Deep-sea inhabitants of the world's oceans. The most unusual inhabitants of the ocean depths

Deep sea fish. They live in conditions where life would seem completely impossible. Nevertheless, it is there, but it takes such bizarre forms that it causes not only surprise, but also fear and even horror. Most of these creatures live at depths between 500 and 6,500 meters.

Deep-sea fish withstand enormous water pressure at the bottom of the ocean, and it is such that fish living in the upper layers of water would be crushed. When relatively deep-sea perciformes are lifted, their swim bladder turns outward due to a drop in pressure. First of all, it is he who helps them remain at a constant depth and adapt to the pressure of water on the body. Deep-sea fish constantly pump gas into it to prevent the bubble from collapsing from external pressure. To float, the gas from the swim bladder must be released, otherwise, when the water pressure decreases, it will expand greatly. However, gas is released slowly from the swim bladder.
One of the features of real deep-sea fish is precisely its absence. When they rise up, they die, but without visible changes.

In deep-sea depressions Atlantic Ocean An unknown species of fish was discovered near Rio de Janeiro, which can be considered a living fossil. Named Hydrolagus matallanasi by Brazilian scientists, this fish, a member of the chimera subspecies, has remained virtually unchanged over the past 150 million years.

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Along with sharks and rays, chimeras belong to the cartilaginous order, but they are the most primitive and can well be considered living fossils, since their ancestors appeared on Earth 350 million years ago. They were living witnesses to all the cataclysms on the planet and roamed the ocean a hundred million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on Earth."
Fish up to 40 centimeters long live at great depths, in giant depressions up to 700-800 meters deep, so until now they could not be discovered. Her skin is equipped with sensitive nerve endings, with which she detects the slightest movement in absolute darkness. Despite its deep-sea habitat, the chimera is not blind; it has huge eyes.

Blind deep sea fish

Victims of appetite.
The black snapper fish, which lives at depths of 700 meters and below, has adapted to absorb prey that can be 2 times longer and 10 times heavier than itself. This is possible thanks to the highly stretchable stomach of the black crook.


Sometimes the prey is so large that it begins to decompose before it is digested, and the gases released in this process push the crooked swallow to the surface of the ocean.
The Crookshanks has an amazing ability to frequently swallow living creatures larger than its own size. At the same time, like a mitten, it is pulled over the prey. For example, a 14-centimeter “lunch” fits in the stomach of an 8-centimeter giant.

Super predator of the deep sea.
Bathysaurus sounds like a dinosaur, which is actually not far from the truth. Bathysaurus ferox belongs to the deep-sea lizards that live in the tropical and subtropical seas of the world, at a depth of 600-3,500 m. Its length reaches 50-65 cm. It is considered the deepest-living super predator in the world and everything that comes in its way , is immediately devoured. As soon as the jaws of this devil fish slam shut, the game is over. Even her tongue is lined with razor-sharp fangs. It is hardly possible to look at her face without shuddering, and it is even more difficult for her to find a mate. But this does not bother this formidable underwater inhabitant too much, since it has both male and female genital organs.

Real deep-sea hunters resemble monstrous creatures frozen in the darkness of the bottom layers with huge teeth and weak muscles. They are passively drawn by slow deep-sea currents, or they simply lie on the bottom. With their weak muscles, they cannot tear pieces out of their prey, so they do it easier - they swallow it whole... even if it is larger than the hunter in size.

This is how anglers hunt - fish with a lonely mouth to which they forgot to attach a body. And this waterfowl head, bared with a palisade of teeth, waves in front of itself a tendril with a luminous light at the end.
Anglerfish are small in size, reaching only 20 centimeters in length. The largest species of anglerfish, such as Ceraria, reach almost half a meter, others - Melanocete or Borophryna - have an outstanding appearance.
Sometimes anglerfish attack such large fish that an attempt to swallow them sometimes leads to the death of the hunter himself. So, once a 10-centimeter anglerfish was caught, choking on a 40-centimeter longtail.


There is a refrigerator in the stomach. Alepisaurs are large, up to 2 m long, predatory fish living in the pelagic zone open ocean. Translated from Latin it means “scaleless beast”, a characteristic inhabitant of open ocean waters.
Alepisaurs, fast predators, have interesting feature: food is digested in their intestines, and the stomach contains completely intact prey, captured at various depths. And thanks to this toothy fishing gear, scientists have described many new species. Alepisaurs are potentially capable of self-fertilization: each individual produces eggs and sperm simultaneously. And during spawning, some individuals function as females, while others function as males.

