Odd Marine AdaptionsInspiration and Fascinationfor Your Viewing Pleasure

Excerpts from southerfriedscience.com

Your Job: Write the species name in your science notebooks, the adaption, and what the adaptions are for. Is the adaption for…Hunting? Protection? Camouflage? Survival?

Sunfish (Mola Mola)

“Sunfish use their fused beak along with powerful suction to manipulate prey items into manageable pieces, and let pharyngeal teeth, claw-like plates in their throats, do the chomping.”

Pointed Sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata)

“The teeth on its snout are not used for chewing, but rather as both a tracker, and a weapon….The saw is covered in tiny ampullary pores, which allow the sawfish to pick up electrical fields produced by fish and other prey. Once located, that “saw” becomes a longsword used to stun and impale their targets. In fact, some species of sawfish can slash with enough force to completely sever their prey.”

Seahorse (Hippocampus sp.)

“Seahorses are hiding one more interesting adaptation in their prehensile monkey-tails: super-strength. Seahorse tails are made up of thirty-six bony segments…When exposed to pressure, like for example, from the crushing beak of a sea turtle, joints allow the bone plates to glide and pivot freely over one another without being damaged…. The bones in the tail can be compressed by nearly 60% of their original width before permanent damage occurs to the spinal column. Sorry, Tony Stark, seahorses wore Iron Man armor before it was cool….”

Pacific Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma)

“This incredible deep-sea fish houses its head in a fluid-filled transparent shield. The dark spots you see above the fish’s mouth are actually capsules housing the fish’s olfactory organs, much like our nostrils. The real eyes, which are marked by green spherical lenses, are tremendously light sensitive, and protected by fluid within the shield….These up-turned eyes allow the barreleye to pick up faint shadows overhead, but how then is it able to see prey in front of its mouth? Rotation. When the fish switches from a horizontal to vertical position, the eyes rotate within the shield and remain locked on the target, allowing it to pick out tiny prey”

Ocellated Icefish (Chionodraco rastrospinosus),

“[This fish’s blood is transparent, because it lacks hemoglobin], a protein found in the red blood cells of all other vertebrates. Hemoglobin not only gives oxygenated blood its red color, but works as an agent which carries and delivers oxygen to the muscles and organs that need it. The ocellated icefish is able to function without this important protein because at cold temperatures oxygen is dissolved more easily in the plasma (the liquid component of blood), which in turn is absorbed by the muscles.”

Pistol Shrimp (Alpheidae sp.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8

Questions? Comments?