The sea is always a mystery. Endless and deep, which humanity has been unraveling for centuries and cannot solve in any way. Low tides, Bermuda triangles and the nature of storms are all, of course, a mystery. But more people I was and continue to be interested in marine life - from small fish to a huge whale. Each type of resident underwater world- this is, in fact, a separate people, professing their traditions and protecting their tribe in all possible ways.

One has only to listen to the stories of divers: even the least experienced of them remembers some interesting fact about sea ​​creatures and can spend hours describing the amazing landscapes of the deep sea.

People who find themselves in the underwater kingdom or a specially equipped viewing aquarium are touched by everything: living corals, colorful baby fish (if you stay away from them) and even angry sharks - some of them, as it turned out, are not at all bloodthirsty. But for many years now, clever dolphins have remained a hit with human sympathies.

Intelligent, sociable, capable of empathy

Oceanologists, knowledgeable in sea creatures, they have long come to the conclusion: dolphins are the most perfect and unique of them. Firstly, no one among the citizens of the underwater state is closer to the person. Moreover, dolphins are very similar to us: they love to have fun and come up with ways to diversify their underwater and above-water leisure (for example, as fun, they blow air bubbles and rings underwater, using their blowhole as a tool); They feel responsible for weakened or in trouble relatives, will never abandon an elderly or injured dolphin to the mercy of fate, and are always close to a female whose birth process is complicated. In all these cases, they are not just present, but help and support.

Dolphin: doctor or medicine?

Dolphins are the friendliest for children; they can become swimming coaches, nannies in the pool, and a cure for mental disorders, and a whole range of unpleasant diseases: cerebral palsy, autism, depression. By the way, now adults are not ashamed to undergo dolphin therapy: it is both pleasant and effective.

By mental abilities Among mammals, dolphins occupy third place.

In favor intellectual abilities These cute mammals are characterized by their habit of using available means during hunting, for example, protecting their nose from prickly fish with a sea sponge.

In the dolphin's mouth there are hundreds of small teeth, which he never uses for their intended purpose one hundred percent - with their teeth, dolphins only capture prey, but never chew.

The height of a dolphin's jump above the water can reach 6 meters, and the maximum dive depth can be up to 305 m, but only during hunting. Dolphins usually live at a depth of 2-10 m.

Miracle Yudo Fish-Whale

No less remarkable are the largest marine inhabitants - whales. At the mere mention of these giants, many interesting facts about maxi-sized marine life emerge.

Just because a whale is huge doesn't mean it's slow. In the waves, whales play and frolic like children, demonstrating graceful (almost graceful) diving.

Whales are capable of diving to enormous depths - up to 1000 m. And the pressure is strikingly different from the pressure on the surface. This is how whales adapt: ​​during a dive, their pulse slows down to ten beats per minute, ensuring blood flow only to the heart and brain. The skin, fins and tail remain “disconnected” from the energy supply.

The pattern on a whale's tail is as individual as a person's fingerprints.

There are only two species of mammals in the world that can sing. This is a man and... a whale. The shortest whale song lasts about six minutes, and the longest lasts half an hour. Both males and females sing. At the same time, it has been noticed that “female” whales often indulge in singing; the songs are intended for their children. And what is most surprising is that whales completely lack vocal cords.

Another interesting fact about marine whales that cannot be ignored: these giants are constantly busy analyzing the sounds made by the sea. Their hearing is well developed, but their sense of smell is absent and their vision is atrophied.

"We are funny jellyfish"

Many representatives really have a very “cheerful” coloring, simply carnival-like. Having such a bright appearance, they cannot help but defend themselves, which is why they are poisonous.

Perhaps the following fact is not entirely interesting about marine life, but very instructive: when getting to exotic latitudes, you need to be wary of a jellyfish called the Flecker sea wasp. She's a killer. It accounts for one death every year. Its poison acts as a powerful cardiac paralytic. The only one effective way escape from the deadly substance - nylon tights. This item women's wardrobe very popular among Queensland fishermen.

And in the pool Caribbean Sea Farmers have learned to use jellyfish venom to great advantage - with its help they poison rats and other harmful rodents that cause damage to the farm.

