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mbari-blog · 2 months

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Meet the salp chain

Salps are gelatinous animals that live in the open ocean, but are closely related to the "sea squirts" (tunicates) seen in tidepools. Colonial salps often form long chains, with new animals budding off from others in the chain. They can reach up to 15m long and are one of the fastest-growing animals on the planet. Salps rhythmically contract their bodies to propel themselves through the ocean and pump water through their guts, filtering out microscopic algae and other tiny organisms for food. They play an essential role in mitigating climate change as their fecal pellets are full of carbon and sink rapidly to the sea floor, sequestering that carbon for decades or even centuries to come.

The salp chain you see here is the rarely observed, Helicosalpa virgula. It was captured on camera by our remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts 282 meters (925 feet) deep.

#marine biology #ocean #deep ocean #deep sea #salp #salp chain #cool ocean animals

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the-ocean-is-scary · 9 months

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I saw a drawing of a type of cool fish with no name. ANd I couldn't figure out what it was for like a month even though I thought it looked cool and wanted to know what it looked like.

I FIGURED IT OUT

They're called gulper eels!

They are like the coolest looking creature I have ever seen. Stuff of nightmares, but absolutely AWESOME.

Just look at these things!! Those mouths! Absolutely AMAZING

New favorite animal oh my god

#the blog with the ocean url is actually posting about the ocean?#crazy i know #aj is oceanposting #for once #gulper eel #i literally spent so long trying to find it #just because of a doodle i saw #so awesome #eels #cool animals #cool ocean animals #ocean creatures #creatures #sea creatures are so cool

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amnhnyc · 6 months

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Cephalopod lovers, meet the stubby bobtail (Rossia pacifica)! With a mantle length of only up to 2 in (5 cm), this tiny critter typically spends its days buried beneath the sand, emerging at night to feed. Shrimp comprise nearly 80% of this species’ diet, but it also preys on small fishes and even other cephalopods. It can be found in coastal waters from Japan to California.

Photo: kcram, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

#science #nature #natural history #animals #cephalopods #stubby #ocean life #marine biology #did you know #fact of the day #cool animals #fish #squid

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protectoursharks · 5 months

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can you do one about vampire squids ? 🦑

Vampyroteuthis infernalis or Vampire Squid

It's (very dramatic) scientific name means "vampire squid from hell". However, the vampire squid is not actually a squid! It's actually the only animal in the Vampyroteuthidae family! It's separated into its own family because it can't change color or produce ink. Instead, it turns itself "inside out" (as shown above) to deter predators.

Proportionally, vampire squids also have the largest eyes compared to their body size! They eat mostly zooplankton, marine snow, and other organisms waste. They grow to be about the size of a football and live to be around 8 years old.

There's even evidence that vampire squids have been around since the Jurassic period- almost 200 million years ago!

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chunkfunkgunk-offishal · 11 months

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how about a pacific spiny lumpsucker :)

Today on CHUNK! FUNK! GUNK! We rate

the PACIFIC SPINY LUMPSUCKER:

5/10 Chunk

10/10 Funk

9/10 Gunk

Once again we come across a creature I had never heard of before today. Apparently they’re very bony, but since they have such a square shape to them I give them a little chunk. They have a very very funky look and a strange gimmick, high funk. These fish are also very slimy (as found in my brief googling of them), high gunk.

Overall: 9/10

Its eyes are so full of hope. Its mouth is always agape in a state of wonder. Its tummy goes suck suck.

It is beautiful.

#chunk funk gunk #chunk #funk #gunk #pacific spiny lumpsucker #lumpsucker #spiny lumpsucker #lumpfish #ocean #ocean animals #cool fish #fish #asks open

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imhereboo · 1 year

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glasssymphony · 1 month

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Cute baby glass octopuses are here!

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angelnumber27 · 2 years

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Dirona Albolineata

Jeff Goddard

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dailycephalopods · 10 months

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Paper Nautilus? Those boys are lovely and I feel like they're SO underrated

Daily Cephalopod #6

These are Argonauts! (Also nicknamed The Paper Nautilus)

To spread some Argonaut love, here's some cool facts!

