#conglobate

Each week I plan to feature an amazing creature, admiring God's fantastic artistry.  Hopefully it’ll brighten someone’s day to see something new and interesting if they haven’t seen it before. : )

(Above photograph courtesy of the fantastic NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research Team, Photograph below taken by amazing multi-genre photographer, Eric Kilby (both CC BY-SA 2.0))

Giant Isopods

Scientific Name: Nearly 20 species within the genus Bathynomus (Bathynomus giganteus pictured)

Region: Western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans

Size: "Giant" species range from 3.1"-5.9" (8cm-15cm), while "Super-Giant" species, like the one pictured, typically range from 6.7"-19.7"(17cm-50cm)

Interesting Note:  Like many of their relatively-tiny terrestrial and semi-terrestrial crustacean cousins of the woodlouse family, they can curl up into a tight, armored ball (conglobate) when threatened.  

Also, the Pokémon, Golisopod, is said to have been based on this fascinating and strangely adorable creature. : )

conglobate [KON-gloh-beyt], verb: to form into a globe or ball.

"And the little wee drummer, we flattened his bow, / And we made a football of his rowdy-dow-dow, / Threw it in the tide for to rock and to roll, / and bade it a tedious returning"

-trad. arr. Bob Dylan from the album Good As I Been To You.

  This was a tough one. This being an Irish traditional and all, the "football" mentioned likely refers either to the spherical ball used in Gaelic Football (though this song's first appearance in 1840 is a good 50 years before Gaelic Football existed) or a rugby ball, most likely. Either way, I'm gonna take it.