Immortality

Everyone loves to fantasize about the idea of immortality. For this jellyfish, there's no fantasizing, it's a reality. Turritopsis nutricula is a species of jellyfish found to possess the amazing ability of transdifferentiation, they can revert back to the polyp stage and begin their life cycle again.

Other animals use transdifferentiation for equally amazing things like regrowing limbs and organs, but this is the only creature that has been found to have this amazing ability to get a fresh start on life.

While cool, there's a drawback for everything else. These jellyfish are native to Caribbean waters, but are now found to be spreading much further out than their native range. I say that a good old stake to the heart stops most immortals from getting out of hand. What's that? Jellyfish have no hearts? We are truly doomed.

theeternalmusic.com

Trawling Too Deeply

Thirty-eight fish species were recently hauled up from the ocean floor by scientists working off the coast of Greenland. Ten are new to science, and the others have never been seen in these waters.

Why? Two theories have been put forward: 1) warming of the oceans, and 2) over-fishing of the ocean floor.

Regardless, have these scientists learned nothing from the cautionary tale of the Dwarves of Moria. Those dwarves delved too deeply and were struck down by the Balrog. These scientists trawled too deeply, and found all sorts of ugly. Notice: not one ethereal, angelic creature was dredged up. Only ugly. Some things were never meant to see the light of day.

Thanks for the link, Coralie.

Star Gazing

Maybe it's because I have three little daughters, but when I imagine a fish called a stargazer, I imagine maybe an opalescent or rainbow-hued fish that sprinkles fairy dust when it swims and goes to the water's surface every night to gaze longingly at the stars above.

But no, what we have in the real stargazer is a spiny fish with eyes on the top of its head so it can lie in wait in the sand and ambush its prey. Rather than stargazing, it's more like underbelly-of-benthic-prey gazing.

They're found the world over in shallow waters. Some come equipped with worm-shaped lures that they wriggle in their mouth, but all come with highly-venomous spines and can deliver quite a wallop of an electric shock.

Thanks for the fish, Tom. Thanks for the disillusionment.

Photo source: Pengo via WikiPedia.org

Three Years Later

Back in January 2007 I posted on a deep sea frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) that had been found alive off the coast of Japan. I only posted photos then, not knowing that there was video. The shark didn't long survive captivity (too warm, too shallow). So, more than three years later, here's the video. Be thankful you're a surface-dweller.

Thanks, Thanh.

Sidenote: They bear live young, typically 2-12 pups. I never knew that baby sharks were called pups. That's even cuter than 'fry.'

Camouflaged Spread

Jaden sent us this link from ThisBlogRules.com. Enjoy this spread of camouflaged creatures, including a crab spider, a scorpion fish, a stone fish, and an orchid mantis. Thanks, Jaden.

Alligator Spear

My ancestors tell of young Gar who fell in love with grumpy Alligator. Gar was mischievous and never heeded her parents counsel. They forbade her from seeing Alligator anymore, but she snuck away one night into the bayou and ran away with Alligator. They were soon wed and had children. But they were mutant children.

That's a cautionary tale I've cooked up for my daughters.

The alligator gar has the distinction of being not only the world's largest gar, but also North America's largest exclusively freshwater fish. Adults measure between 8 - 10 feet and weigh at least 200 lbs. The largest alligator gar caught bowfishing was 365 lbs.

I love it when animals are aptly named. Alligator? That's obvious, especially in the second photo. Gar? That's Old English for 'spear.' So what you've got in this fish is a massive alligator spear. Thankfully, they are generally passive, non-aggressive, and solitary ambush hunters. The lower Mississippi River Valley and the Gulf Region would be different places if they were otherwise.

Thanks for the gar, Jelo.

Wha...what?

What in the world is this? It can't be a living thing. It's all got to be fabricated. Is it a toupee endowed with the breath of life? Is it something I need to check under my covers for every night? Are my children safe?

Reveal the hoax to me, people. I must know. Please.

Thanks, James. For nothing.

UPDATE: Anonymous and Neil have identified this as a sea mouse. They are marine worms that inhabit moderately deep waters. This worm has no doubt lost its breath of life. And, what's better, I have nothing to fear, so long as my personal nightmare of sinking to the bottom of the ocean in a leaky submarine doesn't come true.

