nature

Why do we keep discovering these things?

/ Shane / 2 Comments

We’ve been on this Earth for a while. We have the Internet and cameras and cell phones and airplanes and all other sorts of things for connecting with people. We’ve explored every nook and cranny, from the depth of the ocean to the highest mountain, right? Right??

Then why do I keep hearing about these crazy creatures that we’ve just discovered? Shouldn’t we know them all by now? Giant carnivorous plants, horrible parasites that replace your tongue, a fungus that makes zombie ants, a wasp that lobotomizes a cockroach to make it a docile, living, larva carrier, and a plant that lives by eating excrement.

And now this:

That monster is just over 2 1/2 feet long. That’s big enough to eat your face, believe me. It was found clinging to an ocean explorer, which had been down at a depth of about 8,500 feet.

Don’t let anybody tell you there aren’t monsters left on this Earth.

Horrifying nightmare via Sara

Nature is disgusting

/ Shane / 2 Comments

We all know that regular things can evolve into really bizarre things in order to survive. I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? But sometimes I wonder if mother nature has gone too far. Case in point, I present to you the “toilet plant“:

Pitcher plants are carnivorous and usually eat insects for nutrients and nitrogen. But in the highlands of Borneo there are not enough for it to survive on insects alone, so the pitcher plant evolved into a toilet plant, complete with standing lid that serves an unusual purpose.

Basically, the lid contains a nectar that these little rodents like to eat. The plant is positioned such that, while the animal is eating the nectar it is positioned to do its business, into (for lack of a better phrase) the plant’s mouth. But the plant doesn’t just stop there, oh no.

There is even some thought that the nectar might have laxative properties

How far would you go to survive? What I don’t understand is, why couldn’t the plant just evolve to eat the shrew?

Nature is horrifying

/ Shane / 3 Comments

I’m a sucker for any article with the headline “Zombie Ants Controlled by Fungus“.

So check this out, there is a fungus in this world whose life-cycle includes mind controlling zombie ants. Basically, the fungus somehow gets into the ants’ brain and takes control. It forces them to march to an area that is conducive to the fungus, in particular, the underside of certain leaves. Then it makes the ant bite down on the underside of the leaf, locking its jaws so that it will not fall when it dies. The fungus not only kills the ant, but it actually fills in weak spots in the ant’s carapace to make the “vessel” stronger. Eventually, the fungus feeds enough on the ant and grows enough, that it bursts out of the ant body and falls to the jungle floor below, hopefully snaring more ants to turn to zombies and start the process over again.

I don’t know if this is more or less horrifying than the Emerald Cockroach Wasp.

But that’s not all we have in horrifying nature updates, oh no. How about this doozy? This little parasite eats the tongue of a fish and then sets itself up to replace the fish’s tongue. That’s right, the fish actually lives on with a replacement parasite tongue.

Got your tongue!

I like how in the picture he just looks so happy, like he’s rubbing his little hands in glee.

More information here, including this wonderful quote:

“Eventually the fish’s tongue is reduced to a stub,” Brock said. “However, the parasite by now is large enough to replace the tongue and as it manipulates the fish’s food, it also dines out for free on food particles when the fish eats.”

More and more creepy things just waiting to turn this world into a horror movie. And, like I said with the rat eating plant, how am I just finding out about these things now?

Giant Carniverous Plants, newly discovered

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Now check THIS out. It turns out that scientists have discovered a new type of pitcher plant in the Philippines that is big enough to eat rats!

I remember being fascinated by pitcher plants and Venus flytraps when I was little. I even had one of those little Venus flytraps you could buy at the drug store or whatever and I saw it eat several flies. It was absolutely terrifying and I’m sure I had nightmares about it, even as I couldn’t take my eyes away from it.

Obviously the idea that one of these things could eat something bigger (me, for example) is a concept that has probably been around as long as carnivorous plants have been around. But now there is actual proof that it is possible. And the thing that really makes it terrifying is that it was just discovered now, when I would have thought any such monstrosities would have long been discovered. If this thing was out there and we didn’t know about it, why not Bigfoot? Why not something even more terrifying?

Could this be far behind?

Horror movie waiting to happen

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Sometimes, things that happen in nature are 100 times scarier than anything you’ve seen in the movies.  I give you the Emerald Cockroach Wasp:

If you ever see one of these buggers, run!

If you ever see one of these buggers, run!

Looks innocent enough, right?  WRONG!  Let me tell you a little bit about the way this dude goes about his business.

1) The wasp stings a cockroach, temporarily paralyzing it.  Then it stings it again in a very, very specific place disabling a specific part of it’s brain.  I repeat, it has evolved to know just the exact place to sting, like a cockroach brain surgeon.

2) The cockroach’s brain is damaged in such away so as to leave no survival instinct – but everything else is intact (once the paralysis wears off).  That is to say, it can eat, move, etc. as it could before.

3) The wasp then chews off one of the roach’s antenna and uses it to lead the roach back to its burrow like dog on a leash.  Having no survival instinct at this point, it complacently follows.

4) The wasp lays an egg in the roach’s abdomen

Now here is where it gets truly horrifying.

5) The roach stays alive in the burrow making no attempt to escape. When the larva is hatched, it “consumes the roach’s internal organs in an order which guarantees that the roach will stay alive” until the larva is ready.  So again, this thing has evolved in such a manner that it’s young know which order to eat a roach’s organs to avoid killing it!

The part that creeps me out is the way it modifies the roach’s behavior only, leaving it capable to escape but having no desire to do so.  It kind of reminds me of The Happening, which is a super creepy movie that people didn’t like for some reason but I thought was haunting.

So what is creepier?  The Emerald Cockroach Wasp, or the fact that I recieved an email containing only that link with no explanatory text from someone?