This week I have something fishy for you to have a go at identifying:
Any idea what this beautiful beastie might be?
Friday mystery object #422
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
This week I have something fishy for you to have a go at identifying:
Any idea what this beautiful beastie might be?
Zygoma 
If you’re trying to lure us into angling which species it is, I think you’re putting us in a prickly situation, Paulo!
Luring us into throwing some light on this mystery is a bad angle, Paolo.
There’s a painting — a temptation of St Anthony, I think — with a bunch of demons: monstrous beings with very alien-looking heads… unless know bats, in which case the “demon heads” turn out to be very lifelike (though oversize) renditions of bat faces, with nose leafs, etc. … Are you sure this Friday’s mystery object isn’t a gargoyle?
(On a serious note, I agree with Chris and Sallie.)
The prickles seem to be unusual, but there are lots species of this general sort of critter, and I don’t know HOW unusual prices are. H************ g************ is one species that has prickles (but I’ll just kick the ball back into play for others to chase).
(For “prices”, read “prickles”)
I catch this a lot on my Animal Crossing game. Looks nothing like a football, LOL.
One of those “angler” fish?
Supposing, for the sake of argument, that my Him********** was right as to the genus. Wikipedia says there are something like 22 species, and “Escal morphology varies between species.” Which would be useful if you have a library of images of different species. (Jennifer Macaire: I can see a faint resemblance to an American football. And the size range seems to include that. Though, since Wikipedia also tells us that the flesh is gelatinous, it might not stand up to a hard kick!)
here’s a friend or close cousin…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/deep-sea-creature-washes-ashore-194051445.html
That certainly looks like our baby. Tongue and prickles and all. I never heard them called “football” fish, but Jennifer clearly had!
I am thinking Him would really Maul you if you were 13 cm high..