Do you think that this fish monkfish have legs? I hasten to disappoint you. These are not legs at all, but two males that are stuck to the female. The fact is that at great depths and in the complete absence of light it is very difficult to find a partner. Therefore, as soon as a male monkfish finds a female, he immediately bites into her side. This hug will never be broken. Later it fuses with the female’s body, loses all unnecessary organs, merges with her circulatory system and becomes only a source of sperm.

This is a fish with a transparent head. For what? At depth, as we know, there is very little light. The fish has developed defense mechanism, her eyes are located in the center of her head so that they cannot be injured. In order to see, evolution has awarded this fish with a transparent head. The two green spheres are the eyes.


Smallmouth macropinna belongs to a group of deep-sea fish that have developed a unique anatomical structure in order to fit your lifestyle. These fish are extremely fragile, and specimens of the fish that have been collected by fishermen and researchers are deformed due to pressure changes.
Most unique characteristic What makes this fish unique is its soft, transparent head and barrel-shaped eyes. Typically fixed pointing upward with green "lens covers" to filter sunlight, the eyes of the Smallmouth Macropinna can rotate and extend.
In fact, what appear to be eyes are sensory organs. The real eyes are located under the forehead.

One-legged crawling
Norwegian scientists from the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen reported the discovery of an unknown creature living at a depth of about 2000 meters. This is a very brightly colored creature crawling along the bottom. Its length is no more than 30 centimeters. The creature has only one front "paw" (or something very similar to a paw) and a tail, and at the same time does not look like any of the sea ​​creatures known to scientists.

10994 meters. Bottom Mariana Trench. Complete absence light, water pressure is 1072 times higher than surface pressure; per 1 square centimeter it presses 1 ton 74 kilograms.

Hellish conditions. But there is life even here. For example, at the very bottom they found small fish up to 30 centimeters long, similar to flounder.

One of the deepest-sea fish is the Bassogigus.

Scary teeth of the underwater world


The large-headed daggertooth is a large (up to 1.5 m long), not numerous inhabitant of medium depths of 500-2200 m, presumably found at depths of up to 4100 m, although its juveniles rise to a depth of 20 m. Widely distributed in subtropical and temperate regions Pacific Ocean, V summer months it penetrates as far north as the Bering Sea.

The elongated, serpentine body and large head with huge beak-shaped jaws make the appearance of this fish so unique that it is difficult to confuse it with anyone else. Characteristic feature external structure The daggertooth is its huge mouth - the length of the jaws is about three-quarters of the length of the head. Moreover, the size and shape of the teeth on different jaws of the daggertooth differ significantly: on the upper ones they are powerful, saber-shaped, reaching 16 mm in large specimens; on the bottom - small, subulate, directed backward and not exceeding 5–6 mm.

And these creatures are like something out of a horror movie about aliens. This is what polychaete worms look like under high magnification.

Another strange inhabitant depths - Drop fish.
This fish lives off the coast of Australia and Tasmania at a depth of about 800 m. Given the depth of water in which it swims, the blob fish does not have a swim bladder like most fish, as it is not very effective under high water pressure. Her skin is made of a gelatinous mass that is slightly denser than water, which allows her to float above the ocean floor without any hassle. The fish grows up to 30 cm in length, feeding mainly sea ​​urchins and shellfish that swim by.
Even though this fish is inedible, it is often caught along with other prey such as lobsters and crabs, putting it at risk of extinction.

Distinctive external characteristic fish drops is her unhappy expression.

The piggy squid is just an outlet in the world of deep sea monsters. So cute.

And in conclusion - a video about deep sea creatures.

Epipelagic zone (0-200 m) is a photic zone into which sunlight penetrates and photosynthesis occurs here. However, 90% of the volume of the World Ocean is immersed in darkness, the water temperature here does not exceed 3 ° C and drops to −1.8 ° C (with the exception of hydrothermal ecosystems, where the temperature exceeds 350 ° C), there is little oxygen, and the pressure fluctuates between 20 -1000 atmospheres.

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7 Animals That Can GLOW!

Environment

Beyond the edge of the continental shelf, abyssal depths gradually begin. Here lies the boundary between coastal, rather shallow benthic habitats and deep-sea benthic habitats. The area of ​​this border area is about 28% of the area of ​​the World Ocean.

