Tongue eating Parasite, rat-eating plant, giant woolly rat!

[Sandy Eggo]

The sea-dwelling parasite attacks fish, burrows into it, and then devours its tongue. After eating the tongue, the parasite proceeds to live inside the fish's mouth.

This thing was discovered off the coast of NJ

Tongue eating parasite

Scientists just discovered a new species of a plant that does exactly that in a remote area of the Philippines.

The BBC describes the newly discovered species as a new kind of pitcher plant. And this one is evidently "among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap." Which makes it a pretty mean carnivorous plant--it catches insects, rodents, and other small animals in its tubes as they tumble down into them. The plant then closes its tube, trapping the prey inside.

Rat eating plant

The woolly rat, which measures nearly 3ft (82cm) in length and weighs more than 3lb (1.5kg), was captured on film in an infrared camera trap set up on the densely wooded slopes.

Provisionally named the Bosavi woolly rat, it is thought to live only in the crater and nowhere else in the world. It has no fear of humans.

"I had a cat and it was about the same size as this rat," said Gordon Buchanan, the cameraman who first observed the creature.

Dr McGavin said the vegetarian rat was incredibly tame: "It just sat next to me nibbling on a piece of leaf. It won't have seen a human before. The crater of Bosavi really is the lost world."

woolly rat

[Sandy Eggo]

I love nature!

[Bo D]

LOL!!!!!! And you're afraid of spiders?!

That rat-eating plant .... nothing new there.

[Sandy Eggo]

I know! This feeds into my other fear of flesh eating bacteria

[me]

eeewwww.  I wish I had waited to check this out...I'm eating....LOL  Good thing I have a strong stomach or that first pic might have ended my lunch break early....