Life on planet Earth originated in the ocean. It was from the water that the first animals came to land. The inhabitants of the seas and oceans are distinguished by their enormous species diversity. All marine representatives of the organic world live in the water column and on the ocean floor. Scientists count more than 150 thousand inhabitants of the oceans and seas, including plant and animal organisms that inhabit the sea and ocean spaces of the planet.

Inhabitants of the seas and oceans: diversity and living conditions

Everyone knows that the aquatic environment is strikingly different from the land-air environment. Significant depths are excommunicated by low temperatures, high blood pressure. The inhabitants of the seas and oceans, living at great depths, practically do not see sunlight, but despite this variety of life forms, it is amazing.

Almost all useful substances that are necessary for the life of the inhabitants of the deep sea dissolve in water. The water space warms up very slowly, but heat transfer occurs over a long period of time. Of course, at significant depths the temperature changes almost imperceptibly. An important component for all creatures in the water column is the presence of oxygen. In the absence of free oxygen, hydrogen sulfide is formed, this is typical for the Black Sea and Arabian Sea.

For full development, the inhabitants of the seas and oceans need protein, which is found in large quantities in

Flora of the oceans and seas

Sea plants contain chlorophyll, a green pigment. With its help, the energy of the sun is accumulated. Water splits into oxygen and hydrogen, then hydrogen enters into a chemical reaction with carbon dioxide from the surrounding aquatic environment. After this, starch, sugar and proteins are formed.

At relatively shallow depths, rich vegetable world. The inhabitants of the deep sea find food for themselves.

One of the most common algae is kelp; their length can reach six meters. It is from this plant that iodine is obtained, and they are also used as fertilizer for fields.

Another of the brightest inhabitants of the seas and oceans (mainly southern latitudes) are marine organisms, which are called - But they should not be confused with plants, these are real animals. They live in large colonies, attaching themselves to rocky surfaces.

Plants need sunlight, so plants are found at least 200 meters deep. Below only live the inhabitants of the seas and oceans who do not need the light of the sun.

Sea creatures

Previously, it was believed that no one lives below six kilometers of depth due to the high pressure that the water column exerts on living beings. But scientists conducted deep-sea studies that confirmed the hypothesis that at great depths there are various species (crustaceans, worms, etc.). Some deep-sea inhabitants of the seas and oceans periodically rise to depths of up to a thousand meters. They do not float higher, because... Closer to the surface, large differences in water temperature are observed.

For many deep sea inhabitants who spend their entire lives at the bottom have no vision. But some parts of their body have special flashlights. They are needed to escape predators and to attract potential prey.

Animals of the seas and oceans feel comfortable in their environment, many of them do not need to adapt to seasonal environmental changes.

A special role in the life of many marine inhabitants is played by single-celled organisms, which are called plankton and move with the help of currents. They feed on many fish, which constantly follow them. With increasing depth, the amount of plankton decreases sharply.

Scientists have long proven that the inhabitants of the seas and oceans live in all water layers. These animals and plants are distinguished by great species diversity, as well as unusual shapes and colors. You can endlessly admire the various species of fish, corals and other marine inhabitants of the most bizarre forms that seem to be aliens from another planet and admire the perfection of nature.

In conclusion, I bring to your attention an extremely interesting documentary dedicated to different inhabitants of the seas and oceans entitled “The Most Dangerous Animals. Depths of the sea." Take a look, it will be interesting!

And in more detail, with interesting representatives the underwater world, you will be introduced to these articles:

There are many animals on our planet, the appearance of which is very unusual and bizarre. The underwater world, where creatures with fantastic appearance live, is especially attractive for its mystery and inaccessibility. Here are interesting facts about some underwater animals.

Jellyfish Atoll
The Atoll jellyfish is distributed in almost all seas and oceans, but swimmers should not be afraid of meeting it - after all, it never rises to the surface of the water. This unusual jelly-like beauty lives at a depth of over seven hundred meters. Like other inhabitants of the deep sea, which are not reached by the sun's rays, the Atoll jellyfish can glow. Some other jellyfish that swim closer to the surface of the water also have this feature - they glow blue, while Atolla glows bright red. Glow (or bioluminescence) occurs when the protein luciferin (a diabolical name, isn’t it?) breaks down in the jellyfish’s body. But why does the Atoll jellyfish need this? Maybe this is how she illuminates her path or scares away enemies? It turns out that the Atoll jellyfish begins to glow only in case of danger. If a predator appears in her field of vision, wanting to feast on her tender flesh, the cunning jellyfish “turns on” a bright light, which is visible at a distance of almost a hundred meters. This “lantern” attracts the attention of other deep-sea inhabitants, among which there are larger predators than the one attacking Atoll. The aggressor immediately forgets about the jellyfish, because he must save himself. And the Atoll jellyfish, taking advantage of the situation, quietly disappears, turning off the lights.

Blue Angel
A miniature mollusk that lives in warm tropical seas received a very accurate name. To "float" on the surface of the water, the Blue Angel swallows air bubbles. It feeds on other small creatures, some of which are very poisonous. But this does not scare the baby angel: their poison is absorbed in his body and used, if necessary, for his own protection.

The colors of the Angel also help to escape from enemies and not become lunch. On top it is blue (as is clear from the name) - this helps the Blue Angel to be invisible on the surface of the water for flying birds. And the belly of the mollusk is light silver, and saves it from predatory fish. But there is a danger that this light, ephemeral creature cannot avoid - the sea surf. As a result, huge numbers of Blue Angels become washed ashore and attract people's attention. Some people select these blue beauties for their aquariums, thereby saving their lives.

Pike blenny
These predatory thirty-centimeter fish live in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of up to seventy meters. I must say that they are quite aggressive, and can even attack large objects. There have been cases when pike blennies attacked swimmers. But, of course, this fish attracted our attention with its enormous mouth. The blenny needs it not only to catch prey, but also to assert itself. Firstly, such a wide-open mouth scares away many predators, thereby saving pike blennies from the dubious pleasure of being eaten. And, secondly, the size of the mouth determines which male is dominant. It happens like this. Two fish, with their mouths wide open, approach each other closely and touch their mouths. From the outside it seems that this is a friendly kiss between two brothers, but, in fact, this is a banal competition for superiority in these waters. Whichever male has the biggest mouth wins. The loser has no choice but to quickly swim away.

Tunicate
These sea creatures received this name due to the fact that their body is covered on the outside, like a blanket. thin shell. These strange animals look like some character from a science fiction movie. Their light body is a tube expanding upward. The wide opening of the head-hood is the mouth, and the small one on the side is the anus. It’s not for nothing that tunicates are also called sea flycatchers - the hunting principle is the same. Tunicates attach themselves to the bottom or to some underwater surfaces and wait patiently with their throats agape. It is clear that tunicates do not have to be particularly picky - whoever swims past is swallowed.

Harp sponge Chondrocladia lyra
The harp sponge is a predatory seabed dweller first discovered by humans recently (in 2012) near California. Little is known about the life of these creatures. What is clear is that they are attached to the bottom and lead a stationary lifestyle. Their body, similar to a harp or a comb, lying with its teeth up, has special sticky droplets at the tips, to which plankton sticks - this is how the harp sponge gets food.

Giant clam Tridacna
Tridacna is the largest bivalve of our planet, it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. This marine creature lives for more than a hundred years, attached to coral. This gives it constant access to food, which is probably why the mollusk is so huge. As a baby, the mollusk floats in the water column, feeding on plant foods, and as it grows, it settles on corals. An adult mollusk reaches such a size that its valves do not slam shut, and the body of the animal is visible through the gap. Its dimensions can be commensurate with the height of an adult - the length of the shell is 1.5 meters, and its weight is 200 kilograms. Among people living near the habitats of the tridacna, there are rumors that the mollusk also swallows people, although there is no exact evidence. But just in case, instructions have been developed for divers, which describe in detail the sequence of actions if you suddenly get swallowed by a cannibal mollusk (this is the common name for a tridacna).

Sunfish
This giant fish also has other names - “moon fish”, “head fish” or “mola mola”. It is truly huge - its length is over four meters, and its weight is more than two tons. The sunfish is widespread near Indonesia, which attracts a huge number of fans to this country. scuba diving. Despite its size, the mola mola is completely harmless - it doesn't even have teeth. It feeds on plankton floating by. She is even too lazy to swim, mostly the fish lies on the surface of the water and slowly moves its fins. Surprisingly, this hulk has a very small brain- its weight is only 4 grams. It seems that the moonfish does not shine with intelligence and intelligence (as well as beauty).

Deep sea angler fish Thaumatikht Akselya
Interesting fact. This deep sea fish is named after Danish prince Axel, of course, not because of their external similarity. Prince Axel was a man with quite a pleasant appearance and very respected in Denmark. Obviously, when such a terrible fish was first discovered by a Danish researcher in the middle of the last century, he decided to immortalize the name of the prince in such an unusual way.
Axel's Thaumatikht lives at a depth of 3,600 meters in the eastern Pacific Ocean. These fifty-centimeter fish are deep-sea anglerfish that have a luminous organ, although it is quite unusual.
Anglerfish are often "equipped" with a fishing rod located on their forehead that emits a light that attracts a "potential meal." But with Thaumatikht Axel everything is different. Its “light” organ is the escus gland, located deep in the mouth, in which special bacteria glow.
Very comfortably! Axel's Thaumatikht opens his unattractive and very large mouth, equipped with with sharp teeth, behind which the light flickers, attracting the attention of gullible and stupid fish. They, like moths, swim towards it and fall straight into the anglerfish’s stomach. Tom doesn't even have to chase his lunch!
But this angler still has difficulties. Sometimes creatures much larger than himself swim to him “to look for a light.” And when the “big dinner” tries to get to the luminous point, it, of course, gets stuck in Axel’s mouth, which often leads to the death of the would-be hunter.

Pelican fish (largemouth, pelican eel)
All these names belong to one fish, which also has a mouth of a very unusual size. And these names speak for themselves. Largemouth is a resident of tropical seas. It can also be called a deep sea fish as it is found at depths of up to 3000 meters.
Pelican fish or pelican eel. These names refer to the largemouth's "shape." This is a sixty-centimeter fish with a long narrow body, like an eel, and a small head with a stretchy throat, like a pelican. Moreover, the mouth makes up a third of the total length of the large mouth. And if you add tiny eyes and the absence of scales to this picture, then the portrait turns out to be even better!
The pelican fish is a deep-sea anglerfish with a luminous organ located at the tip of its tail. Like Thaumatikht Axel, the prey comes to light. But if Axel “chokes” on large animals, then largemouth does not. In addition to a stretchable throat, it has a stomach that is also capable of very stretching. This allows the pelican eel to eat very large prey.

Hairy clownfish
Its other name is “striped anglerfish”. This small fish common on not great depth(up to 50 meters), spending almost all the time motionless. Its body is covered with soft, long skin “hairs” that sway in the water. The clown fish has a special fishing rod on its forehead - a long growth with a bell at the end. A frozen anglerfish moves it, attracting prey. But sometimes there are problems: instead of small fish, the brush attracts large predatory fish, which bites off the fishing rod. The new one grows within a few weeks, and during this time the clownfish sits hungry. However, she easily endures such a forced hunger strike.

Sea bat
When you look at this fish, you get the impression that it carefully takes care of itself and never appears in public without makeup: its eyes are expressive, and its lips are painted with bright red lipstick! Although, in my opinion, this did not particularly decorate her. The beauty lives at a depth of 500 to 1000 meters, the pressure there is enormous, and therefore the bat has a body flattened like a pancake. He cannot swim, he only slowly walks along the bottom, moving his fins. And the bat is lazy to walk; most of the time it sits and waits for prey. As a bait, there is a fragrant growth on its forehead, which attracts prey. Batfish are not eaten, but they still found a use for it. It is covered with a hard shell; the fish is dried, pebbles are placed inside - the result is a rattle souvenir with an unusual glamorous face.

Spadefish pink
Lives off the coast of Tasmania. Another name for it is “walker fish”. Scientists suggest that previously the shovelfish was bottom-dwelling and could only walk. And she does it very quickly, practically running. In the process of evolution, it acquired fins. And the fish gradually learned to swim, although it does it rather poorly and slowly. The name says a lot about its appearance: its compressed body really resembles a shovel, and its long fins are more like hands. And even the beautiful pink color does not make her attractive. The walker fish is on the verge of extinction.

Psychedelic frog fish
This rather large fish (can reach half a meter in length and two kilograms in weight) is found in the Atlantic Ocean, near Florida. She most time lies at the bottom, buried in the ground - only the eyes are visible on the surface. This is how the frog fish (or toad fish) hunts. There are poisonous shoots on its body, so it is dangerous for swimmers and divers. It was called the frog fish not for its external resemblance to amphibians, but for the way it moves along the bottom. She does not swim, but moves by jumping, like a toad. It can also “walk” along the bottom, moving its fins like legs. But the most distinctive feature of the frog fish is that, unlike other fish, it can make sounds. Moreover, being in close proximity to her, listening to them is very painful for the ear (the intensity of the sounds is over 100 decibels). And they don’t look much like pleasant ones: sometimes you hear a rough whistle, sometimes wheezing, sometimes a nasty grinding sound. This is how the toad fish tells other inhabitants that the territory is occupied.

Ambon scorpionfish
The Ambon scorpionfish is quite widespread in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, in the Red and Yellow Seas, as well as off the coast of Fiji and Australia. This bottom-dwelling fish lives close to the shore, so it is easy to see. Scorpionfish attracts attention with its unusual, bizarre appearance and bright coloring. Depending on the conditions, scorpionfish can change color from light yellow, orange to bright red. Her entire body is covered with poisonous growths, which increase in size as danger approaches. The venom of the Ambon scorpionfish is so strong that it can even kill a person. Therefore, divers who are attracted to the underwater world warm seas, you have to be extremely careful. Surprisingly, this fish also has fur that periodically sheds. The scorpion fish is a proud fish; it will not chase a potential meal. Having changed color and merged with the surrounding bottom, the Ambon scorpionfish freezes motionless and waits patiently. As soon as some fish swims up to it, the scorpion fish makes a lightning-fast dash towards the victim - and that’s it: the poor fellow has no chance of saving himself. And the scorpion fish freezes again and begins to wait for the next “portion of food”.

Pancake fish
The existence of this fish, which looks like a ruddy pancake, was discovered quite recently, in 2010. And, strange as it may sound, the disaster on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico helped in this. The spilled oil changed the living conditions for many living creatures living in the Gulf of Mexico - the oxygen content in the water was significantly reduced (which negatively affected all living things). This also affected deep-sea inhabitants, who, saving their lives, began to rise to the surface. This is how people saw the pancake fish for the first time. This strange fish moves in the water in an unusual way. She doesn't know how to swim, but only crawls along the bottom, like bat. This slowness does not allow the fish to catch up with its prey, so it has to feed on whatever swims close. Pancake fish produces special strong-smelling substances that attract small invertebrates (they constitute its diet). The pancake fish itself is not used for food.

The underwater world is extremely diverse, new species are constantly being discovered sea ​​fish and animals. Over 30,000 species of fish and an uneven number of mollusks and crustaceans live on Earth. Let's try to illuminate a small part of them.

SHARKS- one of the most formidable inhabitants of the ocean. The absence of bone tissue and gill covers, structural features of scales and many other structural features indicate their ancient origin, which is confirmed by paleontological data - the age of the fossil remains of the first sharks is approximately 350 million years. Despite the primitiveness of their organization, sharks are one of the most advanced predatory fish in the ocean.

Behind a long period existence, they managed to perfectly adapt to life in the water column and now successfully compete with bony fish And marine mammals. Unlike bony fish, sharks and rays do not spawn, but lay large, cornea-covered eggs or give birth to live young.

Whale sharks (up to 20 meters) and the so-called giant sharks (up to 15 meters) reach the greatest size. Both of them, like baleen whales, feed on planktonic organisms. With their mouths wide open, these sharks slowly swim in the thick of plankton accumulations and filter water through gill openings covered with a network of special outgrowths of the surrounding tissue. A giant shark filters up to one and a half thousand cubic meters of water in an hour and removes from it all organisms larger than 1-2 millimeters.

There is very little information about the reproduction of planktonic sharks. Eggs and embryos giant shark generally unknown. The smallest specimens of this species are 1.5 meters long. A whale shark lays eggs. It's safe to say that these are the most large eggs in the world, their length reaches almost 70 centimeters, width - 40. Plankton-eating sharks are slow and not at all aggressive. Whale sharks are not at all dangerous to humans.

Some species of sharks live near the bottom and feed on bottom-dwelling mollusks and crustaceans. These are small (no more than a meter in length) cat sharks. They live near the coast, often forming large schools.

