links in bold) that I have just posted in the White shark thread but also deserve to qualify as mysterious deep sea 'monsters' here as well.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56572...g-goblin-shark

http://mentalfloss.com/article/60781...reenland-shark

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56694...egamouth-shark

http://mentalfloss.com/article/60129...-frilled-shark

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57124...iecutter-shark

A nice little article on the Coconut crab.

http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/...icle.asp?id=14

A very interesting new paper is out on marine megafauna and the maximum sizes that they can attain.

https://peerj.com/articles/715/

http://static.peerj.com/infographic/...nfographic.pdf

It is very long so for a brief summary here are some articles discussing it.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....rks-jellyfish/

http://www.livescience.com/49430-gia...mal-sizes.html

http://phys.org/news/2015-01-sizing-...ccuracies.html

I take issue with a couple of the estimates - 24 metres for a sperm whale? That seems too large as even the biggest bulls very rarely exceed 18.

And only 8 metres as the maximum length for the oarfish?

Anyway it is very interesting and the blog for the people who compiled the statistics is here.

http://www.storyofsize.com/

The Caspian Sea Monsters

12ft for a Japanese spider crab. What a horrible thought..

Yes and the data for this magnificent species is almost non-existent.

We simply do not know what the maximum size is.

It is also 'Size Week' on Deep Sea News - many of the articles are by the authors of the above paper.

http://deepseanews.com/

A Discovery slideshow.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/th...ean-150113.htm

I used to be obsessed with the loch ness monster. In fact, I'm off to youtube a doc on it now....can't beat a good loch ness doc...

Me too.

Read through this thread.

I dare you.

One of my favourite animals that I have posted is the awe inspiring 'Bobbit' worm (Eunice aphroditois) - which featured on Tuesday's Natures Weirdest Events with Chris Packham this week funnily enough.

There are many videos and features about this beautiful but lethal predator on the web.

To start you off.

http://www.wired.com/2013/09/absurd-...k-bobbit-worm/

That lead me on to the ....*drum roll*....Mongolian Death Worm

That is indeed a very entertaining cryptozoological legend.

I would love some part of it to be be true but I suspect that it is probably cobblers.

A few links on Giant Isopods the largest of which is the legendary Bathynomus giganteus.

The humble woodlouse in your garden is an Isopod so treat them well - or their very big brother will be coming for you in the dead of night!

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=18065

http://deepseanews.com/2015/01/why-i...isopod-larger/

http://echinoblog.blogspot.co.uk/201...athynomus.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56278...-giant-isopods

Indeed. Kubla Kahn.........'t possibly be true.

Thanks for the input on here by the way.

As a currently non-practising zoologist it seems my duty.


We had a guinea pig with a huge arse once. Didn't swim much, mind.

This thing as explained by my best friend;
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2...eal124775.html

I wonder why they're so hideous (to our eyes). Maybe it's because they've evolved in the dark. Compared with a pretty little cichlid, they're monstrous.

I feel the same way about insects and, especially, spiders. It's why, unfortunately, I rarely watch wildlife documentaries on TV. They seem to be obsessed with showing close-ups of insects' faces and I really can't be doing with it. I only managed one episode of the series Brian Cox did as that was stuffed with insects and I didn't even bother with David Attenborough's latest series.

Thanks for that, Keyser

No problem - I think you should get one as a pet - the massive crustacean is certainly big enough to take for a walk.

Life is extreme down there.

There is so little food that the organisms that exist in the stygian blackness have to be prepared to take on anything they can fit inside their stomachs.

And they have a wonderful (and bizarre to us mammals) range of sophisticated adaptations to enable them to detect their prey, find a mate and avoid predators of their own.

The cannibalistic Lancetfish are superbly menacing looking creatures although 'only' 2 metres long when adults (as far as we know).

Those huge fangs and the sail along their backs makes them look - for want of a better word - 'prehistoric'.

http://i.imgur.com/JxLT8kN.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dn1ZDUoOGN...lancetfish.jpg

http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/...eff3-24-02.JPG

http://fishbio.com/wp-content/upload...etfish-Fin.jpg

http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Alepisaurus_ferox/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancetfish

http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...hes-ashore.htm

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/71...d-nc-beach.htm