And Tyrannobdella itself has a Wikipedia entry where you can see many aspects that contradict that story en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranno...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
Here's an a real story about a nose leech dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2019/10/dino... which happens to be in the same family and similar habits to the Tyrannobdella rex which starred in that thread. Compare and contrast with what happens in that T. rex leech story going around.
When it comes to parasitology, sometimes you have to get really up close with your study organism, as one researcher in Taiwan did in trying...
Every part of that story contradict known leech biology, anatomy, and life history. But it's easier to BS about invertebrates like leeches and get away with it, because most people's general knowledge about invertebrates, esp. parasites, are build upon hearsay and half-truths
The leech one? That's kinda what inspired it. From top to bottom, every part of the story has red flags all over it. But the last line in the thread pretty much warded itself by imply that "if you think this BS, you're just like the dude who got covered in leeches!" so I haven't addressed it openly
I've heard some people out there are into feet pics so here's some WIP of a load of tube feet #Invertebrate#SciArt
The Kangaroo Leech is so-called not because it feeds on kangaroos, but because it carries its babies in a pouch. They go riding on crabs to look for frogs, and throw their babies in the frog's face, like a cloud of blood-sucking confetti #Invertebratedailyparasite.blogspot.com/2015/10/mars...
Leeches are not endearing animals and many are literal blood-suckers. As a result they often evoke a sense of disgust in most people, and th...
It was inspired by my experience with this story from ages ago slantist.com/tapeworm-ana... And also a recent story going around on this site
According to the poster, he was engaging in anal sex when he felt something in the anal canal and pulled out to discover a large cestode coiled around his sexual organ.
One pattern is that with real parasite stories, there's a kind of "welp, shit happens" element to it, but you learn something about parasite biology. With made-up parasite stories, they often have a "lesson of the day" morality angle to it, and you come away with misconceptions about parasites.
Maybe I should make a collection of posts which are like "Snopes for Parasite" where I fact-check parasite-related stories that tend to go around online, and in doing so, talk about actual parasite biology and deconstruct why people uncritically accept and spread those stories.
Well, I've been informed about that story going around so I decided to reskeet this from ages ago, for the real deal. I was doing a bunch of leech posts the other day bc I felt like it tho, so I don't know if it was a coincidence that story is going around now. Happy to hear you like the PMGs!