Imagine you’re a crab.

Life is going well. But today you begin to feel strange–maternal almost–as if there is something growing inside you, and in fact, something is.

Its roots are crawling through your tissue, your gut, your brain. It’s a rhizocephalan barnacle, and it’s about to take you over.

The adult female doesn’t even resemble a normal barnacle – the shell is gone, so is her legs and eyes. When her target is found she uses her body like a giant hypodermic needle to inject her own cells under your skin to start spreading like a cancer.

But it gets worse.

Just when it seems it couldn’t be worse, your abdomen explodes. You’re now sterile, and her gonads are erupting out from where your genitals are.

Her tumorous ovaries now attract a male rhizocephalan larva, who injects his own cells into her. These grow into testicles within her body. She now has everything she needs for her next takeover.

But none of this bothers you now. She has woven her threads through your brain. She’s been secreting chemicals to control you – you’ve forgotten who you are. You now believe you are female, and the bulge in your abdomen is a brood of your own eggs.

Moreover, you are about to give birth. You care for and clean these eggs, as if they were your own.

Via Deep Sea News.