Beneath the epipelagic zone there is a vast water column in which a variety of organisms live, adapted to living conditions at depth. At depths between 200 and 1000 m, the illumination weakens until complete darkness sets in. Through the thermocline, the temperature drops to 4-8 °C. Is it twilight or mesopelagic zone ru en.

About 40% of the ocean floor consists of abyssal plains, but these flat, desert regions are covered with marine sediments and generally lack benthic life. Deep-sea bottom-dwelling fish are more common in canyons or on rocks in the middle of the plains, where communities of invertebrate organisms are concentrated. Seamounts are washed by deep-sea currents, which causes upwelling, which supports life bottom fish. Mountain ranges can divide underwater regions into different ecosystems.

In the depths of the ocean there is continuous “sea snow” ru detritus of the euphotic zone of protozoa (diatoms), feces, sand, soot and other inorganic dust. Along the way, the “snowflakes” grow and within a few weeks, until they sink to the ocean floor, they can reach several centimeters in diameter. However, most of the organic components of marine snow are consumed by microbes, zooplankton and other filter-feeding animals during the first 1000 meters of their journey, that is, in the epipelagic zone. Thus, marine snow can be considered the basis of deep-sea mesopelagic and bottom ecosystems: since sunlight cannot penetrate through the water column, deep-sea organisms use marine snow as an energy source.

Some groups of organisms, such as representatives of the families Myctophaceae, Melamphaidae, Photichthyaceae and Hatchetaceae, are sometimes called pseudo-oceanic because they live in the open sea around structural oases, underwater peaks or above the continental slope. Such structures also attract numerous predators.

Characteristics

Deep sea fish are some of the strangest and most elusive creatures on Earth. Many unusual and unstudied animals live in the depths. They live in complete darkness, so when avoiding danger and in search of food and a partner for reproduction, they cannot rely only on vision. At great depths, light in the blue spectrum predominates. Therefore, in deep-sea fish, the range of the perceived spectrum is narrowed to 410-650 nm. Some species have eyes gigantic size and make up 30-50% of the length of the head (myctophaceae, nansenia, pollipnus axes), while in others they are reduced or absent altogether (idiacantaceae, ipnopoaceae). In addition to vision, fish are guided by smell, electroreception and changes in pressure. The sensitivity to light of the eyes of some species is 100 times greater than that of humans.

As depth increases, pressure increases by 1 atmosphere every 10 m, while food concentration, oxygen content and water circulation decrease. Adapted to enormous pressure, deep-sea fish have poorly developed skeletons and muscles. Due to the permeability of tissues inside the fish’s body, the pressure is equal to the pressure external environment. Therefore, when quickly rising to the surface, their body swells, their insides come out of their mouths, and their eyes come out of their sockets. Permeability cell membranes increases the efficiency of biological functions, among which the most important is the production of proteins; The body’s adaptation to environmental conditions is also an increase in the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in the lipids of the cell membrane. Deep-sea fish have a different balance of metabolic reactions from pelagic fish. Biochemical reactions are accompanied by changes in volume. If the reaction leads to an increase in volume, it will be inhibited by pressure, and if it leads to a decrease, then it will be enhanced. This means that metabolic reactions must reduce the body's volume to some extent.

More than 50% of deep-sea fish, along with some species of shrimp and squid, exhibit biolumescence. About 80% of these organisms have photophores, cells that contain bacteria, which produce light using carbohydrates and oxygen from the blood of fish. Some photophores have lenses, similar to those found in human eyes, that regulate the intensity of the light. Fish spend only 1% of the body’s energy on emitting light, while it performs several functions: with the help of light they search for food and attract prey, like anglerfish; designate the territory during patrol; communicate and find a partner for mating, and also distract and temporarily blind predators. In the mesopelagic zone, where it penetrates Not large number sunlight, photophores on the belly of some fish camouflage them against the background of the water surface, making them invisible to predators swimming below.

