Researchers find penis-esque sea creature in ocean off Australia
BEFORE you drift off and imagine the worst, we ask you remove your mind from the gutter because this phallic looking object is not as it appears.
THE land down under is home to many wonderful creatures, such as the dingo, kangaroo, koala and the floating penis ... Wait. What?
OK, it might not technically be called the floating penis, but a team of deep sea researchers working off the coast of Australia have discovered a phallic looking ‘peanut worm’.
According to researchers, the peanut worm is not to be confused with the penis worm despite its appearance.
“When threatened they can contract their long head inward and more resemble a peanut,” the team explained.
The penis, sorry, peanut worm, can also reproduce both sexually and asexually — although we already could have guessed that one.
The doodle-esque deep discovery was made by a team of 58 scientists from Australia and around the world, during a month-long exploration on a vessel aptly named the Investigator.
Chief scientist and senior curator of the Marine Invertebrates from Museums Victoria Dr Tim O’Hara said the expedition aimed to locate Australian sea-creatures never before seen by the scientific world.
“Australia’s deep-sea environment is larger in size than the mainland, and until now, almost nothing was known about life on the abyssal plain,” he told Nat Geo.
“We’re really excited about the discoveries that we’ve made and are thrilled that we can now share them with the Australian and international public.”
Thankfully, a penis-shaped creature wasn’t the only discovery, with researchers finding a number of different animals including giant sea spiders, a blob fish and carnivorous sponges.