A Bit about the Goblin Shark

Like so many deep sea fishes, not much is known about the goblin shark. But here's a bit of what we do know:

1) They are bottom feeders.

2) The smallest one on record was 3.51 feet. The largest one was 12.6 feet.

3) As far as reproduction goes, they are thought to be ovoviviparous, but a pregnant female has never been captured. And we've never seen goblin shark babies.

4) They are described as having a large mouth and a soft, flabby body. I have at least that in common with the goblin shark.

Thanks for the shark, Ellie.

Photo source: Discovery

Orange Mystery Blob

Photo source: PIERRE94
Look closely and try to determine what manner of creature that orange blob is. Is it a soft coral? Perhaps a misshapen echinoderm? Is it some weird growth?

Look again and make a guess.

Now, do you see the tail fin sticking up? How about the pectoral fin planted on the rock like a foot? Getting a sense of it now? It's an anglerfish in all its camouflaged glory.

Have fun staring at it for a while longer. In the mean time, be grateful that this fish doesn't have any man-sized terrestrial equivalent.

A Little Dose of Humility

We all marvel at the life teeming on sunny reefs. Well, it turns out that the deepest portions of our oceans, those inky-black abyssal regions, where sunlight will never penetrate, where plants cannot grow, where the human body would implode from the pressure, where once scientists thought that life could not exist, are actually home to more abundance and variety of life than those sunny reefs. And we've only explored 1 millionth of those depths. So much to learn about our own planet.

Just a little dose of humility.

Thanks for the article, Susanna.

Photo source: bogleech.com

Pesty Plecos

Any self-respecting freshwater aquarist (such as myself) knows of the plecostamus. Also known as the janitor fish, they make for great tank cleaners. But to folks in the Philippines they are a menace.

The pleco was introduced to several river systems in the Philippines with the intent of having them clean up the rivers. The plecos dined on the waste, detritus, and filth. The program worked. But them the plecos, now running out of garbage to eat, began to turn to endemic species to feast upon.

Philippine officials are now scratching their heads and wondering what to do. These fish are nigh on indestructible. They've got armored plating, can eat anything, and have a rabbitesque ability to reproduce. Officials have turned to dredging the river bottoms in an attempt to slow down the advance and spread of the pleco. And local fishermen are of no help, since the pleco, with all of its garbage eating, isn't really edible.

Thanks for the pleco, Jelo from the Philippines. Have fun fishing anyway--let us know what they taste like.

Slime Eel

Moneca reminded me of the hagfish, (aka slime eel), and it's high-time I posted on it again. This moderate-sized monster (ranging from a foot and a half to almost a meter) is famous for two things: its feeding habits and its slime.

They aren't rightly called fish, since they have no vertebrae. They have no bones at all, and are more closely related to lampreys, which should give you some insight into their character. First the slime: they produce it from glads embedded in their skin, and can fill a milk jug with it in a single sitting. They produce it to ward off predators or to encase themselves if needed. It's so viscous and fibrous that it can suffocate would-be predators by coating their gills. And how does the hagfish rid itself of its own slime? It can tie itself into a knot and slide the knot down its body. That's a trick my son once tried, to escape a particularly inconvenient diaper change.

As for feeding, well, it's the stuff of nightmares. They swim up behind unsuspecting fish, latch on to the fish's skin with their barbs, then proceed to burrow their way in. Once safely ensconced inside the fish, they begin eating from the inside out. Not a pleasant way to go. But honestly, if it were socially acceptable, this is almost exactly how I'd eat my pizza.

Photo source: NOAA public domain photo

Devilfish Yellow Eyes

Cate lives in Hooper Bay, Alaska, which has afforded her many adventures that Southerners like me will likely never have (like carving up seal carcasses for dinner). One such adventure involved an arctic devilfish.

These fish are so spiny, that, as Cate puts it, even accidentally catching one can wound you for life (devilfish = aptly named). This particular specimen had been in the tidal mud for a while, yet still it lived, and its yellow eyes tracked Cate as she walked past it. An experience like that could wound a softy like me for life.

But Cate's tougher than that. I highly recommend visiting her blog: but only if you've got the stomach for life in Hooper Bay and among the Yup'ik.