IN open ocean There are sharks of other species, and they do not form schools, but prowl alone or in small groups. It happens that such sharks approach the shores, and most of the attacks on swimming people are carried out by them. Among these predators, the most dangerous are white, blue-gray, tiger, blue, longarm and hammerhead sharks. Although statistics show that there are much fewer cases of people dying from sharks than is commonly believed, you should still be wary of any shark whose length exceeds 1 - 1.2 meters, especially when there is blood or food in the water. Sharks have a phenomenal ability to detect a wounded or helpless animal at a great distance by its convulsive movements or by blood entering the water.

Different types of sharks lead different lifestyles and differ quite greatly from each other in body structure and behavior. Together with stingrays, sharks belong to the most primitive group of fish, which is called cartilaginous, since their skeleton consists only of cartilage and is completely devoid of bone tissue. If you stroke a shark or ray from head to tail, their skin will feel only slightly rough, but when you move your hand in the opposite direction, you will feel sharp teeth like coarse sandpaper. This happens because each scale of cartilaginous fish is equipped with a small spine, pointing backwards. The outside of the pin is covered with a layer of durable enamel, and its base in the form of an expanding plate is embedded in the skin of the fish. Inside each scale are blood vessels and a nerve. At the edges of the mouth there are larger scales, and in oral cavity In sharks, the spines of the scales reach a considerable size and no longer serve as covers, but as teeth. Thus, shark teeth are nothing more than modified scales.

Sharks' teeth, like their scales, are staggered and sit in several rows. As one row of teeth wears out, new ones grow to replace them, located in the depths of the mouth. The shark does not chew food, but only holds, tears and tears at it, swallowing pieces as large as can pass through its wide throat.

Cartilaginous fish do not have gill covers, so on each side of the shark’s body, 5 to 7 gill slits are visible behind the head. By this external feature, sharks can be easily and accurately distinguished from other fish. The stingray's gill slits are located on its ventral side and are hidden from the observer's eye.

It should be noted that these animals, despite the aversion people feel towards them, are of great commercial importance. Their meat, skin and liver oil are used, which contains several tens of times more vitamin A than cod liver oil. Salted, smoked and specially prepared fresh meat of many species of sharks is distinguished by high taste qualities. One of these fish, whose fins are used to make soup (pride Chinese cuisine), even received the name soup shark.

WHALES- the largest animals on our planet.

The prehistoric ancestors of whales lived on land and walked on four legs. True, in those days they were not as large as they are now. The body structure of whales began to change about 50 million years ago - it was then that they moved to the ocean, and it was in the water that some of them became giants. This is how the largest animals on Earth appeared - blue whales. Their length can exceed 26 meters and their weight is 110 tons.

Whales move through the water using a tail equipped with two powerful blades. This is the tail fin. Unlike fish, which swim by moving their tail from side to side, cetaceans swing their tail forcefully up and down.

Whales have pectoral fins located in front on both sides of the body. Even before whales moved into the sea, they, with the help of current pectoral fins moved on land. Now whales use them as steering and braking rudders, and sometimes to repel enemy attacks, but not for swimming.

Most whales have a fixed fin on their back that helps them maintain stability when moving through the water. Fins can be small or large, depending on the size of the whale.

The blowholes of whales are located on the top of the head; they open only for a short moment of inhalation and exhalation, when the whale floats to the surface of the water. Whale lungs have a large volume, and whales can stay under water for a long time without breathing, and even dive to a depth of more than 500 meters, and sperm whales - to a depth of more than one kilometer.

Whales look like huge fish, but they are not fish, but mammals, and internal structure they have almost the same as humans. And whales, like other mammals, feed their young with milk. Whales are warm-blooded animals, and they are protected from hypothermia by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat.

From the very moment it is born underwater, a whale calf is completely dependent on its mother and stays close to her all the time. It will take many months, and sometimes years, before the baby whale can take care of itself.

The first thing a newborn whale does, even though it cannot swim yet, is to float to the surface of the water and take a breath of air. The mother and sometimes other females help in this matter. After about half an hour, the cub will learn to swim on its own.

Baby whales learn by imitating adults. They tumble, dive and float to the surface with their mother. Kithi not only teach babies, but also play with them with pleasure. Female gray whales love a special game: they swim under their calves and blow air bubbles from their blowholes, thus causing the little whales to spin.

The cubs swim, almost clinging to their mother. They are carried by the waves that form around her body and underwater currents. And it’s really easy to swim if you hang on the mother’s dorsal fin.

For orientation, whales make sounds that the human ear cannot detect. The whale's brain is a real sonar that detects sound signals, reflected from different objects in the water, and determines the distance to them.

Whales feed mainly on fish or small crustaceans. They swim with open mouth, filtering water through special plates - whalebone. Whales consume up to 450 kilograms of food every day. That's why they grow so huge!

Some whales, called odontocetes, do not have baleen, but do have teeth. Toothed whales Sperm whales feed on huge squids, in search of which they dive to great depths.

Despite their size, whales are unusually graceful. They are not only excellent swimmers, but also acrobats: they can jump, wave their butterfly-like tail over the water, and glide through the waves, sticking their heads out of the water like a periscope. Some scientists believe that the noise that whales make when they hit the water with their tails or splash into the water after a jump is a conditioned signal for their relatives. But perhaps the whales are just playing.

People have been hunting whales for a long time. Nowadays, there are very few of these sea giants left, and they are under protection.

RAYS are a superorder of elasmobranch cartilaginous fishes, which includes 5 orders and 15 families. Stingrays are characterized by pectoral fins fused to the head and a rather flat body. Stingrays mainly live in the seas. Science knows several freshwater species. The color of the upper part of their body depends on where exactly the stingrays live. It can be either black or very light.

Stingrays are found all over the world, including Northern Arctic Ocean and the coast of Antarctica. But it’s easiest to see them with your own eyes off the coast of Australia; stingrays love to scratch their bellies there. coral reef.

Stingrays are the closest relatives of sharks. Outwardly, of course, they are not similar, but they, like sharks, are made of cartilage, not bones. Stingrays, along with sharks, are one of the most ancient fish, and in earlier times their internal similarities were complemented by external ones. Until life begins to flatten the stingrays, excuse me. As a result, sharks are doomed to scurry around in the water, and rays are doomed to lie sluggishly on the bottom.

The lifestyle of stingrays has determined their unique respiratory system. All fish breathe through gills, but if a stingray tried to be like everyone else, it would suck silt and sand into its delicate insides. That's why stingrays breathe differently. They inhale oxygen through squirters, which are located on their back and are equipped with a valve that protects the body. If, nevertheless, some foreign particle gets into the splash pads along with the water - sand or plant remains, the stingrays release a stream of water through the spray pads and throw out the foreign object along with it.

Stingrays are unique waterfowl butterflies. This analogy can be drawn based on how stingrays move in water. They are also unique in that they do not use their tail when swimming, as other fish do. Stingrays move by moving their fins, resembling butterflies.

Stingrays come in a wide variety of sizes, from a few centimeters to seven meters. And they also differ from each other in behavior. If for the most part they lie at the bottom, buried in the sand, then some of them like to jump above the water, shocking impressionable sailors for a long time and inspiring them to write sea ​​legends. Particularly distinguished by this is perhaps the most famous of all stingrays, the manta ray or sea devil. When suddenly a seven-meter winged creature weighing two tons flies out of the sea abyss and a moment later disappears again into the depths, dragging a black pointed tail behind it - this spectacle is truly worthy of a detailed story.

But not so scary sea ​​Devil, like an electric ramp. The cells of his body are capable of generating electricity up to 220 volts. And there are countless divers who have been electrocuted by an electric stingray.

However, all stingrays produce electricity, but not as strong as the electric stingray. The spiny-tailed ray prefers a different type of weapon. He kills with his tail. It plunges its sharp tail into the victim, then pulls it back - and since the tail is studded with spikes, the wound ruptures.

But they enter into battle only for the sake of self-defense. They feed on mollusks and crustaceans. For this reason, they do not even need sharp, shark-like teeth. Stingrays grind their food with spike-like protrusions or plates.

SWORDBA- the order of perciformes, the only representative of the swordfish family. Length up to 4-4.5 m, weighs up to 0.5 tons. The upper jaw is elongated into the xiphoid process. It is found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters, and is found sporadically in the Black and Azov Seas. When swimming, it can reach speeds of up to 120-130 km/h. It is an object of fishing.

