Monster bug? It's no joke! (30"-long isopod)

MSNBC.com ^ | 03/31/10 | Alan Boyle

[OldDeckHand]

It may look like a creepy-crawly April Fool's joke - but an expert on deep-sea species says the bizarre giant bug shown in pictures circulating on the Internet is the real deal.

"I've seen the pictures, and they are real, and they really do get that big," Craig McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina, told me today.

McClain specializes in deep-sea biological systems and covers the subject on his Weblog, Deep Sea News. So he was the go-to guy when pictures of the bug, reportedly hauled up aboard a remotely operated vehicle operating near an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, started turning up on Web sites ranging from Reddit to Cruisers Forum.

"It's an isopod," McClain said. "It's like the rolypolys or pillbugs that you find in your garden. It's the same group of animals."

[OldDeckHand]

A 30-inch-long deep-sea bug? This picture purporting to show a deep-sea isopod, of the species Bathynomus giganteus, has been posted to sites such as Reddit and Cruisers Forum.

Tastes like chicken.

[Loud Mime]

Looks like big trouble is around the corner.
Where's the hot babe?

[Doogle]

or pillbugs that you find in your garden

..if I find that in my garden I call in an air strike

[FormerACLUmember]

100% real. Marketed as "crab meat" occasionally. Yums!

[timeflies]

We called those small ones rollie pollies too. I guess you could call it a basketball.

[GraceG]

Looks liek a till-er-bite

[OldDeckHand]

Those look to be in the 12” range. Can you imagine something 18” longer? Egads.

[OldCorps]

lol, that’s really good!

[JPG]

When the lights go on they stand their ground.

[VOA]

It’s an ugly planet.
It’s a BUG planet.

(thank goodness my brother coerced me to go see “Starship Troopers”;
nothing like seeing Doogie Houser in Nazi/Boss leather coat to get
me laughing out loud!)

[VOA]

“
A 30-inch-long deep-sea bug?
“

Dang. Gonna’ need a gallon of melted butter for that bad boy.

[rrrod]

May they invade all registered Democrat households.....

[piytar]

Actually more like crab or a cross between crab and lobster. Yum!

[Cheburashka]

..if I find that in my garden I call in an air strike

---

Nuke’em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[editor-surveyor]

In a smaller size, they sell those things as bait at Hunntington beach.
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
“..if I find that in my garden I call in an air strike”

.
No, call in the local Chinese restaurant; they may pay good money!
.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

30"-long isopod

Steve Jobs is a genius. First the iPod, then the iPad, and now--this!

[BlueDragon]

This one probably tastes like lobster.

but what would a 2 1/2 foot long gill louse taste like, anyway? who would want to try it?

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks OldDeckHand. I can get by on less sleep I guess. "It's like the rolypolys or pillbugs that you find in your garden. It's the same group of animals." To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[null and void]

100% real. Marketed as "crab meat" occasionally. Yums!

If I was expecting Dungeness and got a box of those, I'd say I had a bad case of crabs...