VIPERFISH BEING STABBED FROM THE INSIDE BY OTHER VIPERFISH! What about 'tumors' encasing the skeletal remains of victims? Or maybe a million-mouthed clone army eating their prey from all sides? It's DEEP SEA PREDATORS, the thread! #NatureForCreators
Study: https://bit.ly/37lcxXy 

Viperfish use their teeth to stab prey, BUT THEY'RE ALSO CAGES! These teeth are so huge viperfish can stretch their mouths open for a big meal while still trapping their victims inside behind their fangs!
Image by @MBARI_News

But it's not all easy living for viperfish. They get eye parasites: actually FREAKIN CRUSTACEANS, that grow root-like bodies into the fish to suck and digest their flesh! Would love to see more eye parasites in movie monsters, just saying...
Study: https://bit.ly/3fVfSAB 

Gulper eels can swallow animals larger than themselves, with jaws that extend nearly half their body. If you were a gulper eel, your jaws would stretch to your belly button!
image: wiki

Gulper eels can fill mouths with water like a water balloon! Doing it's best "I'm very scary" right here.
Video by @EVNautilus https://bit.ly/3lybSqB 

XRAY GULPER EEL STYLE. Check out those jaws! And that second fish!
Image = wiki

Watch the arms of this octopus slide around the water without so much as a ripple. Can you imagine suddenly realizing you're being surrounded by something like this?!?!
by @EVNautilus https://bit.ly/3lqKIm7 

The jellyfish Deepstaria uses its body like a bag to surround prey! Look closely, do you see that mesh? That's its stomach/vascular system. Why have blood & guts when you can have BLOOD WITH GUTS!
(*technically not blood ;) )
@EVNautilus https://bit.ly/2H6FDjV 

Did someone say killer clone army? Meet the siphonophores. It's as if you budded identical twins all along your body, that all remained attached, and each with a specialized job. And all jobs set on one goal: FOOD.
https://bit.ly/3oin5h5 

The original body of a siphonophore body is stretched long and thin, with mouths (red) and gonads (clear spheres) growing from the sides. When a siphonophore catches a meal, ALL the mouths can surround and diggest it.
@EVNautilus https://bit.ly/3fXtRFN 

If we REALLY wanna talk freaky af deep-sea predators, we gotta talk this: this animal will empale victims in spines, disembody its own cells to crawl over its prey, & then digest it alive in a tumor-like growth. Meet the carnivorous sponge.
@MBARI_News https://bit.ly/3o9ByLW 

These small shrimp-like animals are victims of a carnivorous sponge. They're first trapped in spines and then slowly digested by the sponge's own 'skin' until all that remains is a skeleton encased within the sponge's cells.
Study: https://bit.ly/2KSQY93 

Y'ALL: THIS IS AN ANIMAL. ON THIS PLANET. Carnivorous sponges are simultaneously stunning and utterly terrifying. Covered in spines and able to digest prey that hits any part of their body, they're so dang sci-fi I can't even.
@MBARI_News https://bit.ly/2JkkgNI 

All these creatures and more were part of an 'omg what is that' Zoom even/Q&A. If you're interested in joining a future event, comment below and I'll be sure to @ you next time!
[End of thread] https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1332437646350618626