Found at depths of up to 3,300 feet (1,000 m) deep, anglerfish are one of the weirdest (and ugliest) fishes of the deep. Most angerlfish have a fishing pole luminous lure that helps attract prey. Some have mouths so big, they can swallow prey that is up to twice their size.
Male anglerfish are 10 times smaller than female angerlfish. Males seek out the females and attach themselves onto them, eventually fusing into the female’s skin. Females can carry up to 6 males on her body, allowing her to attain the sperm from the males and reproduce whenever she pleases.
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Liponema brevicornis is a species of sea anemone in the Actiniidae family, commonly known as the pom-pom anemone or the tentacle shedding anemone. It is a deep water species and has been relatively little observed. It often remains unattached to a substrate and can roll across the ocean floor propelled by water currents.
In a study of a whale carcase that had fallen to the seafloor in Monterey Canyon, it was found that many specimens of L. brevicornis accumulated alongside. Associated with these were a large number of sea spiders in the class Pycnogonida. More than one of these was observed standing over an anemone with its proboscis inserted into the sea anemone’s tentacle to suck out its body fluids. The anemone was not killed by this but afterwards had a somewhat deflated appearance.
via: wiki //Photo 1: David Wrobel //Photo 2: John Butler
Bloody Belly Comb Jelly (Lampocteis cruentiventer)
The bone-eating snot-flower is not a flower at all but is in fact a fine example of a zombie worm. These worms haven’t earned their zombie monicker from their slow yet persistent shambling gait, nor for their penchant for a brain terrine, they do however like to feast upon the deceased.
‘Whale fall’ is a bit like ‘rainfall’ it just hurts more. When a whale dies it sinks to the bottom of the ocean where it provides a plethora of beasties with quite a banquet. All manner of hideous beasties drop in to the gruesome bistro; crabs, squat lobsters, sleeper sharks and even the particularly delightful hagfish… a hideous cocophany it is too, if you do ever get an invite i would implore you to not even send back the RSVP. Once the bones are stripped of flesh it’s time for the zombie worms to move in. They set roots into the bones cracking the outer casing to get at the fatty marrow beneath.
The bone-eating snot flower reproduces constantly, the female keeping a harem of males inside her tubes so that her eggs can be constantly fertilized. The eggs are cast into the oceanic currents, hopefully to find another whale carcass that has been stripped down, rather like a wormy dandelion clock. A terrifyingly ghouly snotty zombie bone-eating dandelion clock. Though by now, one is sure you’ll agree dear reader, the last bouquet you want to bestow on your girlfriend is a bone-eating snot flower.
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For decades, three different names have been used for three very different looking underwater creatures: the Tapetai (1st photo), the Bignose (2nd) and the Whalefish (3rd). A team of seven scientists discovered that these three fishes are in fact part of the same family.
Since their discovery scientists have wondered why all tapetails were sexually immature, all bignose fishes were males and all whalefishes were females and had no known larval stages.
After studying the body structuresand taking advantage of modern DNA-analysis, scientists realized that the three are actually the larvae, male and female, respectively, of a single fish family – Cetomimidae (also known as Flabby whalefish).
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Vampire squids are found throughout the deep oceans of the world in most tropical and temperate regions at depths of between 300 feet (about 90 meters) and 3,000 feet (over 900 meters). They live in the oxygen minimum layer of the ocean where virtually no light penetrates.
This creature uses the fins on its head as the primary means of propulsion as it literally flies through the water by flapping these fins.The vampire squid’s eight arms are connected with a webbing of skin, which makes it look more like an octopus than a squid. When threatened, the squid can draw its arms up over itself and form a defensive web that covers its body. Each of the eight arms is lined with a single row of suction cups and rows of soft, fleshy spines known as cirri.
The vampire squid’s body is covered with light-producing organs called photophores. This gives the squid the unique ability to “turn itself on or off” at will through a chemical process known as bioluminescence. When the photophores are off, the squid is completely invisible in the dark waters where it lives.
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Hula Skirt Siphonophore- This siphonophore has a float and swimming bells. It’s able to regulate its density by changing the amount of gas in its float. The float has a pore at the bottom that emits gas and can be refilled with secretions produced by a special gland.This siphonophore swims at an average speed of about one foot (0.3 m) a minute. During periods of strong upwelling, this animal can often be found at the surface, carried by strong vertical currents.
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Sea lilies are stalked relatives of feather stars and usually remain fixed in the same place after developing from a settled planktonic larva. However, while Neocrinus decorus and other, similar sea lilies cannot swim, like shallow-water feather stars, they have been filmed dragging themselves over the sea bed by their arms. To do this, they appear to break off the end of the stalk, then reattach to the substrate using flexible, fingerlike appendages on the stalk. In this way sea lilies can escape from predatory sea urchins. The stalk consists of a stack of disk-shaped skeleton pieces called ossicles, and looks like a simple vertebrate spinal column. Sea lilies feed by spreading out their numerous, feathery arms against the current and trapping plankton. Food particles are passed down the arms and into the mouth. Sea lilies are found at depts of 500–4,000 ft (150–1,200 m).
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The Case of the Mystery Squid
What do you do with a squid that doesn’t belong? In 1995, a collection of eastern Pacific squids was donated to the Smithsonian – but one specimen didn’t fit into any known family of squids. It had wide fins that looked almost like elephant ears, and skinny arms that had been severed a few inches below the squid’s mantle. Together with a slightly larger juvenile specimen in the collections and a paralarva (baby) from Hawaii, this odd-looking specimen led to the identification of a whole new family of squids: the Magnapinnidae, or bigfin squids.
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
A few years later, researchers in deep-sea submersibles began spotting large and very strange squids. They had long spaghetti-like arms – reaching 20 feet (7 meters) – that bent like elbows. They were so unusual they were nicknamed “mystery squid” by Smithsonian and NOAA researcher Dr. Michael Vecchione.
By comparing videos of these “mystery squid” with the juvenile bigfins in the Smithsonian’s collection, scientists identified the strange squids as adult bigfins. With the help of long-dead specimens, a modern-day mystery was solved.
via: The Ocean Portal