Deep sea fish. They live in conditions where life would seem completely impossible. Nevertheless, it is there, but it takes such bizarre forms that it causes not only surprise, but also fear and even horror. Most of these creatures live at depths between 500 and 6,500 meters.

Deep-sea fish can withstand enormous water pressure at the bottom of the ocean, and it is such that fish living in upper layers water, it would crush. When relatively deep-sea perciformes are lifted, their swim bladder turns outward due to a drop in pressure. First of all, it is he who helps them remain at a constant depth and adapt to the pressure of water on the body. Deep-sea fish constantly pump gas into it to prevent the bubble from collapsing from external pressure. To float, the gas from the swim bladder must be released, otherwise, when the water pressure decreases, it will expand greatly. However, gas is released slowly from the swim bladder.
One of the features of real deep-sea fish is precisely its absence. When they rise up, they die, but without visible changes.

An unknown species of fish, which can be considered a living fossil, has been discovered in the deep-sea depressions of the Atlantic Ocean near Rio de Janeiro. Named Hydrolagus matallanasi by Brazilian scientists, this fish, a member of the chimera subspecies, has remained virtually unchanged over the past 150 million years.

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Along with sharks and rays, chimeras belong to the cartilaginous order, but they are the most primitive and can well be considered living fossils, since their ancestors appeared on Earth 350 million years ago. They were living witnesses to all the cataclysms on the planet and roamed the ocean a hundred million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on Earth."
Fish up to 40 centimeters long live at great depths, in giant depressions up to 700-800 meters deep, so until now they could not be discovered. Her skin is equipped with sensitive nerve endings, with which she detects the slightest movement in absolute darkness. Despite its deep-sea habitat, the chimera is not blind; it has huge eyes.

Blind deep sea fish

Victims of appetite.
The black snapper fish, which lives at depths of 700 meters and below, has adapted to absorb prey that can be 2 times longer and 10 times heavier than itself. This is possible thanks to the highly stretchable stomach of the black crook.


Sometimes the prey is so large that it begins to decompose before it is digested, and the gases released in this process push the crooked swallow to the surface of the ocean.
The Crookshanks has an amazing ability to frequently swallow living creatures larger than its own size. At the same time, like a mitten, it is pulled over the prey. For example, a 14-centimeter “dinner” fits in the stomach of an 8-centimeter giant.

Super predator of the deep sea.
Bathisaurus sounds like a dinosaur, which is actually not far from the truth. Bathysaurus ferox belongs to the deep-sea lizards that live in the tropical and subtropical seas of the world, at a depth of 600-3,500 m. Its length reaches 50-65 cm. It is considered the deepest-living super predator in the world and everything that comes in its way , is immediately devoured. As soon as the jaws of this devil fish slam shut, the game is over. Even her tongue is lined with razor-sharp fangs. It is hardly possible to look at her face without shuddering, and it is even more difficult for her to find a mate. But this does not bother this formidable underwater inhabitant too much, since it has both male and female genital organs.

Real deep-sea hunters resemble monstrous creatures frozen in the darkness of the bottom layers with huge teeth and weak muscles. They are passively drawn by slow deep-sea currents, or they simply lie on the bottom. With their weak muscles, they cannot tear pieces out of their prey, so they do it easier - swallow it whole... even if it is larger than the hunter in size.

This is how anglers hunt - fish with a lonely mouth to which they forgot to attach a body. And this waterfowl head, baring its palisade of teeth, waves in front of itself a tendril with a luminous light at the end.
Anglerfish are small in size, reaching only 20 centimeters in length. The largest species of anglerfish, such as Ceraria, reach almost half a meter, others - Melanocete or Borophryna - have an outstanding appearance.
Sometimes anglerfish attack such large fish that an attempt to swallow them sometimes leads to the death of the hunter himself. So, once a 10-centimeter anglerfish was caught, choking on a 40-centimeter longtail.


There is a refrigerator in the stomach. Alepisaurs are large, up to 2 m long, predatory fish that live in the pelagic zone of the open ocean. Translated from Latin it means “scaleless beast”, a characteristic inhabitant of open ocean waters.
Alepisaurs, fast predators, have an interesting feature: food is digested in their intestines, and their stomach contains completely intact prey, captured at various depths. And thanks to this toothy fishing gear, scientists have described many new species. Alepisaurs are potentially capable of self-fertilization: each individual produces eggs and sperm simultaneously. And during spawning, some individuals function as females, while others function as males.

Do you think that this fish monkfish have legs? I hasten to disappoint you. These are not legs at all, but two males that are stuck to the female. The fact is that at great depths and in the complete absence of light it is very difficult to find a partner. Therefore, as soon as a male monkfish finds a female, he immediately bites into her side. This hug will never be broken. Later, it fuses with the female’s body, loses all unnecessary organs, merges with her circulatory system and becomes only a source of sperm.

This is a fish with a transparent head. For what? At depth, as we know, there is very little light. The fish has developed a defense mechanism; its eyes are located in the center of the head so that they cannot be injured. In order to see, evolution has awarded this fish with a transparent head. The two green spheres are the eyes.


Smallmouth macropinna belongs to a group of deep-sea fish that have evolved a unique anatomical structure in order to suit their lifestyle. These fish are extremely fragile, and specimens of the fish that have been collected by fishermen and researchers are deformed due to pressure changes.
Most unique characteristic What makes this fish unique is its soft, transparent head and barrel-shaped eyes. Typically fixed pointing upward with green "lens covers" to filter sunlight, the eyes of the Smallmouth Macropinna can rotate and extend.
In fact, what appear to be eyes are sensory organs. The real eyes are located under the forehead.

One-legged crawling
Norwegian scientists from the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen reported the discovery of an unknown creature living at a depth of about 2000 meters. This is a very brightly colored creature crawling along the bottom. Its length is no more than 30 centimeters. The creature has only one front “paw” (or something very similar to a paw) and a tail, and at the same time does not resemble any of the sea inhabitants known to scientists.

10994 meters. Bottom of the Mariana Trench. There is a complete absence of light, water pressure is 1072 times higher than the surface pressure, 1 ton 74 kilograms presses per 1 square centimeter.

Hellish conditions. But there is life even here. For example, at the very bottom they found small fish up to 30 centimeters long, similar to flounder.

One of the deepest-sea fish is the Bassogigus.

Scary teeth underwater world


The large-headed daggertooth is a large (up to 1.5 m long), not numerous inhabitant of average depths of 500-2200 m, presumably found at depths of up to 4100 m, although its juveniles rise to a depth of 20 m. Widely distributed in the subtropical and temperate regions of the Pacific Ocean, in During the summer months it penetrates as far north as the Bering Sea.

The elongated, serpentine body and large head with huge beak-shaped jaws make the appearance of this fish so unique that it is difficult to confuse it with anyone else. Characteristic feature The external structure of the daggertooth is its huge mouth - the length of the jaws is about three-quarters of the length of the head. Moreover, the size and shape of the teeth on different jaws of the daggertooth differ significantly: on the upper ones they are powerful, saber-shaped, reaching large specimens 16 mm; on the bottom - small, subulate, directed backward and not exceeding 5–6 mm.

And these creatures are like something out of a horror movie about aliens. This is what polychaete worms look like under high magnification.

Another strange inhabitant of the depths is the Drop Fish.
This fish lives off the coast of Australia and Tasmania at a depth of about 800 m. Given the depth of water in which it swims, the blob fish does not have a swim bladder like most fish, as it is not very effective under high water pressure. Her skin is made of a gelatinous mass that is slightly denser than water, which allows her to float above the ocean floor without any hassle. The fish grows up to 30 cm in length, feeding mainly on sea urchins and shellfish that swim by.
Even though this fish is inedible, it is often caught along with other prey such as lobsters and crabs, putting it at risk of extinction.

Distinctive external characteristic fish drops is her unhappy expression.

The piggy squid is just an outlet in the world of deep sea monsters. So cute.

And in conclusion - a video about deep sea creatures.

In the depths of the seas and oceans, a completely different world reigns: special flora and fauna, represented by many varieties, have not yet revealed half of their secrets to humanity. Every year, thanks to developing technologies, scientists are able to explore new areas and discover unique species of deep-sea animals.

The creatures that live in little-explored waters often amaze with their appearance - not always cute, but certainly entertaining and mysterious. We invite you to immerse yourself in a strange and wonderful underwater kingdom with its extravagant inhabitants.

1. Moonfish (Mola-mola)

The sunfish (sunfish, headfish) is the largest in the world bone fish. The laterally flattened and somewhat elongated body shape, combined with its impressive size, makes a strong impression; in addition, many individuals of this species reach three meters, if you calculate the distance between the fins. This huge fish is found in all oceans located in tropical and temperate climates. The giant feeds on zooplankton, and also, most likely, small fish and algae.

2. Giant isopod

The giant isopod, without a doubt, can be called one of the strangest creatures encountered by man in the underwater world. Known to Science as Bathynomus giganteus, it belongs to the crustacean group, being the largest member of the Bathynomus family, related to shrimp and crabs.

