Creepy Crustacean Hauled From Ocean Depths: Big Pic

Apr. 1, 2010 -- A team of explorers searching the deep ocean in a submarine surfaced to find they were not alone. A horrifying sea creature had attached to some of the sub's outer equipment.

In a posting to social bookmarking site, Reddit, a technician described the finding, asking readers to help identify what the bizarre-looking creature was: 

"I work for a Sub-sea Survey Company, recently this beast came up attached to one of our ROVs. It measures a wee bit over 2.5 feet head to tail, and we expect it latched onto the ROV at roughly 8,500 feet depth. Unfortunately, the e-mail that these pictures were attached to came from a contractor, and the ship he was operating from (and therefore location) is unknown, so I can't tell you what part of the Earth this beast was living."

Scientists studying the photos and the technician's description suggest the creature is probably a Bathynomus giganteus, or a giant isopod. This very large crustacean is a scavenger that feeds on dead whales, fish and squid that sink to the bottom, and hangs out in deep Atlantic and Pacific waters.

WATCH VIDEO: Discovery's Deadliest Catch Captains tell us about the weirdest monsters they've found at sea.

Related Links:

• Treehugger: Giant Isopod Found Attached To Underwater Robot
• Deep Sea News
• LIFE's "Creatures of the Deep" on Apr. 4, 9 p.m. ET/PT

According to NOAA, giant isopods love the muddy, harsh environment of the ocean floor and are usually found from the murky depth of 560 feet to absolute darkness at 7,020 feet. Temperatures can reach as low as 39 degrees Fahrenheit at these levels.

In commenting on the creature's massive size, C.R. McClain, a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, wrote on Scienceblogs.com's Deep Sea News:

"Deep-sea gigantism, for all crustaceans, is a consequence of larger cell sizes obtained under cold temperatures ... In crustaceans, bathymetric gigantism may also in part reflect decreases in temperature leading to longer lifespans and thus larger sizes in indeterminate growers," citing research papers from 1996, and 2001.

No word yet on what scientists plan to do with this stowaway.

Image credit: Imgur