Don't Mess With Me

Scorpions and rattlesnakes are fine as far as they go, but they’ve got nothing on venomous sea creatures. Octopi, stingrays, stonefish, urchins—you can choose your poison in the ocean. Banded sea snakes wriggle into undersea caves to prey on vicious moray eels. Lion’s mane jellies dangle tentacles like poisonous curtains as they drift through midnight seas, trolling the depths for prey. Delicate-looking anemones paralyze and ingest passing sea urchins, spines and all. Corals and fireworms and snails, oh my! How did these venomous animals evolve?

 

Paul Erickson and Andrew Martinez wrote and photographed The Pier at the End of the World, a CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book.