Here’s something a little different to get you going today. I found this at one of my favorite weird Web sites, EnglishRussia.com [linked in sidebar], a Russian photo-blog that always has something seriously unsettling to offer. They’re calling this a “prehistoric fish,” and it does look out of time, but what the hell is it?
That is not a horseshoe crab
The above creature turned up in a deep construction ditch filled with water from “an underground river” in a place called Chelyabinsk. The thing is (supposedly) five feet long and the photos clearly show a thrashing tail. There’s a strong resemblance to a horseshoe crab here, obviously, except for the muscular tail. If anybody knows what this is, please leave a clue in the comments.
(Here’s what modern horseshoe crabs and their extinct relatives look like. It isn’t any of these…)
UPDATE: I didn’t get around to googling “Chelyabinsk,” but one of my commenters did: it may be the most radioactively contaminated place on earth! The people who say that resembles a certain two-inch shrimp and the “five feet long” guys may both be right.
Comment by K.J. Webb
1 November 12, 2007, 10:13 am o'clock |
Trilobyte? No, wait, that was the cenozoic era, which ended at about the time you and I and the horny toads disappeared from the face of West Texas.
Comment by John H. Farr
2 November 12, 2007, 10:20 am o'clock |
If it were a trilobyte, it would be worth milliions! But those were very small. This is almost as long as you are tall, and according to the accompanying text at EnglishRussia.com, scared the daylights out of a bunch of Russian construction workers on their lunch break.
As for horny toads (”horned toads” to non-Texans), they’re still to be found here in New Mexico. I haven’t seen many, but I have seen a few, including tiny babies the size of a quarter whose markings changed color almost instantly right before my eyes. Now that’s protective coloring. Horny toads eat mostly ants, and boy do we have lots of great big ants & anthills.
Comment by Pascale Soleil
3 November 12, 2007, 11:49 am o'clock |
It’s definitely NOT five feet long. The scale of the surrounding material and the way the water beads make that clear.
In fact, I’d say it’s probably quite small. The Triops theory works for me.
Comment by John H. Farr
4 November 12, 2007, 12:20 pm o'clock |
Well, you’re probably right. A lot of the commenters to that post think so. Admittedly anything published at EnglishRussia.com needs to be taken with a healthy grain of salt. Hoaxes are pretty much a staple of Russian life these days, and especially at that domain.
There IS a very strong resemblance to the primitive shrimp you point to, but those are tiny, and the proportion of the tail to the body is different. This would have to be a very clever macro shot. Is it???
Comment by Pascale Soleil
5 November 12, 2007, 1:44 pm o'clock |
Looks like a variation on this.
Quite possible that it’s a new subspecies or variant, but I still don’t think it’s huge. It looks to me like the length of tail might be the result of the tail being stretched or having it’s guts pulled out.
Just a theory. When you look at the picture of the thing flipped on it’s back, it’s clear it’s been injured.
Comment by Travis Stark
6 November 12, 2007, 9:00 pm o'clock |
Of course the fact that it comes from a place where the soil is possibly radioactive does conjure up a lot of ’50s sci-fi movies. Hmmmm.
http://www.logtv.com/films/chelyabinsk/
~Travis
Accidental Wisdom
Comment by John H. Farr
7 November 12, 2007, 11:02 pm o'clock |
You know, I was going to google that but didn’t get around to it. I think you nailed it, bro’.