The main thing is the pattern on the shell

The most incredible facts about marine life do not arise without human help. And the point is not that he composes them - he even provokes them. IN in a good way this word.

For example, heikegani crabs, living off the coast of Japan, survived and developed their population only thanks to the pattern on the shell. He very much resembles the stern face of an angry samurai.

When a crab with such a pattern fell into a fishing net, it was reverently released, sincerely believing that a restless samurai soul had settled in this creature.

Thanks to the belief of Japanese fishermen in reincarnation, an artificial selection mechanism was launched that saved the heikegani from extinction.

The shrimp wants to live too!

For some reason anyone simultaneously received the status of yummy, tied to culinary specialties: weight, amount of protein in milligrams, benefits for the body.

What tiger shrimp- the largest, even a child knows. But how big is it? The length of the female reaches 36 centimeters, and the weight is 650 grams. Among tiger species there are also kilogram specimens.

Some of these sea crustaceans can kill fish using sound. These are called shooting shrimp and have a device on their claw that can produce a loud click that is lethal to fish swimming nearby.

The shrimp also hunts, also defends itself and really does not want to end its life as a snack.

I am a star!

The most beautiful sea ​​creatures- stars. Anyone who has seen the bottom covered with these bright creatures claims that all the most interesting facts about marine life simply fade before this amazing sight.

For his sake, divers dive underwater with cameras to show the world the real stars of the deep sea.

We can safely state the uniqueness of starfish: they are not fish, since they cannot swim, but move along horizontal and vertical planes with the help of tenacious suction cups.

They are varied in color and shape, but they all have the same “shape” - in the form of a five-pointed star. But five rays are not the limit. Maximum - 50.

The star is the only thing sea ​​creature, whose limbs are called hands. It reproduces in two ways: by throwing eggs and sperm into the water or by dividing one individual into parts.

Where do “coral beads” live?

Like all other types of marine life, corals have their own “zest”, which is interesting not only to researchers of the seas and oceans, but also to researchers of fashion boutiques.

Corals are heat-loving, so an almost continuous line of reefs is located along the equator along almost the entire circumference of the planet.

The sea kindly provides man for observation and study various types sea ​​inhabitants. But among them there are some that are downright scary and unpleasant to study.

The ugliest inhabitants ocean depths recognized monkfish, or anglerfish. They live at the greatest depths, as if hiding from prying eyes and realizing his unattractiveness.

The viper fish is also disgusting; before the meal it looks like a standard snake, and after it looks like an inflated balloon.

Fearsome creatures include dragonfish, saberfish, largemouth and Atlantic giant squid.

Interesting fact about sea life - Horror stories have been around since World War II, when surviving sailors from sunken ships spoke in horror about a huge monster that dragged their comrades to the depths.

They really look like people from and live in the darkest corners of the ocean, so meeting such “fish” is very rare, although you need to know about their existence. Just in case.

Everything inaccessible enchants. And what could be further from a person than the ocean floor? Sea creatures are so different from terrestrial creatures. I really want to know more about them. What do they eat? How do they live and protect themselves? There is so much that I really want to know.

Looking at the surface of the water, it is difficult to imagine the diversity of life that lurks below. But these are not only animals, fish and plants. The basis of the marine food chain is plankton.

What is plankton?

The entire world of marine animals would cease to exist without him. Plankton are microscopic creatures that are invisible to the naked eye. Their design does not allow them to move arbitrarily in the water. The position of this creature depends on the current, they are not able to resist it.

There are two types of plankton in nature:

• zooplankton, which is formed from living organisms;
• phytoplankton are special sea ​​plants.

The latter gives the water slightly green tint. There is so much plankton in the water that in one liter of it millions of these creatures are found. Moreover, they not only serve as food that all marine life eats, but also participate in the restoration of oxygen in the water.

Transparent antiquity, or Why the jellyfish is interesting

These inhabitants of the deep sea consist of 90 percent water. Moreover, jellyfish appeared on Earth so long ago that their distant ancestors witnessed the life of dinosaurs.

Some species of these animals have poison that can cause a burn on the skin of a person or even kill. For example, the box jellyfish is extremely dangerous. It kills as many people a year as do not die from all other inhabitants of the seas and oceans. The bite of this jellyfish kills in three minutes, and it moves at a speed of 2 m/s. It is difficult to escape from it, and surviving a bite is almost impossible.

