This is just for fun and the only rule is: no researching. Post your answers in the comments. Reading other people’s answers before posting your own is a personal red cup spiritual crisis you’re going to have to work out for yourself optional. Answer will be posted in the comments tomorrow.
It looks like some sort of louse.
Eight legs = arachnid. Hmm. I don’t see any large front claws, so it can’t be a lobster or crawfish. If microscopic (the environment looks so foreign), it can’t be a bed bug; I think they have 6 legs. Ticks have 8 legs, I believe, but are more round or oval in shape. I think Lisa B is onto something with louse — some kind of mite, perhaps?
Bed bug.
Whale louse.
Now that I get to check my answer… ew, the whale louse (I didn’t make that up) makes our crusty beastie here at least look like something that even belongs on this planet.
Spike McCuddlebug?
The legs remind me of a crab. I’m just hoping this is not an edible creature.
It might as well be; lobsters are also decapods. I might be melting up some buttah just about now… only I’m not even doing the butter any more, let alone the poor decapods.
Honestly, I have no clue. I keep coming back to look, and every guess I’ve made, there’s something wrong with it – its legs are too bristly, there’s no visible claws, it’s not pudgy enough, it’s not named George. Something. But, it looks more like a Pacific lobster than anything else to me and I remember there *was* a new species described a couple years ago, so that’s my wild guess.
It’s a sea cockroach! Creepy bugger, for sure.
ANSWER TIME
This is a giant isopod, specifically: Glyptonotus antarcticus. From Wiki: