Facetotecta

I learned about them today. Long story short, they are crustancean larvae — similar to the ones of barnacles — that are pretty common in the plankton, but that do not correspond to any known adult species.

So in 2008 some researchers tried giving them metamorphosis hormones just to see what happened: and apparently, that transforms them into strange sluglike creatures that have never been seen before (they are probably internal parasites of some sort, but they have never been found in nature), which the researchers named "ypsigon".

This is the video of a swimming larva; this is a video of a metamorphosis, and this is the resulting ypsigon.

They are tiny, and entirely harmless to humans (as far as we know); but I'm getting some serious lovecraftian vibes here...

edited 19th Jun '12 7:42:34 AM by Carciofus

I love how the transformation is caused by something scientists do, it almost sounds like a B-Movie. Plus, the way it escapes from the shell of the original organism means these things are basically microscopic chestbursters. Lovecraftian microscopic chestbursters.

And by the way, the insect metamorphosis hormone that they used is also sometimes employed as a steroid for bodybuilding, although it is illegal and possibly unsafe.

This indeed looks more and more like the plot of a B-movie...

edited 19th Jun '12 10:17:42 AM by Carciofus

I can imagine the trailer narration now:

"He was a down on his luck, ex-prizefighter who let himself go. Running out of money and with his home and family on the line, he decided to enter one last tournament. He knew he could never win in this condition, but he wasn't above cheating. He read in the newspaper about a new growth hormone being tested in a nearby lab, so he paid the lab a little visit after hours. At first, he injected himself with it in small doses, but the progress was too slow, so he used it all. That's when something started to feel different, started to feel wrong. Initially he dismissed it as a mere stomach ache, but then his body started to change. The next thing he knew, he was half-man, half-parasite, and all crazy. This summer, come see Sylvester Stallone in I WAS A MUTANT PRIZEFIGHTER! A Roger Corman production"

edited 19th Jun '12 11:04:12 AM by cfive