Hey there and welcome to Life Noggin.
The world can have some pretty scary creatures in it.
My goldfish here is a little cutie, yes you are Bubbles, but you can find some pretty
freaky aquatic life if you journey down into the deep-sea.
Let’s take a look at some of these scary creatures and maybe learn a bit about how
they evolved to be that way!
To begin, let’s go down to the ocean depths.
Wow, it’s pretty dark down here.
Oh cool, thanks for the light.
Wait a minute… that’s no ordinary light.
That’s the bioluminescent glow of one of the scariest, vampire-looking deep sea dwellers;
the anglerfish!
You see, the female anglerfish’s light comes from a piece of their dorsal spine that extends
from their forehead.
Like a built in fishing rod, it glows with the help of a bunch of bioluminescent bacteria
and lures the anglerfish’s prey in close enough for them to have a little lunch.
It’s thought that the angling structure evolved from the spines of the fish’s dorsal
fin.
And according to National Geographic, these underwater rascals have super big mouths and
pliable bodies that allow them to gulp down prey bigger than they are!
The only person I ever saw do that was Triangle Bob at the buffet last week.
Even though he may not have the same radiance, let’s not forget about the male anglerfish.
Far less intimidating than their female counterparts, male anglerfish are little guys that have
evolved into permanent parasitic mates to their females.
While you’re off having fun in your younger years, these guys are busy latching onto the
females with their sharp teeth.
The male hooks up to his underwater wife’s blood vessels and depends on her to get his
nourishment.They even end up physically fusing together over time!
And I thought you human couples were clingy!
But the female anglerfish isn’t alone in her /glowing/ beauty.
In fact, it's thought that the majority of eukaryotic life that lives in the deep sea
has bioluminescent capabilities.
This includes other animals like the lanternfish and the dragonfish.
While it may be hard to determine exactly why these animals have evolved to have certain
capabilities like bioluminescence, enlarged fangs, or gaping mouths, their similar deep-sea
environmental extremes may have played a part.
This could include conditions such as little to no penetrable sunlight and high atmospheric
pressure.
Further trying to understand bioluminescence in deep-sea creatures, a recent study investigated
the evolution of species-specific bioluminescent structures in lineages of lanternfishes and
dragonfishes.
They showed that deep-sea fishes that have these structures, which may be used for communication,
are diversifying into new species at a quicker rate than the deep-sea fish that use bioluminescence
for things like camouflage or predation.
These findings can potentially lead to a better understanding of just how evolution has shaped
the modern-day biodiversity in the deep-sea!
I don’t know about you, but I’d love a little light to follow me around to brighten
up my world!
So what’s the scariest creature that you know of in the deep-sea?
Let me know down in the comments below!
Make sure you come back every Monday for a brand new video.
As always, I’m Blocko and this has been Life Noggin.
Don’t forget to keep on thinking!