Strange Animals You Didn't Know Existed‏ page 7

[gray_marian]

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Sea Pig
Scotoplanes live on deep ocean bottoms, specifically on the abyssal plain in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, typically at depths of over 1000 meters. They are deposit feeders, and obtain food by extracting organic particles from deep-sea mud. (Image credits: imgur| thedailygreen.com | realcoldfish)

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Aye-aye
Aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primate in the world. They are also the only primate thought to use echolocation, which they use to find insect grubs hidden 2cm deep inside a tree. During mating, aye-ayes hang upside-down on a branch, and the procedure lasts for about an hour.

[Richard Quartermaine]

Marion, there are amazing life forms that exist in conditions thought to be beyond possibility. Fish that live in near boiling water from volcanic output, fish and frogs that encase themselves in mud after "the wet" an remain there, sometimes years to emerge hail and hearty as soon as the water arrives. The rush to reproduce is quite staggering. Aye-ayes use their extended long fingers to extract the grubs after the tapping. As for hanging upside down for about an hour, I wonder if that is a Kama Sutra position?
Richard

[gray_marian]

#2 'As for hanging upside down'.....I wouldn't know Richard but sure someone on here will!

[happy daze john in oz]

Some 252 million years ago an asteroid hit the earth and brought with it a virielnt form of methane, still around today in the guts of cows, which destroyed 90% of life on land and 70% of ocean life. Following this came the dinosaurs and life as we know it. Sadly life as we know it brought forth politicians and other pests for which there is no known antidote.

[John Arton]

When we abandoned the old C.P. Ambassador off the Grand Banks, some of us were picked up by a German Fisheries Research vessel. This was a converted 74 metre stern trawler and it carried around 30 scientists in addition to the normal crew. Its task was to trawl down to very deep depths so find what sort of fish were down there and to see if they would be edible. This was in 72 when North Sea stocks were beginning to diminish and the Icelandic grounds had been closed off to foreign trawlers.
The filleting plant and everything else was still in place but most of the freezers had been turned into aquariums to keep live species in. These held some of the weirdest looking fish I have ever seen and certainly would have not liked them on my plate, with or without fish.
The German crew treated us like royalty, giving up there bunks and even providing us with clothing if needed. They also shared their weekly beer ration with us.
We were landed in Placentia Bay in Newfoundland and then driven across to St. Johns all the time being chased by a T.V. crew who were trying to interview us. We spent two weeks in St. Johns and the C.P. Ambassador was towed in by a Russian tug to much fanfare only to be vilified by the press a few days later when the oil contaminated water being pumped out of the flooded engine room got into the harbour.
Flew home and were greeted at Heathrow by the personnel boss who hailed us all as heroes and gave us subs to get home with. These subs were then deducted from our wages!!! the rotten gits.
rgds
JA