• Question: what is the most interesting/unusual animal/insect you have ever seen ??

    Asked by 433evoa32 to Chloe on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Chloe Kinsella

      Chloe Kinsella answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Two animals spring to mind when I think back over the years. The first is a sea mouse, this is an unusual but beautiful animal. Its actual a type of bristle worm. Its a flat, fat soft bodied animal with multicoloured shiny bristles on it upper body. They are found off the coast, so we never really see them from land. I was sorting through a box of prawns when I worked in a fish lab at a harbour and I came across one and I was amazed by it! Check out the link I have attached or google some pictures of it.

      http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php?animal=Sea%20Mouse

      The second animal I saw was a octopus when I was working on a fishing boat in Waterford. I was recording information on the size of the lobsters that the fisherman was catching. When the fisherman pulled up one of the lobster cages there was a big white jelly thing stuck onto the side of the cage. When I got closer I saw it was an octopus. It fell off the cage and landed in the boat. Using its suckers and 8 arms it crawled across the boat until it latched onto my wellies and one of my legs. I was absolutely terrified! With a bit of struggle I pulled it off and put it back into the sea. Soon after I saw it shoot out a squirt of ink and it quickly swam away. It was an amazing but scary experience!

Comments

  • Photo: Sean

    Sean commented on :

    Good question. One of the strangest animals I have ever seen was a caterpillar that had evolved to look like a really big ant. It was really weird looking! It had a long body like a caterpillar but had lots of different pieces sticking out that made it look like it had the antennae, jaws and legs of an ant – really cool! This probably gives the caterpillar protection from some predators like birds who would otherwise like to eat it. However, as they think it is a very large ant, they probably want to avoid being bitten by this fake ant and avoid trying to eat it. In evolution, we call this mimicry as the caterpillar has evolved to mimic (or copy) the appearance of strong ants.

  • Photo: Anthea

    Anthea commented on :

    I’d say Anomalocaris, an extinct sea predator swimming in the oceans 500 million years ago. He’s definitely worth looking up! 😉