Bizarre Tongue-Eating Parasite Discovered Off the Jersey Coast

[Clayton]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009...discovered.php

http://www.treehugger.com/tongue-eating-parasite.jpg


There's been a spate of amazing animal discoveries recently--the giant rat-eating plants found in the Philippines, a huge woolly rat discovered in a volcanic crater--and now, yet another creature has emerged that could be right out of a sci-fi film. It's a bizarre creature that survives by eating its hosts' tongue and then attaching itself inside the mouth.
The sea-dwelling parasite attacks fish, burrows into it, and then devours its tongue. After eating the tongue, the parasite proceeds to live inside the fish's mouth. There's a horror film waiting to be made about this thing. Surprisingly, the fish doesn't seem to suffer any severe impediment--just the loss of its tongue--and seems to have no trouble surviving with its new, far uglier tongue.



http://www.treehugger.com/tongue-parasite-in-fish.jpg

[Old Ape Face]

I read the title and totally thought some chick was trying to take a bite out of a french kiss.

yeah my ADHD is high tonight.

[seba_boi]

Effing creepy!... I'd kill it in sight... *shivers*

[Soluzar]

Bizarre tongue-eating parasite, huh? That was my best friend's nickname for one of his exes.

[tofuman]

:eek:Kill it.

[Ridley-X4]

I've known about these for years. Old.

[Clayton]

http://needcoffee.cachefly.net/needcoffee/uploads/2008/07/kung-pow-enter-fist-2.jpg

It reminds me of Kung Pow

[Aragami]

You ever hear of a Candiru? William S. Burroughs wrote about them. They lodge in your penis if you pee in the amazon while swimming.

[Arnold]

That second pic creeped the **** out of me. Of course, I find fish in general to be incredibly creepy...

[Caster13]

What the **** is that!?!!? :eek:

I could have gone my whole life not seeing that.

[Black Cat]

this is horrifying


edit: heres the rat eating plant

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/08/17/article-1207076-061688D2000005DC-478_634x729.jpg

[Fobb]

I was expecting to see a picture of a guido.

But this is almost as creepy.

[superplough]

Dear god my eyes the goggles they do nothing

[Bernard_Monsha]

More pictures (http://readmore-webphemera.blogspot.com/2008/10/is-this-planets-most-peculiar-parasite.html) and a blurb from 2008 about someone getting one as a prize in a supermarket fish. Loa Loa (http://www.stanford.edu/group/parasites/ParaSites2006/Loiasis/Home.html) still tops tongue eating isopod IMO.

[Shiroiyuki]

Hey, I didn't know fish had tongues.


....okay, that might have been a rather n00bish to say. But seriously, why? What the heck would they use a tongue for?

[Vaikyuko]

Fascinating creature.

Miracle of biology, and simultaneously reviled by seemingly everyone. I for one don't find it a pleasant-looking bugger, but I am as per usual very intrigued by how it developed.

[superplough]

Hey, I didn't know fish had tongues.


....okay, that might have been a rather n00bish to say. But seriously, why? What the heck would they use a tongue for?

......

Now you've got me wondering. How do fish eat? Do they chew? I assume they swallow somehow.... :unsure:

[Aragami]

Fish are magic thiings that flop around in the ocean. They eat by magic.

Haven't you read that story, where the fisherman keeps catching the fish, and it just keeps granting him wishes? I wonder if it had a humongous tongue parasite.

[Jae Hoon]

So the tongue eating parasite isn't Jersey itself?

[Siendra]

So the tongue eating parasite isn't Jersey itself?

I'm pretty sure the Jersey this was fished up in is the British crown dependency and not New Jersey.

And a note for the OP: You can't copy the short form of a link from the body of a post someplace else and post it. You're missing half the URL.

Actual link (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/tongue-eating-parasite-discovered.php)

[Caster13]

It is in the UK, it say "the BBC reports" right in the article.

[fujyoshi]

whadafrik !!! /omg this thing doesn't matter to me unless its attacking HUMAN tongues, kz?