3. Pelagic megamouth shark

It is difficult to describe the largemouth shark better than its name does - a shark with a huge mouth. Its streamlined head is somewhat lost behind the scale of its protruding jaws. The shark's body is decorated with white spots covering the tips of the fins, as well as a dark triangle at the throat. The average length of this strange sea creature is 4.5 m, although scientists have discovered specimens larger than five meters. The largemouth shark weighs about 750 kg.

4. Long-horned sabertooth

Known to the scientific world as Anoplogaster Cornuta, this fearsome creature lives in the deep waters of many of the world's oceans. Sabertooth got its eloquent name because of the very impressive appearance of its fanged mouth. The teeth of this fish are considered to be the longest in proportion to body size among all sea inhabitants. For its grotesque appearance, the saber tooth earned the nickname “ogre fish.”

5. Hauliod (viperfish)

One of the most violent underwater predators is the hauliod. His teeth are so large that they do not fit into his mouth, curving down to his eyes. It is believed that such a formidable weapon helps the fish inflict critical wounds on its victims while chasing them at high speeds. This creepy-looking creature has a long dorsal fin topped with a photophore, a light-producing organ.

6. Grenadier fish

This species lives just above the seabed. Slowly swimming along its surface, the fish looks for live prey for food, although it turns out that it is not at all averse to tasting underwater carrion. In addition to its rather impressive appearance, the grenadier has the ability to secrete a specific chemical compound with an extremely pungent odor. So to this little underwater monster It's really hard to get close.

7. Deep Sea Glass Squid

Extremely curious species can be found at mid-ocean depths, where rays of light reaching through the water column are combined with translucent bodies underwater inhabitants The latter creates a spectacular camouflage. For even better camouflage, some creatures, such as the glass squid, have acquired bioluminescent organs located under their eyes.

8. Monkfish (football fish)

In addition to its interesting appearance, the monkfish also has other interesting features. For example, the males of this fish attach themselves to the body of a much larger female and spend most of their lives in this position. While the lady takes care of her harem, gets food and builds a nest, the task of her many husbands is only to fertilize.

9. Pacific Black Dragon

Female Pacific black dragons grow up to 61 cm in length and have rather menacing-looking fangs, as well as a small beard. In comparison with their impressive female friends, males cannot boast of their size (about 8 cm), teeth, mustaches or beards. They don’t even have a stomach, so they are not destined to eat in their short lives. The only mission of the brownish male Pacific black dragon is to have time to mate with the female, who then also uses the body of her former friend as bait for prey.

10. Largemouth (pelican fish)

The long body of the pelican fish turns into an equally long tail with a light-producing organ at the end. On average, this ancient inhabitant of the seas can grow up to 80 cm. Its habitat is the waters of tropical and temperate climates.

1. Angler / Fish Angler / Monkfish / European Angler / Angler Fish

This deep-sea monster can easily become the nightmare of any diver and is rightfully considered the ugliest fish on planet Earth.

As if ashamed of their ugliness, anglerfish live in the depths of the sea, where the sun's rays do not penetrate.

There are 200 species of anglerfish, which are widely distributed in the cold waters of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans. The depths at which these creatures live are truly amazing: in 2006, a female monkfish was discovered in the Mediterranean Ocean at a depth of 1.86 km.

Fishing fish spend most of their lives at the very bottom, where they bury themselves in silt or sand.

Due to their deep-sea habitat, the skin of these fish is dark gray or dark brown, which would make them inconspicuous if not for the huge flat head studded with spines and a giant mouth opening. The roof of the mouth and jaws have several rows of razor-sharp, inward-curved teeth.

Some angler fish can reach 2 meters in length and weigh up to 28 kilograms.

On the head of females there is a small appendage with a fleshy two-bladed appendage (rod), which behaves like a float and begins to fluoresce at great depths, which is why this fish got this unusual name. The rod, as a rule, is 4 times longer than the fish itself, and the fleshy appendage, filled with mucus, in which bacteria that emit light live, is located directly in front of the predator’s mouth. The angler fish's mouth is truly gigantic compared to the rest of its body, and combined with its soft, elastic body, this 'baby' fish can wholeheartedly swallow prey that is twice its size.

That. It turns out that this monster, if desired, can easily swallow an adult!

A female fishing fish can harbor up to 10 partners on her body throughout her life, but most often their number is limited to 5-6.

To better imagine how this process happens, look at this short comic:

Spawning takes place at great depths, but the eggs are lighter than water and float to its surface. Here they hatch into larvae, which begin to feed intensively, grow quickly and gradually drown until they return to their homeland - the seabed.