Among the numerous and diverse inhabitants of the seas and oceans, swordfish is one of the most interesting predators. The swordfish received its name due to its highly elongated upper jaw, called the rostrum, which has the shape of a pointed sword and makes up up to a third of the entire length of the body. Biologists consider the rostrum to be a weapon that swordfish use to stun prey by bursting into schools of mackerel and tuna. The swordfish itself does not suffer from the blow: at the base of its sword there are peculiar fatty shock absorbers - cellular cavities filled with fat and softening the force of the blow. There are known cases when swordfish pierced through thick planks of ship plating. The reason for the attack of swordfish on ships has not yet received a precise explanation. Interpretations such as, for example, mistaking the vessel for a whale due to fast swimming, and “rabies” are purely speculative.

Swordfish is rightfully considered the fastest swimmer among all the inhabitants of the deep sea. She can swim at a speed of 120 km per hour. The swordfish is capable of developing such speed due to some structural features of its body. The sword greatly reduces drag when moving in dense water. In addition, the torpedo-shaped, streamlined body of an adult swordfish is devoid of scales. In swordfish and its closest relatives, gills are not only a respiratory organ, they serve as a kind of hydrojet engine. There is a continuous flow of water through the gills, the speed of which is regulated by the narrowing or widening of the gill slits. The body temperature of such fish is 12 - 15 degrees higher than the ocean temperature. This provides them with a high “starting” readiness, allowing them to unexpectedly develop amazing speed when hunting or evading enemies.

Swordfish reaches a length of 4.5 meters and weighs up to 500 kg. She lives mainly in the open ocean and approaches the shore only during the spawning period. Swordfish are solitary wanderers. Sometimes in the ocean near a large concentration of fish you can see several dozen swordfish, but they do not form schools - each predator acts independently of its neighbors.

Swordfish meat is very tasty. However, consuming its liver is dangerous - it contains excess vitamin A.

OCTOPUS. They do not have a hard skeleton. Its soft body has no bones and can bend freely in different directions. The octopus was named so because eight limbs extend from its short body. They have two rows of large suction cups, which the octopus can use to hold prey or attach to rocks at the bottom.

Octopuses live near the bottom, hiding in crevices between rocks or in underwater caves. They have the ability to change color very quickly and become the same color as the ground.

The only one hard part Octopus bodies have horny jaws similar to beaks. Octopuses are true predators. At night they get out of their hiding places and go hunting. Octopuses can not only swim, but also “walk” along the bottom by rearranging their tentacles. The usual prey of octopuses are shrimp, lobsters, crabs and fish, which they paralyze with poison from the salivary glands. With their beak they can break even the strong shells of crabs and crayfish or shells of mollusks. Octopuses take their prey to a shelter, where they slowly eat it. Among octopuses there are very poisonous ones, the bite of which can be fatal even to humans.

Octopuses often build shelters from stones or shells, using their tentacles as hands. Octopuses guard their home and can easily find it even if they have gone far away.

For a long time, people have been afraid of octopuses (octopuses, as they called them), writing terrible legends about them. The ancient Roman scientist Pliny the Elder talked about a giant octopus - “polypus”, which stole fishing catches. Every night the octopus climbed onto the shore and ate the fish lying in the baskets. The dogs, smelling the octopus, started barking. The fishermen who came running saw the octopus defending itself from the dogs with its huge tentacles. The fishermen had difficulty coping with the octopus. When the giant was measured, it turned out that its tentacles reached a length of 10 meters, and its weight was about 300 kilograms.

GARFISH- or “sea pike” is a fish of the garfish genus.

The turquoise-colored common garfish is one of the fish that can dance above the surface of the water. Faster and faster they move towards the light, just for fun or to “escape” from danger. This fast and graceful predator has a narrow body. Small sharp teeth on a peculiar beak allow the garfish, while swimming quickly, to grab small prey - herring, crustaceans. Garfish are found in large numbers in the Black and other seas.

In the spring, garfish begin their reproductive period: along the coast they lay round eggs, which are attached to algae and other aquatic vegetation with the help of thin sticky threads. Garfish larvae are born without a beak; it appears only in adult individuals. In winter, garfish move to the open sea.

Garfish are predominantly marine inhabitants, distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate oceans. Some of them reach a length of 1.5 m and a weight of 4 kg. This large family, numbering about 12 genera, is represented in the Black Sea by only one species - Belone belone euxini.

The Black Sea garfish, or, as it is also called, sea pike, has a typical arrow-shaped body covered with small silvery scales. The back is green. The length is usually up to 75 cm. This schooling pelagic fish has elongated jaws in the form of a sharp beak.

Lives 6-7 years, reaches sexual maturity in one year.

Once upon a time, garfish, being one of the most delicious fish of the Black Sea, was rightfully one of the top five commercial species caught off the coast of Crimea. The total annual catch of garfish reached 300-500 tons. Often large specimens were caught in the nets of Crimean fishermen - about 1 m long and weighing up to 1 kg.

SEA STARS- animals whose body shape resembles a star. They have warts or spines on the surface of their body. Five rays, called arms, usually extend from the body of a starfish.

They appeared on Earth more than 400 million years ago, but about 1,500 species of these peculiar animals still live in the seas and oceans of our planet. Some are found on sand mixed with stones and on shell rocks.

Starfish come in a variety of colors. For example, the Pacific star is dark purple. There is also a black star. It is easily distinguished by its black back. There are dark gray sea ​​stars, and on the rays against a dark background there may be yellowish and whitish spots, sometimes arranged in the form of stripes.

The Japanese star lives in the waters of Japan. Its dorsal side is bright crimson, often mixed with purple shades. The tips of the needles and belly are whitish.

But the most beautiful starfish is the reticulated starfish. Her belly is orange. On the crimson back there are rows of turquoise-blue needles. They seem to form a network or bizarre bright patterns. That's why they gave these starfish the name reticulated.

Starfish are active animals. They walk along the shores of seas and oceans with the help of tiny legs. Under a microscope, several elongated “bones” can be seen on her body, working like scissors or forceps. With these tongs, the starfish cleans off various insects that bite it - after all, they so like to sit on such comfortable “hosts” as stars.

The starfish usually feeds on other animals, mainly mollusks. For example, a shell is not such a reliable protection for a mollusk. The star clasps the shell with its hands, sticks to it with its legs and, due to muscle tension, pushes the shell flaps apart and eats. But mollusks also sometimes resist and do not allow themselves to be caught. They, sensing the approach of a starfish, release the mantle between the valves and manage to “wrap” the entire shell in it: the tentacles of the starfish slide along the saucer, and they cannot grab it.

Sometimes starfish even eat sea urchins, which are as spiny as themselves. The starfish is a real predator. Her abilities are very diverse.

Starfish are capable of absorbing objects that are sometimes several times their own size. To do this, they have a curious adaptation: they crawl onto the victim from above and turn the stomach out through the mouth, surrounding potential food on all sides as if in a kind of bag. Gastric juice is secreted into this sac, where digestion occurs. After a few hours, the star collapses its stomach and crawls away.

Most starfish play the role of seabed orderlies, eating all sorts of remains of dead animals.

Once upon a time, 50 years ago, people deliberately destroyed starfish. There were too many of them and they destroyed many sea animals. Hundreds of people went out to sea on boats and cutters and, protecting their hands with gloves, collected starfish, loaded them into baskets and took them ashore.

But the number of starfish still did not decrease. They began to destroy coral reefs, turning them into a lifeless desert. Once upon a time, the bottom of the Pacific coast was covered with magnificent gardens of coral colonies, which looked like a wonderful underwater kingdom. Now there is desolation here due to harmful influence starfish. Those coral reefs that still exist are sometimes hidden under huge moving clusters of starfish, after the invasion of which life leaves the reef.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that a program is needed scientific research, which would allow us to thoroughly study the peculiarities of the relationship between starfish and other inhabitants of coral reefs in order to restore balance.

SEA URCHNISHES- very prickly creatures. Their entire body is protected by long, sharp needles, attached to the body using cleverly designed hinges.

Stepping on such a hedgehog is both painful and dangerous: its needles are covered with mucus, saturated with bacteria, which cause severe suppuration. With the help of poisonous needles, sea urchins fight enemies, such as starfish. However, not all sea urchins are so dangerous and scary. Most of them are completely harmless to humans.

