Thousands of strange creatures found deep in ocean

Thousands of strange creatures found deep in ocean

www.google.com

NEW ORLEANS — The creatures living in the depths of the ocean are as weird and outlandish as the creations in a Dr. Seuss book: tentacled transparent sea cucumbers, primitive "dumbos" that flap ear-like fins, and tubeworms that feed on oil deposits.
A report released Sunday recorded 17,650 species living below 656 feet, the point where sunlight ceases. The findings were the latest update on a 10-year census of marine life.
"Parts of the deep sea that we assumed were homogenous are actually quite complex," said Robert S. Carney

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Interesting! Does this also shed light on the possibility of life on other planets developing in similar conditions? I think this is a great article, hope it's not already been posted.

I also wonder what the possibility is of finding extremely large unknown creatures, or creatures that were thought to be extinct, down deep in the dark areas of the worlds oceans.

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Damn, I was hoping for pictures!

Second line.

Originally posted by treemanx


Interesting! Does this also shed light on the possibility of life on other planets developing in similar conditions?

I tend to think so, we find life all over the planet in places that were previously thought uninhabitable. Discoveries like these just go to show that given the chance life can thrive just about anywhere.

I know we're a long way off, I'd like to think years as opposed to decades, but I can't wait to see what we find under the ice of Europa. Microbial would be nice and all but it would be incredible to discover something we could actually see with the naked eye.

edit for grammar x2

[edit on 23-11-2009 by bigern]

[edit on 23-11-2009 by bigern]

Originally posted by bigern[
I know we're a long way off, I'd like to think years as opposed to decades, but I can't wait to see what we find under the ice of Europa. Microbial would be nice and all but it would be incredible to discover something we could actually see with the naked eye.

edit for grammar x2

[edit on 23-11-2009 by bigern]

[edit on 23-11-2009 by bigern]

I was thinking the same thing about Europa. I wonder how closely the conditions match? Earth's deep sea, compared to Europa's? Makes you think!

Yeah , I've always felt it to be Arrogant for us as a People to assume that we know the conditions that make up all life. My main Argument was this very point. Thank you for this Post.

Marine Biologist in Training side talking:

This is a 10 year census, therefore those numbers are not surprising.

I don't know why people tend to compare life in the deep sea to life on other planets. Deep sea life is not anoxic, there is still oxygen present. Most deep sea creatures are awesome and live off of the debris that falls from higher zonation levels and eat other deep sea creatures. Most of these organisms can go without eating for really, really long periods of time. But there still needs to be life closer to the surface, and therefore light enough to create significant amounts of life towards the surface.

You can find pictures by looking separately for all the marine discoveries in the past ten years. There are tons of threads on this website, as well.

In terms of large creatures, the probability is very small in most cases. All vertebrates in the deep sea are quite small. Some invertebrates, specifically isopods, can grow to be rather extraordinarily large in the deep sea. Some tube worms, also invertebrates, are very large and tend to thrive around vents. So... large invertebrate species? Yes. Large vertebrate species? No.

In terms of creatures thought to be extinct, well, we don't know the majority of what's down there to begin with. Therefore, we don't actually have a list of species thought to be extinct from the deep sea, because we didn't really know they existed.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by ravenshadow13]

www.msnbc.msn.com...

AH, you beat me to it!

What weird looking creatures that make no sense looking like that

reply to post by ModernAcademia

What weird looking creatures that make no sense looking like that

And yet, looking at that sea cucumber, I would say it is pure function, in an extremely minimalist sort of way. Nothing there that doesn't have a distinct purpose and not more of it than is absolutely required to get the job of feeding and survival done.

On the other hand if I saw a drawing of it and was told it was drawn by a person high on some drug, I would have believed it without a doubt. Life is stunning!

Originally posted by treemanx


Interesting! Does this also shed light on the possibility of life on other planets developing in similar conditions? I think this is a great article, hope it's not already been posted.

I also wonder what the possibility is of finding extremely large unknown creatures, or creatures that were thought to be extinct, down deep in the dark areas of the worlds oceans.

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Likely that is the case that somewhere out there there's life existing in the very same conditions, but I highly doubt they'd have any intelligence.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


That sea cucumber has the same body structure as sea cucumbers that aren't from the deep sea. The reason it is translucent is that, like many other deep sea creatures, it lacks pigment. That makes sense. Why would pigment be necessary if no one can see you on a day to day basis?

reply to post by ldyserenity


Are you insinuating that the deep sea creatures on our own planet have any intelligence? Or are you just stating a general hypothesis?

I'm positive that at least gastropods are "intelligent" and that actually, some defenses of sponges and even simpler organisms could be identified as "intelligent responses."

reply to post by treemanx


if you look at it we really dont know whats going on down there, we havent invented the technology to go down and do detailed studies of the worlds oceans. There are some crushing pressures a couple of miles down. I imagine there are some really interesting things to see down there. not to mention the thousands of wreaks from across the centuries..