Ocean Exploration 2020: Deep-sea Fish
iomage by NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research - source: flickr
Tis is a follow-up of sorts to my post Deep Mystery from a couple of days ago. Today I just want to share with you some amazing pictures from creatures we discovered in the deepest waters our planet has. They live in a place where sunlight is almost absent and they in many cases make their own light through fluorescence:
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence.
source: Wikipedia
The environment they live in is hostile and so different from our daily environment it can even be considered alien. The barometric pressure they live under is immense: you can add 1 bar for every 10 meter of depth. There's almost no sunlight and temperatures are always low. Officially the "deep sea" starts at about 1800 meters of depth:
The deep sea or deep layer is the lowest layer in the ocean, existing below the thermocline and above the seabed, at a depth of 1000 fathoms (1800 m) or more. Little or no light penetrates this part of the ocean, and most of the organisms that live there rely for subsistence on falling organic matter produced in the photic zone. For this reason, scientists once assumed that life would be sparse in the deep ocean, but virtually every probe has revealed that, on the contrary, life is abundant in the deep ocean.
source: Wikipedia
Deep sea zones - source: Wikipedia
It seems that the restrictions of natural selection are not enough to always fall within the boundaries of our imagination. Some of the adjustments found in the deepest parts of the oceans make for creatures fit for science fiction. Do you remember the most famous Alien of all time, the one from the aptly named movie "Alien"? You know, the one with the telescope-jaw. What if I told you that sucker is real? Well, not exactly, down there under the ocean's surface there really is a shark with a telescope-jaw!
And for this one you don't even have to go that deep... Feast your eyes on the creatures following below and remember how wonderful and mysterious life is. Look, for example at the Zombie Worms: they feed on the bones of rotting carcasses by excreting an acid that dissolves the bone, but they don't have a stomach or digestive system to absorb the nutritious jelly themselves, so they rely on symbiotic bacteria to do that work for them... How does a micro-system like that evolve? But let's start with the
The secretive fish was swimming along a ridge 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) down, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The animal is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, with translucent, scale-less skin and eerie, colorless eyes. No fish in the family Aphyonidae has ever been seen alive before.
source: Live Science
One of the reoccurring themes you'll find deep under water is that the creatures there have changed very little in millions of years. This Frilled Shark to me looks like an old creature indeed!
The frilled shark is so unique that scientists place it in its own family. And though they are usually categorized in the same order as cowsharks (Hexanchiformes), some scientists say the frilled sharks should have a separate order as well.
source: Discovery Sharkopedia
Not only do they look weird and alien, they look disorienting to! This Barreleye fish looks like a jet-fighter with a transparent cockpit. The disorientation comes in here: the two dark spots on the front of its head are its nostrils, and the green bulbs inside the cockpit are its eyes. In rest they always look up, presumably looking for shadows in the sparse photons they're able to catch in those depths.
These fish are named because of their barrel-shaped, tubular eyes, which are generally directed upwards to detect the silhouettes of available prey; however, according to Robison and Reisenbichler, these fish are capable of directing their eyes forward, as well. The family name Opisthoproctidae is derived from the Greek words opisthe ("behind") and proktos ("anus").
source: Wikipedia
Once voted the world's ugliest animals, the Blobfish loses it's form when brought to the surface: it looks a lot more like a regular fish when in it's natural ultra high pressure surroundings.
The popular impression of the blobfish as bulbous and gelatinous is partially an artifact of the decompression damage done to specimens when they are brought to the surface from the extreme depths in which they live.[3] In their natural environment, blobfish appear more typical of their superclass Osteichthyes (bony fish).
source: Wikipedia
There are some weird sexual relationships to be found in nature, but these boneworms are special: the males are microscopic and live inside the females! And they don't have a digestive system of their own:
Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute using the submarine ROV Tiburon first discovered the genus in Monterey Bay, California, in February 2002. The worms were found living on the bones of a decaying gray whale in the Monterey Canyon, at a depth of 2,893 m (9,491 ft).
source: Wikipedia
Come in many shapes and sizes and all of them are ugly, or the females at least ;-) And if you thought the distinction between the sexes was weird with the boneworms, then get ready for the reproduction methods used by these Angler Fish. The video also has a small role for the Deep Sea Angler fish that starred in Finding Nemo
Anglerfish occur worldwide. Some are pelagic (dwelling away from the sea floor), while others are benthic (dwelling close to the sea floor); some live in the deep sea (e.g., Ceratiidae), while others on the continental shelf (e.g., the frogfishes Antennariidae and the monkfish/goosefish Lophiidae). Pelagic forms are most laterally compressed, whereas the benthic forms are often extremely dorsoventrally compressed (depressed), often with large upward-pointing mouths.
source: Wikipedia
I'll leave you with that scene from Finding Nemo. We're all kids, curious to find out more about the greatest mystery of all: life. I hope this contributed to the sense of mystery and I'm sure you'll be able to find even weirder creatures than I did. If so, please don't hesitate to share your findings in the comments!
As always, thank you for visiting, dear reader. Stay curious!
The above is a slightly redacted version of a post I published in 2018 originally. I'm still suffering from an accident in which I broke two bones in my foot. I hope you'll bear with me through this unfortunate episode...
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!
| Latest article >>>>>>>>>>> | Cassandra Clip |
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| REAL X-Files (repost) | Just Three Of Them |
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