The monkfish is extremely aggressive and any person swimming too close to it will be immediately attacked. The bites of this fish are very deep and painful, so do not approach this monster under any circumstances.

In Italy, the meat of this monster is eaten.

2. Viperfish / Sea viper / Deep sea viper / Viperfish

An indigenous inhabitant of the mesopelagic, the deep-sea viper can be found in tropical and temperate regions of the World Ocean at depths from 80 to 1600 meters.

The viper fish belongs to the Chauliodontidae family, all members of which are excellent freaks and bloodthirsty predators.

Individuals living closer to the surface are pitch black, and their deeper-sea counterparts are completely transparent, like most inhabitants of the depths, where the sun's rays do not penetrate.
Viper fish lure prey using a special luminous organ - a photophore, which is located along their dorsal fin.
This fish has simply gigantic eyes, in comparison with the size of its body, thanks to which it can see well even in the pitch darkness of the sea depths. The mouth is armed with huge sharp teeth protruding several centimeters from the mouth.

As a rule, the prey of the deep-sea viper are fish that are two or even three times larger than themselves. The predator, with lightning speed, grabs the victim's muzzle with a death grip with its teeth-sabers, and waits until the fish, struggling in agony, is exhausted, after which, intercepting the teeth with its teeth, it begins to literally the words are put on her until she swallows her whole.

After a hearty meal, the deep-sea viper looks like an inflated balloon bristling with sharp teeth.
The fish is stupid and aggressive to the point of disgrace. Oceanographer Stanley Dzhimnirski said that in 2006, while diving in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, he witnessed how a viper fish attacked a humpback whale, but due to its modest size, it could not defeat the gigantic mammal, which simply - simply ignored all the attacks of the brainless fish.

3. Alepisaurus / Alepisaurus

The large, toothy creatures, which carry the legacy of prehistoric times into the present day, can reach a length of two meters and weigh more than 8 kg.

The fish is extremely smart and is caught in fishing nets very rarely, and, according to fishermen, it is simply impossible to catch an alepisaurus with a hook.

Lives mainly in open ocean waters.

This species was first described in 1741 by one of the participants in the Second Kamchatka Expedition, Georg Wilhelm Steller, who discovered a sea monster washed up on the shore of one of the Aleutian islands.

4. Saberfish / Saberfish / Fangtooths

The saberfish or horned fish is another monster that lives in the ocean depths.

Despite its formidable appearance, this fish is truly miniature in size, reaching a length of only 15.24 cm.

The sabertooth has a short body, a large head and a huge mouth, with powerful jaws lined with sharp fangs.
Sabertooth fry are strikingly different from adult individuals - they have a lighter color, a different body structure and a head crowned with long spines. Adults range in color from jet black to dark brown.

The sabertooth fish is one of the deepest-sea fish in our world, which feels comfortable at depths of over 4,875 meters, where they are subject to pressure of over 425 atm.

These tiny predators attack anything that moves and are capable of swallowing whole prey that is two to three times their size. Some scientists suggest that the extreme aggressiveness of saber-tooths is a hereditary reflex developed as a result of extreme food shortages at such depths.

Sabertooth fish live in temperate and tropical oceanic regions, including waters off the coast of Australia.






5. Dragonfish / Sea dragon / Grammatostomias flagellibarba

The deep sea dragon fish is a ruthless predator that attacks anything that can be eaten. The aggression of this fish does not fit at all with its size - the body length of the sea dragon is only 15.24 cm.

The miniature monster has a large head and a large mouth, lined with sharp, fang-like teeth.

The dragon fish has a long whisker on its chin, at the end of which there is a photophore that acts as a fishing bait. Blinking and waving it back and forth in front of its toothy mouth, the predator waits until the unsuspecting prey swims close enough to it, after which, with a lightning-fast movement, it slams its powerful jaws on its head if the prey is large enough, otherwise it simply swallows it entirely.

In addition, like most deep-sea fish, the body and head of the dragon fish are dotted with photophores, which serve for communication with other representatives of its species (for example, during the mating period).

Sea dragons can be found in tropical regions of the World Ocean at depths of 1,500 meters.

6. Largemouth / Eurypharynx pelecanoides

First place in the category of the strangest and most clumsy-looking creature on planet Earth is awarded to a representative of the order of sacs - the largemouth, whose mouth looks truly gigantic in comparison with the rest of the body.

Most of the largemouth skull bones were reduced or simply disappeared due to their uselessness. As a result, it is impossible to determine what genus of fish the largemouth belongs to. Only the appearance of the fry, similar to eels, hints at the relationship of these two species.