The range of sizes of these creatures of different species is striking. The smallest of them are the size of a pinhead, while the largest have a dome with a diameter of two and a half meters, and their tentacles grow up to fifty meters.

Since jellyfish mostly die after reproduction, their life span is very short. Very rare specimens live in nature for more than two years. Most often they are given only a few months. In captivity, these marine inhabitants can live for quite a long time.

Boneless Giant - Octopus

These sea creatures are very interesting for children due to their unusual structure. After all, octopuses have tentacles instead of legs, and they have no bones at all. Thanks to last fact this creature can easily squeeze into a tiny hole, the diameter of which is only one centimeter.

Here are some interesting facts about sea creatures - octopuses:

• the blood of these creatures is blue;
• they have three hearts at once;
• octopuses are deaf;
• they can separate any part of the body, which will then grow back;
• octopuses easily change their color to adapt to their environment;
• they turn completely white with fear;
• in order to confuse the pursuer, these animals throw out a cloud of ink.

Some types of octopuses are extremely poisonous. For example, the blue-ringed one, which has a diameter of about 3-4 cm and weighs only 100 g. Its bite stops swallowing after 5 minutes. And after 30 minutes the person suffocates. Moreover, there is no effective antidote yet. The only way to save a person is to perform artificial ventilation until the poison stops working.

Wonderful cetaceans

These inhabitants of the deep sea are mammals. Even though their bodies are quite similar to those of fish, they are still very different. The main difference is in the way of breathing. Marine fish breathe air dissolved in water. Cetaceans lack this ability. They need to breathe air from the atmosphere. For this purpose, they are forced to float to the surface. There they inhale and exhale. The latter is visible as a fountain of air with a small amount water.

These mammals give birth to their young in water. Therefore, immediately after birth, the mother pushes to the surface for the first breath.

The biggest marine mammals are blue whales. By the way, they are the largest animals on Earth. The dolphin is the smallest of the cetaceans.

A little about different types of whales

Blue whales are already born giants. Their length reaches 8 meters, and they weigh about 3 tons. The largest female of this whale that was caught weighed 190 tons.

Most cetacean species prefer the sea. The exception is humpback whale, which lives near the coast. There are cases when these animals were spotted in bays and rivers. These sea creatures love to perform acrobatic stunts. They emerge from the water and dance gracefully.

These species of whales do not have teeth. Instead, the mouth is filled with horny plates called baleen. Through them, mammals filter plankton, which they feed on.

Such sea ​​predators, How sperm whale, feed on cephalopods and fish. They are wonderful divers. They can dive for squid to depths of up to two kilometers. While searching for prey, sperm whales are capable of not breathing for about two hours.

One more thing carnivorous mammal — killer whale. She has established herself as brutal killer. But documented confirmed facts there is no attack on people.

Amazing whale narwhal differs from all others in having a long, straight tooth. Despite their menacing appearance, they are very friendly.

The most famous cetaceans are - dolphins. They are incredibly smart and quick-witted. They are easy to tame and train. By the way, they have a well-developed vocal apparatus and produce large number different sounds.

Unusual fish

The names of sea creatures such as: sunfish, needlefish, flounder and swordfish. The first of them floats near the surface of the sea. This makes its fin visible above the water. From a distance it looks like a shark fin. However, it is completely harmless.

Needlefish has a unique way of hunting. She hides behind other fish and approaches the prey. IN right moment she instantly sucks the poor thing into her mouth.

Monkfish invented his own style of hunting. This predator shakes its antenna with a growth, appearance resembling a worm. The fish “bite” at him, and he eats them.

A flying fish invented a way to escape from enemies. She learned to glide over the sea. This is facilitated by its well-developed lateral fins.

Fish with eyes on one side

Flounders can only have eyes on the right or left side of the body. It all depends on the species. These sea ​​fish are unique in that their eggs do not contain fat. This causes the eggs of most flounder species to float near the surface.

These fish don't like deep water. They live mainly near the coast. Rare individuals swim to a depth of more than one kilometer.

