9th February 2006, 4:08 PM
Quote:---Nowhere to Run---
Roughly 80% of all human beings on earth have one or more internal parasite infestations. For america, the estimate is 95%. Almost all human beings will suffer from internal or external parasites at least once in their lifespan and may never even know it.
Paranoid entertainment is great. It's like a horror movie, only, like, nonfiction.
Quote:---Eyeball Lice---
The parasitic copepod Ommatokoita (a crustacean) lives only anchored in the cornea of the greenland shark, feeding on the eyeball jelly. It is thought that these creatures may be more symbiotic than parasitic - the shark seems able to function normally without its sense of vision, and the dangling parasites may attract fish straight to the shark's jaws.
Something's definitely wrong with my vision. There are little specks of dust in my eyes. If I can focus on one and look into a certain direction, it will slowly (as I focus more) move to the same position of my eye. Kind of like dust on a camera, but it moves.
No, I'm not saying it's this creature, but it got me thinking of that.
Quote: ---Body Snatcher---
Sacculina, a type of barnacle, begins its life in the ocean as a free-swimming larva. When the female locates a crab, however, she actually discards most of her own body, leaving a gelatinous blob that enters the crab and begins to grow. It sprouts rootlike tendrils which spread through the crab like a plant, even wrapping around its eyes. Eventually it forms a small hole on the crab's back, through which male Sacculina can enter and permanently join the female. The crab stops growing and stops mating, devoting all of its energy into caring for the parasite's millions of eggs and larvae as if they were its own. Male crab hosts are altered by the parasite to think and act like females, even changing physically to better carry the barnacle's young.
I... think I want to curl up into a ball and cry now.