Spooky Science episode 8: Tongue-eating louse

[slinkcaribou]

The actual embodiment of got your tongue

[lundylow]

Confirming my fear that the scariest aliens we could imagine are just underwater right here.

[DrDunsparce]

"Cat got your tongue?"

"No. Parasitic Isopod."

[chickenpants]

The mark of a good parasite is keeping the host alive.

[neizanmendez]

Ah yes, "Cymothoa Exigua got your tongue?" is definitely my favourite catchphrase

[NireFuster]

I find it fascinating that these creatures not only know what to do instinctively but that they're also seemingly designed for such a bizarre thing as replacing a body part off of another animal. It's insane.

[FortuitousWench]

you KNOW the first marine biologist to find one of these bastards dropped a real quick What The Fuuuu-

[invaderfrombeyond]

“Have you spotted it yet?”
There is no way I could’ve missed it, Hank. That fish’s tongue has eyes.

Horrifying.

[stevenmielke]

In college we went on a field trip, great time seine netting by the shore and also drag net to count species we found. When I kept seeing raised operculum on fish I asked the Ichthyology teacher why a section of gills looked dead and grey. When he pointed out it was an Isopod parasite I was skeeved out. Then I also kept finding fish with what looked like a bloody nose. I opened up the mouths to find these little shits staring back at me. When we froze the fish these never died. I even had a nightmare where my friend couldn't talk and when she opened her mouth one of these had replaced her tongue.

So when people ask what animal scares me the most I always say "Isopods, marine ones."

[aurumarma]

I thought the thumbnail was an avocado. I was wrong and now I'm uncomfortable.

[trophyhunter]

"why don't you like the ocean? It's so calming" 💀

[MeggaBite]

"I slip inside your fishy mouth / tounge's in the way, so I cut it out / now we swim the ocean blue / you attached to me, and me attached to you" -Sam Schultz, still one of my favorite tangents poems

[ahumanyoudontknow]

These facts creep me out more than literally any spooky story. I just-ugh!

[logan]

Live-in best friend. Look at that cutie. Living in its best friend.

[artninja]

I love how every picture of them is just “Can I help you?” To the photographer.

[ilesbird]

"All nature is beautiful!" "I mean, technically yes, but sometimes no."

[sled]

The fact that fish have tongues is the craziest thing about this

[chasehalley]

I’m taking marine biology in high school right now and I’m definitely showing this to me teacher

[mirandac]

I haven’t gasped like this since I discovered a headless baby mouse in my driveway delivered as a gift from a stray cat.

[LeachZeech]

I was introduced to these by my biology teacher in high school. She played a movie called The Bay, the plot of which revolves around these isopods mutating to infest humans. It's a found footage-style movie, and the setting is close to where I lived at the time. It really freaked me out lol