box jellyfish
neurophilosophy | April 28, 2011
Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature) was a landmark in biological illustration. Published in 1904, it was lavishly illustrated with 100 exquisitely detailed lithographic plates, including this one, showing nine different species of cubomedusae, or box jellyfish.
It has been known, since around the time that Haeckel's masterpiece was published, that box jellyfish have a unique visual system which is more sophisticated than that of other jellyfish species. They boast an impressive set of 24 eyes of four different types, which are clustered within bizarre sensory…
bleimanb | December 12, 2007Two weeks ago, we asked you what your favoritest animals in the world were. Then, last week we asked you to up the ante and get weirder. You responded in turn with a veritable cornucopia of odd critters some of which we had never heard of! (Just kidding of course we'd heard of them, we're like freaking bizarre animal encyclopedias.)
Anyway, without further ado, your responses (in video, whenever possible):
Drhoz! wants to cuddle with a tardigrade, aka a 'water bear.' Who doesn't?
Unfortunately, Drhoz! also claims to...
... be open to "shacking up" with a goose barnacle if it buys dinner…