Posted on 12/01/2009 4:31:16 PM PST by JoeProBono
A newfound creature nicknamed "Dumbo" (pictured) may look like it's all ears--but the protrusions are actually fins that help propel the animal through the darkness 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) under the sea.
Netted during a recent Census of Marine Life (CoML) expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, this Dumbo is among the thousands of deep-sea creatures the census has documented so far that live without ever knowing sunlight. Reaching six feet (two meters) in length and weighing 13 pounds (6 kilograms), the jumbo Dumbo is the largest of the octopus-like animals ever found.
This see-through sea cucumber, dubbed Enypniastes (pictured), was spotted at depths of about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) during a 2009 expedition in the northern Gulf of Mexico, scientists say. (See pictures of a deep-sea fish with a transparent head.)
The strange invertebrate creeps forward on its many tentacles while sweeping sediments filled with tiny critters into its mouth. When it's ready to find another feeding ground, the sea cucumber "blooms into a startling curved shape and swims away," CoML team members said in a statement.
What looks like an ancient gold treasure is actually a tiny copepod (shown magnified). The crustacean was among 680 copepod specimens--most new to science--that were collected during a 2009 expedition in the Atlantic abyss.
"The abyssal fauna is so rich in species diversity and so poorly described that collecting a known species is an anomaly," CoML team member David Billett, of the U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre, said in a statement.
Somewhere at the botton lurks an undicovered primitive democrat..
Mmmmmmm, seafood.
Those ears on Dumbo look very familiar... Obama comes to mind.
Thats one big hunk of galamrai! I’ve heard the Humboldt squid can reach lengths of 5-6 feet weigh 150lbs and has a beak like a can-poner and basically attacks anything that swims.
Even larger! And within view of Seattle sky-scrapers. (Well - except for the water.):
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/108980_octopus17.shtml
Puget Sound is home to the world’s largest octopus, the giant Pacific octopus, which is also the world’s largest invertebrate, meaning it has no bones.
The biggest known giant Pacific octopus was 600 pounds and had an arm span of about 30 feet. Octopuses typically live from three to five years and die after breeding once.
An octopus has eight arms with about 1,500 suckers in total. It has a fairly large brain — half of which is in its arms, with the other half encircling its throat. It has a “beak” at its mouth, which allows it to bite prey.
Octopus blood is pale blue and pumped by three hearts. The animal can travel by crawling or by “jet propulsion” — forcing water rapidly out of the headlike mantle through a tube known as the siphon. Octopus, like squid, can squirt ink when startled or upset.
An octopus, which is in the cephalopod branch of mollusks, can change its skin color like a chameleon to hide or, according to some scientists, to reflect its “mood.”
SOURCE: Seattle Aquarium
Hmmmm. In the article the biologist talked about catching a few and letting them go right at the pier that the aquarium sits on. The one just hunkered down in the rocks by the pier and settled in.
I guess that guy shouldn’t have come along to disturb him! (Thanks for all the good - and often fun - images that you come up with!!)
What? No Helen Thomas pics?!
[BTW-Thanx 21twelve!]
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