Surinam Toad - Tumblr Posts
Sandhill cranes have a surprising and stomach-turning method of incubating their eggs. Rather than build a nest, these cranes place the eggs on their back and gently yet firmly press them until they become embedded in the flesh. After thirty days of incubation the eggs hatch, but the chicks will live in the cavities left behind for an additional two to three weeks before the mother moves them to a more traditional ground-style nest.
Sandhill cranes have a surprising and stomach-turning method of incubating their eggs. Rather than build a nest, these cranes place the eggs on their back and gently yet firmly press them until they become embedded in the flesh. After thirty days of incubation the eggs hatch, but the chicks will live in the cavities left behind for an additional two to three weeks before the mother moves them to a more traditional ground-style nest.
Footnote: Ahoy there! Feel like seeing more crap like this? Here is my current handle! Due to technical issues with the old one, I will be rblging the original MMM and CFF posts on this account, as well as continuing both series!
Creacher Feature Friday 8: So, Trypophobia Toads Are a Thing..
Last week, I recall, we took a glance on over at a frog so bizarre and special, it grew hairy gills on its back legs and broke its own bones to make basically Wolverine claws as a defense mechanism.
Guess what? I know of just the amphibian fit to top that weirdnessđź‘Ź
Full disclosure, though, there was a slight lie in the title of this. This feature does not actually center on a toad at all- it's another frog! A strictly aquatic dwelling one at that; nonetheless, it never stopped the unusual Pipa pipa (actual genus and species name, lol) from landing plenty of misnomer titles such as the Star-fingered toad, the common Surinam toad, and of course, the pipa toad.
P.pipa calls the jungles of the Amazon and much of upper South America as its home, where it lies in wait on the beds of flooded forests and low-flowing streams, ready to ambush the next meal that floats along. Interestingly, they also capture prey through a method known as suction feeding (i.e. slurping in a bunch of water along with the victim in one strong gulp), which is usually more associated with certain kinds of fish than most anurans. Guess when you don't have a tongue for gobbling your food up, you find your own way.
Something more quickly notable about them than their feeding habits is their.. interesting.. appearance.
I guess today also doubles as Flat Fuck Friday
In case you are worried, fear not, this is NOT the result of them being run over by a looney tunes steamroller. Just a natural way of camouflage, hoping you'd pass them by as a boring old brown leaf on the riverbed. And those little eyes are still functional, but for good measure this species also came packing a lateral line system (another fishy smelling trait, likely evolved to suit their lifestyle) down its back to help detect potential prey/predators while it lies flatly at the water's bottom like above.
If that's not enough "I'm not like the other frogs" for you yet, wait until you see them pregnant. I did not stutter. Pipa toads go about reproduction in a convoluted, literally skin crawling way.
To remember what "typical" frog spawning looks like, picture how the male piggybacks onto the female, they both release some gametes together in some pond, bippity-boppity-boop, tadpoles happen and are left to fend for themselves. Sometimes you get the odd parental species with males that might guard the eggs/young for a while, but frogs wholly are usually not the most invested caretakers, especially females.
Well, anything but usual, the pipa toad performs spawning with the twist of adding in a complicated series of acrobatics. As the released eggs are fertilized by the male, the he keeps his hold on his mate and brings the pair into a series of somersaults, where he uses his legs to push and stick the eggs onto her back. From courtship and on, the female's body reacts to this by growing a layer of skin over the developing embryos as they slowly meld into the outside of her body. This skin-covering eventually develops into something of a protective pouch that will shield the growing young all the way through their metaphosis from tadpole to miniature versions of the adult (one per each of those visible chamber holes). And after a long, 4 month gestation, the time finally comes for anywhere from 60-100 toadlets to be "born" and escape from their flesh cage for greener pastures and tasty eats of their own. Just as the beautiful circle of life intended.
Until further notice, this series crowns the PP toads as certainly, the frog of all time.
Every Dredge Aberration (2024), Part 2
Brood Squid
Encyclopedia #110
Aberrant form of Arrow Squid
Description:
Tentacles sprout from a glowing core inside a gelatinous sac. Other cores lay dormant alongside
Comment: The first aberrant I caught where the original being, if it ever truly lived, appeared lost entirely to the corruption. It has been hollowed out and made the bloated womb for a nameless invader. It invokes two visceral images in my mind’s eye. The first being an infected cell, swelling with viral load until it is bursted, spilling out with new capsules of infection waiting to start the cycle anew. The other is of those real squids in the world which brood their own eggs to hatching. They too, sacrifice the last of themselves entirely to bring their spawn into a hungry world.
How to catch: Another coastal spawner in The Marrows region, albeit only appearing after sunset. Can be gathered in trawl nets.
Snag Squid
Encyclopedia #111
Aberrant form of Arrow Squid
Description:
Tasting tongues writhe wildly around sets of yellowed, crooked teeth. The top row are flattened like human molars.
Comment: The first aberrant that made me recoil back in my chair with a grimaced “Euuh” sound when I saw it appear on my screen. To think of what caution such a thing must be handled with, lest the role of butcher’s hand and sustenance become reversed. The artwork makes horrible suggestion of one animal in a slow transformation to become many. This layered hunger promises terrible growth and sprawling if it is allowed to consume.
How to catch: Ditto
Barbed Eel
Encyclopedia #112
Aberrant form of Grey Eel
Description:
A spine broken with sharp angles and crooked curves. A row of teeth bent on revenge.
Comment: Fortunately for I, there exists frilled sharks with a more unnerving presence than this gnarled creature. It is much like the Marrows themselves, crooked and strange, but conquered easily. Hunger on, scoliotic elver, but you won’t be the one who feasts before the sun rises.
How to catch: This wretch and its kin will require an upgrade from the basic rod to bag. Fish during the day, around the shallow waters about The Marrows. I always found them mostly around the rocks. Can be trawl-netted with the appropriate equipment.
Host Eel
Encyclopedia #113
Aberrant form of Grey Eel
Description:
Numerous glowing shapes flicker and squirm behind a distended ribcage. The rest of the fish is withered and drained.
Comment: Could it be… another strain of what plagues the brood squid? Unlikely, but to the animal, the difference won’t matter- its fate mirrors the other all the same.
How to catch: ^Ditto
Cyclopean Flounder
Encyclopedia #114
Aberrant form of Gulf Flounder
Description:
A sprawling, jellied mass spills from a single eye socket. What appears to be a dark pupil is in fact the center of an egg.
Comment: Oh…. It’s a yolk. That’s the nucleus. Another life, traded for the potential of a new one. Neither encyclopedia nor the artwork help me address the question of whether or not this flounder carries a fertilized ovum, and frankly, I do not know which answer would unsettle me more. Mercifully, ironically, this change has blinded it.
How to catch: Active during the day, and dwells only in the shallow water of The Marrows. Can be trawl netted.
Riddled Flounder
Encyclopedia #115
Aberrant form of Gulf Flounder
Description:
Baggy skin perforated with countless cavities. A singular, shapeless mass spreads underneath.
Comment: Ah, I must wonder at this piece if the devs looked to the Surinam toad, and if they found such inspiration there that they created this. The semblance to one of the real world’s beautiful horrors is unmistakable.
If this were the intention, then the riddled flounder would be all the more foreboding a sight. While the flounder’s skin only shelters a single resident, the flat Surinam’s cavities are each protecting a tadpole. Something else that interests me about the grotesque flounder is that, like the other variant, this one has been rendered sightless. In place of its eyes are protruding siphons of a sort. Their function- unknown.
How to catch: ^Ditto