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I was having a really tough time picking an animal for today’s fact, which happens to be the toughest part of this Wild Facts project.\u00a0 Since I wasn’t very creative tonight I decided to take a trip where I knew I could find some interesting creatures.\u00a0 Of course I am talking about the deep depths of the ocean. It only took me about 30 seconds to find the Giant Isopod which just screamed “I am a perfect Thursday Wild Fact!” So adjust your scuba gear and hold on as we find out more about this bizarre crustacean.<\/p>\n

The Giant Isopods are related to shrimp, crabs and other crustaceans and just happen to be very common in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 Now I know it looks like it could be the main character on a Sci-Fi movie but believe it or not this thing exists on earth and in some restaurants in Taiwan, with a side of rice of course.\u00a0 So just how big is this “Giant”? On average the Giant Isopod will reach up to 40 cm (16″) in length and weigh about 1.7 kg (3.7 lbs).\u00a0 Now I see why they are referred to as the Giant Isopod.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest problems with living in the deep sea is the lack of light. Man, I get grumpy during the winter months because their isn’t much sunlight, I wonder how these guys do it on the ocean floor? Although there isn’t much light the Giant Isopod has large compound eyes composed of 4000 facets which gives these creatures a very large field of vision. To help out with the darkness they have also developed large antennae which relay signals back to the crawling crustacean.<\/p>\n

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