Interestingly, flounder species are differentiated by mouth size. They can be largemouth or smallmouth. The first of them are predators, whose mouth is symmetrical and “equipped” with teeth on the sighted and blind sides of the body. Examples of such fish are halibut and flounder. They feed mainly on worms and small fish, mollusks and crustaceans, as well as brittle stars.

Warlike Swordfish

This name arose due to the unusual xiphoid process, which is located on its upper jaw. This is not the only feature. Swordfish have no scales. All this, as well as a sickle-shaped tail and a special shape of fins, allows it to be the fastest creature on Earth. Swordfish is capable long time swim at a speed of about 130 km/h.

For such speeds you need space. Therefore, it can only be found in the open ocean.

Swordfish fry feed on plankton. But after they grow to 2 cm, they begin to hunt. Their prey is small fish. At the same time, they begin to develop a sword-shaped appendage. The fry grow very quickly, and after a year their length is about 50 cm.

The predator feeds on everything that comes in its way. And the size of the prey doesn't matter. With her sword she strikes the sea dweller. There are known facts that pieces of shark bodies were found in the stomachs of caught fish.

A little about predators living in the seas

The most famous sea predators are sharks. They were able to survive the dinosaurs. Their sizes depend on the species. The largest of them reach 10-12 meters. Moreover, not all types of sharks are predators. There are some that feed on plankton. Sharks move very quickly due to their streamlined body shape. Unlike fish, they lay eggs, not eggs. These eggs may be attached to the bottom or algae. And some species of sharks carry eggs inside themselves. Shark eggs hatch completely viable.

Prominent representatives of this family: brindle And gray shark. The first one is painted in a very original way. So much so that it resembles a tiger. She doesn't swim far from coastline. Its diet consists of fish and crustaceans, birds and small mammals.

Gray shark also does not swim far into the sea. She looks for fish and crustaceans in the shallows. It does not purposefully attack people. But a person running in panic can be mistaken for a victim.

Other unusual predators — stingrays. Their bodies are strongly flattened and resemble a scarf. When the stingray lies on the bottom, it is perfectly camouflaged. His swimming style resembles flying in the water column. Some species of stingrays are poisonous. They have a spike on their back that produces poisonous substance. And their mouth is on their belly. Moreover, it is equipped with a large number of sharp teeth.

Leopard seal is formidable and dangerous predator. This seal got its name because of its color similar to the spots of a leopard. It feeds on penguins and other warm-blooded animals of the Antarctic. But the leopard seal does not mind picking up carrion or feasting on squid or fish.

Amazing facts about sharks

Only the facts are listed here. There is so much made up about marine life that we need to get more reliable information.

• These creatures are excellent at recognizing odors. A special place This is where the blood is drained. They feel it even at very low concentrations.
• If the victim does not smell blood, then the shark perceives its movement. To do this, it has a lateral line, consisting of cells sensitive to vibrations.
• Baby sharks are born with a large number of teeth and can immediately begin to get their own food.
• By the way, about teeth. In sharks they are attached to the gums, not the jaws. Moreover, they form from 4 to 6 rows. Her teeth grow throughout her life, moving forward to replace the lost ones.
• The force of pressure of each tooth of a white shark is the same as if a load of 3 tons pressed 1 cm 2.
• These gluttons eat everything. Moreover, even inedible things are found in their stomachs. But this is not the most surprising thing. A shark can hold food in its stomach without digesting it for several weeks.
• The entire skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. There is not a single bone in it.
• This sea creature does not have a swim bladder. This feature forces the shark to constantly move so as not to drown.

Enchanting reefs

Corals are formed from small animals. Although many believe that these are marine plants. Coral reefs are home to many animals and plants. This is due to the calm sea inside them. In addition, they have a lot of light and warmth. The inside of the reef is teeming with life, while the outside is empty and bottomless.

The largest coral has a length of more than two thousand kilometers. It is located off the coast of Australia.

Underwater volcanoes sometimes rise to the surface of the ocean. Around such craters can form coral reefs correct form. They form coral islands called atolls.

Life on planet Earth originated in the ocean. It was from the water that the first animals came to land. The inhabitants of the seas and oceans are distinguished by enormous species diversity. All marine representatives organic world live in the water column and on the ocean floor. Scientists count more than 150 thousand inhabitants of the oceans and seas, including plant and animal organisms that inhabit the sea and ocean spaces of the planet.

