Monday, June 14, 2010

Creeped out.

I just finished reading Stephen Jay Gould's book Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, which features an essay entitled "Triumph of the Root-Heads" that goes into zomg creepy detail about the life cycle of rhizocephalans, a sort of underwater version of Heinlein's Puppet Masters that takes over a crab and makes it do its bidding. Ick.

I predict horrible zombie parasite dreams tonight.

14 comments:

Buck said...

There's a book called Parasite Rex.Check out the fish with the parasite tongue. That gave me nightmares.

Neutrino Cannon said...

The tongue-eating copepod from that book gave you nightmares? Did you not get to the chapter on Sacculina or caterpillar wasps or what?

George said...

I don't remember if it's actually in any of the 3 'Bodysnatchers' movies, but I used to creep out persons at work (we worked in cubicles, called 'pods') by approaching from behind and stating,"Don't be afraid, it's only a pod!"

Mr.Wolf said...

If you have a late night cheese snack as well, just don't come whining to us in the morning.


Best wishes.

LabRat said...

Fun fact! That's not remotely the only parasite that does that! And one of them commonly infects humans, though the extent of their influence is still an open question!

Sleep well!

Justthisguy said...

You have kittehs. You are probably already infected with toxoplasmosis. It makes you love yer kittehs.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7r1S6-op8E&feature=related

Hair worm. Forces its host to drown itself. Sleep tight!

Außenseiter said...

Cats make me paranoid. No really, they're nothing more than ruthless furry predators that are only cute because they are pint-sized.

I doubt people would keep lions as housecats even if lions were no more likely to eat people than cats.

Also, 60% of cats may spread brain parasites. No thanks.

The French nation has a 90% prevalence of said parasite. It's been argued toxoplasmosis influences their national character.
Do you want to end up like the French? Do you?

Shermlock Shomes said...

I'm waiting for Tam to report back, "Hmmm. All I did was dream that I attended a President Obama speech."

Tam said...

"No really, they're nothing more than ruthless furry predators..."

So is any interesting pet. A ruthless predator, I mean.

Animals with eyes on the sides of their heads are food, not companions.

Anonymous said...

"Animals with eyes on the sides of their heads are food, not companions."

You mean like a horse?

You would eat a horse, like the French? That book HAS changed you.

Shootin' Buddy

Tam said...

A horse is like a cow you can ride.

BobG said...

I like horses; if it weren't for horses a lot of good dogs would go hungry.

Außenseiter said...

@Anonymous
Canned horse goulash is a delicious food for students. For a dollar, you get a whole can. About 200 gramms of meat.. as good as beef, but a lot cheaper.

Horsemeat FTW!