During hunting, the lower jaw of the largemouth folds down and takes the shape of a net, into which prey that is several times larger than the hunter can easily be placed.
Many explorers of the deep sea have noticed that the largemouth, carrying prey in its mouth, looks like a flabby pelican. That's why it's sea ​​creature often called pelican eel.

The largemouth stomach is also adapted to receiving large foods and is capable of stretching.

One more distinctive feature This inhabitant of the deep sea has a long, whip-like tail. Often the tails of largemouths caught in fishing nets were tangled into many knots.

Largemouths grow up to 2 meters in length and live at depths from 915 to 1830 meters.

7. Atlantic giant squid / Architeuthis dux

The Atlantic giant squid (Architeuthis dux) of the giant squid family, which is nicknamed the 'kraken', is the largest invertebrate in the world.

An adult female giant squid can reach 18 meters in length and weigh more than 900 kg.

About these mysterious sea ​​monsters practically nothing is known, because They were only seen alive a couple of times. The study of sea 'krakens' is limited exclusively to the dissection of their half-decomposed corpses washed ashore.

Giant squids are carnivorous and eat whatever they can catch. During World War II, many surviving crew members of sunken ships told stories of giant sea ​​monsters, who dragged their colleagues under the water. In addition, these creatures are credited with attacks on submarines and small ships. Confirmation of this has never been found, which does not exclude the possibility that hungry deep-sea creatures rise to the surface in search of food.

The Atlantic squid is armed with eight long tentacles (up to 5 meters) with suction cups with which it holds its prey and two powerful jaws that form a sharp beak that can easily pierce the skull of a white shark.

The sworn enemies of these monsters are sperm whales, whose strength and mass the ‘krakens’ have nothing to oppose. This can be confirmed by the fact that remains are often found in the stomachs of dead sperm whales. giant squid.

Representatives of this species of giant squid live mainly in temperate and subtropical zones Atlantic Ocean at a depth of up to 1100 meters.

8. Giant isopod / Giant isopod / Bathynomus giganteus

One of the largest members of the crustacean family, the giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus), also known as the giant isopod, reaches a length of 45 cm and weighs up to 2 kg.

The closest relative of this animal is not far removed from its prehistoric ancestors, considered to be woodlice.

When threatened, the giant isopod curls up into a ball, protected by a tough, calcareous exoskeleton made up of overlapping segments covering its back.

The giant isopod has 7 pairs of legs, the first of which, at a certain stage of evolutionary development, turned into jaws, used for capturing, crushing and feeding food into the mouth, equipped with four jaws.

These giants live in sea ​​water at a depth of over 600 meters.

9. Sea Coffin / Coffin Fish / Sea Toad / B.melanostomus

The soft spherical body and short tail of this inhabitant of the ocean depths are covered with many small poisonous spines, which pose a serious danger even to humans.

Length adult sea ​​toad does not exceed 12 cm.

The elastic skin allows this type of fish to swell, thereby more than doubling in volume.

The sea toad belongs to the suborder of anglerfish and has a small, mobile photophore on its snout.

These fish spend most of their lives buried in the mud, only occasionally sticking their snout out of it, luring prey with a luminescent photophore.

Sea toads live in the continental regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans at depths of up to 2000 meters.

10. Hellish Vampire / Vampyroteuthis infernalis

The hellvampire is a relict squid and the only member of the order Vampyromorphida.

Its jelly-like body, studded with photophores, makes it look more like a jellyfish than a squid.

He has the largest eyes among animals, in comparison with the rest of the body proportions. They are located on the sides, have a spherical shape and can reach a diameter of 25 cm.

Typically, the length of an adult hellish vampire does not exceed 15 cm, but there are also 30 cm specimens.

Photophores serve for intraspecific communication, defense and attack. Thanks to them, the hellish vampire is able to generate light pulses lasting from hundredths of a second to several minutes. In addition, it can control the brightness and size of color spots.

The hellish vampire is able to change the color of his body and eyes. Depending on the lighting, the eyes can be blue or red, and the body can be velvety black, red, purple or brown.

The blood of the Hell Vampire contains the pigment hemocyanin, which contains copper, which gives it a bluish tint.

Metabolism proceeds so slowly in his body that he needs minimal amount food and oxygen. Thanks to this, the hellish vampire manages to comfortably survive at depths of over 1000 m.

This animal is capable of developing incredible speeds, reaching 30 cm/s.

11. Long-nosed chimera / Harriotta raleighana

In the lane from Greek "chimera" - monster

A distinctive feature of this sea creature, belonging to order Chimaeriformes, is a long nose with ideal hydrodynamic properties. The long-nosed chimera is one of the fastest underwater creatures maximum speed whose movements have not yet been established.

