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Positively Lovecraftian

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of these in the wild, just in displays. Sinister looking thing. They call it a mermaid’s purse, but it is in fact a skate or ray eggcase.

You probably knew that. I grew up a thousand miles from the sea, which catches me out a lot here. There is no spot in Britain that is farther than 100 miles from the ocean. True phact.

Anyway, here’s a handy pdf chart for identifying various eggcases. In it, you will discover there are such creatures as catsharks and nursehounds in the briny deep.

The ocean is weird.

Comments


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 3, 2020, 11:28 pm

Wanna see really, really weird but unforgettably gorgeous, Stoaty? Get a load of nudibranchs, which are gastropod mollusks that shed their shells as, um, toddlers and go through life undulating their multicolored fantastically shaped bodies through the water.

Side note: Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites but still have to “do it” with a friend with benefits.

edit: Here‘s a nice one. There are many, many different colored and shaped ones.


Comment from Mitchell
Time: February 3, 2020, 11:43 pm

What’s the latest on Kung Flu?? I only trust the news from the Weasel Times & Stoat Intelligencer.


Comment from OldFert
Time: February 4, 2020, 12:08 am

Uncle Al — you ought to post that over at Lileks’ Bleat. She snailie would love that one of her relatives is so colorful.


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: February 4, 2020, 11:28 am

Where I grew up the ocean was stinky.
Especially at low tide.

But we played in it anyway.


Comment from technochitlin
Time: February 4, 2020, 1:03 pm

Uncle Al — you ought to post that over at Lileks’ Bleat. She snailie would love that one of her relatives is so colorful.

Nice to see a crossover of my two favorite blogs!


Comment from weasel again
Time: February 4, 2020, 8:40 pm

It’s behaving very oddly, Mitchell. Almost 21,000 cases that the Chinese government will admit to, and video snippets from mainland China make it sound much, much worse than they’re letting on.

But outside China? It seems hardly contagious at all. This is not normal.

Perhaps there’s some truth to the idea it prefers Asians.


Comment from Mitchell
Time: February 4, 2020, 9:49 pm

Ah, thanks for the update Stoaty!


Comment from BJM
Time: February 4, 2020, 10:52 pm

“The ocean is weird.”

Yes it is indeed, a good reason to stay the hell out of it.

My theory is that while we’re all expecting stereotypical aliens (little green men etc.) to appear; the oceans are already full of ’em…and The Deep Ones certainly explain Adam Schiff.

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