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Post by Jorji Costava on Sept 24, 2015 21:43:45 GMT -6
A couple of very strange aquatic animals. You've been warned. Cymothoa exigua: This crustacean parasitizes fish in a most unusual way. It latches itself onto the fish's tongue and then sucks out blood until the tongue has atrophied completely.Eventually, the tongue falls off altogether and the parasite attaches itself to the fish's mouth. At this point, the fish is able to use cymothoa exigua as if it were its normal tongue, making it the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing the organ of the animal it's attached to. The toothpick fish, otherwise known as the candiru The candiru is a parasitic freshwater fish native to South America that grows to about an inch (2.5 cm) in length. It's the subject of some seriously fucked up urban legends, most of which are actually false. Most notably, there are stories in which villagers who are peeing into a river find themselves victimized by the candiru when it swims up the stream of pee directly into the urethra. Of course this is just physically impossible, but there is one documented case of a person suffering severe urethral damage as a result of a candiru 'attack'; he had submerged the lower half of his body under the river at the time of the incident. To serve as some brain bleach, here's a video of some baby sloths. I'll post something a little less messed up next time; promise!  |
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