Cute Undersea
Category: Organisms
Posted on: February 21, 2008 7:59 PM, by PZ Myers
It's a baby, and it's cute, and it's marine. Do I need any other excuses to post this?
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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Comments
Is that the Virgin Mary I see on his tummy?
Posted by: Gregory Kusnick | February 21, 2008 8:03 PM
The first thing I thought of when I saw that was Cassandra from Doctor Who, then I clicked on the link, and lo and behold, they made the same connection.
It lives in water, but does it need to be moisturized?
Posted by: Matthew | February 21, 2008 8:04 PM
There's a lot of cuteness in nature... just another reminder of how wonderful it all is.
Posted by: Matt | February 21, 2008 8:13 PM
Those are nostrils.
Which kind of kills some of the cute buzz.
Posted by: Siamang | February 21, 2008 8:15 PM
Ooh, that's too much cute for me. Why can't creos be this cute? Or at the very least submerged in brine?
Posted by: Brownian, OM | February 21, 2008 8:16 PM
Here's another excuse: I no longer have to read "Ken Ham's New Book" when I open your blog.
Posted by: info_dump | February 21, 2008 8:20 PM
Now that is what life ia all about.
Posted by: Marc Buhler | February 21, 2008 8:23 PM
But it's sooo cartilaginous!
On a more serious note a small victory for Florida's threatened coral reefs. See some good things do happen here.
http://www.keynoter.com/articles/2008/02/09/news/news16.txt
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | February 21, 2008 8:27 PM
It's frickin gross is what it is.
Posted by: Great White Wonder | February 21, 2008 8:38 PM
Ironically I just got this email from my dive club, www.kayuba.org
BTW just for the record I never wear sunscreen on the water, that's what a full wetsuit is for. Oh, and even 85 degree water will give you hypothermia if you stay in it long enough.
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | February 21, 2008 8:41 PM
Really, do I look intelligent designed? Come on, you can
be honest with me! Do you want to see a trick? I'll
contort my features a little and appear as the wackos god
and just send them yelling that the rapture has come!
What a bunch of freaking morons you humans are, when you
consider that I lived before you!
Posted by: Holbach | February 21, 2008 8:41 PM
aaawwwww... it's a precious baby... thing!
Posted by: Laura | February 21, 2008 8:48 PM
Come on, all together now...
AWWWWWWWWWW!
Posted by: Cephus | February 21, 2008 8:49 PM
I herd u liek mudkips?
Just kidding, but that is the cutest thing under the sea that ever came from the Chondrichthyes line!
Posted by: MandyDax | February 21, 2008 8:57 PM
Those may be nostrils--but I still totally want one. It'll go with the Flamboyant Cuttlefish my roommate and I want!
Posted by: Kris | February 21, 2008 9:07 PM
I don't know PZ. Normally, I'm with you, but I vaguely recall some singing CGI version of that critter that gave me the jibblies.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | February 21, 2008 9:17 PM
Ooh, that's too much cute for me. Why can't creos be this cute? Or at the very least submerged in brine?
it wouldn't help.
zombies don't need to breathe, remember?
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 21, 2008 9:18 PM
Oh yeah, its really cute and all but...is it edible? I've always wanted to be the first to ask that.
Posted by: Bride of Shrek | February 21, 2008 9:23 PM
Oh so cute! I can see where neoteny might be advantageous, from an evolutionary perspective.
Posted by: foxfire | February 21, 2008 9:24 PM
is it edible
probably.
many ray species are used as "fake crab" or "fake scallops". a hole punch is used to remove bite-sized circular sections of the wings (pectoral fins) which can then be prepared in recipes that normally would use scallops or crab.
not knowing the exact species, can't say for sure, but CA thornback rays are most certainly edible.
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 21, 2008 9:32 PM
PZ, I ran across a wee story that I think you'll like: http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/story11.html
Posted by: sravana | February 21, 2008 9:55 PM
"Sure, they're cute now, but in a second they're gonna get mean, and they're gonna get ugly somehow, and there's gonna be a million more of them."
Posted by: Winter Toad | February 21, 2008 9:57 PM
Okay, PZ. Admit it. You totally got this off of cuteoverload.com.
Posted by: Michelle Crowbars | February 21, 2008 10:22 PM
Can we keep it? I wanna name it Jenny Haniver!
Posted by: October Mermaid | February 21, 2008 10:24 PM
It is a well-known fact that the cuteness is there as a decoy to bait the unsuspecting. In much the same way an anglerfish lures its prey towards its mouth, the first person who says "Oooohhhcutewiddlerayfish" and reaches out to pinch its cute little cheeks is going to have a hand bitten off.
Don't ever trust the cute ones.
Posted by: Carlie | February 21, 2008 10:47 PM
Carlie's right. Just ask Roland Deschain about how cute the little lobster things were. (Reference: Dark Tower, Stephen King)
Posted by: woowoozy | February 21, 2008 10:53 PM
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 21, 2008 9:32 PM
Yeah, I get annoyed when I order scallops in a restaurant, expecting a nice orange roe, etc, and I get cookie cutter ray flaps!
Posted by: KiwiInOz | February 21, 2008 11:18 PM
yeah, I see that a lot.
still, when done right, they aren't half bad.
of course, the problem is that all elasmos have such long breeding schedules that they are horrible choices for commercial fisheries, and most fished species are in trouble at this point, sharks and rays included.
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 21, 2008 11:20 PM
...how's deadman, btw?
I gotta send out some emails to catch up.
cheers
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 21, 2008 11:22 PM
Yup. Carlie is right. This phenomenon radiates in many directions. In the world of animé and manga, the cutest creatures are often the most evil and deadly.
