by Far below the surface of the sea, in the dark depths of the deep seabed ecosystem (about 3,000 feet or 1,000 meters deep), there is a whole world of deep sea creatures that people rarely have sight.
It is one of the largest ecosystems on the planet, yet it remains unexplored. Here are some of the deep sea animals we know something about.
1. Pelican eel
The pelican eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides) is a type of gulper eel that uses its large pelican-like mouth to swallow its prey. Like other members of the Eurypharyngidae family, the mouth of the pelican eel can be longer than its tapered body, which can expand to accommodate prey that is swallowed whole.
Pelican eels live in the mesopelagic zone (also known as the mid-pelagic or dawn zone), at a depth of about 9,000 feet (2,700 meters) along with other terrifying deep-sea creatures such as the vampire squid.
2. Fangtooth Fish
the common tooth (Anoplogaster cornuta) a rarely seen deep-sea fish that the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) calls “almost as obscure as it is spectacular.”
It gets its name from the two long teeth that protrude from its upper jaw. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the teeth of the fangtooth are the largest of any sea creature, relative to its body size of about 7 inches (18 centimeters).
The fangtooth fish hunts small crustaceans, cephalopods and other deep-sea fish by opening its mouth and sucking it in, like a deep-sea vacuum. “They seem to eat anything they can fit in their mouth,” Tracey Sutton, a professor at the Guy Harvey Oceanography Center at the University of Southeastern Florida’s Institute of Marine Science, told Newsweek.
Fangtooth fish live primarily in the mesopelagic (night) and bathypelagic (midnight) zones at depths of 1,650 to 7,000 feet (500 to 2,100 meters) but have been seen as deep as 16,000 feet (almost 5,000 meters).
3. Japanese Spider Crab
With a leg span of 13 feet (4 meters), the Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) the largest crab in the world. It lives in the mesopelagic (twilight) zone of the Pacific Ocean at depths from 660 to 1,800 feet (200 to 550 meters).
The Japanese spider crab has 10 legs, eight of which it uses to walk; the other two feet have claws and are for pinching. He spends his days walking along the seabed, scavenging dead animals and plants.
4. Sea Cucumber
Certain deep sea creatures are rarely seen by humans because they stay close to the ocean floor. Sea cucumbers (class Holothuroidea), however, can live in shallow water and in the deep ocean. They use their tube feet to eat tiny pieces of algae and decaying organisms on the sea floor or plankton closer to the surface.
The smallest species of sea cucumber — there are over 1,200 — is about an inch long (2.5 centimeters), while the largest can grow to over 6 feet (1.8 meters) long, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
5. Frilled Shark
Although in the same class (Chondrichthyes), the 7-foot (2-meter) frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) looks more like an eel than a great white shark. “The head was like something out of a horror movie,” said fisherman David Guillot, who accidentally caught a frilled shark in 2015, radio 3AW (via NPR).
This 80-million-year-old deep-sea inhabitant ranges from the pelagic to the benthic zones, with an upper limit of 164 feet (50 meters) below sea level and a lower limit of about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in depth.
According to the Shark Research Institute, it can swim with its mouth open, using its “bright, clear teeth” to lure prey before swallowing them whole.
6. A giant isopod
the giant isopod (Bathynomus) is a deep-sea crustacean related to roly-polys and pillies. Although the “giant” isopod ranges in size from 3 to 20 inches (8 to 51 centimeters) in length, it dwarfs most marine isopods, which usually measure around 2 inches (5 centimeters) or less. .
The giant isopod is a great example of deep-sea colossus, a phenomenon seen in other deep-sea creatures such as the giant squid and the Japanese spider. It lives from 500 to 7,000 feet (152 to 2,133 meters) in depth, from the lower epigraphic (sunlight) to the upper bathypalegic (midnight) zones.
“As far as we know, they’re primarily scavengers,” Ruth Carmichael, senior marine scientist at Dauphin Island Sea Lab and professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of South Alabama, told HowStuffWorks. “They play an important role in nutrient and element recycling” by digesting pieces of decaying fish, crustaceans and sea sponges on the sea floor.
7. Giant sea spider
Like daddy longlegs, the giant sea spider (Colossendeis) have long, delicate legs extending from a smaller body. Unlike daddy longlegs, the giant sea spider prefers to live at the bottom of the ocean rather than in the corners of your ceiling.
Some species of sea spider are tiny – the smallest have legs just a millimeter long – but the giant spider, which lives at depths of 7,200 to 13,100 feet (2,200 to 4,000 metres), can be up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) long. , according to MBARI.
8. Porpoise
guinea pigs (Scotopplanes) are some of the strange looking deep sea animals. They are not pigs – the name comes from their transparent pink bodies and stubby tube legs – but are instead a type of sea cucumber. Another similarity they have with pigs is that they will eat almost anything.
According to MBARI, they reach lengths of up to 17 cm (6.5 inches) and live at depths of 3,300 to 19,500 feet (1,000 to 6,000 meters) on the sea floor on abyssal plains and eat decomposing organic matter.
9. Deep sea angler
Anglerfish (sometimes spelled “anglerfish”) refers to about 200 species of deep-sea fish found at various depths (up to 16,400 feet or 5,000 meters) and in many sizes, from the size of a fist to 4 feet (1.2 meters) long .
“New ones [species] still coming up,” said Ted Pietsch, a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington and author of “Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea,” on How Stuff Works. “They live so deep we don’t have a good idea really how much they succeed. We put nets down to collect them, and the deeper we go the more specimens come up.”
Famous marine fish create their own light (a bioluminescent tumor at the end of a dorsal appendage) to attract prey. But only the females of the species are hunted. Females are much larger than males – up to 60 times larger – and provide nutrients to their male counterparts.
10. Sea Angels
The Monterey Bay Aquarium calls the sea angel “a type of swimming snail.”
Instead of the “leg” found under the shell of a regular land snail, the sea angel (clade Gymnosomata) has two “wings” that it uses to propel itself through the ocean. They also lack a shell, which leaves their transparent body exposed – hence the name Gymnosomata, or “naked body.”
Angelfishes prey on other swimming snails, such as sea butterflies, using a tentacle-like appendage to remove the flesh from the shell. Despite their predatory habits, sea angels are small: only 1 to 2 centimeters long. They can be found from the surface to 2,000 feet (600 meters) in depth.
Original: 10 Deep Sea Creatures That Are (Almost) Too Weird To Be True
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