Giant isopods are a genus of large crustaceans, most similar to huge wood lice. They live in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and, on average, reach 36 cm in length, but there are specimens of 80 cm.
The giant isopods should not be confused with the common isopods, especially the isopod of the species Cymothoa exigua, which eats the tongue in fish and attaches in the mouth instead of the tongue. You can read more about it in the article "Language Eater".
Giant isopods are deep-sea scavengers and it is they who eat the corpses of fish and animals that fall to the bottom of the oceans. They can live both at a depth of 170 meters and at a depth of over 2 km.
Some species of giant isopods are active predators and can also attack large sharks! Such a unique case was noted in 2015. A katran shark fell into a trap and while it was twitching, trying to free itself, a giant isopod clung to its face and soon … completely ate the shark's face.
Recently, a Lumcon research team filmed a group of giant isopods eating the carcass of a large alligator. The video was filmed at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and is unique as it has never been filmed before.
Researchers specially prepared and lowered two carcasses of dead alligators to the bottom in order to find out which of the sea lovers would pounce on the corpses and destroy them. And the giant isopods were not long in coming.
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The researchers could see with their own eyes how the isopods feasted on crocodile meat and gorged themselves to such an extent that they lost the ability to move.
Tales about their exorbitant appetite have been circulating for a long time, and according to scientists, this is a forced and necessary quirk of evolution. The fact is that sometimes isopods have to starve for a long time, when there is little or no food at all. Giant isopods can survive without food for several months, and someone assures that even for several years.
For example, in Okinawa (Japan), a captive giant isopod went hungry for two years, and there was also a case when in the same Japan the isopod did not eat for 5 years before finally dying.
In addition to evidence of the gigantic isopods' gluttony, the researchers saw how they expertly pushed a large hole through the tough alligator skin with their strong jaws.