Some flat urchins covered with such small needles that their surface seems velvety rather than prickly.

Sea urchins are the most multi-legged animals in the world. Total number Sea urchins have huge legs. They are shaped like suction cups. With the help of its legs, an animal can not only move from place to place and crawl even on steep cliffs, but also firmly attaches to rocks and soil in places where there are a lot of waves. The hedgehog seems to stick to what it stands on so that it does not get washed away by water.

Sea urchins live on rocks, stones, and coral reefs. Some bury themselves in the ground or sand. Sometimes on the seashore, sea urchins gather in such quantities that their spines come into contact with each other. Some species occupy various recesses in the rocks, others are able to drill shelters for themselves, which serve them as protection from waves. Often, hedgehogs cover themselves with fragments of shells, pieces of algae or small stones, in order, obviously, to protect themselves from exposure to direct sunlight or to camouflage themselves from enemies. There are species that hide under stones all day and come out to feed only at night.

They eat what they can catch in the water or on land. For example, shellfish, which are crushed with powerful teeth. They hunt very interestingly. As soon as any animal touches the hedgehog, its legs immediately begin to move and try to grab the prey. As soon as one of the legs manages to catch the prey, the hedgehog squeezes it tightly and holds it until the prey dies. After this, the prey is passed from one leg to the other until it reaches the mouth. When feeding, hedgehogs hold food with their spines, push it into their mouths and bite off small pieces. With the help of sharp teeth, sea urchins can scrape algae from the surface of stones and capture other food.

But neither sharp needles nor teeth can sometimes save a hedgehog from its enemies. Such an animal as the sea otter deals with sea urchins very interestingly. She collects in coastal waters sea ​​urchins, takes them in his front paws and swims on his back, holding the prey on his chest in front of him, then smashes them against rocks or other hard objects shells of hedgehogs and eats caviar. Birds hunt for sea urchins at low tide. Birds have been observed dropping collected hedgehogs from a height onto rocks, breaking them and pecking out the soft parts.

Sea urchins are also eaten by people. Sea urchin caviar is especially prized. Hedgehogs lay eggs several times a year.

The mother hedgehog lays eggs and then carries them on her back all the time. Larvae emerge from the eggs. And among the larvae - hedgehogs. Hedgehogs grow rather slowly and reach adult size within a few years. Only then do they become independent.

SEA HORSE- a strange, charming creature. His head is like that of a small horse, his flexible tail is like that of a monkey, exoskeleton- like an insect and an abdominal pouch - like a kangaroo. These features, inherent in other animals, make the seahorse unlike most fish, and it behaves unusually. And yet this little creature- real fish. Their size is about 30 centimeters, there are seahorses and 2 centimeters each.

Sea Horse has its own special style of movement: it floats proudly, like the leader of a majestic parade. Working with barely noticeable fins at an incredible speed - up to 35 strokes per second, it glides smoothly.

Seahorses usually live in the water near the shore among algae. Spiked armor protects them from danger. A seahorse has bones both inside and outside. The internal skeleton is the same as that of all fish, and the external skeleton is made of bony plates. When a seahorse dies and decomposes, the exoskeleton retains its shape. People are so fascinated by this strange fish that they use dried seahorses to jewelry and inlays.

The seahorse's head is designed in such a way that it can only move it up and down, but cannot turn it to the sides.

If other animals were designed like this, they would have vision problems. However, the seahorse, due to its special structure, never has such problems. His eyes are not connected to each other and move independently of each other, they can move and look in different directions. Therefore, although the seahorse cannot turn its head, it can easily observe what is happening around it.

The most amazing thing about seahorses is that the babies are born to the father. On his belly, the horse daddy has a pouch in which he carries caviar. From these eggs the fry hatch. After the fry appear, the skate carries them in a bag for some time. By bending his body upward, he opens the bag, and the fry come out of it for a walk, but in case of danger they hide there again. Immediately after birth, little pipits must rise to the surface of the water and take air into their swim bladders, otherwise they will die from suffocation.

Almost all fish swim using their tail, but not the seahorse. Its unusual tail, long and thin, is not topped with a fin and looks more like a hand. The seahorse tightly wraps its tail around algae or coral and can stand there, frozen, for hours. And if it happens that two seahorses lock their tails, then they have to play “tug of war.”

Weddings around seahorses are very interesting. They sing and dance. They walk hand in hand (with their tails intertwined) and gracefully spin among the algae. Seahorses cannot live alone for long. If a husband or wife dies, then a short time The other horse also dies of melancholy. That's what the legends say.

Seahorses are masters of camouflage, changing color to match their surroundings. By blending into the background, they both protect themselves from predators and camouflage themselves while hunting for food.

Seahorses are unusually voracious. They catch anything living that can fit into their mouth. Their mouth acts like a pipette: when the skate's cheeks swell sharply, the prey is abruptly drawn into the mouth.

Skates feed mainly on small crustaceans. Having noticed a crustacean, the seahorse looks at it for a second or two and then draws in the crustacean even at a distance of several centimeters. Young seahorses are able to feed for 10 hours a day and eat 3-4 thousand crustaceans during this time.

There are only a few in nature natural enemies seahorses are shrimp, crab, clown fish and tuna. In addition, they are often eaten by dolphins.

The most serious enemies of these creatures are people: seahorses are endangered.

The main reasons for the extinction of this species: water pollution, destruction of natural habitat, fishing for aquatic trade, accidental catching in nets while catching shrimp or other fish.

Since the Middle Ages, seahorses have been attributed healing properties, once they were even used in the preparation of magical potions.

More than 20 million pipits are captured and killed every year.

CRABS- pugnacious creatures.

Fights between crabs are always preceded by threatening demonstrations: they rise up legs outstretched, claws spread. All this is necessary to appear larger: usually in fights the larger one wins. The threatening poses of one crab are most often repeated exactly by the other, so that immediately before the fight both fighters stand in front of each other for quite a long time in the same pose, assessing the size and mood of the enemy. A small crab, as a rule, retreats without a fight, but if the difference in size is small, it can win, but in this case the fight is longer and more violent. It is very important who starts the fight, because the one who starts first usually wins, even if he is smaller. Demonstration of strength in crabs is as common and important as, for example, in dogs.

Some crabs get seriously injured after a fight. Large crabs fight longer than small ones, and it does not matter whether they are fighting an enemy larger or smaller than themselves.

During a fight, crabs begin to breathe more often. The longer and more intense the fight, the faster the fighters breathe. The breathing rate increases equally in the winner and the loser, but after the fight the winner calms down much faster than the loser, who even after a day breathes more often than usual.

Often contractions follow one after another. For example, a crab has just had a fight with one opponent and immediately begins to fight with another.

Crabs do not live only by fights; they are also known for tender feelings. Everyone knows how monkeys express friendship: they search each other, choose insects from their fur (or pretend to choose) and eat them. So, something similar is characteristic of some crabs.

Researchers have found that crabs have two types of “stranger cleaning”: long-term and short-term cleaning. A cleaner crab approaches another crab slowly, on half-bent legs, and cleans it for about a minute. The crab that is being cleaned feeds on mud all this time, and after the procedure, already clean, goes into the hole.

With short-term cleaning, everything happens a little differently. The cleaner crab, quickly rising above the surface of the bottom, approaches the object of cleaning. Cleaning lasts no more than 15 seconds. How much will you collect in these moments? The crab that is being cleaned stands calmly and motionless. This cleaning is observed mainly in the summer.

It happens that large crab- the owner of the hole - attacks the little one who approaches his home. Then the small crab begins the lengthy procedure of cleaning the large one - it calms down and calmly goes into the hole. So this behavior is a way to calm the aggressor. Well, and, of course, cleaning brings benefits - is it bad to become clean, since you can’t reach your own back with claws?

Crabs live in colonies on muddy shores and dig deep holes. During the day, at low tide, they wander through drained areas, collect the thin top layer of silt with their claws, roll them into balls and put them in their mouths, and spend the night (and at high tide, when the water is rough and there are a lot of waves) in burrows.

The body of crabs is small. They have sharp claws. With their help, they move and collect food for themselves, and also fight. Some of them are good swimmers. They are called "swimmers". The hind legs can act as oars. Most swimming crabs are bottom-dwelling predators. Although they are able to swim, they do not do so for long.

There are such huge crabs that reach a length of 1.5 meters and weigh about eight kilograms. One adult person will not be able to lift such a crab. These crabs are called king crabs. They are less mobile than other crabs; they lie in wait for prey, hiding at the bottom among pebbles, plants, or buried in the sand.

