![]() But the stoplight loosejaw can see red, so it can light up its prey without alerting them to the danger. Most bioluminescence in the deep ocean is blue, as that colour travels well through water, and the eyes of many deep-sea animals aren’t sensitive to red light. And it’s called ‘stoplight’ because the bioluminescent organs near its eyes produce red light. Its lower jaw is an open frame of bone with no fleshy floor across it, which means it can snap shut very quickly like a mousetrap. The stoplight loosejaw fish is one of the stealthiest predators in the deep. Stoplight loosejaw Stoplight Loosejaw © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/ And throughout the deep ocean, creatures signal with lights to other members of the same species, to attract a mate, for example. The underside of the hatchetfish, for example, has bioluminescent organs that match the faint light coming from above, breaking up its silhouette.ĭown in the midnight zone, animals such as the dragonfish use bioluminescent searchlights to find their prey. In the twilight zone, the remnants of sunlight cast shadows that reveal animals to predators, so lots of species in this zone are speckled with lights for camouflage. Like underwater fireflies, many deep-sea animals can produce spots or flashes of light, known as bioluminescence. Dragonfish & Hatchetfish Dragonfish and Hatchetfish © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/ The males have tiny crystal plates in their skin that reflect blue light, giving them a glittering appearance. Most copepods graze on microscopic algae that thrive near the ocean surface, and their faeces and dead bodies help to carry carbon into the deep below.īut these ‘sea sapphire’ copepods are different: the females live as parasites inside drifting jelly animals called salps, while these colourful males swim free in the ocean. Sea sapphire copepods Copepods © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/Ĭopepods are tiny crustaceans, typically only a millimetre or two in size, and are often eaten by deep-sea fishes such as the thread-tail and the stoplight loosejaw. Because the larvae and adults look so different, larval forms were often described as different species from the adults, until marine biologists realised they were different stages of one life cycle. Having a thin, see-through body as a larva may help it to survive the gauntlet of predators in the zooplankton as it grows. This leaf-like leptocephalus larva will eventually develop into an adult eel, transforming the shape of its body. Ocean animals often have early stages in their life cycles that are very different from their adult form. ![]() Leptocephalus larva Leptocephalus larva © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/ Spending time as drifters means they can be carried to new places by ocean currents, if they’re not eaten by other zooplankton on the way. Others are only temporary members of the zooplankton – the larval stages of animals such as sea stars (3), which eventually sink back down to continue their lives on the seafloor. Some of them live their whole lives as drifters, such as the ‘seed shrimp’ (1) tucked up in its orange carapace, and the ‘sea butterfly’ (2) – a snail that swims instead of crawls. Lots of different animals drift in the ‘inner space’ of the deep ocean, where they are collectively known as zooplankton – from the Greek for ‘animal drifters’. Zooplankton Zooplankton © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/ But don’t let the fangtooth scare you: it’s about the size of a grapefruit. It’s a world with terrifying teeth, like those of the fangtooth fish. Descend that far into the ocean, and you enter the ‘twilight zone’ of the deep sea, where the Sun’s rays gradually fade away and animals play a deadly game of hide-and-seek with predators in the shadows.ĭive down beyond 1,000 metres and you’re in the ‘midnight zone’, a vast darkness punctuated by flashes of light from life forms that hunt for food and seek mates here. Two hundred metres is all that separates you from an alien world, right here on Earth. ![]() Fangtooth Fangtooth © Solvin Zankl/ - © Solvin Zankl/ Here are some that are totally out-of-this-world. While the ocean remains largely unexplored, we occasionally get a glimpse of the weird and wonderful creatures that eke out a living in the deep (like the ever-popular blobfish). 12 of the weirdest deep-sea creatures that lurk in the oceans' depths
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