DEEP SEA CREATURES
The deep sea contains plenty of weird animal. Here's some of them
Goblin Shark
In 1985, it was discovered in the waters off eastern Australia. In 2003, more than a hundred were caught off north-eastern Taiwan (reportedly after an earthquake). However, apart from sporadic sightings of this nature, little is known about this unique shark. It is a deep-sea, slow moving species that can grow to be 3.8 metres long (or longer! That’s only the largest one we know about). Like other sharks it can sense animals with electro-sensitive organs, and possesses several rows of teeth, but in the goblin shark some are adapted for catching prey and others for crushing crustacean shells.
Fangtooth
Ogrefish, one of it's name, while understandably named for their disproportionately large, fang-like teeth and unapproachable visage, are actually quite small and harmless to humans: the larger of the two species, the common fangtooth, reaches a maximum length of just 16 centimetres (6 inches); the shortthorn fangooth is about half this size.
Amphipod
The unusual animal, called Phronima, an Amphipod, is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic
Carnivorous Coral
Most corals obtain nutrients from photosynthetic algae that live within the coral’s tissue. That also means that they have to live within 200ft/60m of the surface. Well, not this species, also known as the harp sponge. It was discovered in 2000 off the coast of California, but only confirmed to be carnivorous this year. Shaped somewhat like a candelabra to increase its surface area, it traps tiny crustaceans with tiny Velcro-like hooks and then spreads a membrane over it, slowly digesting it with chemicals. As if that wasn’t weird enough, it reproduces using “sperm packets” – see those balls at the top of each branch? Yes, those are packets of spermatophores, and every now and then they float away to find another sponge and reproduce.
Flabby Whalefish
The brightly coloured specimen above (the colours are somewhat useless when you live where light can’t penetrate) is a member of the unhappily-named “flabby whalefish” species. It was trawled off the east coast of New Zealand, at a depth of more than 2 kilometres (1.3 miles). At the bottom of that deep blue sea, they did not expect to find many fish – and in fact it appears that the flabby whalefish has little company. This family of fish has been found as deep as 3,500 metres; has small eyes – they are pretty useless in this environment after all – and instead the fish tend to have a very well developed lateral line to detect vibrations.
It also lacks any ribs, which is perhaps why it appears so “flabby”.
Reference from :
http://listverse.com/2012/11/27/10-unearthly-creatures-of-the-deep/
http://listverse.com/2007/12/05/top-15-unusual-deep-sea-creatures/
