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15 Weirdest Deep Sea Creature
15 Weirdest Deep Sea Creature
No doubt, the seas are the next frontier humans are trying to conquer. The deep sea is the lowest layer of the ocean, at a depth of 1800m and above.
When we think of sea animals, we mainly imagine the cordial dolphins, scary sharks, and maybe the huge blue whales. But some weird deep sea creatures living in the bottom most depths of the sea are a little less familiar to the way we tend to imagine ocean life. From the droopy blobfish, to the terrifying Fangtooth fish, to the hypnotizing flashlight fish, the ocean’s deep is a circus of curious characters.
Even scientists still don’t know very much about the creatures of the deep sea. But one thing we do know is that it’s populated by some pretty peculiar creatures. Scientists are still finding bizarre new deep sea creatures every year. Here are the list of 15 weirdest deep sea creature.
#15 Frilled Shark
Humans rarely encounter frilled sharks, which prefer to remain in the oceans’ depths, up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface. Considered living fossils, frilled sharks bear many physical characteristics of ancestors who swam the seas in the time of the dinosaurs. This 5.3-foot (1.6-meter) specimen was found in shallow water in Japan in 2007 and transferred to a marine park. It died hours after being caught.
Termed a living fossil, this seldom seen shark inhabits the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Scientists speculate that it captures its prey by bending its body and lunging forward like a snake while proceeding to swallow its victim whole.
#14 Vampire Squid
Vampire squid is an apt name for a creature that lurks in the lightless depths of the ocean. Comfortable at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) below the surface, these diminutive cephalopods navigate the blackness with eyes that are proportionately the largest of any animal on Earth. The species gets its name from its dark, webbed arms, which it can draw over itself like a cloak. It occupies the mesopelagic and bathypelagic regions of temperate and tropical world oceans. The animal’s physiology has adapted to enable it to live at the very low oxygen levels found within the oxygen minimum layers of these regions.
At the upper levels of its range, there is some sunlight, and as a consequence it has evolved the biggest eyes of any animal (in proportion to size) in order to capture as much light as it can. What is really fascinating about this animal are its defense mechanisms. In the dark seas that it lives in, it releases bioluminescent ‘ink’ that dazzles and confuses other animals while it escapes. Normally, it can emit a bluish light which, seen from underneath, helps to camouflage; but when spotted, it wraps itself with its black-coloured underside… and disappears.
#13 Pacific Viperfish
The Pacific viperfish has jagged, needlelike teeth so outsized it can’t close its mouth. These deep-sea demons reach only about 8 inches (25 centimeters) long. They troll the depths up to 13,000 feet (4,400 meters) below, luring prey with bioluminescent photophores on their bellies.
While during the day it stays in deep water, at night it has been known to venture into shallower territory and into the nets of deep sea fishermen. They don’t survive very well in captivity, however, so not much is known about them, although their appearance certainly earns them a spot on this list.
#12 Giant Spider Crab
Thought to be the largest arthropods on Earth, giant spider crabs spend their time foraging on the ocean floor up to a thousand feet (300 meters) deep. These rare, leggy behemoths, native to the waters off Japan, can measure up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) from claw tip to claw tip. This five-foot (1.5-meter) specimen was photographed in Japan’s Sagami Bay.
#11 Atlantic Wolffish Pair
The sinister-looking Atlantic wolffish makes its home in the rocky coastal depths up to 1,600 feet (500 meters) below. Reaching 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, wolffish have conspicuous dentition suited to a diet of hard-shelled mollusks, crabs, and sea urchins. This mated pair was found in a deep-sea den off the coast of Maine.
#10 Dumbo Octopus
First seen in 1999 and then videoed in 2009, this cute animal (for an octopus, anyway) can live as deep as 7,000 metres below the surface, making it the deepest-dwelling octopus species on record. Named for the flaps on either side of its bell-shaped head, this group of animals – there may be as many as 37 species – never sees the sunlight. The dumbo octopus can hover above the seabed with a type of siphon-based jet propulsion, where it feeds off of the snails, bivalves, crustaceans and copepods that live there.
Named after the elephant in the Disney film, this octopus isn’t necessarily as terrifying as the frill shark but it’s far too strange to not include on this list.
#9 Fangtooth Fish
Although it has an intense sounding name (and for good reason considering the fact that its teeth are proportionately the largest of any fish in the ocean) the fangtooth is actually quite small and harmless to humans. Terrifying…but harmless.
The nightmarish fangtooth is among the deepest-living fish ever discovered. The fish’s normal habitat ranges as high as about 6,500 feet (2,000 meters), but it has been found swimming at icy, crushing depths near 16,500 feet (5,000 meters). Fangtooth fish reach only about six inches (16 centimeters) long, but their namesake teeth are the largest, proportionate to body size, of any fish.
