Conveniently considered as a “living fossil”,the frilled shark inhabits the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It’s pretty uncommon to find it below 3,900 feet, although it’s been caught as deep as fifty one hundred feet below the surface! It reaches a length of around 6 and a half feet, and it has a body like an eel – dark brown, with the dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins placed far back. So why’s it called the Frilled shark? I’m sure you guys can figure it out by now,its name comes from the frilly or fringed appearance of its six pairs of gill slits,with the first pair meeting across its throat. However, since the frilled shark shows several"primitive" features, it’s often been dubbed as a "living fossil" as I mentioned earlier. They certainly do have many of the same physical characteristics of their ancestors who swam the seas at the same time as dinosaurs. Scientists speculate that frilled sharks capture prey by bending its body and lunging forward like a snake and then swallowing its victim whole. When I say you don’t want to be bitten by this thing, you REALLY don’t wanna be bitten by this thing! It’s mouth is lined with 25 rows of sharp,backward-facing teeth…..300 to be exact! The long jaws of the frilled shark are extremely wide, which allow it to swallow whole prey over one-half its size. However, the length and articulation of its jaws means that it can’t deliver as strong a bite as more conventionally built sharks. Squid comprise around 60% of its diet. How the weak-swimming frilled shark captures fast-moving squid is still up for debate. One possibility is that it takes advantage of injured squid. Alternatively, it may surprise its prey by curving its body and launching a quick strike forward in the manner of a snake. It may also be able to close its gill slits and create negative pressure to suck prey into its mouth. Hooooolllld upppp!! It’s able to slurp up fish like noodles?!
2 – Vampire Squid
You guys figure out how the vampire squid earned its name? The vampire squid was given its name because it’s comfortable living 10,000 feet below the surface of the water….well, that and plus its cloak-like web bannnnnnnd its red eyes. It usually reaches a maximum total length of around a foot, and its gelatinous body can vary in color. Depending on the location and the lighting conditions, the body of the vampire squid can be something in the shade of a velvety jet-black to a pale reddish color. The vampire squid is able to live and breathe normally in the oxygen minimum zone, or OMZ, at oxygen saturations as low as 3%, which is an ability that no other cephalopod, and few other animals possess. A cool thing about it is that it manages to find its way in total blackness with eyes that are proportionately the largest of any animal on Earth. This guy knows a thing or two about lighting as well. The vampire squid is almost entirely coveredin light-producing organs called photophores, which allows it to produce disorienting flashes of light ranging from fractions of a second to several minutes in duration! The intensity and size of the photophore scan also be modulated. There’s this cool threat response that the squid does called the "pumpkin" or "pineapple" posture, where it inverts its caped arms back over the body, making itself look like a large form covered in fearsome-looking but harmlesss pines. The underside of the cape is heavily pigmented,masking most of the body's photophores. The glowing arm tips are clustered together far above the animal's head , diverting attack away from critical areas . If a predator were to bite off an arm tip,the vampire squid would just say whatever dude and just grow a new one!
3 – Blobfish
The blob fish inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, as well as the waters of New Zealand. It’s typically less than 12 inches in length and lives at depths between 2,000 and 3,900 feet where the pressure is 60 to 120 times as great as at sea level! The blob fish is a so-called lie-and-wait predator,which means that it’ll just lazily stick around with an open mouth until anything edible goes into their open jaws, after which they’ll just suck that baby right in. Actually, this thing isn’t as ugly under neath the surface of the water, it looks pretty much just like any other regular fish! Its shape changes once it’s out of the water because of its low-density flesh. The blob fish doesn’t have a skeleton, nor any muscle. So the low pressure up above the surface isn’t its best friend because out of the water is where the blob fish gets its desperate, sad look. But it wouldn’t be able to survive any other way in the deep depths of the ocean. In September 2013 the blob fish was voted the"World's Ugliest Animal", based on photographs of decompressed specimens. It was adopted as the mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, in an initiative quote, "dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children". Oh c’m on, this guy doesn’t look THAAAAT bad!
4 – Fangtooth fish
The nightmarish fang tooth is among the deepest-living fish ever discovered. This fish's normal habitat range is normally 6,500 feet, but it’s been found swimming at the icy, black depths of nearly 16,500 feet! They’re given their name because of their weird, dangerous looking teeth, however, the fang tooth fish are actually quite small and harmless to humans. There are only two recognized species of the fang tooth fish, and the larger of the two species, the common fang tooth, reaches a maximum length of just a little over 6 inches. Apparently, the fang tooth fish has the largest teeth of any fish in the ocean, proportional to body size. In fact, their teeth are so large, they can ever close their mouths. Hmmm, this kinda reminds me of some people that I know!
5 – Stargazer
The stargazer is a fish that likes to look at the stars! Okay, that was a really bad joke. Really, it’s actually called the stargazer because it has eyes on the top of its head! They’re more common than what most people think and they can be found worldwide in shallow and deep saltwater. The size of the stargazer can range from 7 to 35 inches. This fish is known for its unique physical features as well as its adaptability. Apart from its top-mounted eyes, a stargazer also has a large mouth facing upward. Their usual habit is to bury themselves in the sand, and leap upwards to ambush prey that pass by overhead. On top of that, stargazers are also venomous. They have two large venomous spines, and if that’s not enough for you, some species can also even give out electric shocks out of those spines! Since the venomous spines can discharge up to 50 volts of electricity, this fish is capable of harming humans though it’ll rarely attack if undisturbed. Stargazers are considered a delicacy in some cultures, as the venom isn’t poisonous when eaten, and they can be found for sale in some fish markets with the electric organ removed. Hmmm, I’d definitely try some deep-fried stargazer…...
