Sea Oddities

[sea-oddities]

The Giant Ostracod are round, orange, and, despite the name, the largest species (G. agassizii and G. australis) only reach up to an inch long. They open their clam-like bodies to expose their antenna so they can swim and feed.

[sea-oddities]

The rainbow sea slug or Babakina anadoni is a species of sea slug that grows up to 2cm in length.

[sea-oddities]

The salp is barrel-shaped and moves by contracting its gelatinous body in order to pump water through it. It has a complex lifecycle, the most notable of which is the 'aggregate' phase where blastozooids reproduce asexually through producing a chain of up to hundreds of individuals.

[sea-oddities]

The barreleye refers to the family Opisthoproctidae, which is a family of deep-sea fish famous for their barrel-shaped, tubular eyes which face upwards through their transparent head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwHd7u9Q0U

[sea-oddities]

The purple-striped jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata) lives off the coast of California in Monterey Bay. They have ‘oral arms’ where their mouth is located.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hgP8ZTcTF0

[sea-oddities]

The Siphonophorae or Siphonophora, the siphonophores, are an order of the Hydrozoa, a class of marine animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. Although a siphonophore appears to be a single organism, each specimen is actually a colony composed of highly specialised individual animals called zooids.

The above is a bioluminescent deep-sea siphonophorae. Another famous example is the Portuguese Man o’ war (Physalia physalis).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NWEdAkL92w

[sea-oddities]

The Vampire Squid from Hell (Vampyroteuthis infernalis): A living fossil, and not really a squid. Eats marine snow in areas of low oxygen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI6A218YE-Q

[sea-oddities]

The Living Rock (Pyura chilensis) lives off the coast of Peru and Chile, and tastes soapy. It can’t move and eats by filtering water, and reproduces by squirting sperm and eggs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbD_Td2zVU8