Under the shell, the body of the mollusk is soft. There is a head, a torso and one leg. This leg is needed to bury itself in the sand at the bottom. It helps the mollusk move and even attach to stones like a suction cup. Under the shell there is a fold of skin - the mantle. The shell, like a shell, covers the body of the mollusk, which can be easily injured.

On the underside of the head there is usually a mouth with a pharynx, in which there is a muscular tongue with teeth, similar to a grater. The animal uses its tongue to scrape off the soft surface of plants. On the sides of the head there are sensitive tentacles - sensory organs. With these tentacles, the mollusk touches objects and understands what they are. There are eyes near the tentacles.

All mollusks move very slowly.

There are mollusks whose shell consists of two halves. Scientists call them bivalves. Their body consists of a torso and legs and is covered with a mantle. At the posterior end of the body, the folds of the mantle are pressed against each other, forming two siphons: lower and upper. Through the lower siphon, water enters the mantle and washes the gills. And through the upper siphon the water is thrown out.

There are mollusks called “chitons”. Their form amazes with diversity, and their beauty with perfection. Because of such beauty, they are used to make necklaces and amulets that can decorate the human body and vases.

After the death of a mollusk, shells usually end up on the surface of the bottom. During wind waves or storms, they are thrown onto flat surfaces. sandy beaches and often form large accumulations, turning the deserted coast into a motley carpet of colors.

However, the “life” of empty shells on beaches is short-lived. Under the influence of waves, high tides, wind surges and atmospheric precipitation some of them again fall to hard-to-reach depths, the other part is destroyed. However, after some time, a new storm or waves of a different direction bring new shells to the shore. You can walk along the seashore or ocean and collect shells.

A collection of shells can be useful for various crafts and decorations.

Yesterday, September 26, was World Maritime Day. In this regard, we bring to your attention a selection of the most unusual sea creatures.

World Maritime Day has been celebrated since 1978 on one of the days of the last week of September. This international holiday was created in order to attract public attention to the problems of sea pollution and the extinction of animal species living in them. Indeed, over the past 100 years, according to the UN, some types of fish, including cod and tuna, have been caught by 90%, and every year about 21 million barrels of oil enter the seas and oceans.

All this causes irreparable damage to the seas and oceans and can lead to the death of their inhabitants. These include those that we will talk about in our selection.

1. Dumbo the Octopus

This animal received its name due to the ear-like structures protruding from the top of its head, which resemble the ears of Disney's baby elephant Dumbo. However, the scientific name of this animal is Grimpoteuthis. These cute creatures live at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters and are one of the rarest octopuses.

The largest individuals of this genus were 1.8 meters in length and weighed about 6 kg. Most of the time, these octopuses swim above the seabed in search of food - polychaete worms and various crustaceans. By the way, unlike other octopuses, these swallow their prey whole.

2. Short-snouted pipistrelle

This fish attracts attention, first of all, with its unusual appearance, namely with bright red lips on the front of the body. As previously thought, they are necessary to attract marine life, which the pipistrelle bat feeds on. However, it was soon discovered that this function is performed by a small formation on the fish’s head, called the esca. It emits a specific odor that attracts worms, crustaceans and small fish.

The unusual “image” of the pipistrelle bat is complemented by an equally amazing way of moving in water. Being a poor swimmer, it walks along the bottom on its pectoral fins.

The short-snouted pipistrelle is a deep-sea fish and lives in the waters near the Galapagos Islands.

3. Branched brittle stars

These deep-sea marine animals have many branched arms. Moreover, each of the rays can be 4-5 times larger than the body of these brittle stars. With their help, the animal catches zooplankton and other food. Like other echinoderms, branched brittle stars lack blood, and gas exchange is carried out using a special water-vascular system.

Typically, branched brittle stars weigh about 5 kg, their rays can reach 70 cm in length (in the branched brittle stars Gorgonocephalus stimpsoni), and their body is 14 cm in diameter.

4. Harlequin pipe snout

This is one of the least studied species that can, if necessary, merge with the bottom or imitate a branch of algae.

It is next to the thickets of the underwater forest at a depth of 2 to 12 meters that these creatures try to stay in order to dangerous situation they were able to acquire the color of the soil or the nearest plant. During “quiet” times for harlequins, they slowly swim upside down in search of food.

Looking at a photograph of a harlequin tubesnout, it is easy to guess that they are related to seahorses and pipefish. However, they differ noticeably in appearance: for example, the harlequin has longer fins. By the way, this shape of fins helps the ghost fish bear offspring. With the help of elongated pelvic fins, covered on the inside with thread-like outgrowths, the female harlequin forms a special pouch in which she bears eggs.

5. Yeti Crab

In 2005, an expedition exploring the Pacific Ocean discovered extremely unusual crabs that were covered in “fur” at a depth of 2,400 meters. Because of this feature (as well as their coloring), they were called “Yeti crabs” (Kiwa hirsuta).

However, it was not fur in the literal sense of the word, but long feathery bristles covering the chest and limbs of crustaceans. According to scientists, many filamentous bacteria live in the bristles. These bacteria purify water from toxic substances, thrown away hydrothermal springs, next to which “Yeti crabs” live. There is also an assumption that these same bacteria serve as food for crabs.

6. Australian coneberry

This species lives in the coastal waters of the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia and is found on reefs and bays. Due to its small fins and hard scales, it swims extremely slowly.

Being a nocturnal species, the Australian conefish spends the day in caves and under rocky outcroppings. Yes, in one marine reserve In New South Wales, a small group of coneworts has been recorded hiding under the same ledge for at least 7 years. At night, this species comes out of hiding and goes hunting on sandbanks, illuminating its path with the help of luminescent organs, photophores. This light is produced by a colony of symbiotic bacteria, Vibrio fischeri, which has taken up residence in the photophores. Bacteria can leave the photophores and simply live in seawater. However, their luminescence fades a few hours after they leave the photophores.

Interestingly, fish also use the light emitted by their luminescent organs to communicate with their relatives.

7. Lyre sponge

The scientific name of this animal is Chondrocladia lyra. It is a type of carnivorous deep-sea sponge, and was first discovered in the California sponge at a depth of 3300-3500 meters in 2012.

The lyre sponge gets its name from its appearance, which resembles a harp or lyre. So, this animal is held on seabed with the help of rhizoids, root-like formations. From 1 to 6 horizontal stolons extend from their upper part, and on them, at equal distances from each other, are vertical “branches” with spade-shaped structures at the end.

Since the lyre sponge is carnivorous, it uses these “branches” to capture prey, such as crustaceans. And as soon as she manages to do this, she will begin to secrete a digestive membrane that will envelop the prey. Only after this the lyre sponge will be able to suck in the split prey through its pores.

The largest recorded lyre sponge reaches almost 60 centimeters in length.

8. Clowns

Living in almost all tropical and subtropical seas and oceans, fish from the clown family are among the fastest predators on the planet. After all, they are able to catch prey in less than a second!

So, having seen a potential victim, the “clown” will track it down, remaining motionless. Of course, the prey will not notice it, because fish of this family usually resemble a plant or a harmless animal in their appearance. In some cases, when the prey comes closer, the predator begins to move the tail, an extension of the front dorsal fin that resembles a “fishing rod,” which forces the prey even closer. And as soon as a fish or other sea animal is close enough to the “clown”, it will suddenly open its mouth and swallow its prey, spending only 6 milliseconds! This attack is so lightning fast that it cannot be seen without slow motion. By the way, the volume of the fish’s oral cavity often increases 12 times while catching prey.

Besides the speed of clowns, no less important role plays in their hunt unusual shape, color and texture of their cover, allowing these fish to mimic. Some clownfish resemble rocks or corals, while others resemble sponges or sea squirts. And in 2005, Sargassum clown sea, which imitates algae, was discovered. The “camouflage” of clownfish can be so good that sea slugs often crawl over these fish, mistaking them for coral. However, they need “camouflage” not only for hunting, but also for protection.

Interestingly, during a hunt, the “clown” sometimes sneaks up on its prey. He literally approaches her using his pectoral and ventral fins. These fish can walk in two ways. They can alternately move their pectoral fins without using the pelvic fins, and they can transfer their body weight from the pectoral fins to the pelvic fins. The latter method of gait can be called a slow gallop.

