Gallery: Giant Oarfish, Pig Butt Worms, and Other Freaky Creatures From the Deep
01oarfish
When two rare, deep sea-dwelling oarfish washed up last week in California, they captivated millions. They were clearly from another world. That world is the deep sea, the region between the upper ocean's sun-enriched bounties and its floor. It's a strange realm with "no solid surfaces to touch, very little sound, and very little light," said biologist Al Dove of the Georgia Aquarium. "I often think that it must be like space, or some giant sensory deprivation chamber." It's also Earth's largest habitat, odd as that might seem to us land-dwellers, who touch the deep sea only when creatures like oarfish wash ashore. From a certain perspective, that great deep sea sensory deprivation chamber could actually be seen as the characteristic condition of life on Earth, with plants and animals as we know them just a scrim of action up top. Here are more strange creatures from that deep, dark world. __Above:__ Oarfish ------- If oarfish look like mythological sea serpents, it's because [they probably inspired those accounts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/carta-marina/?pid=11271). However, though it's natural to imagine oarfish swimming horizontally, like serpents, they actually float vertically, looking upwards for faint silhouettes of potential prey. Legend has it oarfish are harbingers of earthquakes, but it looks like the two from California were just [caught in an unfortunate upwelling of currents](http://deepseanews.com/2013/10/moarfish-moar-problems/). *Image: [Catalina Island Marine Institute](http://www.cimi.org/home.html)*
02stoplight-loosejaw
Stoplight Loosejaw ------------------ The stoplight loosejaw's extraordinary features are evolutionary responses to the deep sea's unique conditions. First, and most obviously, there's the jaws. "You only get one shot at it in the deep," said Dove. If you don't get your teeth in, you're going to go hungry in the deep sea, where food is rare. In order to spot prey, loosejaws actually project two colors of light from their eyes, revealing animals that have camouflaged themselves. "It's like revealing the Klingons' cloaking device and showing them up for where they are," Dove said. *Image: [Natural History Museum](http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/species-of-the-day/evolution/malacosteus-niger/distribution-conservation/index.html)*
David Shale03anglerfish.jpg
Anglerfish ---------- Anglerfish have, in addition to the eponymous fleshy bioluminescent lure growing from their foreheads, yet another of the deep sea's prey-clenching, never-fail mouths. It underscores just how rare food is in that zone. Near the surface, light nourishes plankton, which form a plentiful foundation for surface food webs. On the seafloor, detritus falling from above, [such as whale carcasses](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/whalefall-worm/), provide bursts of nutrients, as do hydrothermal vents and the life they energize. In the deep sea, though, the primary source of food is so-called "marine snow," or pieces of dead bodies passing by on their way to the seafloor. *Image: [David Shale/MAR-ECO](http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/press_release/2009/SciSpot/SS0907/)*
© (c) 2010 MBARI04vampire-squid-2
Vampire Squid ------------- Whereas stoplight loosejaws have yawning, snaggle-toothed mouths, the vampire squid has the hooked tentacular equivalents. "If it manages to get its tentacles around you, it's not letting go. Death is inevitable," said Dove. "It's a convergent adaptation, and speaks to the importance of not missing when food is so rare." It's possible, though, that the hooks are actually vestigial, or at least [used to seize dead rather than living prey](http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2012/vampfood/vampfood-release.html). *Image: [Monterey Bay Aquarium](http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2012/vampfood/vampfood-release.html)*
05giant-squid
Giant Squid ----------- The giant squid looms large in the public imagination, yet is very rarely seen. Only a few intact carcasses have ever been found. It wasn't until 2004 that the first photographs of giant squid, alive and in their natural habitat, were [taken by Japanese biologists Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori](http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1581/2583.full.pdf). Apart from being so mysterious, giant squid emobody another of the deep sea's odd dynamics: body sizes get weird. Near the surface or on the seafloor, there tends to be a regular distribution between small, medium-sized and large animals. In the deep sea, though, a few species — such as giant squid — have become enormous, while other groups, such as sharks and snails, have lost their smallest and largest body plans. Other groups, such as bivalves, only seem to become smaller. Why this should be, said marine biologist Craig McClain of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, is anybody's guess. *Image: [Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giantsquidphoto2.png)/Wikimedia Commons*
06pigbutt-worm
Pigbutt Worm ------------ Another of the deep sea's oddly gigantic creatures is *Chaetopterus pugaporcinus*, translated from Latin as the porcine posterior it resembles. Roughly the size of an acorn, *C. pugaporcinus* is a full order of magnitude larger than any other worm in its genus. It harvests food by excreting a cloud of plankton-trapping mucus around itself. *Image: Karen Osborn/MBARI*
07fangtooth
Fangtooth --------- The silver-scaled oarfish is actually a deep-sea exception. Most species that live deep are either black or red. That's because red is the first color absorbed by the ocean. "If you're red, you appear very black to everything," said Dove. This helps creatures hide from whatever dim light may occur — even the fangtooth, pictured, has predators to worry about — and also requires less energy to produce. To be another color, Dove said, "you have to invest energy in pigments, and there's not much point if nobody is going to see it." *Image: [Monterey Bay Aquarium](http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=Z5SIVkZ+n+WfBXteenM/5w==)*
08lanternfish
Lanternfish ----------- If most deep-sea creatures are black or red, many also produce their own light as a form of [counterillumination](http://biolum.eemb.ucsb.edu/organism/squid.html). Among these are lanternfish, which project light downwards. A predator looking up will have difficulty distinguishing their silhouettes from faint blue light far above. Just as remarkable, said Dove, is that lanternfish may actually be one of the most abundant animals on the planet. Living where they do, though, "most people don't even know what they are," he said. *Image: E. Widder/[Ocean Research & Conservation Association](http://www.teamorca.org/cfiles/home.cfm)*
09ghost-shark
Ghost Shark ----------- Part of what's so marvelous about the deep sea is that so much remains to be learned. New species are still found on land, but they tend to be small. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's something about big, unknown animals that catches the imagination — and the deep sea still has them. One recent expedition in the Indian Ocean [discovered as many as eight new shark species](http://www.livescience.com/31695-images-weird-deep-sea-sharks.html), including the as-yet-unnamed ghost shark above. "We're always discovering creatures in the deep sea," said Dove. "There is plenty left to be discovered, and it's possible there are some very interesting, very large animals still down there." *Image: Paul Clerkin*
