Leviathan Department

And SPEAKING of sea monsters!


A fossil hunter has found bones believed to belong to the Pilosaur, scourge of the prehistoric seas off the British south coast.

The Age has the full story.

Hairy Times on the High Seas Department

Pravda has a photo essay on a sea monster found in Guinea.

Money Monster Department

Nothing like a little exploitation of the local swamp thing to brighten everybody's day. In case you hadn't heard (David Letterman has, apparently, but I can't say I've watched his show in years so I'll just have to trust what I'm told in that case) a mysterious monster has been making the youtube rounds and its' origin place of West Palm Beach is now looking to cash in.

The Palm Beach Post has more, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with this classically grainy, completely worthless picture that any 1950s Roswell enthusiast would be proud of:

Don't Cross a Catfish Department

Would have been a perfect Seafood Sunday post, but alas, it's only Friday and I can't keep a story this delicious from my dear readers. So, here it is:

Over in Hungary, a 220 pound catfish attacked an Austrian tourist. United Press International has the details.

How about a little revenge for the human race? Sound good? Well, if you find yourself hungry (ha!), why not fry up some catfish for yourself.

Kung Pao Nessie Department

Well, maybe Nessie isn't dead (errm, you know... because of global warming... or something), maybe she's just moved to China!

The article is worth checking out for the illustration alone.

They theorize it might just be a "taimen trout" by which I believe they mean the same thing as a Hucho Taimen* (pictured below):


This could also have a bit to do with a lot of traditional folklore regarding the fish in the region, Thomas Roche's blog entry from February has a little more on that and a link to an article from the UK's Times Online.

And of course there was a 2005 exploration of the Kansai region by Chinese researchers to look into reports of giant fish. China Daily had the scoop on that.

* A little more research has made it very unclear to me as to whether Hucho Taimen is a trout or a salmon, in particular, are there two different fishes or is it the same creature and just sometimes mislabeled and if so which genus is correct? If anybody knows, please get in touch with me!

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right Department

A dead shark appeared in the middle of Miami.

Apparently it had a little Weekend at Bernie's type experience, being dragged all over town and eventually taking a ride on the Metromover train.

CNN has more under a great headline.

Am I the only one confused as to why they had to return it to the ocean? I can only assume the second part of this story will somehow involve a botched voodoo ritual.

Jelly of Life Department

Because apparently it's jellyfish week here, I give you the coolest creature on the earth or seas, the Turritopsis Nutricula!


Capable of reverting to its polyp state after becoming sexually mature, in other words it can reverse its own life cycle... in other words it's (potentially) immortal!!!

Wikipedia has the basic rundown.

And of course, should you ever want to cook a jellyfish, there's always this salad.

Peanutbutter Jelly Time Department

Last week it was giant squids in California this week it's giant jellyfish in Japan. (h/t to the venerable David Siffert)*

What is going on I wonder...

* (okay, okay, that's obviously not the David Siffert in question, sorry Dave...)

Revenge of the Fish Department

The Telegraph reports on a "monster fish" (a larger than average perch actually) that bit a buncha' people over the weekend. But don't worry, our species got the last laugh (assuming none of us on this blog are fish), it ended up being cooked and eaten.

Best line of the article?

He added that he suspected the fish was suffering from a hormonal imbalance which could be responsible for its aggression.

Yep, that'll do it.

And should you catch yourself a monster perch of your own someday, here's some recipes!