A submarine from a recent deep-sea mission came back with a rather unexpected and terrifying passenger.

First exploding on the social bookmarking site Reddit, a deep-sea technician posted a story about being surprised after returning from a mission and finding that a strange creature latched itself onto the submarine’s hull.

The creature, after some investigation, was found to be Bathynomus gigantus, a rather large isopod known to inhabit Atlantic and Pacific deep waters. The creature that was involuntarily ‘recovered’ measured to be around 2.5 feet long.

Considering that the creature resembled a cockroach or louse, that might seem scary to think of: a 2.5-foot pinkish-white roach.

Scientists have long known about the creature – it’s just that since the creature lives so deep in the ocean, it’s pretty rare that one of them can actually be examined from dry ground. (The submarine crew estimates that this particular one attached itself to the submarine at around 8,500 feet depth)

Check out the pictures below. (Pictures may be disturbing for some.)

Credits go to the photos’ respective owners. (FOX / Flickr)

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