• Question: what do you think is the strangest animal in the deep see

    Asked by to James on 13 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 13 Jun 2014:

      Great question, I really enjoyed thinking about my answer to this one. It’s tough because lots of different deep-sea animals are really strange, their environment is different to ours in almost every way and that really does allow for some amazing animals to evolve.

      I think my favourite strange animals are the ones that have learnt how to look after special bacteria that can produce light. This is called bioluminescence and there’s lots of reasons animals might use it – some for finding a mate, some for hunting, some for getting away from the hunters. The link below is for a group of fish called dragonfish who use bioluminescence to attract their prey or as a kind of sniper scope so they can see their prey in the dark deep sea.

      http://deepseacreatures.org/creatures/dragonfish

      Here’s a cool video of some bioluminescence too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXXQBz6Vv0

Comments

  • Photo: Thon

    Thon commented on :

    Oh my, that’s a tricky one. I’m going to have to go with something a little lessy showy than James’ favourite.

    It was a close call – the deep sea is full of mysterious and wonderful creatures – but I’m going to have to choose the hydrothermal vent worm. So what’s so strange about this worm? Well for a start, it has no mouth when it grows to be an adult. Instead it relies on millions of microbes (tiny organisms) which live inside a special part of its body. If that’s not enough, the worms live 1 mile below the surface of the water on hydrothermal vents. These are places where extremely hot water (sometimes as high as 460 degrees C. Remember that water boils at 100) jets out of the sea floor, kind of like an underwater volcano, but with water instead of lava. They might not look so strange, but these worms are able to live under very high-pressures and high-temperatures without having to eat like we do. I think that counts.

    http://www.venturedeepocean.org/life/tubeworms.php

    • Photo: James

      James commented on :

      Some worms have these special bacteria that live inside them, others (and also other animals like yeti crabs) have the bacteria living on their skin/hair and they eat it straight off themselves.

      Also minor correction to Anthony’s comment – the hottest vents recorded are around 420 degrees C. Hydrothermal vents have been found in waters up to 5000m deep!

      Good choice though Anthony, I almost went for the tube worms – the fact that they don’t have any guts at all is incredible! I work with some of these animals in my day job

  • ecosystemthethird commented on :

    I would of thought it was the blob fish with its different genetic form.