Large round eyes allow the chimera to see well even where the sun's rays practically do not penetrate.
Longnose chimaeras are considered distant relatives of sharks, so South Africa They are often called 'ghost sharks'.

They live in ocean waters temperate climate at depths from 200 to 2600 meters.

The poisonous spine located on the dorsal fin can kill a person, although this is unlikely to ever happen at a depth of 2600 meters.

12. Black Crookshanks / Chiasmodon niger

The chiasmodon genus includes five species of the most disgusting creatures, each of which could easily become an adornment to any low-budget horror film.

The most common member of this marine 'Adams family' is the black crook.

The length of these monsters is only 15-25 cm, but thanks to their wide mouth, crowned with large movable fangs, they can easily swallow a half-meter fish.

In order not to become a victim himself during the hunt, the crooked swallower swallows prey, starting from the tail, then, intercepting it with his teeth, pulls it into his stomach, which is elastic and capable of accommodating everything that fits into the mouth of this sea monster.

The crookfish is helped to find prey in pitch darkness by the lateral line organ system, which allows it to detect water vibrations.

In addition, to attract prey and communicate with potential mating partners, there are photophores on its body.
Black crabbills live in tropical and subtropical waters of the World Ocean at a depth of 700-2700 meters.

13. Frilled shark / Chlamydoselachus anguineus

The frilled shark is one of two species of the family Chlamydoselachidae, found primarily in the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

It lives at a depth of 50 to 200 meters, but can dive to 2000 meters if desired.

Most often, scientists call this animal a living fossil, because. it has undergone virtually no changes during its evolutionary development and is the brightest representative a species that originated in prehistoric times.

Frilled sharks reach up to two meters in length, with females being larger than males, and having a snake-like, dark-colored body that makes them look like eels. Their gill openings are decorated with skin frills, from which these sharks get their name.

This dangerous predator takes full advantage of all the advantages of its snake body during the hunt. With a lightning-fast movement, he pounces on the victim and coils around it like a snake. Flexible jaws allow it to swallow prey that is several times larger than itself, and teeth that are sharp at the ends and curved inward completely eliminate the possibility of the victim escaping from a fatal grip.

Frilled sharks feed mainly on cephalopods, fish and other sharks.

These deep-sea animals hatch from eggs that are gestated by the female for 2-3.5 years, the longest gestation among vertebrates.

And in conclusion, I want to introduce you, although not a sea hunter, and not so scary in appearance, but still an extremely dangerous river hunter who does not even disdain human flesh.

Pacu

Pacu is a fish from the piranha family, which, like the dragon fish, attacks everything it sees, but its habitat is not depths of the sea, and shallow river backwaters.

Pacu are much larger than piranhas - the weight of an adult can reach 30 kg. Extremely sharp teeth, somewhat similar to human ones, and powerful jaws make this pretty fish the most dangerous river predator in the world.

In order to provoke a pack to attack, it is enough to approach it at a distance of two meters.

The main habitat of these fish is concentrated in the waters of the Amazon.

Is it difficult for you to believe that such a ‘cute baby’ could cause you any harm? But in vain! Most recently, paku castrated two local fishermen in Papua New Guinea, who bled to death. For more than a month, this bloodthirsty creature single-handedly terrorized residents of nearby villages until it was caught by an experienced fisherman from England, Jeremy Wade.

Incredible facts

Perhaps we should stop looking for aliens on other planets, since there are enough people living in the ocean amazing and strange life forms, more like aliens.

4. Goblin Shark

The goblin shark is rarely seen on the surface as it primarily lives at depths from 270 to 1300 meters.

It is easily recognized by its elongated and flattened muzzle with retractable jaws with teeth sharp as fingernails. These sharks reach 3-4 meters in length, but can grow more than 6 meters.

5. Sea Spider

If you thought there were no spiders in the ocean, you were very mistaken. However, sea spiders have no relation to terrestrial spiders, despite their external similarity. These are not spiders or even arachnids, but chelicerates - a subtype arthropods.

They live in the seas, especially in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, as well as in the Arctic and Southern oceans. There is more 1300 species of sea spiders, ranging in size from 1-10 mm to 90 cm.

6. Pompeii worm

Pompeii worms ( Alvinella pompejana) live in very hot water near hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Ocean and can withstand extreme temperature and pressure.

7. Drop fish

Drop fish ( Psychrolutes marcidus) although it is considered the ugliest creature in the world, looks like a completely normal fish, being in its normal environment at a depth of 600-1200 meters.

At this depth, the pressure is 120 times higher than at the surface. Unlike other fish, it does not have a swim bladder, skeleton or muscles, which allows it to swim at depth. If you raise it to the surface, it acquires saggy and sad looking.

