"The "unicorn of molluscs" is no myth" was the subtitle of this article I came across today. OMG, my first thought. Its an alien! Damn! Its some kind of disturbing creature! What is that "Thing"and what benefit it is for the human race? Its a Giant Shipworm!
Its so grosse and it also stinks, I read! Quite an interesting find, our mother nature produced.
An international team of researchers were the first to investigate this never before studied species - a giant, black, mud dwelling, worm-like animal. - Source
"To me it was almost like finding a dinosaur," Distel says, "something that was pretty much only known by fossils. Amazing!" Distel told New Scientist. "I've been looking for them for 20 years. My friend and mentor Ruth Turner looked for her whole career."
For centuries, a slimy black tube-shaped creature the size of a baseball bat has been eluding scientists. They'd examined its external shell, but never laid eyes on the alien-like physique hidden inside - until now, that is. Researchers have finally had a chance to study a living specimen of the giant shipworm (Kuphus polythalamia), which, despite its name, is not actually a worm, but a bivalve – a kind of aquatic mollusc enclosed in its shell, and a decidedly mysterious breed at that.- Source from Sciencealert
The animal, which grows up to about 90 centimetres (roughly 3 feet) in length, lives upside down in its shell, most of which is submerged beneath mud in shallow bays in the Philippines. Its head and mouth are located at the base of the shell, deep within the mud – and were it not for the tell-tale tip of the shell indicating where these planted molluscs were holed up, the giant shipworm might have successfully eluded scientists for another couple of centuries.
I leave you with this find and rethink my breathing techniques instead :) Yuuuk!!!
"Observe your own body. It breathes. You breathe when you are asleep, when you are no longer conscious of your own ideas of self-identity. Who, then, is breathing? The collection of information that you mistakenly think is you is not the main protagonist in this drama called the breath. In fact, you are not breathing; breath is naturally happening to you. You can purposely end your own life, but you cannot purposely keep your own life going. The expression, “My life”, is actually an oxymoron, a result of ignorance and mistaken assumption. You don’t posses life; life expresses itself through you. Your body is a flower that life lets bloom - a phenomenon created by life.” Ilchi Lee
Yours
My visit to the Natural History Museum in Vienna is still in my mind