Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Cool Weird Bugs - Plush!

If I'd gone to pursue my love of odd sea creatures I'd surely be known as the weird marine invertebrate lady. Which doesn't really have a ring to it...not like the 'weird bug lady'!

It's always nice to find another odd creature of the 'likes to craft' and 'is a big biology nerd' variety and the results are pretty awesome: plush creatures you have to be really nerdy to recognize.

This must be the only plush velvet worm out there - I searched 'velvet worm' on Etsy and hers is the only result. Here's you chance people! And here's my chance to talk about weird animals without y'all running away!



Ever since Sir David Attenborough introduced me to the velvet worm I've wanted one as a pet (the worm, not David. Although...). I mean look how cute they are with their stubby widdle feet and widdle feelers!


Not to mention they could protect you from household pests... and probably home invasions. Watch this clip from David Attenboroughs'  Life in the Undergrowth to see why some call this the 'spiderman' worm.
Buh-buh-buh-baaaaad!

From the extremophile shop section are some even more bad-ass creatures. Organisms that thrive in the super hot hydrothermal vents in the crushing depths of the ocean floor. Unlike 99% of animals on the planet these giant tube worms exists in an ecosystem that doesn't depend on sunlight but instead relies on bacteria that eat hydrogen sulfide for breakfast!


If you keep up with biology news, every couple of years we discover life thriving in places we thought impossible to support life. Suddenly life on other planets doesn't seem so far fetched....

 I love how these organisms are all like "take that silly weak humans, bwahahahaha!"


The most extremest though is the teeny tiny water bear aka Tardigrade. One of my favorite micro creatures (yes, there are several) that lives pretty much everywhere there is a drop of moisture. Not very threatening but can survive pretty much anything, and they look pretty cute in an inflated sort of way.

Silly humans, muahahahaha!!


Take it from this creature, if you want to live forever the trick is to learn how to self-desiccate. They can survive 60 years without water, freezing to almost absolute zero, extreme heat, and are practically impervious to radiation. They're so X-treme they even survived 10 days in the vacuum of space. That's right, they're so tough we though "hey, let's see what happens if we shoot them out into space!". Turns out they were so cool with it, when they got back to Earth, they resumed business as usual and laid a few eggs. That makes them the only known creature that can survive the vacuum of space.
Luckily  for us they don't bite.

Ok, so now for some creatures you may actually have heard of:

The orchid mantis. It's like a praying mantis but even more alien-like, uh,  in a Hello Kitty sort of way:

Not only is this orchid mantis plush but it's mounted like a freakin' trophy - how cool is that!?


So Orchid Mantids: known for their uncanny resemblance to the flowers in which they lie in wait to kill kill kill! Like a flower Ninja! Adult females are usually white but sometimes develop beautiful magenta highlights although no one seems to know why. Maybe it's Mabelline?

For the Herpetophiliacs is a well known venomous snake from the Cobra family:


A cute and cuddly version that won't go all Crocodile hunter on ya! Thanks to Bill Nye I remember a certain folk rhyme used to distinguish the poisonous Coral snake from the similar but harmless Milk snake: "Red next to black, you're ok Jack. Red next to yellow, you're a dead fellow."

If confronted with a brightly colored *SNAKE* though I'm not sure I could remember it so clearly. I might just think "omg, omg! black and red you're dead, red and yellow I'm still a scared fellow..F@$# this shiat!"

Luckily this one's all "if he's plush, safe is your tush".

I could really go on about this shop forever, there's a ton more awesome creatures and even the sold section has some hilarious creations! Here's one for the road:

Snow fleas bobsled team

Get your bug fixxx:
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2 comments:

  1. Gosh, your joy in this is hilarious, and I love the toys and the story about that creature that went to outer space and came back and laid eggs. SO great!!

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  2. I'd prefer your cute plushies to the real thing any day!

    Found you in the etsy forums! Gave my own blog a make-over today, check it out!

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