Lovecraft was right when he looked for the most terrible creatures for inspiration not in space, but in the depths of the sea. We still find things there that can kill us in the strangest ways. For example, there is an octopus that can kill you in a couple of minutes, but will give you a burst of dopamine and happiness as a reward. Or, on the contrary, there is a jellyfish, the poison of which causes such a fierce depression in a person that he will beg those around him to kill him. But there are still polyps that can be poisoned by just breathing! In general, we have collected for you the 5 most poisonous Lovecraftian creatures from the depths of the sea.
Legacy of the Shark God. Poison polyp Palythoa toxica
Let’s start our story with the simplest animals, intestinal. The polyp, scientifically known as Palythoa toxica, is responsible for many deaths among hikers and even experienced divers. It attacks with stinging cells, inside of which there are small harpoons that shoot at an irritant at a speed of 60 km / h. Following the harpoon, a thread is unwound, through which a destructive toxin is injected into the body of the victim.
Explorer Morton Bruce article “Palitoxin: History and Background” cites an ancient Hawaiian legend regarding the origin of this polyp.
According to legend, the inhabitants of a small village on the island of Maui heard a cry of pain at night, and in the morning the fisherman did not return from the sea. After the disappearance of another inhabitant, the islanders decided that the hunchback, who lives alone on a rock, is to blame for everything. When they came to the culprit, he attacked, exposing shark teeth. It turned out that the shark god himself lived on the rock, hunting human flesh at night. When the brave men defeated the monster, they tore it to pieces and burned the corpse, and threw the remains into the water. But the demon’s malice did not go away, and polyps of Palythoa toxica grew on the pitfalls, which the locals called “limu-make-o-Hana” (algae of death from Hana). They smeared their spearheads with their poison.
Palythoa toxica, a six-pointed coral, is found in warm seas and is often found in active recreation areas (eg, the Red Sea). It is very beautiful and attracts the attention of vacationers who want to touch it. It happens that because of this they die in agony. One injection of such a polyp causes chest pain, tachycardia, shortness of breath, hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells) and can cause myocardial infarction. Death occurs within minutes of the injection. It is difficult to track the exact number of victims, since many drowned in warm seas might initially touch the beautiful coral, and then simply choke.
The lucky survivors get horrific burns that take a long time to heal. Moreover, this polyp is dangerous not only for vacationers, but also for those who like to keep aquariums. Often unscrupulous or simply illiterate traders sell Palythoa toxica along with completely harmless corals.
Cases of poisoning by the fumes of these polyps are known. For example, in 2014 the whole family received poisoning seven hours following she placed the polyps in her tank. In a different case a pregnant woman, who decided to clean the aquarium, ended up in the hospital, and she went into premature labor.
He cites the wildest story in his lectures “The Power of Palythoa” researcher Julian Sprang. He talks regarding a certain unique person who decided to get rid of corals by boiling the stone on which they grew. As a result, his entire family was poisoned by toxic fumes, following which the household members recovered for a long time in the hospital.
Depressive killer. Medusa Irukandji
A whole detective story is connected with the discovery of the next deadly creature, supplemented by the self-sacrifice of the researcher. Toxicologist and doctor Alexei Vodovozov lectures “This Poisonous World” tells the story of the discovery of this jellyfish.
The Irukandji are an Australian tribe living on the coast of Queensland, and they have long suffered from a strange “demonic” scourge. It happened that a person went to bathe, and following a while he became ill. He felt headache and muscle pain, nausea and vomiting, pain in the abdomen, sweating, tachycardia, hypertension and heaviness in the lungs. And most surprisingly, he fell into depression and doom and often asked his fellow tribesmen to kill him. Sometimes they fulfilled the request, believing that the victim was cursed by a sea demon. This disease is known as the Irukandji syndrome.
Everything changed in 1961, when Dr. Jack Barnes decided to find out why the people of Queensland were dying. After questioning them, he realized: if everything happens following bathing, then the matter is in the sea creature. If a person does not notice a bite or damage, then it is very small and inconspicuous. After hunting in the local waters, he finally caught the suspect – a miniature transparent jellyfish, whose dome was only five millimeters in size, but the tentacles unwound for a whole meter.
