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Name : gumption striker ( Eunice aphroditois ) , also known as a bobbit worm
Where it is find : tropic shallow waters around the humankind
Sand strikers (Eunice aphroditois) live buried in the seafloor waiting for prey to swim above its large jaws.
What it eat : Fish and other invertebrates
Why it is awesome : With its scientific name referencing Aphrodite , the Greek goddess of love and beauty , the sand striker is a stunning , glittering nautical dirt ball — and a terrifying ambush predator .
It buries its long body in the seafloor during the day and waits withits antennae out to lure unsuspecting quarry into its retractable jaw , which feature two pairs of serrated collection plate that play like scissors and can snap a Pisces in half . Sand strikers have fiddling to no vision , but their five antennae use brightness level and chemical receptors to sense nearby prey and assume , before blend in back to its burrow with its repast .
Sand strikers can break into pieces if threatened and regenerate from the splintered parts.
At night , it is bold and goes on the hunting , partially emerge from its tunnel to lunge at blow over quarry . As if that were n’t shivery enough , the grit striker may also use toxins to master or toss off its target . This toxin allows the sand striker to prey on and digest animals larger than itself .
The Pisces do n’t always go without a engagement , though . They have been memorialise mobbing a George Sand striker , blowing reverse lightning of water at the worm until it retreats into its burrow , allowing them to forage safely .
The sand hitter can cause chaos in aquariums if it ’s accidentally introduced while stone is being bring to a storage tank . As a predator , it will gradually munch its way through any captive fish , supervise to persist undetected for year thanks to its telling hiding ability . To make matters more complicated , if handled , the guts hitter will cave in into objet d’art , some of which will outlast and begin to regrow .
connect : foreign ocean worm have fundament that develop a mind before wriggling off to find a mate
This creepy-crawly predatory animal can hit incredible distance . One person , found hidden within a float of a mooring raft in Japan in 2009 , valuate almost 10 groundwork ( 3 meters ) long .
— Shape - shifting fish that confounded scientists for 100 class spotted off California glide
— Newly discovered Antarctic sea spider with ' boxing glove ' claws pulled up from ocean floor
— highly rare dolphinfish with thumbs photograph in Greek disconnect
There ’s a common misconception that the sand striker does n’t have a brain , but in world it does — it ’s just very different to a human brain . They have a intellectual ganglion , a clustering of cell within the autonomic nervous system .
For many years , this worm had been informally named the bobbit worm , thanks to the highly publicized test of Lorena Bobbitt , who was foundnot guilty by reason of temporary insanityof cutting off her husband ’s penis with a tongue .