Some deep-sea fish have part life cycle flows in shallow water: juveniles are born there, which move to the depths as they grow older. Regardless of where the eggs and larvae are found, these are all typically pelagic species. This planktonic, drifting lifestyle requires neutral buoyancy, so fat droplets are present in the eggs and plasma of the larvae. Adults have other adaptations to maintain their position in the water column. In general, water pushes out, so organisms float. To counteract the buoyant force, their density must be greater than that of the environment. Most animal tissue is denser than water, so a balancing act is necessary. The hydrostatic function in many fish is performed by the swim bladder, but in many deep-sea fish it is absent, and in most of those with a bladder, it is not connected to the intestine by a duct. In deep-sea fish, the binding and storage of oxygen inside the swim bladder is possibly carried out by lipids. For example, in gonostomids the bladder is filled with fat. Without a swim bladder, fish have adapted to environment. It is known that the deeper the habitat, the more jelly-like the body of the fish and the smaller the proportion of bone structure. In addition, body density is reduced due to increased fat content and decreased skeletal weight (smaller size, thickness, mineral content and increased water accumulation). Such characteristics make the inhabitants of the deep slow and less mobile compared to pelagic fish that live near the surface of the water.

The lack of sunlight at depth makes photosynthesis impossible, so the source of energy for deep-sea fish is organic matter that descends from above and, less often,. The deep sea zone is less rich in nutrients compared to shallower layers. Long, sensitive barbels on the lower jaw, such as those found in longtails and cod, help search for food. The first rays of the anglerfish's dorsal fins turned into illicium with a luminous bait. Huge mouth, articulated jaws and sharp teeth, like those of sacs, they allow one to catch and swallow large prey whole.

Fishes of various deep-sea pelagic and bottom zones differ markedly from each other in behavior and structure. Groups of coexisting species within each zone function in a similar manner, such as small vertically migrating mesopelagic filter feeders, bathypelagic anglerfish, and deep-sea benthic longtails.

Among the species living at depth, spiny-finned species are rare. ?! . It is likely that deep-sea fish are quite ancient and so well adapted to their environment that the emergence of modern fish was not successful. Some deep-sea representatives spinyfins belong to the ancient orders Berixiformes and Opaciformes. Most pelagic fish found at depth belong to their own orders, which suggests long-term evolution in such conditions. And, on the contrary, deep-sea benthic species belong to orders that include many shallow-water fishes.

Mesopelagic fish

Bottom and demersal fish

Deep-sea bottom fishes are called bathidemersals. They live beyond the edge of coastal benthic zones, mainly on the continental slope and at the continental foot, which turns into the abyssal plain, and are found near underwater peaks and islands. These fish have a dense body and negative buoyancy. They spend their entire lives at the bottom. Some species hunt from ambush and are able to burrow into the ground, while others actively patrol the bottom in search of food.

Examples of fish that can burrow into the ground are flounder and stingrays. Flounders are a detachment of ray-finned fish that lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle, lie and swim on their sides. They do not have a swim bladder. The eyes are shifted to one side of the body. Flounder larvae initially swim in the water column; as they develop, their body transforms, adapting to life on the bottom. In some species, both eyes are located on the left side of the body (arnoglossa), while in others - on the right (halibut).

• The hard-bodied benthopelagic fish are active swimmers that vigorously search for prey on the bottom. They sometimes live around underwater peaks with strong currents. Examples of this type are the Patagonian toothfish and the Atlantic roughyfish. Previously, these fish were found in abundance and were a valuable commercial item; they were caught for their tasty, dense meat.

  Bony benthopelagic fish have a swim bladder. Typical representatives, erroneous and long-tailed, are quite massive, their length reaches 2 meters (small-eyed grenadier) and weight 20 kg (black congrio). Among the benthic fish there are many cod-like fish, in particular moraformes, spiny fishes and halosaurs.

  Benthopelagic sharks, like deep-sea dogfish, achieve neutral buoyancy through a liver rich in fat. Sharks are well adapted to fairly high pressure at depth. They are found on the continental slope at depths of up to 2000 m, where they feed on carrion, in particular the remains of dead whales. However for constant movement and maintaining fat reserves, they need a lot of energy, which is not enough in the oligotrophic conditions of deep water.

  Deep-sea stingrays lead a benthopelagic lifestyle; like sharks, they have a large liver that keeps them afloat.

  Deep sea benthic fish

  Deep-sea bottom fish live beyond the edge of the continental shelf. Compared to coastal species, they are more diverse because they are present in their habitat. various conditions. Benthic fish are more common and more diverse on the continental slope, where habitat varies and food is more plentiful.

  Typical representatives of deep-sea bottom fish are bugs, long-tailed eels, eelpouts, hagfishes, green-eyed fishes, batfishes and lumpfish.

