The term deep sea creature refers to animals that live below the photic zone of the ocean. These creatures must survive in extremely harsh conditions, such as hundreds of bars of pressure, small amounts of oxygen, very little food, no sunlight, and constant, extreme cold. Most creatures have to depend on food floating down from above.
These creatures live in very demanding environments, such as the abyssal or hadal zones, which, being thousands of meters below the surface, are almost completely devoid of light. The water is between 3 and 10 degrees Celsius and has low oxygen levels. Due to the depth, the pressure is between 20 and 1,000 bar. Creatures that live hundreds or even thousands of meters deep in the ocean have adapted to the high pressure, lack of light, and other factors.
Evolutionary adaptations of deep-sea creatures
Lack of light
The lack of light requires creatures to have special adaptations to find food, avoid predators, and find mates.
Lack of resources
At this depth, there is not enough light for photosynthesis to occur and not enough oxygen to support animals with a high metabolism. To survive, creatures have slower metabolisms which require less oxygen; they can live for long periods without food. Most food either comes from organic material that falls from above or from eating other creatures that have derived their food through the process of chemosynthesis (the process of changing chemical energy into food energy). Because of the sparse distributions of creatures, there is always at least some oxygen and food. Also, instead of using energy to search for food, these creatures use particular adaptations to ambush prey. In turn, these creatures rely on large food particles, such as fragments of dead fish or other marine mammals, to fall from the surface.[1] Although the falling food can support the population of the deep sea creatures, there can still be a lack of resources due to a middle population of fish consuming the fragments before making it to the bottom.[1]
Deep-sea vertebrates also have less muscle and less ossified bone. This lack of ossification was adapted to save energy when food is scarce.[2]
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The term deep sea creature refers to animals that live below the photic zone of the ocean. These creatures must survive in extremely harsh conditions, such as hundreds of bars of pressure, small amounts of oxygen, very little food, no sunlight, and constant, extreme cold. Most creatures have to depend on food floating down from above.
These creatures live in very demanding environments, such as the abyssal or hadal zones, which, being thousands of meters below the surface, are almost completely devoid of light. The water is between 3 and 10 degrees Celsius and has low oxygen levels. Due to the depth, the pressure is between 20 and 1,000 bar. Creatures that live hundreds or even thousands of meters deep in the ocean have adapted to the high pressure, lack of light, and other factors.
Evolutionary adaptations of deep-sea creatures
Lack of light
The lack of light requires creatures to have special adaptations to find food, avoid predators, and find mates.
Lack of resources
At this depth, there is not enough light for photosynthesis to occur and not enough oxygen to support animals with a high metabolism. To survive, creatures have slower metabolisms which require less oxygen; they can live for long periods without food. Most food either comes from organic material that falls from above or from eating other creatures that have derived their food through the process of chemosynthesis (the process of changing chemical energy into food energy). Because of the sparse distributions of creatures, there is always at least some oxygen and food. Also, instead of using energy to search for food, these creatures use particular adaptations to ambush prey. In turn, these creatures rely on large food particles, such as fragments of dead fish or other marine mammals, to fall from the surface.[1] Although the falling food can support the population of the deep sea creatures, there can still be a lack of resources due to a middle population of fish consuming the fragments before making it to the bottom.[1]
Deep-sea vertebrates also have less muscle and less ossified bone. This lack of ossification was adapted to save energy when food is scarce.[2]
Here is our list of the top 10 weirdest deep-sea creatures seen in 2021.
Blood-red jellyfish. ...
Elusive glass octopus. ...
Shape-shifting whalefish. ...
'Emperor Dumbo' ...
Real-life SpongeBob and Patrick. ...
Alien-like spindly squid. ...
Giant phantom jellyfish. ...
Photobombing squid.