#8 Giant Tube Worms
Crushing pressure, freezing temperatures, and zero sunlight isn’t enough of a challenge for giant tube worms. They’ve adapted to thrive at the edge of hydrothermal vents, which spew superheated water saturated with toxic chemicals. This colony was photographed 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) below the ocean’s surface on the East Pacific Rise near the Galápagos Islands.
#7 Dragonfish
Although they are found at depths of nearly 2km, the Dragonfish actually starts its life at the surface of the ocean as a result of its egg being buoyant. Like many other deep sea creatures, it eventually becomes capable of producing its own light using a method known as bioluminescence after which it descends to the depths. One of its many light producing photophores can be found on a barbel attached to its lower jaw, which it most likely uses for hunting.
#6 Six-Gill Shark
Six-gill sharks, like this one off the coast of Vancouver, cruise the ocean floor during the day, sometimes as deep as 8,200 feet (2,500 meters), then move toward the surface at night to feed. They can reach impressive lengths of 16 feet (4.8 meters) on a diet of other sharks, rays, squids, crabs, and occasionally seals.
#5 Blobfish
The blobfish is a deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. Inhabiting the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, it is rarely seen by humans.
Primarily found in the deep water off of Australia and New Zealand the blobfish lives at depths of over 1200 meters. The pressure here is several dozen times higher than at the surface and as a result its body is little more than a gelatinous mass.
The world’s most miserable-looking fish is in danger of becoming extinct, according to scientists.
#4 Chimaera Fish
Chimaeras live in temperate ocean floors down to 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) depth, with few occurring at depths shallower than 200 metres (660 ft). They may be the “oldest and most enigmatic groups of fishes alive today”. At one time a “diverse and abundant” group (based on the fossil record), their closest living relatives are sharks, though in evolutionary terms they branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago and have remained isolated ever since.
Not to be confused with the Chimera of Greek mythology, these creatures are also known as ghost sharks, and although they used to reside throughout the world’s oceans, today they are mostly confined to deep water.
#3 Big Red Jellyfish
Big Red Jellyfish is a jellyfish of the family Ulmaridae discovered in 2003, and the only member of its genus yet identified. It was discovered by a crew from MBARI led by George Matsumoto.
Big Red Jellyfish also named Tiburonia granrojo is one of the largest sea jellies and unusual in a number of ways. They live at ocean depths of 600 to 1,500 metres (2,000 to 4,900 ft) and have been found across the Pacific Ocean in the Sea of Cortez, Monterey Bay, Hawaii and Japan. They can grow up to 75 centimetres (30 in) in diameter, according to the California Academy of Sciences, and have thick fleshy oral arms in place of the long tentacles found in most jellies. The entire jellyfish is deep red in color.
This startlingly large jellyfish can grow to be over 1 meter in length and as you may have deduced from the fairly straightforward name, it carries a slight red coloration. Rather than tentacles this deep sea jellyfish uses a series of fleshy “feeding arms” to capture its prey.
#2 Coffinfish
The Coffinfishes is a family member of deep-sea anglerfishes known as the Chaunacidae. These are bottom-dwelling fishes found on the continental slopes of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, at depths of up to at least 2,460 m (8,070 ft). Of the two genera in the family, Chaunacops typically occurs at deeper depths than Chaunax, but there is considerable overlap.
They have large, globose bodies and short, compressed tails, and are covered with small, spiny scales. The largest are about 30 centimetres (12 in) in length. The first dorsal fin ray is modified into a short bioluminescent lure which dangles forward over the mouth, which is turned upwards so as to be nearly vertical. The sensory canals of the lateral lines are especially conspicuous.
The coffinfish resembles a pink balloon covered in tiny spines and can make itself look bigger by inflating its body.
#1 Giant Isopod
A giant isopod is any of the almost 20 species of large isopods (crustaceans related to the shrimp and crabs) in the genus Bathynomus. They are thought to be abundant in cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Bathynomus giganteus, the species upon which the generitype is based, is often considered the largest isopod in the world, though other comparably poorly known species of Bathynomus may reach a similar size.
Giant isopods are important scavengers in the deep-sea benthic environment; they are mainly found from the gloomy sublittoral zone at a depth of 170 metres (560 ft) to the pitch darkness of the bathypelagic zone at 2,140 metres (7,020 ft), where pressures are high and temperatures are very low – down to about 4 °C (39 °F).
Unlike the other creatures on this list, the Isopod is permanently constrained to creeping along the bottom of the ocean, primarily the cold, dark waters of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Circle.
Source: http://amazingbeautifulworld.com/wil...a-creature/15/
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