  The deepest-sea species known today is Abyssobrotula galatheae ?! , externally similar to eels and completely blind bottom-dwelling fish that feed on invertebrates.

  At great depths, food is scarce and extremely high blood pressure limits fish survival. The deepest point of the ocean is at a depth of about 11,000 meters. Bathypelagic fish are not usually found below 3000 meters. Greatest depth habitat for bottom fish is 8,370 m. Perhaps the extreme pressure is overwhelming essential functions enzymes.

  Deep-sea benthic fish tend to have muscular bodies and well-developed organs. In structure they are closer to mesopelagic than to bathypelagic fish, but they are more diverse. They generally do not have photophores, with some species having developed eyes and swim bladders and others lacking them. The size also varies, but the length rarely exceeds 1 m. The body is often elongated and narrow, eel-like. This is probably due to the elongated lateral line, which detects low-frequency sounds, with the help of which some fish attract sexual partners. Judging by the speed with which deep-sea bottom fishes detect bait, the sense of smell also plays an important role in orientation, along with touch and lateral line.

  The diet of deep-sea benthic fish mainly consists of invertebrates and carrion.

  As in coastal zone, bottom-dwelling fish of deep water are divided into benthic with negative and benthopelagic with neutral body buoyancy.

  As depth increases, the amount of available food decreases. At a depth of 1000 m, plankton biomass is 1% of the biomass at the surface of the water, and at a depth of 5000 m only 0.01%. Since sunlight no longer penetrates the water column, the only source of energy is organic matter. They get into the deep zones in three ways.

  First, organic matter moves from continental land through streams of river water, which then enter the sea and descend along the continental shelf and continental slope. Secondly, in the depths of the ocean there is continuous “sea snow” ru en, spontaneous deposition of detritus from upper layers water column. It is a derivative of the vital activity of organisms in the productive euphotic zone. Marine snow includes dead or dying plankton, protozoa (diatoms), feces, sand, soot and other inorganic dust. The third source of energy is provided by mesopelagic fish that perform vertical migrations. The peculiarity of these mechanisms is that the number nutrients that reach bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates gradually decreases with distance from continental coastlines.

  Despite the scarcity of food supply, there is a certain food specialization among deep-sea bottom fish. For example, they differ in the size of their mouths, which determines the size of possible prey. Some species feed on benthopelagic organisms. Others eat animals that live on the bottom (epifauna) or burrow into the ground (infauna). The latter have a large amount of soil in their stomachs. The infauna serves as a secondary food source for scavengers like synaphobranchids and hagfishes.

  • Notes

    1. Ilmast N.V. Introduction to ichthyology. - Petrozavodsk: Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2005. - ISBN 5-9274-0196-1.
    2. , pp. 594.
    3. , pp. 587.
    4. , pp. 354.
    5. , pp. 365.
    6. , pp. 457, 460.
    7. P. J. Cook, Chris Carleton. Continental Shelf Limits: The Scientific and Legal Interface. - 2000. - ISBN 0-19-511782-4.
    8. , pp. 585.
    9. , pp. 591.
    10. A. A. Ivanov. Physiology of fish / Ed. S. N. Shestakh. - M.: Mir, 2003. - 284 p. - (Textbooks and teaching aids for higher education students educational institutions). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-03-003564-8.

Most people associate the ocean with whales, dolphins and sharks. However, much more terrible and bizarre creatures lurk in the deep waters.

Translation for – Sveta Gogol

1. Horned box

This cute creature very similar to Pokemon. However, sensing danger, the fish begins to secrete a deadly toxin.

2. Mediterranean tarsier

Their distinctive feature are disproportionately large pectoral fins. Contrary to their name, they cannot fly.

3. Ophiura

This is one of the most wonderful creatures that can be found in the sea. In addition, the life expectancy of brittle stars is 35 years, which characterizes them as a very hardy species.

4. Red glowing jellyfish

In order to lure prey, the jellyfish has tentacles that flash red. But special attention scientists were attracted by the fact that this was the first known to science an invertebrate creature capable of emitting the color red.

5. Black Crookshanks

He is also called the “great glutton” because... he can eat fish twice his size and ten times his weight. Sometimes he swallows so much big fish, that they are not digested until complete decomposition, which is why gases are formed and the Crookshanks float to the surface.

6. Common sea dragon

The animal, which is depicted on the coat of arms of the Australian state of Victoria, is found only in the eastern part Indian Ocean. It can reach 45 centimeters in length. In fact, the dragon is a relative of the seahorse.

