As title says, I doubt you can guess what type of organism this is:
Here's another one:
Chances are you guessed it's some kind of sea weed, or plant or whatever...
And you can't be more wrong 😆
.
..
...
....
.....
......
The thing depicted above is actually an animal! And technically it is a crustacean. Yes, a fucking crustacean! Even if it doesn't look like one!
Meet Dendrogaster, a genus of endoparasitic crustaceans belonging to the family Dendrogastridae.
Dendrogaster species can be found all over the world, parasitizing on the coelum of various sea star species:
The larva stage looks a bit like a "real" crustacean..
However, once they infiltrate a sea star the larva morphs into the elaborate shapes depicted in the first pics, with tentacle-like limbs.
We don't know much about the life of dendrogasters but it seems that all those "branches" mimic the gonads and digestive system of the host.
Slowly they shut down the gonads of the host and feed on it for sustenance.
On the outside, the host looks okay and only by slicing it open the parasite becomes visible.
Tldr. Yet another super creepy parasite!
Photo References
Posted Using INLEO
