The Blobfish - Deep Sea Fish Inhabiting Trenches Off Australia and Tasmania - Voted the "World's Ugliest Animal"

[DonRocks]

38 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Who knew that "Rolling Cooking," an obscure little Chinese-American restaurant in a Springfield, VA strip mall, would be the second post in the Departmental and Regional thread of France?

Nevertheless, I only know "Bayonne" (which Bruce refers to in his post) as a sub-prefecture in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of France - it is just about the furthest point you can go in the Southwest of France and not run into the Atlantic Ocean (*) via Biarittz (on your west), or San Sebastian (on your Southwest), or the Pyrénées mountains (on your South).

Apparently, it's also a city in NJ, but I never knew that - Bruce is that what you're referring to? I assume you're not talking about the Southwestern tip of France.

(*) That's a "blobfish," btw. And can you believe that Bruce's thread on Rolling Cooking is directly responsible for you knowing what a blobfish is?

 The blobfish is *not* an ugly creature; in its native habitat, it's actually a formidable-looking specimen - it is we who have made it "ugly" by taking it away from its high-pressure home, and allowing its gelatinous body to swell up and expand into the "blob" that we call it - it you took ourselves, and put us in a helium environment, we, too, would look like what the police call a "floater" - in other words, we'd be pretty damned ugly.

I've always been fascinated by deep-sea marine life, wondering how it can possibly survive, even thrive, at such extreme levels of pressure, cold, and darkness - witness the glorious ventworm which is our unofficial mascot. *Why* is it our unofficial mascot? I have no idea.

Now, the Tasmanian Devil, that is *ugly*, both in cartoons:

and in real life. Fierce little bugger, this one is:

And if you think it's cute, try petting it.