Saturday, December 20, 2008

Pt.1: The Echinoderm Xmas Hall of Shame

Holiday Greetings!
I thought I would introduce a new theme every winter/holiday season and find the tackiest, silliest and most awful Xmas or holiday ornaments made OUT of dried echinoderms that I could find....

Hopefully to DISCOURAGE their use or at least to shame the people who make these things..because frankly dressing up dead corpses is kind of macabre AND tacky.

Let us not remember that asteroid tests are actually more like MUMMIES (skin covers the surface). They are NOT shells.

So when you see something like this:

If it were human it would REALLY be something like this:

So, this year, I was able to find these lovely jewels....

1. Protoreaster nodosus (Oreasteridae):

Dead Santa Version:
Living Animal:2. Pentaster tyloderma (Oreasteridae)

Dead Santa Version:

Living Animal:3. Linckia laevigata (Ophidiasteridae)

Dead Santa Version:
Living Animal:4. Asterias forbesi (Asteriidae) made into..Santa and his Reindeer..I guess?

Dead Santa Version:

Living Animal:
5. Pisaster ochraceus (Asteriidae)

Dead Sant....maybe not...uh...I guess an homage to the Mele Kalikimaka song??
Living Animals:On Wed....Pt. 2-The Sea Urchin Hall of Shame!

4 comments:

Ivan said...

I'm disgusted at the tackiness of these gifts.

Kevin Zelnio said...

I have a dried Linckia laevigata as the (sea) star adorning the top of my tree! lol, yes I am sick in the head, its why i do biology...

Eric Heupel said...

Like my sicko co-author, I too like an odd echinoderm test on our tree....but only the naked beautiful dead corpses I find on the beach. Nothing says the holidays like dead invertebrates dressing up the tree I chopped down that is slowly dying in my livingroom. ;)

(most of the inverts on "our tree" are origami including the echinoderms)

Unknown said...

Really?