From axe-shaped fish to bone-eating zombies, here are 10 crazy things that live in the
deepest place on Earth!!! Welcome to the Mariana Trench!!
10. Frilled Shark
The frilled shark has been around a long, LONG time. They’re ‘living fossils’,
thought to have been swimming around for anywhere between 95 and 300 million years! Also while
they were first discovered in approx 1880 they weren’t actually described until 2004
(the same ROV mission as the barreleye fish). This is one predator that really knows how
to keep its head down. It lives at a depth of over 5,000 ft (1524 m).
Frilled sharks get their name from the frilly appearance of their gills. They can grow up
to 7 ft (2 m) and have a mind-boggling 300 teeth. Their teeth are so white they can attract
prey. They feed on squid amongst other creatures but aren’t picky and will even eat other
sharks! It can open its mouth so wide it’s able to consume an animal up to half its size.
They also have a really long gestation period of 3½ years.
When it was first seen the frilled shark was compared to a sea serpent due to its eel-like
body. Reportedly legends of sea serpents came from sightings of this shark, that would make
sense right? While no one has ever seen it hunting, scientists think that it lunges at
its prey like a snake. And while those gills may look pretty, they actually create a vacuum
to suck in a meal. Since it leaves so deep down and rarely comes up to shallow water,
we will probably never see one.
9. Hatchet Fish
Okay so if you came face to face with this dude you’d get one hell of a shock right?
Meet the deep sea hatchet fish, so called because of its metallic, hatchet-shaped appearance.
It can be found 5,000 ft (1,524 m) down. The metal like quality comes from its scales which
is just as well because if it weren’t so shiny you’d have trouble seeing it!
The biggest hatchet fish are usually 15 cm long and the species are bioluminescent which
you think would make them an easy target for predators. Actually this little guy plays
a neat trick with their light organs which face downward, known as ‘counterillumination’.
Sounds like magic right? The hatchet fish can adjust how bright it is according to the
quantity of light shining down from above. By camouflaging itself this way it can hide
its shadow and be really difficult to spot. This is one hatchet you’ll never seeing
coming!
8. Seadevil Anglerfish
You’ve probably seen this one in the movies. A seadevil anglerfish appeared in Finding
Nemo and the image has been used in some high profile shows like The Simpsons. They were
first described in 1864 and can live at a depth of over 6,000 feet (1900 m). Like many
deep sea species its movements are mysterious to experts and the only one filmed alive was
in 2014.
The angler fish's most distinctive feature is its ‘esca’. That’s the fleshy tentacle-like
thing sticking out of its head. It uses the glowing esca to attract prey. The angler fish's
dinner swims toward the light, thinking it’s gonna get a juicy mouthful… when we know
that only thing on the menu is them!! The fish can open its mouth very wide, in fact
it’s thought it can make its mouth bigger than itself so it’s capable of swallowing
some big competition.
When it comes to the battle of the sexes the female anglerfish have an advantage over the
males. They’re much bigger. A male grows to around 3 cm but a female can reach 18 cm.
However the male gets its own back in a gross way. Not much is known about the fish’s
reproduction cycle but it’s said the male attaches himself to the female and feeds off
her till she’s ready to accept his seed and start spawning. He starts to slowly disintegrate
until he is nothing but teeth and testes. Maybe TMI, let’s move on...
And now for one of the coolest animals! But first if you are new here welcome! And be
sure to subscribe before you leave!!
7. Telescope Octopus
Some deep sea animals like to take it easy, I mean there’s a lot of pressure down there!!
Maybe none more so than the telescope octopus. Living anywhere from 500 - 6,500 ft (150 - 2000
m) below the surface it’s really laid back. In fact that’s literally what it does…
lie back and use its eyes to look up for any food swimming by.The eyes are the first thing
you notice on a telescope octopus. They stick straight up on stalks in a telescopic way,
which is where it gets its name. It can grow up to 20 cm long, meaning it can really stretch
out!Like other octopuses its body is dominated by its arms.
However you can also get a good look at its digestive gland if you want to! That’s because
it too is transparent and jelly-like. The good news for the octopus is that it’s not
too visible in the shadows so it can avoid predators. Not sure a major organ on permanent
display is a good look though.
6. Benthocodon
Usually when you think of a jellyfish you think of a transparent wobbly thing that stings
your foot. Well not this one. The benthocodon isn’t transparent. It has a round, red top
which is 2 - 3 cm in diameter and it won’t sting you unless you run into it 2,500 ft
(762 m) below the surface. You’d have to be pretty crazy to be at that depth and even
crazier without any flippers! To put that into perspective, most recreational
scuba divers only dive as deep as 130 feet (40 meters).
Not much is known about this creature since it lives so deep down, but the reddish dome
is great for eating because it helps the jellyfish hide it’s fluorescent prey and not attract
predators while it eats them.
To us their prey just look like little particles that glow in the dark. It’s dangerous so
far down because all those lights make you think that you are going towards prey when
it might be a dangerous predator luring you in like the angler fish!