9. Smallmouth macropinna

The smallmouth macropinna, which lives in the depths of the North Pacific Ocean, has a very unusual appearance. She has a transparent forehead through which she can look out for prey with her tubular eyes.

The unique fish was discovered in 1939. However, at that time it was not possible to study it well enough, in particular the structure of the cylindrical eyes of the fish, which can move from a vertical position to a horizontal one and vice versa. This was only possible in 2009.

Then it became clear that the bright green eyes of this small fish (it does not exceed 15 cm in length) are located in a head chamber filled with a transparent liquid. This chamber is covered by a dense, but at the same time elastic transparent shell, which is attached to the scales on the body of the smallmouth macropinna. The bright green color of the fish's eyes is explained by the presence of a specific yellow pigment in them.

Since the smallmouth macropinna is characterized by a special structure of the eye muscles, its cylindrical eyes can be in both a vertical position and in a horizontal position, when the fish can look directly through its transparent head. Thus, macropinna can notice prey both when it is in front of it and when it swims above it. And as soon as the prey - usually zooplankton - is at the level of the fish’s mouth, it quickly grabs it.

10. Sea Spider

These arthropods, which are not actually spiders or even arachnids, are common in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as in the Arctic and Southern Oceans. Today, more than 1,300 species of this class are known, some representatives of which reach 90 cm in length. However, most sea spiders are still small in size.

These animals have long legs, of which there are usually about eight. Moss spiders also have a special appendage (proboscis) that they use to absorb food into the intestines. Most of these animals are carnivorous and feed on cnidarians, sponges, polychaete worms and bryozoans. For example, sea spiders often feed on sea anemones: they insert their proboscis into the body of the sea anemone and begin to suck its contents into themselves. And since sea anemones are usually larger than sea spiders, they almost always survive such “torture.”

Sea spiders live in different parts world: in the waters of Australia, New Zealand, off the Pacific coast of the United States, in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as in the Arctic and Southern oceans. Moreover, they are most common in shallow water, but can also be found at depths of up to 7000 meters. They often hide under rocks or camouflage themselves among algae.

11. Cyphoma gibbosum

The shell color of this orange-yellow snail seems very bright. However, only the soft tissues of a living mollusk have this color, and not the shell. Typically, Cyphoma gibbosum snails reach 25-35 mm in length, and their shell is 44 mm.

These animals live in the warm waters of the western part Atlantic Ocean, including in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and in the waters of the Lesser Antilles at depths of up to 29 meters.

12. Mantis crab

Living at shallow depths in tropical and subtropical seas, mantis crayfish have the most complex eyes in the world. If a person can distinguish 3 primary colors, then the mantis crab can distinguish 12. Also, these animals perceive ultraviolet and infrared light and see different types of polarization of light.

Many animals are able to see linear polarization. For example, fish and crustaceans use it to navigate and detect prey. However, only mantis crabs are able to see both linear polarization and a rarer, circular one.

Such eyes enable mantis crayfish to recognize different types of corals, their prey and predators. In addition, when hunting, it is important for the crayfish to deliver precise strikes with its pointed, grasping legs, in which its eyes also help.

By the way, sharp, jagged segments on the grasping legs also help mantis crayfish cope with prey or predators, which can be much larger in size. So, during an attack, the mantis crab makes several quick strikes with its legs, which causes serious damage to the victim or kills it.

In this section of the site you will read how and where sea animals live, you will be able to learn interesting facts about them, and see photos of sea animals!

More than two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by seas and oceans. This huge mass of water is necessary for life on our planet: winds carry moisture throughout the world, it evaporates and is restored again in the form of rain and snow, feeding plant and animal world. The sea is teeming with life, and oddly enough, both microscopic and largest Marine life such as blue whale, manta ray or whale shark, eat big amount food invisible to the naked eye - plankton.

Jellyfish more than 90% consists of water; Some jellyfish can cause a painful burn.

U octopus eight tentacles; it lives on the seabed and can change color to adapt to its environment.

Hawksbill turtle (caretta)- very dexterous swimmer; feeds mainly on jellyfish and crustaceans. Lays eggs in the sand on the shores of small bays.

Blue whale- this is the largest animal in the world: one female, caught in 1947, weighed 190 tons. A blue whale calf is born eight meters long and weighs up to three tons.

Marine flora consists of algae- plants without a trunk. Their life depends on sunlight, and therefore at great depths, where the rays of the sun do not penetrate, there are no algae.

Moon fish usually swims in the open sea almost at the very surface, which is why its fin emerging from the water is often mistaken for the fin of a shark; In contrast, the moon fish is completely harmless.

Angler. This amazing predatory fish lures its prey by swinging its “antenna”, at the end of which there is a growth similar to a delicious worm.

Zebra lionfish. Its spectacular appearance is fraught with serious danger - on the back of this fish there is a fin that secretes poison as strong as that of a cobra.

Needlefish. Hunts completely in a unique way: it approaches the victim, often hiding behind other fish, and with lightning speed sucks it into its long “beak”. In terms of its characteristics, the pipefish is very similar to the seahorse.

Acne. For centuries, scientists, starting with the Greek philosopher Aristotle, have tried to understand how this fish reproduces. Today it is known that it lays eggs in the Sargasso Sea, between Bermuda and the Caribbean islands. Small larvae travel many thousands of kilometers to return to the rivers where their parents come from. Eel - very strong fish; found in fresh water and maybe for a long time stay out of water: part of its journey often travels on land.

Seabirds. The sea provides food for many animals that live on the coast. Among them are numerous seabirds. These birds have a lot in common: they all fly well, can descend into the water, swim with the help of webbed feet, and their beaks are adapted to fishing. Many of them, such as the cormorant, are capable of chasing fish underwater.

Cormorant. The inhabitants of Japan taught this bird to fish: with every fish caught, the bird returns to its owner.

Gull. A lot of various types sea ​​birds are called gulls. You can often see flocks of seagulls chasing fishing vessels returning from fishing: they pick up waste that sailors throw overboard. Seagulls have learned to find food even in landfills in the interior of the continent, tens of kilometers from the sea.

Frigate. The male of this large fish, which lives on the shores of warm seas, during courtship inflates a huge bright red crop to attract the attention of the female.

Sea depths.

Far from the coast, at great depths, algae that require sunlight do not grow; there are only phytoplankton, formed by microscopic algae that float freely in the water. For this reason, at great depths there are mainly predators; other fish are content with phyto and zooplankton. Consisting of tiny invertebrates.

In open water spaces, where there are no shelters, only big sizes capable of instilling fear in a predator and preventing an attack. Therefore, it is only far from the coast that large marine life is found: from cetaceans such as killer whales and whales to large fish such as shark, tuna or swordfish.

Small fish use other methods of defense: flying fish jump high out of the water, and sardines and mackerel find salvation by gathering in large schools.

The Earth is washed by four oceans: Indian, Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific. The largest is the Pacific Ocean, its area is 180 million square kilometers. The average depth of the oceans is about 4,000 meters. The enormous length and depth do not allow exploring the bottom of the oceans; in fact, it is extremely difficult and expensive to create machines that can withstand highest pressure, existing in the abyss of the sea.

The greatest depth of the ocean is the Mariinsky Trench in the Pacific Ocean: 11,022 meters.

Flying fish. U flying fish The lateral fins are highly developed, with the help of which it makes gliding flights over the surface of the sea, escaping from predators.

A complex combination of winds, currents and tidal cycles causes waves to move. The sea rarely has waves higher than 10 meters, but waves even higher than 30 meters have been observed.

Plankton.

A large number of microscopic organisms float in the sea that are not able to withstand currents - animal (zooplankton) and plant (phytoplankton) in origin; together they make up plankton. Carried by currents, it serves as food for both the smallest fish and crustaceans, and huge mammals, such as the blue whale. Animals that can actively swim form nekton.

Zooplankton- part of plankton formed by animal organisms.

Phytoplankton- this is that part of plankton that consists of microscopic algae floating in water. A large number of phytoplankton and gives sea water a characteristic greenish color.

One liter of water contains millions of microscopic organisms that are invisible to the naked eye. They not only constitute food for marine animals, but are also necessary for the restoration of oxygen.

Cetaceans.

This large mammals, inhabitants of the seas and oceans. Over millions of years of evolution, their body has acquired a shape similar to that of fish, thanks to which they swim quickly. But cetaceans, unlike fish, cannot breathe rarefied oxygen. They need to breathe air, so they are forced to swim to the surface of the sea from time to time. Their young are born in water; immediately after birth, the mother pushes them to the surface to take their first breath. This is a very important moment, and parents must be extremely careful not to encounter a predator.

