The Ocean Is Scary

Yeah, so this is a real thing, apparently. The fish above is Chiasmodon niger, the Black Swallower.

(I’ll pause while you giggle. No, go on, get it out of your system.)

It’s less than a foot long, but its jaw unlatches and its stomach expands to let it eat fish ten times its own mass. That’s roughly equivalent to your next-door neighbor gulping down a giraffe.

According to Wikipedia, one scientist “speculated that the swallower seizes prey fishes by the tail, and then ‘walks’ its jaws over the prey until it is fully coiled inside the stomach.” Seriously.

These are deep-sea fish, and not commonly seen. In fact, the only reason we know about the damn things is that sometimes, it’ll eat another fish so big, and digestion takes so long, that the swallowed fish actually starts to decompose inside the Black Swallower’s stomach, and the gases released make it float to the surface.

Mind-blowing photo here. Another photo here.

Animals, man. Friggin’ animals. You think you’ve pretty much seen it all, and then nature goes and pulls this shit on you.

What’s the weirdest animal you’ve seen or read about?