Inhabitants of the seas and oceans: diversity and living conditions

Everyone knows that the aquatic environment is very different from ground-air environment. Significant depths are excommunicated by low temperatures, high blood pressure. The inhabitants of the seas and oceans, living at great depths, practically do not see sunlight, but despite this variety of life forms, it is amazing.

Almost everything dissolves in water useful substances, which are necessary for the life of the inhabitants of the deep sea. The water space warms up very slowly, but heat transfer occurs over a long period of time. Of course, at significant depths the temperature changes almost imperceptibly. An important component for all creatures in the water column is the presence of oxygen. In the absence of free oxygen, hydrogen sulfide is formed, this is typical for the Black Sea and Arabian.

For full development, the inhabitants of the seas and oceans need protein, which is contained in large quantities V

Flora of the oceans and seas

Sea plants contain chlorophyll, a green pigment. With its help, the energy of the sun is accumulated. Water splits into oxygen and hydrogen, then hydrogen enters chemical reaction With carbon dioxide from the surrounding aquatic environment. After this, starch, sugar and proteins are formed.

At relatively shallow depths, rich flora. The inhabitants of the deep sea find food for themselves.

One of the most common algae is kelp; their length can reach six meters. It is from this plant that iodine is obtained, and they are also used as fertilizer for fields.

One more brightest inhabitants seas and oceans (mainly southern latitudes) are marine organisms, which received the name - But they should not be confused with plants, these are real animals. They live in large colonies, attaching themselves to rocky surfaces.

Plants need sunlight, so plants are found at least 200 meters deep. Below only live the inhabitants of the seas and oceans who do not need the light of the sun.

Sea animals

Previously, it was believed that no one lives below six kilometers depth due to high pressure, which water columns have on living beings. But scientists conducted deep-sea studies that confirmed the hypothesis that at great depths there are various species (crustaceans, worms, etc.). Some deep-sea inhabitants of the seas and oceans periodically rise to depths of up to a thousand meters. They do not float higher, because... Closer to the surface, large differences in water temperature are observed.

For many deep sea inhabitants who spend their entire lives at the bottom have no vision. But some parts of their body have special flashlights. They are needed to escape predators and to attract potential prey.

Animals of the seas and oceans feel comfortable in their environment, many of them do not need to adapt to seasonal environmental changes.

A special role in the life of many marine inhabitants is played by single-celled organisms, which are called plankton and move with the help of currents. They feed on many fish, which constantly follow them. With increasing depth, the amount of plankton decreases sharply.

Scientists have long proven that the inhabitants of the seas and oceans live in all water layers. These animals and plants are distinguished by great species diversity, as well as unusual shapes and colors. You can endlessly admire the various species of fish, corals and other marine inhabitants of the most bizarre forms that seem to be aliens from another planet and admire the perfection of nature.

In conclusion, I bring to your attention an extremely interesting documentary dedicated to different inhabitants of the seas and oceans entitled “The Most Dangerous Animals. Sea depths" Take a look, it will be interesting!

And in more detail, with interesting representatives the underwater world, you will be introduced to these articles:

Everyone knows that about 70% of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Ultimately, about 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water on the planet in seas, rivers and oceans are still poorly understood on Earth, as are the creatures that live in them.

10. Giant squid digests food with its brains

Antarctic giant squid(Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) was until recently considered a fiction, and in real life only a few have been seen so far. In 2007, the largest specimen was found. He was caught by a team of fishermen from New Zealand in the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica. It was huge - as much as 10 meters in length and weighing almost 450 kg. The squid was towed to New Zealand for study, and something incredible was discovered: his digestive system goes straight through the center of the brain.

9. Fish armor against piranhas

Piranhas, the terror of the Amazon River with razor teeth, have very little natural enemies and almost a list of potential loot. Although a lone piranha may be good dish for a dolphin or cormorant, their tendency to live in schools of hundreds keeps most predators at bay. Piranhas lead an endless lifestyle. As a result, others Amazonian fish have had to adapt to their neighbors, and even the largest fish in the Amazon - Arapaima gigas or giant Arapaima - needs a second layer of protection.

