I'm not saying I was ever primed to go for a dip in the Antarctic seas. I'm just saying that now I'm definitely not going there:
Scientists trawling on board a research vessel off the coast of Antarctica have caught a new undersea creature โ one with 20 arms and a distinctive body, shaped a little bit like a strawberry. ...
Although similar to other invertebrate ocean animals, like starfish and sea cucumbers, feather stars are distinct both in their 'large' size and 'otherworldly appearance' when swimming, the researchers said.
The sheer horrific insanity of this thing is just something to behold:
These frightening beasts "can live anywhere from 65 feet to about 6,500 feet beneath the ocean's surface," i.e., more than a mile down. Frankly I'd prefer they stay there!
It's not clear if anyone caught footage of this monster in the wild, though here's a shot of another "feather star" swimming its weird way through the ocean:
If that's how a pretty tiny little feather star looks while mobile, I don't even want to see how the nightmare strawberry variant swims.
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