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Creepy Critters: Marine Life Surfaces for Halloween

Claws, spines, spikes, tentacles, and fangs. Aliens, monsters, and ghostly apparitions glowing in the night. Marine life forms have some of the best looks for Halloween—no costumes needed. From freaky fish lurking beneath the surface to creepy crawlies of the deep, meet some of the sea’s strangest and most haunting characters. Then tell us below: Which ocean creature scares you the most?

Tags:

Bioluminescence, Crabs, Adaptations, Octopuses

Fangtooth Fish

The aptly named fangtooth fish has long, menacing fangs. But this "monster of the deep" is not as scary as it may seem--it only reaches about 17 cm (6 inches) in length.

Credit: © David Shale

Blob Sculpin

The ghoulish blob sculpin, a deepwater fish that can be found off the Pacific coast of the U.S., is reminiscent of a famous terrestrial monster from 1950s horror film classic "The Blob."

Credit: NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center

Chimaera from the Deep

This rarely seen smalleyed rabbitfish, belongs to the order Chimaera. Chimaeras are related to sharks and are cartilaginous animals—they have no real bones.

Credit: © David Shale

Zombie Worms Eating Whale Bone

Zombie worms eat away at the bones of a dead whale that has fallen to the seafloor in Sagami Bay, Japan.

Credit: Yoshihiro Fujiwara/JAMSTEC

Glowing Sucker Octopus

The suckers of this red octopod (Stauroteuthis syrtenis) flash on and off as it drifts through deep waters off the eastern U.S.

Credit: © David Shale

Horseshoe Crab from Thailand

With seven pairs of legs, nine eyes, and shells the shape of flying saucers, horseshoe crabs look like aliens from the deep.

Credit: Image Courtesy Paulo Bernardino Ribeiro

Blackdevil Fish

Blackdevil fish are quintessential monsters from the deep. The female lurks in the dark, drawing in prey with her glowing lure, while the male attaches to her like a blood-sucking parasite.

Credit: E. Widder, ORCA (www.teamorca.org)

Giant Isopod

An alien life form from a distant galaxy? No, it’s a giant isopod (a crustacean related to shrimps and crabs) from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Credit: Image courtesy of Expedition to the Deep Slope 2006 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program

A Shortnose Greeneye Fish Aglow

Under white light, this shortnose greeneye fish looks unimpressive. But, in dim blue light—the type usually seen at depth—it shows its true ghoulish fluorescent colors.

Credit: Image Courtesy Edie Widder

Comments

Nature is usually weirder

Nature is usually weirder than fiction.

this one is the scariest to

this one is the scariest to me. Those teeth are scary

The blob sculpin is

The blob sculpin is definitely ghoulish! It looks like a ghost of a sad human being. Very scary.

Without a doubt, the

Without a doubt, the creepiest for me is the giant isopod!

Definitely not frightened by

Definitely not frightened by the cute, if not cuddly, horseshoe crab. I love these living fossils from past ages. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but ugly shouldn't necessarily be scary. I think several of these are cute such as the rabbitfish. Big fangs do scare me even if they are small, so I'd have to go with the fangtooth fish.

fangtooth fish

Of these, the goblin sculpin

Of these, the goblin sculpin looks the creepiest, in a cute way. But to me, the most scary-looking of sea creatures is the goblin shark. Thanks for putting up these photos; they are so interesting!!

All scary but I think the

All scary but I think the scariest is a moray eel.

fish?

Spooky fishes

Life is an amazingly

Life is an amazingly wonderful array of adaptations! Each picture was a reminder that life and survival does find its way. Our ocean world is captivating!

The sculpin is the scariest!

The sculpin is the scariest! It's like a fish-jabba-the-hutt !

Hi to me the scariest fish in

Hi to me the scariest fish in this slide show is The Blackdevil fish and the smaleyed rabbitfish>>>>>>>> CREEPY.....

The caption for the picture

The caption for the picture of the horseshoe crab says it has seven pairs of legs. This animal has 6 pairs of legs, not 7 (I've counted).

Thanks for your comment and

Thanks for your comment and for paying such close attention! It's hard to see, but horseshoe crabs do indeed have seven pairs of legs. The seventh pair, called the chilaria, very small "remnant legs" that are up under the middle of the shell. They are difficult to see, but are labeled in this diagram of the crab's underside from the University of Delaware's SeaGrant Program.

wow amazing fish and

wow amazing fish and crustaceans but my favorite creepey creature is the fifth one

I've seen one of these

I've seen one of these halloween freaky fishes. I was fishing in oceanside harbor around 1:00 a.m for spotted bay bass. It was a full moon and all of the sudden this albino prehistoric looking fish surfaced. I yelled for my wife that was fishing with me to come and check it out. I tried taking some pictures with my phone, but it was too dark. What a trip that someone else came across the same fish.

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Creepy Critters: Marine Life Surfaces for Halloween

Fangtooth Fish

Blob Sculpin

Chimaera from the Deep

Zombie Worms Eating Whale Bone

Glowing Sucker Octopus

Horseshoe Crab from Thailand

Blackdevil Fish

Giant Isopod

A Shortnose Greeneye Fish Aglow

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