u/OkAcanthisitta9034

One of those encounters where all you have to do is hold the camera steady and let the animal do the work.

This giant Pacific octopus came straight toward me, turned broadside right in front of the camera, and then slowly cruised away across the sand.

This was towards the end of a 21 dive streak where I was filming octopus daily for a couple of weeks. It takes patience and perseverance to catch them out in the open so getting in the water as much as possible definitely helps.

2 hours of ambient octopus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzkNu1PMK_0

In 1992, a photographer named Scott Gardner was working for The Hamilton Spectator when he got a call about a toad with eyes in its mouth in Burlington, Ontario. He assumed it was a prank but went to check it out anyway, and found a real American toad with eyes growing on the inside of its mouth instead of on top of its head.

Gardner's photo went on to be featured in several publications, most notably in evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins's 1996 book Climbing Mount Improbable. Scientists still aren't entirely certain what caused it, though the BBC has suggested it may have resulted from a parasitic trematode worm infection, the same kind of parasite linked to other amphibian deformities like extra or missing limbs. Only one other similar case, in Minnesota, has ever been documented. Snopes has confirmed the photo is genuine, even though doctored copies of it circulate online too.

The kidney on the left of this comparison, visible on X-ray, has developed what’s medically known as a staghorn calculus, a large, branching kidney stone that earns its nickname because it fills the renal pelvis and spreads into the calyces (the urine-collecting chambers) the way antlers branch off a deer’s skull. According to the Cleveland Clinic, these stones form almost exclusively as a complication of repeated urinary tract infections, particularly ones caused by bacteria like Proteus mirabilis that produce an enzyme called urease. That enzyme makes urine less acidic, which encourages magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate to crystallize together into a compound called struvite, the material most staghorn stones are made of.

It looks like something from a horror film, but every one of those spikes has a purpose. Leatherback turtles have rows of sharp, backward-pointing papillae lining their mouths and throats. Since they mainly eat soft, slippery animals such as jellyfish, these structures help keep their prey from escaping once swallowed.