Be very glad that the “skeleton shrimp” is a tiny species, because it's terrifying enough to look at through a microscope. In fact, H.P. Lovecraft might even have pictured human-sized versions of creatures like these as the mutant monsters of The Shadow Over Innsmouth or Dagon.
Photo: SINC
This pair of super-creepy translucent crustaceans were discovered a few years ago in a deep ocean cave near Catalina Island in Southern California, and have since been cataloged as a new species of Liropus, or caprellid amphipods. Despite their nickname, they're not actually shrimp... and you'd better not call them that, or risk their evil wrath.
According to LiveScience, the specimens were being stored at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa when marine biologist José Manuel Guerra-García realized he was looking at something entirely new to the area. His findings were eventually documented in a report for Zoology journal Zootaxa.