The smallest cetacean is the dolphin, and the largest is the sea whale, which is also the largest animal in the world.

"Fountain". The whales may appear to be breathing out sprays of water; in fact, what we see is a stream of air mixed with a small amount of water.

The sei whale, humpback whale and blue whale feed on plankton, which they filter through dense horny plates called baleen. These plates prevent large animals from entering the mouth, so these whales do not need teeth.

Humpback whale. Unlike other whales, which prefer the open sea, the humpback whale lives close to the coast, sometimes even swimming into bays and rivers. Despite its weight of 30 tons, this frisky animal loves to “dance” when it sticks out of the water.

Sperm whale. This large animal reaches up to 20 meters in length. It feeds mainly on cephalopods, such as squid, as well as fish. When getting food, it can dive to a depth of up to two thousand meters, where giant squids weighing several centners are found. A sperm whale can hold its breath for almost two hours!

Narwhal. Due to its long, straight, horn-like tooth, the narwhal cannot be confused with anyone else. This friendly animal lives in cold Arctic waters.

Killer whale. Has a reputation for being cruel and very dangerous predator; in fact, the killer whale, like other carnivores, attacks the animals on which it feeds, but there is no evidence that it has attacked people.

Dolphin. Dolphins are very easy to tame due to the fact that they are very intelligent and have exceptional learning abilities. Dolphins, like all cetaceans, make many different sounds; This dolphin “language” is being studied by scientists. Dolphins are incredibly friendly; Once upon a time, it was a dolphin who saved a shipwrecked man from attacking sharks.

Sharks. These are very ancient fish; Due to the streamlined shape of the body, when moving forward, sharks experience the negligible resistance of the water, so they swim very quickly. Unlike fish, sharks reproduce by laying eggs; Some place them at the bottom, attaching them to algae or rocks; in others, the eggs develop completely in the mother's body, and the young are born already formed. Sharks range from fearsome predators, such as the blue shark, to peaceful plankton eaters, such as the huge whale shark, which, despite its terrifying appearance, is completely harmless. The whale shark is the largest fish in the world, its body length reaches 12 meters! The blue shark is considered a man-eating shark, and there is considerable evidence that it attacks people injured in shipwrecks and swimmers.

Gray shark. Lives in tropical seas, exploring the shallows in search of fish and crustaceans. It does not attack people, but if a person gets scared and tries to escape, this shark can become very dangerous.

Sawfish. Found in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. A distinctive feature is the long and flat snout with small teeth arranged like the teeth of a saw. It serves the fish to comb the sandy bottom in search of small prey. Occasionally, the sawfish uses its “nose” to protect itself from enemies. Often the shark is accompanied by pilot fish; they feed on the remains of shark food, and, oddly enough, sharks do not attack them. There is an opinion that the pilot fish shows the shark the way to large schools of fish. In fact, this is just a legend without any basis.

Scat. It has a highly flattened body, which gives the impression that it is “flying” on water. Basically, the stingray lives on the bottom, at moderate depths, where it is remarkably camouflaged. Some species of stingray have a long spine on their back that secretes a strong poison. The mouth, located on the belly, has a lot of sharp teeth.

Tiger shark. This fish is called so because of the color of its skin. It swims close to the shore and feeds on everything: fish and crustaceans, birds and mammals.

Dark.

Sunlight does not penetrate water deeper than several tens of meters. Below there is constant darkness, and it is impossible to distinguish day from night. Plants cannot live without light, so there are no algae here at all. This is the reason that only predatory fish live at the depths, luring prey in various ingenious ways.

Many deep-sea fish have special luminous organs, so-called phosphors; they serve as bait that other fish cannot resist and, attracted by such “bait,” are often eaten.

Deep-sea fish are able to withstand the highest pressure; moreover, they cannot tolerate low pressure, and if they floated to the surface, they would die.

Organic substances slowly descend to the bottom of the ocean - the remains of animals and plants that died in the surface layers. All this constitutes the food of small benthic animals - this is the name given to the collection of organisms living on the bottom. Benthos, in turn, serves as food for fish and larger shellfish, which are watched by other predators that penetrate the abyss of the sea from shallower layers, for example, the sperm whale, which can dive to depths, despite the fact that it breathes atmospheric air.

Giant squid. One representative of this species of animal, “stranded” on the island of Newfoundland in Canada, weighed two tons. U giant squid the length of the body together with the tentacles reaches 13 - 18 meters, it is even suggested that they get involved in the depths of the oceans in fierce battles with sperm whales: on the body of which marks left by the tentacles are often noticed, and in the stomachs the remains of giant squid are found.

Pelican-like largemouth.

Always swims in the dark, keeping his huge mouth wide open; in this way he collects all the food that comes his way.

Arboreal linophryne. Very little is known about this deep-sea fish due to the difficulty of studying it in natural environment a habitat. Probably most of the time she lies calmly on the bottom, swaying a long antenna with a phosphor - a luminous organ located on her head. Other fish, having been caught on such bait, inevitably end their lives in the throat of linophryne.

Coral reefs.

Corals- these are small animals, in whose colonies there are millions of individuals, they live in tropical seas, attached to their bottom. Over time, one calcareous skeleton generated by them grows and forms coastal areas real coral reefs on which the waves crash; because of this, between the shore and the coral fence the sea is calmer, like in a port harbor.

coral reef- an ideal habitat for both animals and plants: the sea here is calm and warm, there is a lot of sunshine. If you look underwater through a scuba mask, you can see countless different picturesque fish “walking” among starfish and sea anemones.

If you dive on the other side of the reef, in the direction open sea, you may experience a feeling of severe dizziness: there is no bottom anymore - only bright blue water.

The largest coral reef, more than 2,000 kilometers long, is located along the coast of Australia. These coral fortresses are called large quarry reefs and pose a serious danger to mariners.

Atolls. The peaks of underwater volcanoes can rise above the water, forming small islands, or be located near the surface of the ocean. If coral colonies form around them, they take on an almost circular shape, forming atolls - coral islands.

Madrepores. Relatives of corals are also formed by colonies of polyps of calcareous nature. At night, they extend their tentacles, grabbing food consisting of plankton.

By the shore.

In the ocean near the coast, the most favorable conditions for the prosperity of the inhabitants of the underwater world: sunlight penetrates the water, promoting the rapid growth of algae and providing food for the animals that feed on them; these animals, in turn, themselves serve as food for predatory fish. And finally, the movement of the waves, which never reaches a depth of more than a few tens of meters, here causes mixing at the bottom, which contributes to its fertility.

The bottom can be rocky, muddy or sandy, and sometimes covered with algae. Depending on the type of seabed, it is inhabited by different animals. For example, on a sandy bottom you can find a flounder that hides in the sand, burying itself halfway into it, and an octopus finds shelter on a rocky bottom, where it is almost invisible among the rocks.

Among the rocks washed by the sea, which provide a hospitable welcome to countless animals, there is a rich life. Some of the local inhabitants, such as mussels, patellas, urchins, starfish and sea anemones, do not swim. Crustaceans, octopuses and fish such as sargus, grouper, rockfish and moray eels lurk in the shadows of crevasses and cliffs. The flounder and the baby dragon hide in the sand, and the sultan explores it with her long antennae in search of food. All this potential prey attracts hunter fish that live in the open sea to the coast - bayfish, large serioles and zubans.

Sea urchins. When swimming in the sea, you need to be very careful not to step on these animals: the consequences can be very sad! The sea urchin's mouth is called an Aristotelian lantern and contains five constantly growing teeth. Some hedgehogs have short and dense spines, others have long and sparse spines. They differ in color.

Crustaceans. All these animals, most of them marine, have two pairs of antennae, and some also have two solid claws that can close forcefully. During the day they usually hide in rock crevices, but at night they become more active and go in search of food, which usually consists of mollusks and dead animals.

lobster found in seas almost all over the world; its weight can reach eight kilograms.

Lobster is like lobster, it's very popular seafood product; Lobsters are caught using special traps - tops. Unlike the lobster, it has claws.

A distinctive feature of the crab is its specific way of moving sideways.

Crustaceans have a permanent burrow, where they certainly return after night forays for food: this indicates that crustaceans have a good sense of orientation. Some of them, for example, lobsters, make mass migrations over long distances.