Marine Curio

They look like unremarkable polished stones but sailor's eyeballs are actually one of the most unique organisms on the planet

'Sluggish and lethargic', the torpedo ray wasn't named after the naval weapon but by Romans who used them for some interesting treatments.

Syanptula lamperti is common to coral reef night dives in the Asia-Pacific region, crawling around on the sponge they voraciously devour

Named for the sailors of Greek mythology, argonauts, also known as paper nautili, are a unique group of shelled octopuses (and can't sail)

It was given its name for its flashing light display, but Ctenoides ales, the disco clam, is more like a mirrorball than a dancefloor strobe

The subject of many marine myths and sea serpent legends, the misnamed giant oarfish doesn't actually row itself anywhere.

Kiwa hirsuta - the Yeti crab - prefers it not too hot, and not too cold, but just right, down there in its hairy hydrothermal depths.

Marrus orthocanna - a deeper, darker, colder relative of the Portuguese man o' war but with much less of a sting in its tail

Clione limacina, also known as the naked sea butterfly, sounds like an angelic little creature - that feasts on its relatives...!

Horseshoe crabs are living fossils threatened by a unique usefulness to human science (and they're not related to crabs)

Pseudocolochirus violaceus - a cucumber shaped like an apple with an unpleasant mode of defence and which breathes through its backside

Many land animals enjoy jumping out of the water, Periophthalmus modestus is a fish that enjoys jumping out of it

The pelagic red crab, Grimothea planipes, is a species of squat lobster, and possibly one of the most important crustaceans…

Once mistaken for an unknown species of jellyfish, Pelagothuria natatrix is a deep ocean sea cucumber that learned to swim

The strangest fish in all of Mexico - the axolotl - isn't a fish at all, but that's just the least of Ambystoma mexicanum's issues

The rarely-seen goblin shark is one of the oldest fish in the sea, a living fossil of the darkest depths, but not nearly as nasty as its namesake

There's very little angelic about Glaucus atlanticus, the blue angel sea slug - it can pack a very dangerous sting, depending on what it had for lunch

One reason to be grateful you're not a fish - the spine-chilling isopod Cymothoa exigua, or tongue-eating louse