Sea creatures

8. Bobbitt polychaete worm

The Australian purple polychaete worm, also known as the Bobbitt worm, can grow up to 3 meters long.

It hunts its prey in the most diabolical way, burrowing into the seabed, leaving a small part of its body on the surface and waiting for the victim. Using its antennae, the worm senses passing prey, quickly captures it with its strong muscular throat, and splits a fish in two.

9. Jellyfish "flower cap"

These jellyfish, with beautiful multi-colored tentacles emanating from a translucent umbrella, feed on small fish and sometimes each other.

They can increase or decrease in size depending on food supplies.

10. Rag-picking seahorse

These slow-moving fish are related to seahorses. They rely mainly on their seaweed-like appendages to help rag pickers camouflage and protect themselves from predators.

11. Siphonophores

Siphonophores are animal colonies, consisting of individual representatives called zooids, connected by a common trunk. Such a colony can reach several meters in length.

12. Corona jellyfish

This atoll jellyfish or crown jellyfish is very similar to a UFO, because, like most jellyfish, it does not have a digestive, respiratory, circulatory or central nervous system.

She lives in the deep 1000 - 4000 meters where sunlight does not penetrate. Being scared, this jellyfish "connects" bioluminescent blue lights, which spin like flashing lights on a police car.

13. Pike blenny

These fish usually hide inside shells on seabed. These are small (up to 30 cm), but fierce fish with a large mouth and aggressive behavior.

When two pike blennies fight for territory, they press their widened mouths against each other as if in a kiss. This helps them determine who is bigger.

14. Glass squid

There is about 60 types of glass squid or crachniid. Most of them, as the name suggests, are transparent, which helps them camouflage.

15. Pteropods

Pteropods are small sea ​​snails which swim in the water on two wing-shaped legs. They are born male, but become female when they reach a large size.

16. Sea cucumber

These floating deep sea cucumbers are transparent, so you can see their digestive system.

Deep sea inhabitants

17. Squid Worm

Scientists first discovered this deep-sea creature in 2007. It was nicknamed the squid worm because of its 10 tentacle-like appendages on the head, each of which is longer than the entire body. He uses them to collect food.

18. Lobster's menacing claws

This type of lobster Dinochelus ausubeli, which means "formidable claws", was discovered at depth 300 meters in the Philippines in 2007. It reaches a length of only 3 cm, and its toothy claws are its only frightening feature.

19. Sea anemone Venus flytrap

This sea anemone Actinoscyphia aurelia, was named after Venus flytrap plants due to their similar shape and feeding method. She folds her disk in half, trapping food and digesting it with her mouth located in the center of the disk.

In maritime and ocean depths There are a huge number of all kinds of creatures that amaze with their sophisticated defense mechanisms, ability to adapt, and, of course, their appearance. This is a whole universe that has not yet been fully explored. In this rating, we have collected the most unusual representatives of the depths, from beautifully colored fish to creepy monsters.

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Our rating of the most unusual inhabitants of the depths opens with the dangerous and at the same time amazing lion fish, also known as striped lionfish or zebra fish. This cute creature, about 30 centimeters long, spends most of its time among the corals in a motionless state, and only from time to time swims from one place to another. Thanks to its beautiful and unusual coloring, as well as long fan-shaped pectoral and dorsal fins, this fish attracts the attention of both people and marine life.

However, behind the beauty of the color and shape of its fins are hidden sharp and poisonous needles, with which it protects itself from enemies. The lion fish itself does not attack first, but if a person accidentally touches it or steps on it, then one injection from such a needle will sharply worsen his health. If there are several injections, then the person will need outside help to swim to the shore, as the pain can become unbearable and lead to loss of consciousness.

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This is a small marine bony fish of the pipefish family of the order Pipefish. Seahorses lead a sedentary lifestyle; they attach their flexible tails to stems, and thanks to numerous spines, outgrowths on the body and iridescent colors, they completely blend into the background. This is how they protect themselves from predators and camouflage themselves while hunting for food. Skates feed on small crustaceans and shrimp. The tubular stigma acts like a pipette - the prey is drawn into the mouth along with water.

The body of seahorses in water is located unconventionally for fish - vertically or diagonally. The reason for this is the relatively large swim bladder, most of which is located in the upper part of the seahorse's body. The difference between seahorses and other species is that their offspring are carried by the male. On its abdomen it has a special brood chamber in the form of a sac, which plays the role of a uterus. Seahorses are very fertile animals, and the number of embryos borne in a male’s pouch ranges from 2 to several thousand. Childbirth for a male is often painful and can result in death.