8 Invisible fight

The most abundant life in the ocean that you will never see is a family of bacteria known as SAR11. They live in all the world's oceans from the Arctic to the tropics, and they are incredibly efficient at their job of converting dissolved carbon into CO2. The most common predators of bacteria in the ocean at such a microscopic level are the closely related group of viruses, pelagiphages. And they are constantly at war with the SAR11 bacteria.

7. 100,000 catfish taste buds

In humans, the number of taste buds ranges from 2000 to 8000. All of them are concentrated on a small piece of flesh that moves in the mouth. And catfish have about 100,000 taste buds distributed throughout their body. In a sense, a catfish is just a big floating tongue. Each taste bud is about 50 nanometers (50 billionths of a meter) wide, and more fish, the more taste buds she has. Large fish may have more than 175,000 taste buds scattered throughout the body.

6. Dolphins can see through animals

Dolphins are known to use sonar to navigate the water, hunt, communicate, and basically do everything. Dolphin sonar produces high-frequency sounds by forcing air through a network of tissues near its shells. A sac of fatty tissue below the jaw collects the reconstructed sound waves and transmits them through the dolphin's inner ear, where the information travels to the brain, creating an "acoustic holographic image" - a picture of the ocean in front of them.

5. California Bloat Shark

Most sharks repel predators simply because they are sharks. However, there are still predators that hunt sharks. And than the view smaller than a shark, those more enemies she has. The California bloat shark is one of the smallest shark breeds. It grows to about 1 meter in length and is about the size of a small Doberman Pinscher. These sharks feed on bottom-dwelling creatures, preferring to ambush crabs and unsuspecting cuttlefish rather than risky pursuit of ordinary fish. An adventurous day means stealing lobsters from fishermen's traps. And on defense, the California bloat shark is a master of camouflage: When threatened, it sucks water into pouches around its belly and doubles in size.

4. Living shield of Pompeii worms.

“The hottest animal on the planet, but the most difficult to study” is how Pompeian worms or Alvinella pompejana are described. Not only do these worms live 2,500 meters below the surface of the ocean on the craters of volcanoes that heat surrounding water up to 80 ° C, these worms also die when they are raised to the surface. For a long time, Pompeian worms were considered the most heat-tolerant animals on the planet. They grow to about 13 centimeters in length and live in tubes directly attached to "black smokers" - holes that emit smoke at the bottom of the East Pacific Rise.

3. River eels can crawl on the ground

River eels, commonly known as European eels, live in lakes and waterways Northern Europe and Great Britain. There are eels almost 2 meters long, although they usually reach only half this length or even less. But they don't always live where they're supposed to be - river eels can leave bodies of water and glide across land for short period time. They do this for two reasons - firstly, it is how they look for food - they usually hunt insects and earthworms. The second reason is migration.

2. The largest migrations in the world, occurring daily.

The Sargasso Sea is perhaps the most unique body of water in the world. It has no boundaries other than a series of converging currents that keep it in roughly the same place - right in the middle Atlantic Ocean. This is a body of water within a body of water - the Gulf Stream, North Atlantic and Canary currents surround it with different sides. At the same time, the Sargasso Sea acts as a calm center. It is called the "Sea of ​​Lost Ships" because the air in this region is unnaturally calm and ships could become stuck there for days or weeks.

1 Google Street View: Oceans

Google Street View is a popular addition to Google Maps that allows you to see any place from any street. In 2007, Google sent a caravan of cars around the world to photograph literally everything. Later, these photos were combined into one long tape, which allows you to “walk” along any route with the click of a button. But this is old news and hardly interesting.

Lobsters they really feel pain when they are thrown into boiling water. However, immersing them in water before cooking salt water, you can give them anesthesia.

Starfish- the only animal that can turn its stomach inside out. When it approaches its prey (usually representatives of mollusks), the star sticks its stomach out through its mouth and covers the victim’s shell with it. It then slowly digests the fleshy parts of the mollusk outside its body.

Newborn barnacle balanus(barnacle) is similar to daphnia (water flea). It is also called sea acorn or sea tulip. At the next stage of development, it has three eyes and twelve legs. In the third stage of development, it has twenty-four legs and no eyes. Balanuses attach to a solid object and remain there for life.