Posted by: Kseniya | February 21, 2008 11:33 PM
I feel obliged to use this line the next time I'm shown, eg, a newborn baby.
Posted by: Morgan | February 22, 2008 5:55 AM
#26, the proper term is lobstrosities.
Posted by: Michelle Crowbars | February 22, 2008 7:37 AM
Erm... I don't know, Kseniya. :) As a voice actress for ADV films who has had an awful lot of animé shoved down her throat, I would say the cuteness:evil ratio is pretty low. Almost every show has a superadorablecuddly mascot. And every single one I can think of, while some are very powerful (Ryo-Ohki's spaceship metamorphosis, to name one example), few I can think of were ever "evil", or even bad.
Even Pokémon are never evil -- just fighting for the bad guys. ;3
Can you give me an example of a "surprise evil" cute creature from animé? All I can think of is the freaky giant baby from Spirited Away. And he wasn't really cute. Compare him to the little fuzzballs from earlier in the film -- no contest.
Posted by: Holydust | February 22, 2008 8:00 AM
Why, isn't pickled creo tasty enough for you?
Then you need to make a few visits elsewhere, because that seems to be what Pharyngula usually serves out.
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | February 22, 2008 8:49 AM
AWWWWWWW! And they say dolphins are sweet (although personally I never trust any animal that smiles all the time)
Kseniya said:
Excellent, so when it grows up we can feed it on the creationist zombies that drowning in brine failed to destroy (I know the undead can rise from the grave, but have they ever managed it from the ray?).
Posted by: Lilly de Lure | February 22, 2008 10:01 AM
You don't even need "cute" or "marine"!
Posted by: Ian | February 22, 2008 10:08 AM
I have seen the Splendid Cozumel Toadfish and even the Ruby Lipped Batfish, but this critter takes the cake in odd. Amazing!!! I have never seen bio diversity like what can be found in the marine environments.
OK PZ, I give, what the hell is it?
I should send you some of my underwater photographs, I do have few prize win shots that are worthy (at least in my opinion).
Unfortunately, I live on the Great Lakes and the marine life is no where as interesting as what is found in the Oceans of the world, that is if you can find it. The most interesting thing we have are shipwrecks, which I happen to love as well.
Posted by: Zorpheous | February 22, 2008 10:34 AM
It looks like a Ray or Skate of some variety, but I rarely get to see them from this vantage point. Opps I see there is an article link, DOH!
Aaahhh, Thornback Ray. Neat. Very different from the ones we see in the Caribbean Seas
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/pages/thornbackray.html
Posted by: Zorpheous | February 22, 2008 10:45 AM
Totally cute, even thought it's a neoteny effect (thanks, Foxfire).
BTW, rays are totally awesome in motion. Two years back I encountered a squadron of them off Hatteras island (NC). Zoom!
Ichthyic: How can one tell whether the "scallops" are actually scallops? Any idea about the label "sea scallops" I see on some menus?
Posted by: Bureaucratus Minimis | February 22, 2008 11:48 AM
Aww it's so cute! I must capture it.
*Throws Pokéball*
Posted by: JimboB | February 22, 2008 5:18 PM
I'll bet it's one of those things that'll bite your face off when you lean in to pet it...
Posted by: Ranger Jay | February 22, 2008 5:50 PM
@Bureaucratus Minimis
You can tell a scallop from a cookie cutter piece of ray by looking at the direction the muscle fibers run. A scallop is the adductor muscle of a clam so it has to pull/hold the shell closed. So the muscle fibers run top to bottom in your piece of food. If it is ray the fibers will run side to side. So in fake scallops the layers will peel apart like a flaky biscuit.
Posted by: Kathryn | February 22, 2008 9:36 PM
I'm using a cropped version of that as my avatar on another forum. I figure the cuteness will be a nice contrast with my snarkiness.
Posted by: Mike from Ottawa | February 22, 2008 9:47 PM
Ichthyic: How can one tell whether the "scallops" are actually scallops? Any idea about the label "sea scallops" I see on some menus?
by and large, there is no way (especially if they are mixed in with a heavy sauce).
Typically a good restaurant will tell you if you ask.
However, typically if it's a good restaurant, they would be using real scallops anyway.
not saying that ray is bad, it isn't, but it isn't scallops or crab, either.
I've seen many examples of various species of elasmobranchs being marketed as something else, for example "whitefish" can be various species of shark meat.
also, dogfish and other small species of sharks are often used as meat in "fish and chips".
there has been a movement in the US for more honesty in labeling, but there appears to be little effort to try and straighten out the mess in the seafood markets.
Posted by: Ichthyic | February 23, 2008 12:14 AM
As you can see, it has been intelligently designed by the Flying Spaghetti Monster for humans to marvel at its cuteness.
Posted by: James | February 23, 2008 1:22 PM
Sure it's bad. I've eaten ray wing -- fibrous and slimy at the same time. Demonstrates the fact that teleosts (ordinary fish) are closer to chicken and beef than to ray.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | February 23, 2008 1:33 PM
Reminds me of the aliens at the end of Abyss.
Posted by: Nes | February 24, 2008 8:16 PM
It is totally cute!
It is, however, not a ray. It's a skate, which is a close relative, but it's not the same thing. A key distinction is that skates lay eggs ("mermaid's purses"), while rays give live birth. They are ovoviviparous - the eggs hatch while they are still inside the mother.
Their behavior is also extremely cute. At the aquarium where I used to work, the rays and skates would both regularly spy-hop to check out their surroundings. Sometimes the rays would get so enthusiastic about it that they'd flap and flap and flap, and then fall over backwards.
Posted by: Amphigorey | February 25, 2008 2:47 AM