The females grow much larger than males (about 8 times larger) and they produce a thin eggcase, or their "shell"

Females can mate and reproduce multiple times in their life, while the males only mate once and die shortly after

The males mate by removing their hectocotyl arm, which is then stored in the females eggcase!

The hectocotylus is the modified tentacle on male cepholpods that is used for mating and it was first discovered on an argonaut! (although it was originally misidentified as a parasitic worm attached to the mantle of the female it was discovered on)

The nickname 'Paper Nautilus' is quite misleading, because Argonauts are actually octopuses!

Argonauts have often been observed floating with/on salps, jellyfish, plant debris, driftwood, and even other argonauts at all stages of life!

Argonauts do not reside near the sea floor, they tend to drift closer to the surface and are the only known pelagic octopus!

Like many other octopuses, they have ink, they can change color, and they have venom!

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w4rigari · 2 months

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🥶🩵 Leftover sales for the WANNABE Zine are open !

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i-am-a-giant-siphonophore · 1 year

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giant siphonophores!!!

giant siphonophores are deep sea invertebrates that live in many deeper oceans all over the world, from iceland to chile!

they eat small crustaceans and small fish

siphonophores can grow up to 130 feet long!

they’re not single multi-cellular organisms, they’re actually colonies of tiny biological components called zooids!

giant siphonophores have hydrostatic skeletons

they attract pray with bright bioluminescent light!

there are over 175 species of siphonophores and they have very diverse differences

siphonophores are bioluminescent and can glow many different colours, mainly blue, red, orange, and yellow!

they’re so amazing :]

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fucxingcuties · 16 hours

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#cool animal facts #lobster #ocean #animals #nature #memes

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amnhnyc · 13 days

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Cephalopod lovers, have you ever heard of the Dumbo octopus? 🐙 Members of the genus Grimpoteuthis, these critters are the deepest-living octopus known to science and can be found near the seafloor at depths of up to 13,000 ft (4,000 m). These adorable cephalopods flap their ear-like fins as they move through the water—a behavior that inspired scientists to name the genus Grimpoteuthis after Disney’s flying elephant. Unlike many other octopuses, Dumbo octopuses do not have ink sacs. Some scientists think it’s because they rarely encounter predators in their extremely remote, deep-sea habitats.

Photo: NOAA Okeanos Explorer, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

#science #nature #natural history #animals #cool animals #cephalopods #did you know #fact of the day #marine biology #ocean life #deep ocean #dumbo octopus #octopus

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protectoursharks · 5 months

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Any fun facts about basking sharks? (Really big sea puppies)

Cetorhinus maximus or Basking Shark

These are the second largest shark and fish in the world (after the whale shark), they can grow to be 12 m (40 ft) long!

Also like whale sharks, they're ram filter feeders. This means that to catch prey, they simply open their mouths, swim forward, and catch whatever happens to get in their way! This is why they (and other ram filter feeders) tend to have such large mouths. The basking sharks mouth can be up to 1 m (3ft wide).

While sharks are mostly thought to be solitary creatures, a lot of species do school and the basking shark is one of them! They're usually divided by sex (except during periods of mating), and schools of over 100 females have been spotted!

And probably the coolest fact about them- THEY CAN JUMP OUT OF THE WATER. Despite weighing around 5,000 kg (approx. 11,000 lbs) they can breach 1.2 m (4 ft) into the air! It's believed they do this as a method to remove parasites.

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chunkfunkgunk-offishal · 5 months

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Today on CHUNK! FUNK! GUNK! We rate

the MORAY EEL:

8/10 Chunk

10/10 Gunk

8/10 Funk

It’s been a long time coming, and anyone who’s been following this blog for any amount of time is well aware of my obsession with these funny wiggly boys.

Moray eels. My beloveds. Look at that girth, high chunk. The slime layer that makes it so that I cannot hug them without a proper wetsuit or fabric layer, absolute gunk. The big squishable cheeks, the weird sticky-out-y tube nostrils, the two mouths, incredibly funky.

Overall: 10/10

Everyone has a selfish dream of what they would do if they won the lottery. Mine is simple: buy a giant saltwater tank and fill it with 3 giant moray eels. (Preferably of different colors/patterns so I can tell them apart)

Everyone also has a dream of channeling their inner Disney Princess with a wild animal: I want to hug a moray eel.