7. Cancerscorpio

Racoscorpions or eurypterids are the largest extinct order of arthropods that ever lived on earth. Fossils containing their remains have been found all over the world. Even though this photo is photoshopped, it gives you an idea of ​​what these creatures would actually look like.

8. Tongue-Eating Woodlice

9. Fish with a human face

However, the similarities do not end there: some individuals even have eyes and ears that are shaped like humans.

10. Speckled Stargazer

This fish is certainly not the nicest creature you can find in the ocean. Burying itself in the sand, it waits to attack when the victim swims nearby.

11. Brachiopod

This representative of the bat family grows up to 10 centimeters. Its bait, unlike most anglerfish, does not glow, but releases an enzyme that lures the prey.

12. Axolotl

This neotenic salamander is close to extinction. However, scientists are showing great interest in it due to its ability to regenerate limbs. The axolotl feeds on worms, insects and small fish.

13. Moon fish

It is the heaviest of all known bony fish: average weight an adult can reach 1 ton. She mainly feeds on jellyfish.

14. Blue Dragon

Also known as "Glaucus atlanticus" - species gastropods from the order nudibranchs. Swallowing a bubble of air, which is subsequently stored in its stomach, it floats upside down on the surface of the ocean.

15. Sea butterfly

The most common gastropod mollusk found in the ocean. As a result of evolution due to higher level acidity, the sea butterfly formed a calcified shell, shaped like a shell.

16. Hairy crab

Better known as "Kiwa hirsuta". This creature lives in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Males prefer warmer water, while females and juveniles prefer colder water.

17. Rag-picking seahorse

Representatives of this species of fish have their entire body and head covered with processes that imitate algae, which serves as a kind of camouflage. In addition, the raghorse is the maritime emblem of the state of South Australia.

18. Skeleton Shrimp

Thanks to its filamentous body and thin limbs, it can disappear among algae, hydroids and bryozoans. It is also called "ghost shrimp".

19. Sparkling Squid

And although it looks like a common squid, representatives of this species grow up to seven and a half centimeters in length and die a year after their birth. In Japan it is mined in industrial scale. After a storm, when squids wash ashore, they literally illuminate coastline, which is why there is great interest in them.

20. Carpet shark

If you look at the photo, it becomes clear why it was called that. And although not all representatives of this species are similar to a carpet, some are extremely similar.

21. Angelfish

Also known as the "warty anglerfish". Oddly enough, this fish does not swim, but rather moves along the ocean floor. Its modified fins closely resemble human hands.

22. Porpoise

These strange creatures They live at depths of over a thousand meters, in particular on the deep plains of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. Some related species live in Antarctica.

23. Predatory Sponge

At first glance, you won’t understand that this is a carnivorous creature. In 2012, it was discovered by a group from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The sponge lives at depths of up to several kilometers below sea level. Its menu includes crustaceans and other crustaceans.

24. Living stone

It is a delicacy in Chile. At close range, it resembles an organ system that feeds on microorganisms by sucking in water.

25. Pike blenny

This fish is extremely aggressive. To find out who is more important, the males open their mouths wide and press their lips to each other. The one whose mouth is larger wins.

Yesterday, September 26, was World Maritime Day. In this regard, we bring to your attention a selection of the most unusual sea creatures.

World Maritime Day has been celebrated since 1978 on one of the days of the last week of September. This international holiday was created in order to attract public attention to the problems of sea pollution and the extinction of animal species living in them. Indeed, over the past 100 years, according to the UN, some types of fish, including cod and tuna, have been caught by 90%, and every year about 21 million barrels of oil enter the seas and oceans.

All this causes irreparable damage to the seas and oceans and can lead to the death of their inhabitants. These include those that we will talk about in our selection.

1. Dumbo the Octopus

This animal received its name due to the ear-like structures protruding from the top of its head, which resemble the ears of Disney's baby elephant Dumbo. However, the scientific name of this animal is Grimpoteuthis. These cute creatures live at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters and are one of the rarest octopuses.

The largest individuals of this genus were 1.8 meters in length and weighed about 6 kg. Most of the time, these octopuses swim above the seabed in search of food - polychaete worms and various crustaceans. By the way, unlike other octopuses, these swallow their prey whole.