When abalone shellfish feed on red algae, their shell turns red. A 10 cm long abalone can hold onto a rock so tightly that two strong man they won't be able to tear it off.

Sea worms paired as follows: in mating season females and males gather in a swarm. Suddenly, the females pounce on the males and bite off their tails. The tails contain sperm. When swallowed, it moves along digestive tract and fertilizes the female's eggs.

Snails They mate only once in their lives. Mating can last up to twelve hours.

When mating leech, performing the function of a male (leeches are hermaphrodites and can perform the role of any gender), clings to the female’s body and places a sac with sperm on her skin. This sac secretes a powerful, tissue-destroying enzyme that eats a hole in her body and fertilizes the eggs inside her.

Leeches belong to the class of animals. They are considered long-lived because... can live more than 20 years. Leeches can survive without food for a very long time for a long time– up to two (!) years. After every meal they grow right before our eyes.

Leeches are very clean and live only in the cleanest bodies of water on the planet, especially in ecologically clean places. Unfortunately, due to atmospheric pollution, leeches are becoming fewer and fewer every year. As a result of this, the leech was listed in the Red Book and is now protected by law. Those leeches that are bred in captivity are much worse at treating various diseases, unlike their fellow leeches that live in the wild. Therefore, it is more effective to use special wild leeches for treatment.

Breath of a jellyfish very different from the breath of a person or even a fish. The jellyfish does not have lungs or gills, or indeed any other respiratory organ. The walls of its gelatinous body and tentacles are so thin that oxygen molecules freely penetrate through the jelly-like “skin” straight into internal organs. Thus, the jellyfish breathes over the entire surface of its body.

Farmers in the Caribbean use the venom of a certain species of jellyfish as a poison for rats.

Beautiful but deadly Australian sea ​​wasp (Chironex fleckeri ) is the most poisonous jellyfish in the world. Since 1880, 66 people have died from its heart-paralytic poison near the Queensland coast, in the absence of medical care victims died within 1-5 minutes. One of effective means protection are women's tights. Queensland lifeguards now wear oversized tights while surfing

Crabs live off the coast of Japan heikegani, the pattern on the shell of which resembles the face of an angry samurai. According to science popularizer Carl Sagan, this species owes its appearance to unintentional artificial selection. Many generations of Japanese fishermen, catching such crabs, released them back into the sea, as they considered them to be reincarnations of samurai killed in battle. By doing this, the fishermen increased the heikegani's chances of reproducing and increasing their numbers among other crabs.

Male crabs have one claw that is significantly larger than the other. These crabs got their name because they seem to call females to them by moving this claw. Males of one of the species of crab Uca mjobergi let's go further - if they lose a large claw in a fight with another male, then they grow it back larger size, although significantly weaker. However, for females its appearance becomes more significant, and other males are afraid to engage in battle with the owner of such a claw.

New look large squid was discovered by scientists in Indian Ocean in 2009. Representatives of this species reach a length of 70 cm. They belong to the family Chiroteuthid– deep-sea squid with a long narrow body.

Deep sea tunicates- some of the strangest prehistoric animals. They are found when the ice in Antarctica breaks up. These meter-long worms are considered the first life forms to colonize the bottom of the Antarctic ocean.

Barreleye Fish– the fish can rotate its eyes in all directions, and since the fish’s head is transparent, it can also try to see its brain, if it has one (the black dots above the mouth are not eyes, the eyes are green hemispheres in the head).

Needlefish hunts in a completely unique way: it approaches the prey, often hiding behind other fish, and with lightning speed sucks it into its long “beak”. According to its characteristics, the needle fish is very similar to seahorse.

For centuries, scientists, starting with the Greek philosopher Aristotle, have tried to understand how eels reproduce. Today it is known that it lays eggs in the Sargasso Sea, between Bermuda and the Caribbean islands. Small larvae travel many thousands of kilometers to return to the rivers where their parents come from.

It's not just stingrays that have electrical organs. African river body catfish malapterurus wrapped, like a fur coat, in a gelatinous layer in which electric current. Electrical organs account for about a quarter of the weight of the entire catfish. Its discharge voltage reaches 360 V, it is dangerous even for humans and, of course, fatal for fish.

Variety starfish, called Lunckia columbiae can reproduce its entire body from a particle 1 centimeter long.