As cameras, videos, and other technologies continue to explore the deep oceans, more data is being collected on rarely observed deep-sea creatures. Here are some fascinating videos and images of ten unusual and rarely observed deep-sea creatures—some were observed in shallower waters (in no particular order):
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Long-arm squids (Magnapinna spp.): The video below shows a long-arm squid that “was filmed [on November 11, 2007] off Perdido, a drilling site owned by Shell Oil Company, located 200 statute miles (320 km) off Houston, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.” The squid is from the genus Magnapinna, and not a lot of data exists regarding this type of cephalopod. More about the genus Magnapinna can be found at National Geographic. The image was found here.
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- Siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-o-war (Physalia physalis), are colony-forming invertebrates that appear and behave as a single organism. According to Siphonophores.org, “Some siphonophores are the longest animals in the world, and specimens as long as 40 meters have been found, [and] . . . . Siphonophores are exceedingly fragile and break into many pieces under even the slightest forces.” The video below shows a very odd specimen. If anyone has more information regarding the specimen in the video, then please comment about it.
Photo source for attribution here
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Vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis or “vampire squid from hell”) are found in deep ocean aphotic zones. Although these deep-sea cephalopods exist where humans rarely visit, anthropogenic pollution has been found in their environment and within the tissues of other deep-sea cephalopods. The image was found here. From Science Daily:
“It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment,” Vecchione said. Among the chemicals detected were tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). They are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) because they don’t degrade and persist in the environment for a very long time.
Cephalopods are important to the diet of cetaceans, a class of marine mammals which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cephalopods are the primary food for 28 species of odontocetes, the sub-order of cetaceans that have teeth and include beaked, sperm, killer and beluga whales and narwhals as well as dolphins and porpoises.
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The researchers collected nine species of cephalopods from depths between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (about 3,300 to 6,600 feet) in 2003 in the western North Atlantic Ocean using a large mid-water trawl. Species were selected for chemical analysis based on their importance as prey and included the commercially important short-finned squid Illex illecebrosus, as well as cockatoo squid, “vampire squid”, and the large jelly-like octopus Haliphron atlanticus.
According to National Geographic, “The vampire squid can turn itself ‘inside out’ to avoid predators—as seen in a video . . . released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to emphasize the need to protect deep-sea species from the effects of human activities.”
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Frilled sharks (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) are another rarely observed deep-sea creature, since these odd fish “generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water’s surface.” They are squid specialists and “eat not only weak-swimming deep-sea squids but also some surprisingly fast and powerful mesopelagic varieties.” The image was found here.
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Megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios): The megamouth shark recently made news when one was captured and consumed as a local delicacy. From National Geographic:
In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.
The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.
Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.
Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.
But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.
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- Oarfish (Regalecus spp.): The oarfish is pelagic species, and it is the longest known bony fish. Little is known about the oarfish, and although it is thought that oarfish prefer deep-sea environments, most encounters have occurred in shallower waters. Specimens have been taken by trawl and via the coastline on rod and reel. The images were found here and here. More interesting oarfish images can be found here.
As an indicator of the size of this oarfish, take note of the swimmer in this picture.
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Barreleye: The Pacific barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) has been known since 1939, but trawled up specimens were in poor condition and did not reveal the fish’s weirdest characteristic—a transparent head. So, why does the Pacific barreleye fish have a translucent head? According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), “A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish’s head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating.”The Research Institute also described other weird adaptations of these fish, such as their flat fins, small mouths, and “their digestive systems are very large, which suggests that they can eat a variety of small drifting animals as well as jellies.” Images: © 2004 MBARI
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- Giant squids (including Architeuthis spp. and the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni): These rarely observed massive invertebrates are fascinating creatures. The colossal squid is the largest. The videos and images show or portray the giant squid.
Dietary evidence: Besides the “sucker-shaped scars [observed] along the backs” of some sperm whales, giant squid parts, especially the hard chitinous beak, have been found in the stomach contents of sperm whales. These stomach contents not only reveal a wealth of data about sperm whales, but their prey also.
Photo source for attribution here
Frozen in time: This seven meter giant squid is preserved in ice at the Melbourne Aquarium.
Photo source for attribution here
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Hadal snailfish (Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis) are true deep-sea specialists. This species was captured on camera almost five miles below the ocean’s surface. Furthermore, until the video, the hadal snailfish had never been observed living, since it was only known from a handful of specimens trawled up over 50 years before. To survive in their deep-sea extreme environment, these fish must sustain immense pressure and conserve energy. From National Geographic News:
The fish belong to a species previously known only from five pickled specimens trawled up by Russian scientists in the 1950s, said Monty Priede, director of Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, which co-sponsored the expedition.
“Not only have we shown these fish alive for the first time, but we have multiplied by five the total number known to science,” Priede said.
The fish are able to withstand pressures equivalent to “1,600 elephants on the roof of a Mini,” according to a press release. The largest of the 17 snailfish observed measure more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long.
Image credit: Natural Environment Research Council and University of Aberdeen
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- Coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae and L. menadoensis): The coelacanths “were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until the first Latimeria specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938.” Today, two species are known, and the second species, L. menadoensis, was described from “Sulawesi, Indonesia in 1999.” The coelacanth, sometimes referred to as a living fossil, is an oddity with its lobe-like fins that “are supported by the same basic bones as your arms and legs, [and] coelacanths even move their paired fins much like land animals move their limbs: the right pectoral fin moves in conjunction with the left pelvic fin . . . And their movement is extremely dexterous.” Furthermore coelacanths are “ovoviviparous, meaning that eggs are fertilized internally and are retained in the mother’s oviduct so that the young are born alive [and the pups] develop from huge eggs that are among the largest vertebrate eggs known.” One video below illustrates the coelacanth in its natural habitat, while the second video shows a specimen that was caught by local fishers in North Sulawesi Indonesia.
This image is from the Musée de la Pêche in Concarneau, which is located in northwestern France.
Photo source for attribution here