Luckily for the benthocodon it doesn’t have to worry about that. It moves through the
water by whisking its tentacles. It has at least 1,500 tentacles so it can actually move
through the ocean really fast. As ROV’s go where no man has gone before,
more and more new species of critters are being discovered deep down like this new species
of jellyfish and the frilled shark to see what it does deep down in the trenches.
5. Barreleye Fish
This fish with a transparent head shocked viewers when it appeared on Blue Planet!
Also known as a “spookfish” it has a jelly-like forehead that allows it to look up through
its skull, giving it greater visibility! Pretty freaky huh? It is a very efficient hunter
that can live at a depth of at least 2,600 feet (800 m) and can be anywhere from 15 to
40 cm long. The eyes are shaped like barrels and can be rotated both forward and up and
they act like binoculars to spot prey. Though it was discovered in 1939 the barreleye
had only been seen in a deceased state. That changed in 2004 when a live specimen was snapped.
Before that no-one knew about the transparent dome because it never survived the journey
to the surface.
It stays motionless a lot of the time and spends much of its life alone. Its minuscule
mouth means it has to be selective over what it can chew. The barrelfish enjoys things
like zooplankton and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute were able to record the
live specimen live, swimming around in 2004 in the Mariana Trench.
4. Goblin Shark
This shark is one ugly shark, hence why we call it the goblin shark! Of course I wouldn’t
say that to its face poor thing! But its sword-like snout and prehistoric appearance makes it
truly unique. It’s another living fossil, and hasn’t
changed for millions of years. It grows up to 13 ft (4 m) in length and reaches a weight
of around 200 kg so it’s not one to be messed with, not like it will mess around with us
or anything. It’s a slow-moving predator that prefers
to hang out on the ocean floor waiting for things to swim overhead. Its diet includes
squids and crabs and it’s been known to munch on plastic which is a sad remark on
the condition of the planet. The freaky thing about this shark apart from its big nose is
the way it eats its prey.
It has as many as 115 teeth in its head which are longer in the middle. When it goes to
take a bite its joints enable the jaws to slide forward, like its teeth are coming out
of its face almost. It’s bad enough being eaten by a shark in the first place without
it looking like Pennywise the Clown from ‘It’! Creepy, huh?
3. Zombie Worm
Zombie worms, also known as bone-eating worms, were discovered by accident in 2002 when they
appeared to be drilling into the skeletons of dead animals like whales and fish. This
confused experts because they looked too squishy to be able to drill like that, but that is
how they got their name. The answer came later on in 2012. What the worms were doing was
attaching themselves to the bone and using acid to dissolve the bones and extract the
lipid goodness within. Yummy!
Want to hear something else weird? There are male and female zombie worms but they’ve
got a bit of a bizarre relationship. You see at first scientists believed they were all
female because that’s all they could see. The males were actually inside the females,
remaining in a larval state. Gives a whole new meaning to the expression ‘man trouble’!
2. Foraminifera
Foraminifera or ‘fora’ are tiny organisms from the ‘protist’ family. They vary between
100 micrometers and around 20 cm. Because many of them are so small and I’m guessing
chewy, they are a prime source of food in the Mariana Trench. That’s a shame because
there’s a lot more to these little things than meets the eye. Not that there’s much
to see in the first place what with them being tiny and all. Fora use fine hairs called ‘reticulopodia’
to catch their food, be it plankton or even small animals. These creatures are small but
they’re experienced at life. They’re thought to date back to the Carboniferous and Permian
eras so they’re living fossils going back around 300 million years!
Those who feast on them also have to crunch through their shells. These are made from
stuff like sand and organic particles. The shells can be hollow tubes or spheres, or
they can contain little chambers. Fora are related to algae and it’s been known for
algae to actually grow inside these chambers. Kind of the ultimate deepsea apartment share!
1. Ping Pong Tree Sponge
The strangest name on our list is also the nastiest! Sure, Ping Pong Tree Sponge sounds
like something out of Spongebob Squarepants and it’s one beautiful-looking life form.
But despite this charming exterior this isn’t a thing to be messed with! It lives nearly
9000 ft (2743 m) underwater and if you’re a small creature it spells bad news.
This is a carnivorous sponge. You heard right! It’s a sponge that kills! The 50cm-tall
stalk has a series of stems on top of it which hang in the water. And if you’re a crustacean
and you swim too close you soon know about it. Each stem ends in a network of tiny hooks
called ‘spicules’ which you can easily get caught in.
What then happens is a slow and terrible death. Cells travel up to literally dissolve your
body. Because the Ping Pong Tree Sponge doesn’t have internal digestion it has to do it on
the outside where everyone can see it. Imagine not only being eaten but also being on display
for the whole ocean to gawp at. Plus you’re alive as it happens. For such a pretty thing
it has some pretty disgusting behavior…
Thanks for watching! Were you surprised by any of these? Let us know in the comments
below!! Be sure to subscribe and see you soon!