How a court jester slapped the king's butt, then brilliantly convinced him not to kill him Triboulet served as court jester under King Francis I, who ruled France from 1515 to 1547 . Triboulet's quick humor rescued him from Francis I's deadly wrath, not once, but twice. Court jesters hold a unique place in history. Playing the fool for kings and queens meant they were always in close proximity to royalty, but so very far from their rank and station. Comedians often like to push boundaries, but that can be a dangerous business when your job is to entertain the peope who have executioners at their beck and call. Especially when you forget your place—or purposely ignore it, as the case may be—and playfully smack the reigning monarch square on the behind. That little whoopsie was the claim to fame of Triboulet, a court jester who served King Francis I in 16th-century France. But it was how he got away with slapping the king on the butt and living to tell about it that earne...
Bizarre Marine Worm Resembles a Christmas Ornament from Hell
This Worm Week we're looking at one of the most terrifying worms in the ocean - the Antarctic Scale Worm.
An 8-inch-long marine worm that lives in the waters near Antarctica has an oval body ringed with shiny golden bristles and topped with a sharp-toothed maw. It somewhat resembles a decoration for the Christmas season — if holiday ornaments included bulbous, extendable throats tipped with pointy teeth.
The unusual creature is Eulagisca gigantea, and though it recently circulated online in photos that appeared on social media, it is more frequently found in the Southern Ocean waters, near Antarctica.
E. gigantea belongs to a class of marine worms called polychaetes, also known as bristle worms (their name means "many bristles" in Latin). The group's bristles can have a range of uses — swimming, crawling along the ocean floor, or even for defense, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
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| If Tim Burton designed holiday ornaments, they might look something like this bristle worm. |
Little is known about the habits and biology of this peculiar worm, which was first discovered in 1939, the World Register of Marine Species reported. What appears to be a "head" in images is actually a retractable pharynx that is generally housed within its body, as in other polychaete marine worms. When the animal feeds, this section of its throat — tipped by its jaws — extends outward, to a length of about 2 inches (5 centimeters), according to a photo in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's collection.
And its sharp teeth suggest that it preys on other animals or scavenges their remains, the marine biology blog Deep Sea News reported in 2012. A photo shared in a July 7 Facebook post shows a specimen with extruded jaws that was found in the Antarctic Ocean at a depth of 1,706 to 2,198 feet (520 to 670 meters) and highlights the brilliant golden color of its bristles.
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