Continuing in the same spirit of my yesterday's post on trilobite beetles, today I want to introduce you to another prehistoric and scary looking creature that also bears a resemblance to the now extinct trilobites. Unlike the terrestrial trilobite beetles though, today's creature is a deep sea crustacean that is commonly known as the giant isopod.

Here's how it looks like:



Bathynomus giganteus (credit)

And here's the same creature from another angle:

Giant Isopod (credit)

Looks creepy doesn't it? By the way, some of you may have noticed how it looks similar to the terrestrial common woodlouse (Oniscus asellus). That's not a coincidence as they are "cousins", being members of the same order, Isopoda. Like woodlouses, giant isopods can also curl into a ball to defend themselves.

Here's a photo for comparison:

Common Woodouse (credit)

Now that you have an idea of how giant isopods look like, let's learn a bit more about them.

First, "giant isopod" is a term used for about 20 species of large isopods, all from the genus Bathynomus. All these species look quite similar and only have minor morphological differences.

The biggest and best known giant isopod species is Bathynomus giganteus. B. giganteus is also the first giant isopod that was described, by French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards.

B. giganteus can reach a maximum weight of 1.7 kilo and a maximum length of 76 cm. Not impressed? Well you should be considering how most isopods are just a few cm long. For example, take the common woodlouse from before. On average, they are only 1.6 cm long!

Here's a video of a dead specimen to get a better idea of how big these critters get: