We all know from school that many ancient animals that once inhabited the planet have long since become extinct. But did you know that there are now animals on Earth that saw dinosaurs? And then there are animals that have been around longer than the trees these dinosaurs ate the leaves from. However, many of these ancient representatives of the fauna have remained virtually unchanged over the millions of years of their existence. Who are these old-timers on our Earth and what is so special about them?
1. Jellyfish
The first place in our “rating” is rightfully occupied by jellyfish. Scientists believe that jellyfish appeared on earth about 600 million years ago.The most big jellyfish, which the man caught, had a diameter of 2.3 meters. Jellyfish do not live long, about a year, because they are a delicacy for fish. Scientists are puzzling over how jellyfish perceive nerve impulses from the organs of vision, because they do not have a brain.
2. Nautilus
Nautiluses have lived on Earth for more than 500 million years. This cephalopods. Females and males differ in size. The nautilus shell is divided into chambers. The mollusk itself lives in the largest chamber, and uses the remaining compartments, filling or pumping out with biogas, as a float for diving to depth.
3. Horseshoe crabs
These marine arthropods are rightfully considered living fossils, because they have lived on Earth for more than 450 million years. To give an idea of how long this is, horseshoe crabs are older than trees.
It was not difficult for them to survive all the known global disasters, practically unchanged in appearance. Horseshoe crabs can rightfully be called animals " blue bloods" Their blood, unlike ours, is blue, because it is saturated with copper, and not iron, like human blood.
The blood of horseshoe crabs has amazing properties- when it reacts with microbes, clots are formed. This is how horseshoe crabs create a barrier against germs. A reagent is made from the blood of horseshoe crabs and used to test medications for purity.
4. Neopilins
Neopilina is a mollusk that has lived on Earth for approximately 400 million years. He has not changed in appearance. Neopilins live on great depths in the oceans.5. Coelacanth
Coelacanth is a modern fossil animal that appeared on our planet approximately 400 million years ago. Over the entire period of its existence, it has remained virtually unchanged. On this moment Coelacanth is on the verge of extinction, so catching these fish is strictly prohibited.
6. Sharks
Sharks have existed on Earth for more than 400 million years. Sharks are very interesting animals. People have been exploring them for many years and never cease to be amazed at their uniqueness.For example, a shark’s teeth grow throughout its life, the most big sharks can reach 18 meters in length. Sharks have an excellent sense of smell - they can smell blood at a distance of hundreds of meters. Sharks practically do not feel pain, because their body produces a certain “opium” that dulls pain.
Sharks are amazingly adaptable. For example, if there is not enough oxygen, they can “shut down” part of the brain and use less energy. Sharks can also regulate the salinity of water by producing special means. Shark vision is several times better than that of cats. IN dirty water they can see up to 15 meters away. 
7. Cockroaches
These are real old-timers on Earth. Scientists say that cockroaches have inhabited the planet for more than 340 million years. They are hardy, unpretentious and fast - this is what helped them survive during the most turbulent periods of history on Earth.Cockroaches can live for some time without a head - after all, they breathe with the cells of the body. They are excellent runners. Some cockroaches run about 75 cm in a second. This is very good result relative to their height. And their incredible endurance is evidenced by the fact that they can withstand radiation almost 13 times more than humans.
Cockroaches can live without water for about a month, without water for a week. Their female retains the male's seed for some time and can fertilize herself.
8. Crocodiles
Crocodiles appeared on Earth about 250 million years ago. Surprisingly, crocodiles first lived on land, but then they liked to spend a significant part of their time in the water.Crocodiles are amazing animals. They don't seem to do anything for nothing. To make food easier to digest, crocodiles swallow stones. This also helps them dive deeper.
There is a natural antibiotic in the crocodile's blood that helps them not get sick. Average duration Their lifespan is 50 years, but some individuals can live up to 100 years. Crocodiles cannot be trained and can be considered the most dangerous animals on the planet.
9. Shchitni
Shchitni appeared on Earth during the period of dinosaurs approximately 230 million years ago. They live almost all over the world, except Antarctica.Surprisingly, the shields have not changed in appearance, they only became smaller in size. The largest scale insects were found measuring 11 cm, the smallest - 2 cm. If the scale insects are hungry, cannibalism is possible among them.
10. Turtles
Turtles inhabited the Earth approximately 220 million years ago. Turtles differ from their ancient ancestors in that they have no teeth and have learned to hide their heads. Turtles can be considered long-lived. They live up to 100 years. They see, hear, and have a keen sense of smell. Turtles remember human faces.If the temperature in the nest where the female laid eggs is high, females will be born; if it is low, only males will be born.
11. Hatteria
Hatteria is a reptile that appeared on Earth more than 220 million years ago. Now the tuataria live in New Zealand.Hatteria looks like an iguana or lizard. But this is just a similarity. Hatterias established a separate detachment - beak-headed. This animal has a “third eye” on the back of its head. Tuttaria have slow metabolic processes, so they grow very slowly, but they can easily live up to 100 years.
12. Spiders
Spiders have lived on Earth for more than 165 million years. The oldest web was found in amber. Her age became 100 million years. A female spider can lay several thousand eggs at a time - this is one of the factors that has helped them survive to this day. Spiders have no bones; their soft tissues are covered by a hard exoskeleton.The web could not be made artificially in any laboratory. And those spiders that were sent into space spun three-dimensional webs.
It is known that some spiders can live up to 30 years. Biggest famous spider has a length of almost 30 cm, and the smallest is half a millimeter.
13. Ants
Ants are amazing animals. It is believed that they have lived on our planet for more than 130 million years, while practically not changing their appearance.Ants are very smart, strong and organized animals. We can say that they have their own civilization. They have order in everything - they are divided into three castes, each of which does its own thing.
Ants are very good at adapting to circumstances. Their population is the largest on Earth. To imagine how many there are, imagine that there are about a million ants per inhabitant of the planet. Ants are also long-lived. Sometimes queens can live up to 20 years! They are also amazingly smart - ants can teach their fellows to look for food.
14. Platypuses
Platypuses have lived on Earth for more than 110 million years. Scientists suggest that at first these animals lived in South America, but then they got to Australia. In the 18th century, the skin of platypuses was first seen in Europe and was considered... a fake.Platypuses are excellent swimmers; they easily obtain food from the river bottom using their beaks. Platypuses spend almost 10 hours a day underwater.
Platypuses could not be bred in captivity, but in wildlife Today there are quite a few of them left. Therefore, animals are listed in the International Red Book.
15. Echidna
The echidna can be called the same age as the platypus, because it has inhabited the Earth for 110 million years.Echidnas look like hedgehogs. They boldly guard their territory, but when in danger they burrow into the ground, leaving only a bunch of needles on the surface.
The echidna does not have sweat glands. In hot weather they move little; in cold weather they can hibernate, thus regulating their heat exchange. Echidnas are long-lived. In nature they live up to 16 years, and in zoos they can live up to 45 years.
I wonder if a person can live on Earth for that long?
Coelacanth, or coelacanth, - sole representative lobe-finned fish. It was thought to have gone extinct about 70 million years ago. Zoologists first learned about its existence in 1938. Since then, coelacanth has become synonymous with “living fossils.”
But scientists foresaw this. Although, by and large, they had almost no hope. But, as often happens in the world of science, the search that lasted for many decades was finally crowned with success. Incredible, but true: 60 years after the first discovery off the coast of South Africa, a living relic - a real prehistoric fish that lived in the sea 300 million years ago - was caught in the net of Indonesian fishermen from the island of Sulawesi. It was a coelacanth. The discovery so excited the scientific community and the public that the popular English magazine Nature immediately recognized it as the most outstanding event of the year.
Chance, as always, helped bring him closer.
In 1997, a young married couple appeared in Sulawesi, united also professional interests. American ichthyologist Mark Erdman and his Indonesian wife, also a marine biologist, decided to spend their honeymoon in the exotic surroundings of the northern part of Sulawesi, which differs from the southern part of this island, perhaps, only in that it lies just above the equator, therefore, in a different hemisphere. While walking one day through the market of the seaside town of Manado, which was full of outlandish variety, the Erdman couple purely by chance noticed an unusual large fish - an exhibition specimen, so to speak, which, accordingly, could not be bought. But it was possible to take a photo. Which the couple did successfully.
However, Mark Erdman, as a specialist, only had to take one look at the curiosity to understand that this was a rare specimen of the legendary coelacanth.
What was surprising was how the coelacanth got to Indonesia. Previously, it was believed that the range of the coelacanth extends no further than the Comoros Islands, which lie in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel - between the northern tip of Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa. And from Comoros to Sulawesi is a good 10,000 km. Which Mark Erdman knew very well. And then he decided to engage in a private investigation with his wife, fearing for the time being to make his discovery public. Erdman could be completely understood: he wanted to collect more facts.
And the first such fact turned out to be that the coelacanth, which Sulawesi fishermen have long dubbed “raja-laut”, which means “king of the sea”, is not so very rare- no, no, and he gets caught in fishing nets. And the fact that it has not yet caught the eye of scientists, who is to blame for this? At least not fishermen.
Be that as it may, a year later - on June 30, 1998 - another specimen of the coelacanth landed in the net of fishermen from Manado, which they set for sharks. One problem: in the cage where he was placed, he lived only for three hours, leaving behind only a memory - in the form of a photograph and description taken by Erdman, a stuffed animal and unanswered questions that added to the treasury of zoological secrets. As it happened more than once - both in 1938 and in 1952.
And then this happened. The first living coelacanth was caught at the mouth of the South African Halumna River. Or - the last representative of lobe-fins, superorder bony fish, which appeared in the Middle Devonian period and - what’s remarkable! - gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates. However, coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago. But it was not there!..
The caught individual reached more than one and a half meters in length and weighed about 60 kg. WITH light hand Professor J.L.-B. Smith, who studied the rare find inside and out, she got her scientific name: Latimeria chalumnae - after the place where it was discovered. The individual had eight fins, and four of them closely resembled the legs of an amphibian in its earliest stages of development. Smith and other researchers were no less surprised by the respiratory apparatus of the fish, or rather, one of its components - an organ similar to primitive, just forming lungs. Thus, obvious confirmation was obtained the most important position evolutionary theory that life came to earth from the sea. And that the so-called lung fish were the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates.
In addition, scientists realized that the coelacanth caught near east coast South Africa, ended up in those waters, basically, by accident. The relict individual, they suggested, was most likely brought there by the Mozambique Current from the north.
The guess was confirmed sixteen years later. In 1952, another living specimen of the coelacanth was caught in the waters of Anjouan Island, part of the Comoros archipelago. Then it turned out that the Comorians have been fishing for this fish since ancient times and call it “gombessa”. And for them it is not at all a curiosity.
Thus, the range of the prehistoric lobe-finned fish resurrected from oblivion was established - the western part of the Indian Ocean, the northern entrance to the Mozambique Strait. However, these boundaries, as we already know, turned out to be conditional. Twelve years later, scientists have received factual evidence that the Comorian "Gombessa" was once seen in another ocean, off the coast of a completely different continent.
In 1964, the Belgian naturalist Maurice Steiner bought from a Spanish antiquarian a 17th-century silver medallion depicting a coelacanth, which was reproduced with amazing accuracy. But the most curious thing is that the medallion was not made in the Comoros Islands or even in Europe. Oddly enough, thousands of miles from the African and European shores - in Mexico. And this fact was confirmed for certain - through chemical analysis of silver and the establishment of a very characteristic Spanish-American method of minting and decorating jewelry, which was made precisely in the 17th century, and not just anywhere, but in the New World.
The reality of the Mexican coelacanth was confirmed in 1993. French biologist Roman E in the town of Beloxi (Mississippi), just on the northern coast Gulf of Mexico, acquired three large dried scales, reminiscent of medium-sized flat shells. They seemed to have been extracted from the scaly integument of one of the coelacanths described in detail by Smith in 1938 and 1952.
And then there is the “raja-laut”, very similar to the individuals classified by Smith. The only thing that distinguished the “sea king” from the island of Sulawesi from his Comorian relative was the color. The Sulawesi coelacanth had a distinct brown color with yellowish spots, and not the steel-blue color of the Comorian.
And finally, according to another French cryptozoologist, Michel Raynal, the range of the “raja laut” extends much further than the Sulawesi Sea. Anyway, oh mysterious fish, according to descriptions very similar to a coelacanth, Reynal had heard more than once from Philippine fishermen. And this is the Pacific Ocean!
Who are they and where are they from?
Shark is one of ancient inhabitants world ocean. The first sharks appeared in Paleozoic era, 350-320 million years ago, and similar to modern ones - 150 million years. Together with stingrays, they also have the biological name “selachia”, and belong to the group of cartilaginous fish. Unlike most fish, their skeleton is completely absent bone, but the body is covered with scaly scales, the tissue of which is identical in structure to tooth tissue. These and other features allow us to consider them the most primitive of existing fish. However, over millions of years they have adapted to life perfectly. Again, the characteristics of teeth, motor, nervous system and sense organs completely equate them in level of organization with the most progressive bony fish, and in some places they provide advantages.
In total, about 350 species of sharks are known. Most belong to the so-called true predators, individual species(interestingly, the largest ones), such as giant, whale and largemouth, feed on plankton.
They...
The bad reputation of sharks is as old as knowing them. There is still no certainty on this issue. Sometimes both children and scuba divers swim and swim close to sharks - and nothing bad happens. And other times, sharks grab swimmers on crowded beaches, in shallow water, where a person is waist-deep and where nothing like this has ever happened before.
The last two years brought rich prey to the sharks World War. As a result, even staff officers realized how dangerous sharks were to soldiers, sailors and pilots in distress in the tropics. And at the beginning of the war, in the “Manual for Survivors of a Shipwreck”, published in the USA, it was written about sharks like this: “they are slow, cowardly and can be frightened by slaps in the water”... Probably, similar recommendations can be encountered even now. But this is what they led to, using the example of the above-mentioned sailors:
“The transport Nova Scotia was sunk off the coast of Southeast Africa, killing a thousand people. There were many corpses floating around in life jackets - and all the bodies were without legs”...
At the moment, it is believed that there are three main reasons for shark attacks:
- Blood in the water.
- Injured or struggling fish on the hook.
- The swimmer's inept floundering and his fear of the shark.
Statistics have shown: in most cases, sharks attack people swimming, walking through the water, or standing in it, when their feet are in the water and their heads and shoulders are above it. Therefore, for scuba divers, the most dangerous moment when meeting a shark is leaving the water and appearing on the surface.
If we exclude shipwrecks, then two thirds of all recorded shark attacks are committed in shallow waters, at a depth of no more than one and a half meters, a hundred or so meters from the shore, mainly in the tropics and subtropics, where the water temperature is at least 18 degrees. But there are many exceptions here: there have been cases of death from sharks in very cool water (12 degrees). But in general it is established: when the water is colder than 15 degrees, the most dangerous sharks they lose their appetite, are lethargic, and, fortunately for them, two-legged “game” is no longer attracted to them.
...and we them
Possibilities of using a shark as commercial fish very diverse. The meat of most species of these fish is edible, nutritious and has long been consumed in many countries of Europe and Asia. The liver of sharks is also of great value - its weight in a number of species ranges from 5 to 30% of the total body weight. Shark liver contains 40-70% fat, rich in vitamin A. In the late 60s. A fat-like substance was discovered in the liver of some sharks, which significantly increased the body's resistance to cancer. They also hunted sharks in Russia - in 1862, in the Kola Bay, Russian Pomors caught 5 thousand pounds of polar shark liver.
From the cartilaginous skeleton of sharks has long been industrial scale get gelatin and glue.
Shark skin (shagreen) is used for a wide variety of purposes - it is used to make haberdashery goods and shoes, and is used as an abrasive material for grinding. valuable species wood, as well as when processing felt. Shark skin has extraordinary tensile strength, withstanding forces of up to 500 kg/cm 2, while cowhide - only 300 kg/cm 2.
An equally valuable part of a shark’s body is its fins. Typically their mass ranges from 1.7 to 4% total weight fish. All fins longer than 15 cm, with the exception of the caudal one, processed accordingly, are used to prepare a delicious soup. Boiled and peeled fins are canned, and the resulting canned food is also used to make soups. The main consumer of fins and the above-mentioned soup is China, which has caused a noticeable decline in the number of sharks in recent years.
When fishing for sharks, almost all fishing gear that currently exists is used - their choice depends on the species composition of sharks, the bottom topography in the fishing area and other factors. Large sharks They are caught on longlines, less often harpooned, and small species are caught by trawls and nets.
IN Lately there is a significant decrease in shark catches - if in 1967-68. About 340 thousand tons of them were mined in all oceans, then by the end of the 90s. this value has more than halved. This is primarily due to a decrease in the number of sharks as a result of their active fishing in previous years. Given the slow rate of shark reproduction, many countries have begun to regulate their fishing.
Katran is almost no longer exotic
And finally, purely pragmatic information. Recently, a number of travel agencies Black Sea coast Among the offers in the Caucasus is shark fishing! Hunting for the Black Sea shark (katrana) takes place in the territorial waters of Russia, along the Black Sea coast from Cape Panagia to Cape Idokopas at a distance from the coast 12 nautical miles. The recommended season is from late May to early November, with the peak being in August-September. Fishing time in the open sea is 24 hours. The katran has a spindle-shaped body, sometimes up to 2 meters in length, ending in a multi-lobed tail. The snout is pointed, the mouth is transverse, in front of two dorsal fins- sharp thorns covered with poisonous mucus. Brown skin with white spots on the sides is covered with diamond-shaped scales with sharp spines. The belly is white. There is no swim bladder. Sharks are heavier than water, and therefore movement is their lifelong destiny. They stay in the water as long as they move or at least move their tail, otherwise they drown. Yes and high speed movement is also a significant factor in their well-being. Only while moving do sharks get enough oxygen into their body through their gills. Otherwise they may suffocate.
Amateur fishing black sea shark is gradually gaining more and more popularity. They catch it from a small vessel anchored or drifting. In both cases, they use bait from finely chopped fish - this is necessary so that the odorous trail spread by the bait is continuous.
As a rule, they are caught with several rods of the 15-24 kg class, equipped with powerful multiplier reels. The cost of such entertainment is around $1000.
Peter Plyukhin
When preparing the material we used:
- "Shadows in the sea. The sharks, skates and rays" by Harold W. McCormic and Tom Allen with Captain William E. Young
- V.V. Zdanovich “Fishing and use of sharks”
Lobe-finned fish are one of the oldest species of fish, known to mankind. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, they were considered extinct about 70 million years ago. Their fossilized remains have been discovered in many freshwater and marine bodies of water on the planet. A careful examination of the fossils allowed scientists to assume that these fish belonged to the category of quite serious predators. Numerous conical teeth, powerful muscles and a fairly decent body length (from 7 cm to 5 m) made this animal a serious contender in any aquatic environment.
Lobe-finned fish got their name from the unusual structure of the skeleton of their fleshy fins. It consisted of several branched, brush-shaped segments. Such a structure of fins not only allowed the fish to carry out quite a large number of time at the bottom of a reservoir, but also successfully move along the bottom with the help of fins. The main result of such movements was quite powerful muscles.
Having weighed all the data obtained, modern scientists have come to the conclusion that general characteristics fish allows us to draw a parallel between lobe-finned fish and the first amphibians. This conclusion suggests itself on the basis of some interesting features present in both classes. One of the confirmations of such a theory was Tiktaalik. A creature belonging to lobe-finned fish, endowed with the appearance of a crocodile, had greatest number traits that unite it with amphibians. It had gills and lungs, and its fins were almost similar in structure to the limbs of an animal.
Based on all of the above, science has come to the conclusion that the superorder lobe-finned fish took a direct part in the evolution of amphibians, gave life to other creatures on earth, and itself became completely extinct.
However, this statement was considered correct only until 1938, when a huge sensation among scientists was created unusual fish caught in South Africa. While looking at another catch in an ordinary fishing trawler, Ms. Latimer came across a strange blue fish about 150 cm long and weighing about 57 kg. With her find, the woman went to the museum, however, there she could not determine the species of the specimen. Unable to keep the fish alive, Latimer had the creature stuffed with the help of a taxidermist. Imagine the surprise of the famous Professor Smith when in this exhibit he saw all the characteristics of a representative of the lobe-finned order. After careful examination and analysis of the find, this fish was named after the woman who discovered it. Now Latimeria chalumnae is the only living lobe-finned fish on the planet.
The hype surrounding the unusual find forced many people to rush in search of these strange inhabitants of reservoirs. However, the caught coelacanth quickly dies, deprived natural conditions a habitat. That is why free fishing of “resurrected” fish was prohibited and its main populations were placed under strict state protection.
Coelacanth lobe-finned fish, like their ancient ancestors, are convinced predators. Just like millions of years ago, they terrify their victims. big amount sharp teeth and strong strong fins reminiscent of animal paws. Under the cover of night, coelacanths lie in wait for their prey in shelters: squids and smaller fish. However, they themselves can easily become dinner for larger predators, which are sharks.
The largest specimens of this species reach a length of about 2 m and weigh almost 100 kg. The body length of a newborn baby coelacanth is about 33 cm. Scientists believe that babies grow rather slowly, but due to their tendency to live a long life, they eventually grow into quite large specimens.
1. Coelacanth. It was previously believed that these fish became extinct in the Late Cretaceous (100.5 - 66 million years ago), but in December 1938, curator of the East London Museum (South Africa) Marjorie Courtney-Latimer discovered a fish with hard scales and unusual fins in the catch of local fishermen . It later turned out that this fish lived hundreds of millions of years ago and is a living fossil. Since this coelacanth was discovered in the Chalumna River, it was named Latimeria chalumnae. And in September 1997, in the waters near the city of Manado, located on the northern coast of the island of Sulawesi, scientists noticed a second species of these fish - Latimeria menadoensis. According to genetic studies, these species separated 30-40 million years ago, but the differences between them are small. Adult coelacanths can reach 2 meters in length and weigh up to 90 kilograms. Author of the photo:Daniel Jolivet. Thus, both species have a three-lined caudal fin, which is characteristic of fish that lived millions of years ago. But main feature coelacanths lie in the fact that their powerful fins move diagonally, like the limbs of land-based four-legged animals. In turn, the hard scales of these fish serve as protection from predators. Being nocturnal fish, coelacanths spend the day in underwater caves at a depth of 95 to 100 meters, and when evening comes, they emerge from their hiding places and begin to look for food. Interestingly, these fish do not spawn, but produce up to 26 fully developed young. Their pregnancy is believed to last about a year or more. 2. Ginkgo biloba. In the wild, this plant grows only in eastern China. However, 200 million years ago it was widespread throughout the planet, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, in areas with temperate climate And high humidity. In Siberia, Jurassic and Early Cretaceous period There were so many plants of the Ginkgo class that their remains are found in most deposits of those periods. According to researchers, in the autumn of that time the earth was literally covered with ginkgo leaves, like a carpet. Then there were 50 species of plants from the ginkgo class, but today there is only one. However, the wild form of even this species may soon disappear. After all, ginkgo biloba grows only in two small areas of China, which today are actively cultivated by humans. That is why ginkgo has been given the status of “endangered species”. Ginkgo biloba. Photo by: Dragan Maksimovic. At favorable conditions Ginkgo may well live for more than 1,000 years. It is resistant to industrial air smoke and various fungal and viral diseases, and besides, it is rarely affected by insects. The tree can reach a height of 30 meters, its trunk is 3 meters in diameter. It has a pyramidal crown shape, which becomes even more magnificent with age. And its leaves, in their shape, resemble the leaves of ancient ferns. This tree is mentioned in Chinese books from the 17th century. Since that time, in China, Japan and Korea, ginkgo biloba began to be considered sacred tree and a symbol of endurance and longevity. In 1730, the ancient tree was brought to Europe and planted in the Milan Botanical Garden, and approximately 50 years later it was brought to North America. After this, ginkgo began to be cultivated, and the plant began to appear in gardens and parks around the world. 3. Small deer, or kanchil,- this is not only the smallest (his height at the withers is no more than 25 centimeters, but Weight Limit about 2.5 kilograms), but also the most ancient look artiodactyls on Earth. These animals existed 50 million years ago, just when orders of ancient ungulates began to form. Since that time, the kanchila has remained almost unchanged and resembles its ancient ancestors more than other species. Small deer. Photo by: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen. It is the primitive features of appearance and behavior that make deer more similar to pigs than to artiodactyls. All species of kanchila lack horns, but have fangs that are used by males in battle. In addition, they have short legs, which makes them quite clumsy, but helps them easily get through thickets deciduous trees. Just like pigs, kanchilas have hooves on their legs with two lateral toes. Surprisingly, scientists believe that whales evolved from moisture-loving animals similar to deer. And this is quite likely, because today, as in ancient times, some species show a great love for water and spend a lot of time in reservoirs. 4. Mississippi shellfish. An alligator-like fish, the Mississippi shellfish (Atractosteus spathula) is one of the oldest fish living on Earth today. IN Mesozoic era her ancestors inhabited many bodies of water. Today, the Mississippi shellfish lives in the lower Mississippi River valley, as well as in some freshwater lakes in the United States. A 10-foot-long Mississippi panfish that was caught in 1910 in Moon Lake, Mississippi. IN North America Mississippian shellfish is the largest freshwater fish, which is usually between 2.4 m and 3 m in length and weighs at least 91 kg. As you might guess, the Mississippi shellfish is a predatory fish. It usually feeds on other fish, but with its sharp, needle-shaped teeth it can bite through even a young alligator. But, despite this, not a single case of an attack on a person has been recorded. Hunting for familiar prey, the carapace hides in reeds or thickets of other vegetation, and then quickly attacks its prey from cover. If the fish is not hunting, it swims slowly or even freezes, sticking its “beak” out of the water to breathe air. 5. Shield bug Triops cancriformis. These small freshwater crustaceans are considered the most ancient creatures living on Earth today. Representatives of this species have hardly changed since Triassic period. At that time, dinosaurs had just appeared. Today, these animals live on almost every continent except Antarctica. However, shieldni Triops species cancriformis are most common in Eurasia. The unique way of life of shieldfish has helped this species to remain almost unchanged for such a long time. They spend their entire lives in temporary fresh water bodies such as puddles, ditches and ravines. There, shieldfish feed on everything that is smaller than them, and when there is a shortage of food, they often resort to cannibalism. Triops cancriformis. For more than one million years, in such reservoirs, shield cysts (developed embryos covered with thin shell) larvae appear. They usually hatch in one or two days. And within just two weeks they develop and become sexually mature individuals. After this, they mate and then bury the cysts in the ground. As soon as conditions favorable for shieldworms arise, larvae emerge from approximately half of the cysts. The other part remains in the ground in case the reservoir dries out very quickly, and the newly emerged scale insects die before they have time to bury their cysts. It is interesting that, despite the high prevalence of shieldfish on Earth, they remain poorly studied animals. For example, scientists cannot understand why shieldbills often swim belly up at the surface of the water, given that in this way they show their reddish abdomen and become visible to birds. 6. Metasequoia glyptostroboides. These conifers were widespread throughout Northern Hemisphere from Cretaceous to Neogene. However, today metasequoia can only be seen in the wild in central China, in the provinces of Hubei and Sichuan. Metasequoia glyptostroboides. This plant was first discovered as fossilized remains on the island of Hokkaido, and only in 1943 were living trees found in the mountains of China. And in 2012, a genetic study was carried out on the ancient remains of metasequoia, about 50-55 million years old and modern look, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, which revealed that the differences between them are very small. 7. Goblin Shark. The genus Mitsukurina, to which this species of shark belongs, first became known through fossils that date back to the Middle Eocene (about 49-37 million years ago). The only one now existing look of this genus, the goblin shark, inhabiting the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, retained some primitive features of its ancient relatives, and today is a living fossil. Science knows little about this unusual appearance creation. The goblin shark has very flexible jaws that extend outward when it catches prey. Like all sharks, it feeds on fish, for which its front – long and sharp – teeth are designed, but it will not refuse crustaceans and mollusks. The rear teeth of a shark are adapted precisely for chewing shells. Goblin shark. Photo by: Dianne Bray. This shark was first discovered in 1898 off the Jordanian coast of the Red Sea (in the Gulf of Aqaba). To date, only 45 specimens have been seen. The largest known specimen reached just over three meters in length and weighed 210 kilograms. Today, scientists do not have enough information about this fish to say whether this species is endangered or not. In many ways, what makes them so rare to observe is the fact that the goblin shark lives on great depth. Most specimens were seen at depths of 270 meters and 960 meters. However, several such sharks have been spotted at a depth of 1300 meters.
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