#loosejaw

[raindrop-stimmies]

Loosejaw (dredge) stimboard!

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[revretch]

More bug questions (but also bacteria) what's up with bioluminescence??? Like I know with lightning bugs it's a mating thing, but what about glow worms, or those bacteria in the ocean that make it light up nuclear blue sometimes??? Like what's up with that???????

Lots of reasons! (Yes, Wiki links, I know--check the sources!)

Sometimes, for the same reason predatory fungus gnat larvae (and bug zappers) luminesce--to attract prey! Like flying insects, deep sea organisms orient themselves by the light filtering down from above. Many pelagic organisms make a nightly journey to the surface. So, like insects, they'll go toward the light.

Bioluminescence - Wikipedia

Because it looks like the lights from the surface, it can also be used as camouflage.

Counter-illumination - Wikipedia

They might also bioluminesce to make themselves a flashlight. Red light cannot penetrate deep below the water's surface, so many ocean animals are blind to it. An animal that casts its own red light, and is the only animal around that can see that red light, can see in what would be darkness to everyone else. Such is the method of the loosejaw.

Other animals, like vampire squids and bomber worms, emit a dazzling display of blinding bioluminescence to disorient predators.

Not So Bloodthirsty: An Encounter with a Vampire Squid

We spotted this Vampire squid recently in the Gulf of Mexico during one of our dives studying deepwater coral with ECOGIG. With a Latin name

Bomber worm • MBARI

The midnight zone is a world of total darkness where predators lurk in the shadows ready to pounce on prey. The small bomber worm (Swima spp

That said, some deep sea animals *do* bioluminesce for mating displays! Some ostracods, for instance.

Bioluminescence Is Nature’s Love Light - Nautilus

When sparks fly, new species follow.

Symbiotic bacteria luminesce because their host relies on it, and they rely on their host staying alive. As for why non-symbiotic bacteria luminesce...well, it depends on the bacteria, and apparently we're still not sure. One hypothesis is that it helps mitigate oxidative stress.

Bioluminescent bacteria - Wikipedia

Or maybe it's just to make the ocean look cooler.

[lovingexotics]

for the weird animal suggestions, I say the Stoplight Loosejaw. It's a deep sea fish with a very weird mouth

No kidding, this thing can just stretch its jaw all the way out. What an awesome little fish! (X)

[artapir]

Limb study for a force-amplifying exoskeleton derived from teleost jaws, probably a loosejaw (or perhaps an abyssal anglerfish, or a pelican eel, or viperfish). Maybe a prosthetic exo to support the atrophied bodies of Atlantean posthumans in terrestrial gravity after years of weightless buoyancy in the oceans of Europa...?

http://thomastapir.deviantart.com/art/Telexosuit-677324182

[lensesforsnapchat]

Loose Jaw Snapchat Lens & Filter

https://lensesforsnap.com/loose-jaw-snapchat-lens-filter/

[alifeofryley]

Of course I couldn’t pass up the deep-sea fish. These guys are crazy cool!

I’m always fascinated by the sexual dimorphism in anglerfish. Such a weird model compared to many other organisms.

And the Loosejaw! What a fascinating creature :D It lives below a depth of 500 metres and it’s mouth has no floor to it - just a big gap and a modified tongue bone that helps it dislocate it’s jaw (not unlike a snake). Some theorise the lack of a mouth-floor minimises water resistance and allows the Loosejaw to snap it’s mouth shut on its prey more rapidly. What of it’s prey? While it will certainly consume small fish and shrimp these sort of organisms are rarely found at it’s native depth, and so it subsists between larger meals on zooplankton.

It’s most unique adaptation, however, is it’s ability to produce bioluminescent red light from photophores located near it’s eyes. Red light can’t penetrate the ocean to a depth of 500 metres from the sun, so almost every organism in the depths of the sea has not evolved to detect it. This means the Loosejaw can use it’s red-light torch beam to hunt prey without them even realising they’ve been spotted (or perhaps, as some others theorise, communicate with other Loosejaw on a private wavelength no other fish can intercept).

[jones-friend]

Stoplight Loosejaw (malacosteus)

The stoplight loosejaw is a kind of deep sea dragonfish. It lives outside of the arctic at depths of 500 meters/1,640 feet. While terrifying in appearance it is less so in size, measuring roughly 22 cm in size. The fish has a distinct advantage of using a chlorophyll derivative to produce red bioluminescence. This gives the loosejaw two advantages:

1. Most deep sea fish cannot perceive red light allowing it  an advantage on stealth

2. Red organisms otherwise unable to be seen with bioluminescence can be detected

The loosejaw has a diet of zooplankton. The jaw is aqua-dynamic, in that it may breathe through its gills while swallowing prey.

[palaeopedia]

The northern stoplight Loosejaw, Malacosteus niger (1848)

Phylum : Chordata Class : Actinopterygii Order : Stomiiformes Family : Stomiidae Genus : Malacosteus Species : M. niger

Least concern

25 cm long (size)

Mesopelagic zone (map)

The northern stoplight loosejaw is a species of barbeled dragonfish. The postorbital photophore in this species is larger than in M. australis. It also differs in lateral photophore count, as well as in morphological characters. The maximum known length is 25.6 cm. Its specific epithet niger is Latin for "black".

M. niger occurs in the mesopelagic zone of all oceans. Contrary to barbeled dragonfishes in general, it is not a vertical migrator. While the morphology of M. niger with huge fangs and an enormous gape (as it common names testifies) is typical for its family and suggests adaptations to piscivory, its diet in fact contains a substantial proportion of zooplankton. It is suggested that its dominant feeding mode is searching for zooplanktonic prey (copepods in particular) using bioluminescence to illuminate a small search area, with infrequent encounters with larger prey items. The likely origin of the pigment necessary for detecting its long wavelength bioluminescence are copepods themselves.