To prove his case, Barnes allowed himself to be stung by a jellyfish, following which the exact same clinical picture was observed as in the “Irukandji syndrome”. Of course, the experiment was conducted in the presence of other doctors. So they discovered a new type of deadly jellyfish, which now number from five to sixteen species (according to various information). And they all cause the above-named syndrome. They were named following the discoverer – Carukia barnesi.
The most unpleasant thing is that these jellyfish sting so imperceptibly that a person realizes that he is poisoned only when painful sensations begin to appear. For example, in the documentary movie “Invasion of the Jellyfish” tells the story of the hapless American tourist Robert King, who in March 2002 decided to swim near the reef. Having received a slight injection in the chest, he did not pay much attention to it. But twenty minutes later, the diver felt the whole set of “Irukandji syndrome”, following which he was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Most recently, January 16, 2023, The Guardian wrote that a woman and child were hospitalized in Queensland following being stung by the Irukandji. Fortunately, they survived and were soon discharged from the hospital.
“Sea wasp”. Killer Champion
However, the most famous killer jellyfish is the Chironex fleckeri, also known as the Sea Wasp. Her discovery was no less dramatic than that of Carukia barnesi.
History starts in the XIX century, all in the same Queensland (I think I found a place where I will never go). On the beaches of this place, people began to die, who decided to swim or wander in shallow water. At the same time, no dangerous creature might be seen. Naturally, rumors regarding an “invisible demon” and other urban legends immediately appeared. The mystery was solved in 1955. In January, a five-year-old boy was playing on one of the beaches and suddenly fell without uttering a sound. The parents who ran up were horrified to find that the child had already died.
Nearby was the Australian biologist Hugo Flecker, who demanded to catch everything that swam near the place of death. In the nets, he found a small jellyfish, which was so transparent that it disappeared into the water like a real ninja. It was she who turned out to be the killer and was later named following the discoverer – Chironex fleckeri. It belongs to the genus box jellyfish, so named for the almost cubic shape of the dome.
Its dome is small, only twenty centimeters, but the tentacles of the creature grow up to four and a half meters. When struck by stinging cells, muscle paralysis develops, the heart stops and erythrocytes and skin cells are destroyed at the site of the “harpoons” hit. Often, due to muscle paralysis, a person simply cannot breathe and suffocates, and if the lesion was inflicted in water, he drowns. So a lot of drowned people are also on the conscience of box jellyfish.
The situation with them is so difficult that special signs are put up on many beaches in Australia prohibiting swimming and warning regarding box jellyfish. Sometimes, for swimming, a small paddling pool is enclosed with nets, where those who wish splash.
Death from happiness. blue ringed octopus
And here is the third reason to never go to Queensland: Hapalochlaena lunulata, the large blue-ringed octopus, lives there. And although it is quite small – 4-5 centimeters torso and 10 centimeters tentacles – you should not offend this baby.
For starters, he’ll just try to get away from you. Then, if you keep chasing it, it will begin to swell up, change color, and its blue rings will turn bright blue. Thus he warns: “I am poisonous, do not touch me!”. If this does not help, the octopus will swiftly attack and inflict a bite with its beak, in which there is a deadly poison. Moreover, by words A.V. Vodovozov, the toxin in one such octopus is enough to kill twenty-six adult men for sure.
The poison blinds the victim, she remains conscious, but cannot breathe, and also experiences heart failure, her heart may stop. If nothing is done, the person will die within minutes. And the most surprising thing is that dopamine, the hormone of happiness, is present in the multicomponent octopus venom.
Shell killer. geographic cone
Well, the top of the amazing from the world of invertebrates is the killer mollusk. The creature has a very beautiful cone-shaped shell, which is why their genus got the name “cones”.
In the champion of killing people, the geographic cone (Conus geographus), the length of the shell can be from four to sixteen centimeters. Such shells often attract the attention of tourists on the beaches, they grab an enviable souvenir and get hit with a tooth located at the end of a long proboscis. The impact site quickly becomes numb, then other parts of the body become numb, paralysis and heart failure, difficulty swallowing and convulsions may occur. If a person is not provided with urgent medical care, death can occur within 5-7 minutes.
The creature lives not only in Australia, but throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific region. They can also be found in the Red Sea, so relaxing on warm beaches, do not be tempted by a free shell lying in the surf. Suddenly it’s a cone, and he’s not happy to see you at all.
oh
