It’s a fish. It’s a plant. No wait, it’s a sea creature! How beautiful are the colorful and graceful creatures of the deep sea?
Did you know that there are 300 species of octopuses? Did you know that some of them glow? What do you know about the Dumbo Octopus? Let’s look at all the cool, strange, and awesome animals of the water!
Dumbo Octopus
This octopus is known as the deepest living octopus of all octopus species and resides on the bottom, or hovering just above the bottom, of the seafloor. The Dumbo octopus has a semi-translucent body with a “U” or “V” shell that gives the creature some shape. Dumbo octopuses can be short, squat, and yellow while others can be giant and brown, resembling a sea jelly. Some dumbo octopuses have suckers and spines on all of their tentacles while others look more like the traditional octopus.
Vampire Squid
The scientific name of this squid literally translates to Vampire Squid from Hell. It’s a small cephalopod found throughout temperate and tropical oceans in deep sea conditions. The vampire squid shares characteristics with both octopuses and squids. They have gelatinous bodies and can be jet-black to pale red, depending on where they are and what light they are viewed in. Webbed skin connects its eight arms and you can only find suckers on the distal halves, or the part of the arms located furthest from their bodies.
Christmas Tree Worms
Also known as spirobranchus giganteus, this creature is similar to most tube building polychates. They have tubular bodies lined with chaeta. These small apendages aid the worms mobility. The worms move only inside of its own tubes, so they have no specialized appendages to help them move or swim. The Spirobranchus Giganteus has two “crowns” shaped like Christmas trees, which give them their distinctive look. While the worms themselves have no commercial fishery importance to humans, they are highly sought after for picture purposes. Sport divers are especially interested in these underwater photography subjects and will travel from the Caribbean to the Indo-Pacific just to snap a pic.
Squidworm
Also known as Teuthidodrilus Samae, you can find these creatures in the Celebes Sea in the western Pacific Ocean. Squidworms were observed and collected during a deep-water expedition in 2007. This area is a part of the Coral triangle, an area known for its biodiversity. These animals are a light brown while they are living. Once they’re collected for preservation, they become light black in color. The body of a squidworm is gelatinous and has 10 anterior appendages over the length of its body. Two tentacles are used to collect food and the other eight are a part of its respiratory and sensory system.
Sea Angel
Sea angels can survive in a wide variety of geographic areas including polar regions, under sea ice, to equatorial and tropic seas. These animals are called sea angels but are actually a predatory sea snail. Sea angels are a part of a large group of small, swimming sea slugs. These creatures are also gelatinous, mostly transparent, and very small. The largest of the species is only 5 centimeters. Some sea angels feed exclusively on sea butterflies. They use their mouths, similar to mollusks, and their tentacles to grasp their prey. The sea angels can swim about twice as fast as the sea butterflies.
Glowing Sucker Octopus
This octopus has a rare trait, it’s bioluminescent. There is only one other octopus that exhibits bioluminescence. Glowing sucker octopuses have legs that are of unequal length. Two-thirds of their “arms” are connected by two webs. One web is a dorsal complete membrane and the other, a ventrical partial one, making this creature look like an umbrella. Each arm has about 60 adhesive suckers. These octopuses are reddish-brown and use their bioluminecense for defense from predators and to lure planktonic crustaceans, their favorite thing to eat. You can find these creatures at great depths in the north Atlantic Ocean.
Leafy Seadragon
These sea creatures are also known as Glauert’s seadragon. Leafy seadragons are a part of the marine family including seadragons, pipefish, and seahorses. Leafy seadragon are found on the southwestern coast of Australia. Their name comes from their look, with long, leaf-like protrusions coming out from all over their body. These protrusions are used for protection, as they camouflage the creature, and cause them to look like floating seaweed.
Seeing these in real life would be so cool, and so strange! The bright color and intricate designs give these creatures an unearthly look. Do you have a favorite strange sea creature?