6 – Swell shark
The swell shark is a shark that’s found in the subtropical eastern Pacific Ocean. It usually lives in areas ranging from the surface of the water all the way down to around 1500 feet below. Throughout its life, it manages to grow to about 39 inches in length. During the day, this well-camouflaged shark hides in the rocks and doesn’t do much. It feeds during the night by actively sucking in some fish or just remaining still with an open mouth and letting prey wander in! Ahhhh the good ol’ lie and wait. When the swell shark lays eggs, they lay rubbery egg cases with tendrils at the corners that attaches to rocks and seaweed. This is so the eggs aren’t washed away to the shore. One of the coolest things about this shark is the way it acts if it’s feeling endangered. The swell shark will grab onto its tail wit hits mouth and do some sort of an interesting ring shape with its body. At the same time, it swallows a HUGE amount of sea water. Because of the swallowed water, the swell shark, well… obviously, SWELLS to twice its normal size! Swell sharks do this so predators won’t be able to pull them out of the crevices they like to hang out in. The ability to swell up is usually associated in the natural world to the puffer fish found normally in Japanese waters but apparently,this shark can do it too. You can see plenty of swell sharks happily cruising in aquariums, but if you see one in real life, you don’t have to worry, because they’re completely harmless to humans. If you happen to run into one by any chance,the swell shark will just remain completely motionless and probably just ignore you.
7 – Gulper Eel
The pelican eel is a deep-sea fish that basically no one gets to see except when they’re on YouTube or they’re out at the sea, where it gets occasionally caught in fishing nets. It also goes by the name, pelican gulper,and probably the coolest one of them all, the umbrella-mouth gulper. The gulper eel typically grows to about 2 and a half feet in length. This thing is mostly famous because of its large mouth, which is much larger than its body. The mouth is loosely hinged, and it can beopened wide enough to swallow a fish larger than the eel itself! Despite the great size of the jaws, which occupy about a quarter of the animal's total length, its teeth are very tiny – the gulper eel wouldn’t be able to eat large fish all the time. The large mouth has been theorized to allow the eel to eat a wider variety of prey when food is scarce and it can also be used like a large net. The eel swims into large groups of shrimp or other crustaceans with its mouth wide open, scooping them up as it goes. The gulper eel uses whip-like tail movement to swim in water. The end of the tail has an organ with numerous tentacles that glow pink and gives off a red flash here and there, probably to lure prey. Unlike many other deep sea creatures, the gulper eel has very small eyes. In fact, it’s thought that the eyes evolved to only detect faint traces of light rather than actually to see images – I mean, there aren’t many things to look at that deep down anyways!
8 – Scaly-foot gastropod
Even though it looks like a snail ready to go to war, this is actually a deep-sea snail, a vent-endemic gastropod known only from the deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the Indian Ocean. It can be found living at depths from 7,800 to 9,100 feet and it was only first discovered in April 2001. The best part about the scaly-foot gastropod is its shell. The shell has three different layers that protect the snail from predators and the extreme environment it lives in. Even though all layers of the shell are pretty cool, the coolest one of them all is the outer layer. It’s about 30 micrometers thick, and it’s made of iron sulfides, in particular, pyrite and greigite. This makes this guy the only metazo an and the ONLY animal known so far that has a material like that in its skeleton! When the snail’s shell is put under high pressure, the shell cracks around the particles, absorbing energy and blunting and deforming predators’ claws. The shell thus becomes littered with thousands of micro cracks that not only absorb the shock but also prevent large cracks from forming on the shell which would have been fatal for the snail. In fact, its shell is so impressive that the United States military is currently funding research on it in hopes of developing insights into new military armor designs! C’m on guys admit it, you didn’t think a snail could be this tough did you?!
9 – The Dumbo octopus
The official name is actually Grimpoteu this but who needs that in their life when you can just call it the Dumbo octopus instead? It got its name for its resemblance to the Disney elephant Dumbo. It has unique ear-like fins which spread out from the mantle just above the eyes, making it look like a tiny sea elephant with large ears. The Dumbo octopus flap these fins to float above the ocean floor and move in different directions. That’s the main way they swim around to conserve energy, although they can also swim via jet propulsion like other octopuses, which is swallowing a large amount of water and then letting it out all at once to push the octopus forward quickly. The Dumbo octopus is a deep sea animal that lives on the ocean floor at extreme depths of 9,800 to 13,000 feet. The largest Dumbo octopus ever recorded was almost 6 feet end to end, and weighed 13 pounds! The average size for most species is 7.9–12 in length. However, since this creature hasn’t been studied enough, the average weight is still undetermined. Most of the time, the Dumbo octopus doesn’t do much – it just hovers above the seafloor looking for snails, worms, and food. Can anyone complain about that job? Here’s what’s next!
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