

So when it comes to physique, they just let the pressure of the bottom of the ocean do all that work of maintaining a form.
#Deep sea ugly fish skin
The bones of this deep water fish are extremely thin and fragile compared to fishes that hang out near the surface because it takes a lot of energy to build bone.īlobfish also have quite a bit of fat and the jelly layer of flesh closest to their skin contains a ton of water - in fact, if you pick up a blobfish by the tail, most of their innards just slosh to the face like a water balloon. blobby? Well, it's actually a very clever adaptation: At the extreme deep-sea depths the blobfish calls its natural environment, they go about their business experiencing about 120 times the pressure we do on dry land.īecause of this, they don't grow longer than around 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) and have only enough muscle to allow them to swim in short bursts and not much bone to give their bodies form. Blobby and snapped a now-famous photo - some would go so far as to call it a mugshot - of this bulbous fish out of water. This deep-sea fish had a parasitic copepod hanging out of its mouth, and looked like the cartoon character Ziggy after a monthlong bender. The blobfish's disgruntled visage became an overnight international sensation in 2003, long before the The Ugly Animal Preservation Society got ahold of it, when the NORFANZ deep sea expedition pulled up a large, pink blobfish off the northwest coast of New Zealand. You would be upset, right? Well, it's a very good thing the blobfish ( Psychrolutes microporos), a member of the illustrious fathead sculpin family of deep-sea fishes, doesn't speak English and also lives very far away - 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) under the ocean off the coast of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand - because in 2013, it was voted the World's Ugliest Animal by The Ugly Animal Preservation Society. Imagine someone voted you the ugliest person at work.

Learn more in our article about abyssal fish.The blobfish looks like a normal fish under water, only becoming a blob when it transitions from the pressure at depth to the surface.

Expandable stomachs: capable of ingesting prey larger than themselves.Giant mouths and teeth: many times larger than their own bodies to prey on larger fish.Blindness: or extremely sensitive eyes due to lack of light.There are other peculiarities that are a result of adapting to these harsh conditions: However, these very particular characteristics are not the only surprising characteristics of the animals that live in the deep sea. Huge creatures, such as sea spiders that up to 1.5 meters in length, or crustaceans up to 50 centimeters are common in these places. Thus, the goal of bioluminescence is to allow them to attract prey, escape predators or even communicate with other animals. The light they produce is either on their antennas, specifically provided to captivate their prey, or on their skin, to capture or escape dangerous circumstances. Many animals in this group produce their own light thanks to special bacteria they possess. This is because these creatures must adapt to the pressure, extremely low temperatures and other extreme conditions.Ī particular characteristic of animals that live deep in the sea is bioluminescence. The deep sea fauna stands out for being a group with a large number of strange and monstrous animals.