2. Short-snouted pipistrelle

This fish attracts attention, first of all, with its unusual appearance, namely with bright red lips on the front of the body. As previously thought, they are necessary to attract marine life, which the pipistrelle bat feeds on. However, it was soon discovered that this function was performed little education on the head of a fish, called an eska. It emits a specific odor that attracts worms, crustaceans and small fish.

The unusual “image” of the pipistrelle bat is complemented by an equally amazing way of moving in water. Being a poor swimmer, it walks along the bottom on its pectoral fins.

Short-snouted pipistrelle - deep sea fish, and lives in the waters near the Galapagos Islands.

3. Branched brittle stars

These deep-sea marine animals have many branched arms. Moreover, each of the rays can be 4-5 times larger than the body of these brittle stars. With their help, the animal catches zooplankton and other food. Like other echinoderms, branched brittle stars lack blood, and gas exchange is carried out using a special water-vascular system.

Typically, branched brittle stars weigh about 5 kg, their rays can reach 70 cm in length (in the branched brittle stars Gorgonocephalus stimpsoni), and their body is 14 cm in diameter.

4. Harlequin pipe snout

This is one of the least studied species that can, if necessary, merge with the bottom or imitate a twig of algae.

It is next to the thickets of the underwater forest at a depth of 2 to 12 meters that these creatures try to stay in order to dangerous situation they were able to acquire the color of the soil or the nearest plant. During “quiet” times for harlequins, they slowly swim upside down in search of food.

Looking at the photograph of the harlequin tubesnout, it is easy to guess that they are related to seahorses and needles. However, they differ noticeably in appearance: for example, the harlequin has longer fins. By the way, this shape of fins helps the ghost fish bear offspring. With the help of elongated pelvic fins, covered on the inside with thread-like outgrowths, the female harlequin forms a special pouch in which she bears eggs.

5. Yeti Crab

In 2005, an expedition exploring the Pacific Ocean discovered extremely unusual crabs that were covered in “fur” at a depth of 2,400 meters. Because of this feature (as well as their coloring), they were called “Yeti crabs” (Kiwa hirsuta).

However, it was not fur in the literal sense of the word, but long feathery bristles covering the chest and limbs of crustaceans. According to scientists, many filamentous bacteria live in the bristles. These bacteria purify water from toxic substances, emitted by hydrothermal vents, next to which “Yeti crabs” live. There is also an assumption that these same bacteria serve as food for crabs.

6. Australian coneberry

This one that lives in coastal waters Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia Found on reefs and bays. Due to its small fins and hard scales, it swims extremely slowly.

Being a nocturnal species, the Australian conefish spends the day in caves and under rocky outcroppings. Thus, in one marine reserve in New South Wales, a small group of conefish was recorded hiding under the same ledge for at least 7 years. At night, this species comes out of hiding and goes hunting on sandbanks, illuminating its path with the help of luminescent organs, photophores. This light is produced by a colony of symbiotic bacteria, Vibrio fischeri, which has taken up residence in the photophores. Bacteria can leave photophores and simply live in sea ​​water. However, their luminescence fades a few hours after they leave the photophores.

Interestingly, fish also use the light emitted by their luminescent organs to communicate with their relatives.

7. Lyre sponge

The scientific name of this animal is Chondrocladia lyra. It is a type of carnivorous deep-sea sponge, and was first discovered in the California sponge at a depth of 3300-3500 meters in 2012.

The lyre sponge gets its name from its appearance, which resembles a harp or lyre. So, this animal is held on the seabed with the help of rhizoids, root-like formations. From their upper part stretches from 1 to 6 horizontal stolons, and on them equal distance vertical “branches” with spade-shaped structures at the end are located apart from each other.

Since the lyre sponge is carnivorous, it uses these “branches” to capture prey, such as crustaceans. And as soon as she manages to do this, she will begin to secrete a digestive membrane that will envelop the prey. Only after this the lyre sponge will be able to suck in the split prey through its pores.

The largest recorded lyre sponge reaches almost 60 centimeters in length.

8. Clowns

Living in almost all tropical and subtropical seas and oceans, fish from the clown family are among the most fast predators on the planet. After all, they are able to catch prey in less than a second!