I Don't Think You're Ready for this Jelly

The nomura jellyfish gets over 6 feet in diameter and can reach a weight of over 600 lbs (sounds like an uncle of mine). They are nuisances to Japanese and Korean fisherman (see the last photo). But, most importantly for us, they look like pale bells trailing bundles of viscera.

Oh, and one pleasant little note: if hurt or killed they release countless sperm and eggs that settle onto any nearby surface. So be careful if you're scuba diving among them -- you don't want to be coated with jellyfish...jelly.

Thanks for the photo, Jelo.

Hats Off

Behold the drab glory of the top hat seastar. That's about it. Behold it and wonder what makes it remarkable.


























Hold it then flip it over and gape into its bristling maw. Then see the similarities to the sarlacc pit monster from Return of the Jedi.

Thanks for the top hat seastar, Jelo. Would that more victims of this seastar had a Han Solo at hand to rescue them.

Grateful Terrestrials

David has sent us a link to a Washington Post picture gallery of creatures recently surveyed in the Deep Sea. I bring you a few of them, just in case you weren't already grateful for being a terrestrial, sentient biped who doesn't have to share your personal space with these creatures. These photos are of a copepod, a cute dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis discoveryi), a new dumbo (Grimpoteuthis sp.), and a Neocyema (erythrosoma). Guess which two of them are known to feast on human souls.

Thanks for the link, David.

The Kind of Predation for Me

I wish the first three spines of my anterior dorsal fin were modified into angling rods. I can just imagine myself lying camouflaged in my front yard and waving a lure to trick pizza delivery drivers close enough so I could attack...

Anglerfish, whether benthic, pelagic, living in the deep-sea, or on the continental shelf, have a good life. That's the kind of predation for me: I wave a spine, and my prey does the rest.

Floating Viscera

With a cap that is 200 cm across and tentacles that can reach more than three meters, the lion's mane jellyfish is among the largest jellies on the planet. Their eight bundles of upwards of 100 stinging tentacles each (which retain their sting even if broken off into fragments), also make this jelly a true nuisance.

Of course, for our purposes, it also looks like a floating clump of viscera. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my omentum, or even most of my abdominal cavity, looks like a lion's mane jellyfish, sans stinging tentacles.

Photo source: Phil Hartell

When a Tree Falls

I posted recently on the importance of whale falls to deep sea environments. Wouldn't you know it (there's a pun in there, look for it...), but tree falls have recently been discovered to serve a similar function.

These two crustaceans (a galatheid crab to the left and a squat lobster below) are but two species of deep-sea dwellers who specialize in eating trees. When a tree falls (screaming?) into the ocean and is carried out to sink into the deep sea, it turns out that there are many specialized creatures ready to dine.














Researchers, who have always had a tough time being able to properly investigate these deep environs, came up with a very clever means of discovering exactly what eats these tree falls. They created a trap with wood bait that had holes just large enough to let larval mollusks and crustaceans in, but small enough to keep then in once they had matured. Then, voila, after a year they lifted the trap to the surface and took a look inside.

Among those found are 15 species of decapod, one species of isopod and one amphipod, including hermit crabs, shrimp and galatheid crabs of the genus Munidopsis and Munida.

The squat lobster is thought to bite off small splinters of wood which it then passes through a 'gastric-mill' of strong teeth used to grind the wood down.

Pretty ingenious, eh? If aliens ever wanted to pull off a similar experiment here, they could lower a pizza-filled trap in my back yard. Then within only a few weeks I'd be too large to escape... I hope aliens don't read blogs.

Thanks for the link, Andrew.

Of Shear Force and Shingles

What good is a sea urchin without spines? Well, I'll tell you.

Here you've got the Indo Pacific Shingle (or Helmet) Urchin (Colobocentrotus atratus). According to Echinoblog (great site, folks), they are found in rocky intertidal areas of the South and Central Pacific. What benefit does having a helmet-shaped body serve this sea urchin? Turns out that their native waters can flow at high rates, and their shape offsets the effects of shear force.





















But the true power of this little beast is seen only when you upend one. Take a look at those tube feet (especially in the last photo). They enable the shingle urchin to withstand water flows of a couple magnitudes greater than your spiny urchine. Those spines won't do you much good if you're swept away with the current, Mr. Spiny Urchin. Nope, best to keep a low profile, like Mr. Shingle Urchin.

Thanks for the uchin, Jelo.