So, having seen a potential victim, the “clown” will track it down, remaining motionless. Of course, the prey will not notice it, because fish of this family usually resemble a plant or a harmless animal in their appearance. In some cases, when the prey comes closer, the predator begins to move the esco, a process of the anterior dorsal fin, which resembles a “fishing rod”, which forces the victim to come even closer. And as soon as a fish or other sea animal is close enough to the “clown”, it will suddenly open its mouth and swallow its prey, spending only 6 milliseconds! This attack is so lightning fast that it cannot be seen without slow motion. By the way, the volume of the fish’s oral cavity often increases 12 times while catching prey.

In addition to the speed of clownfish, an equally important role in their hunting is played by unusual shape, color and texture of their cover, allowing these fish to mimic. Some clownfish resemble rocks or corals, while others resemble sponges or sea squirts. And in 2005, Sargassum clown sea, which imitates algae, was discovered. The “camouflage” of clownfish can be so good that sea slugs often crawl over these fish, mistaking them for coral. However, they need “camouflage” not only for hunting, but also for protection.

Interestingly, during a hunt, the “clown” sometimes sneaks up on its prey. He literally approaches her using his pectoral and ventral fins. These fish can walk in two ways. They can alternately move their pectoral fins without using their pelvic fins, and they can transfer their body weight with pectoral fins to the abdominals. The latter method of gait can be called a slow gallop.

9. Smallmouth macropinna

The smallmouth macropinna, which lives in the depths of the North Pacific Ocean, has a very unusual appearance. She has a transparent forehead through which she can look out for prey with her tubular eyes.

The unique fish was discovered in 1939. However, at that time it was not possible to study it well enough, in particular the structure of the cylindrical eyes of the fish, which can move from a vertical position to a horizontal one and vice versa. This was only possible in 2009.

Then it became clear that the bright green eyes of this small fish(it does not exceed 15 cm in length) are located in a chamber of the head filled with transparent liquid. This chamber is covered by a dense, but at the same time elastic transparent shell, which is attached to the scales on the body of the smallmouth macropinna. Bright green The fish's eyes are explained by the presence of a specific yellow pigment in them.

Since the smallmouth macropinna is characterized by special structure eye muscles, then its cylindrical eyes can be in either a vertical or horizontal position, when the fish can look straight through its transparent head. Thus, macropinna can notice prey both when it is in front of it and when it swims above it. And as soon as the prey - usually zooplankton - is at the level of the fish’s mouth, it quickly grabs it.

10. Sea Spider

These arthropods, which are not actually spiders or even arachnids, are common in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as in the Arctic and Southern Oceans. Today, more than 1,300 species of this class are known, some representatives of which reach 90 cm in length. However, the majority sea ​​spiders are still small in size.

These animals have long paws, of which there are usually about eight. Moss spiders also have a special appendage (proboscis) that they use to absorb food into the intestines. Most of these animals are carnivorous and feed on cnidarians, sponges, polychaete worms and bryozoans. For example, sea spiders often feed on sea anemones: they insert their proboscis into the body of the sea anemone and begin to suck its contents into themselves. And since sea anemones are usually larger than sea spiders, they almost always survive such “torture.”

Sea spiders live in different parts world: in the waters of Australia, New Zealand, off the Pacific coast of the United States, in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as in the Arctic and Southern oceans. Moreover, they are most common in shallow water, but can also be found at depths of up to 7000 meters. They often hide under rocks or camouflage themselves among algae.

11. Cyphoma gibbosum

The shell color of this orange-yellow snail seems very bright. However, only the soft tissues of a living mollusk have this color, and not the shell. Typically, Cyphoma gibbosum snails reach 25-35 mm in length, and their shell is 44 mm.

These animals live in warm waters the western Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the waters of the Lesser Antilles at depths of up to 29 meters.

12. Mantis crab

Living at shallow depths in tropical and subtropical seas, mantis crayfish have the most complex eyes in the world. If a person can distinguish 3 primary colors, then the mantis crab can distinguish 12. Also, these animals perceive ultraviolet and infrared light and see different types polarization of light.

Many animals are able to see linear polarization. For example, fish and crustaceans use it to navigate and detect prey. However, only mantis crabs are able to see both linear polarization and the rarer, circular one.

Such eyes enable mantis crayfish to recognize various types corals, their prey and predators. In addition, when hunting, it is important for the crayfish to deliver precise strikes with its pointed, grasping legs, in which its eyes also help.

By the way, sharp, jagged segments on the grasping legs also help mantis crayfish cope with prey or predators, which can be much larger in size. So, during an attack, the mantis crab makes several fast strikes with their own feet, causing serious damage or killing the victim.