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This representative of the depths is a relative of the previous participant in the rating - the seahorse. Foliar sea ​​Dragon, rag picker or sea pegasus is an unusual fish, so named for its fantastic appearance - translucent delicate greenish fins cover its body and constantly sway from the movement of water. Although these processes look like fins, they do not take part in swimming, but serve only for camouflage. The length of this creature reaches 35 centimeters, and it lives in only one place - off the southern coast of Australia. The rag picker swims slowly, its maximum speed is up to 150 m/h. Just like seahorses, the offspring are carried by males in a special pouch formed during spawning along the lower surface of the tail. The female lays eggs in this pouch and all care of the offspring falls on the father.

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The frilled shark is a species of shark that looks much more like a strange one. sea ​​snake or eel. From the Jurassic, the frilled predator has not changed at all over millions of years of existence. It got its name from the presence of a brown formation on its body, which resembles a cape. It is also called the corrugated shark due to the numerous folds of skin on its body. Such peculiar folds on its skin, according to scientists, are a reserve of body volume to accommodate large prey in the stomach.

After all, the frilled shark swallows its prey mainly whole, since the needle-like tips of its teeth curved inside the mouth are not capable of crushing and grinding food. The frilled shark lives in the bottom layer of water in all oceans except the Arctic Ocean, at a depth of 400-1200 meters; it is a typical deep-sea predator. The frilled shark can reach 2 meters in length, but the usual sizes are smaller - 1.5 meters for females and 1.3 meters for males. This species lays eggs: the female gives birth to 3-12 young. Gestation of embryos can last up to two years.

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This type of crustacean from the infraorder crabs is one of the most major representatives arthropods: large individuals reach 20 kilograms, 45 centimeters in carapace length and 4 m in the span of the first pair of legs. Lives mainly in Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan at a depth of 50 to 300 meters. It feeds on shellfish and leftovers and is believed to live up to 100 years. The survival rate among the larvae is very small, so females spawn more than 1.5 million of them. During the process of evolution, the front two legs turned into large claws that can reach a length of 40 centimeters. Despite such a formidable weapon, the Japanese spider crab is non-aggressive and has a calm character. It is even used in aquariums as an ornamental animal.

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These large deep-sea crayfish can grow more than 50 cm in length. The largest recorded specimen weighed 1.7 kilograms and was 76 centimeters long. Their body is covered with hard plates that are softly connected to each other. This armor design provides good mobility, so giant isopods can curl up into a ball when they sense danger. Rigid plates reliably protect the crayfish’s body from deep-sea predators. Quite often they are found in Blackpool, England, and they are not uncommon in other places on the planet. These animals live at depths from 170 to 2,500 m. Most of the entire population prefers to be kept at a depth of 360-750 meters.

They prefer to live on the clay bottom alone. Isopods are carnivorous and can hunt for slow prey on the bottom - sea cucumbers, sponges, and possibly small fish. They also do not disdain carrion, which sinks to the seabed from the surface. Since there is not always enough food at such great depths, and finding it in pitch darkness is not an easy task, isopods have adapted long time do without food at all. It is known for sure that cancer is capable of fasting for 8 weeks in a row.

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The purple tremoctopus or blanket octopus is a very unusual octopus. Although, octopuses in general strange creatures- they have three hearts, poisonous saliva, the ability to change the color and texture of their skin, and their tentacles are able to perform certain actions without instructions from the brain. However, the purple tremoctopus is the strangest of them all. For starters, we can say that the female is 40,000 times heavier than the male! The male is only 2.4 centimeters long and lives almost like plankton, while the female reaches 2 m in length. When the female is frightened, she can expand the cape-like membrane located between the tentacles, which visually increases her size and makes her look even more dangerous. It is also interesting that the blanket octopus is immune to the venom of the Portuguese Man of War jellyfish; Moreover, the intelligent octopus sometimes tears off the jellyfish's tentacles and uses them as weapons.

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Drop fish - deep-sea bottom fish sea ​​fish the Psycholute family, which, due to its unattractive appearance, is often called one of the most scary fish on the planet. These fish supposedly live at depths of 600-1200 m off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, where they are found Lately Fishermen began to increasingly reach the surface, which is why this species of fish is endangered. The blobfish consists of a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than the density of water itself. This allows the blobfish to swim at such depths without expending large quantities.

Lack of muscles is not a problem for this fish. She swallows almost everything edible that floats in front of her, lazily opening her mouth. It feeds mainly on mollusks and crustaceans. Even though the blobfish is not edible, it is endangered. Fishermen, in turn, sell this fish as a souvenir. Blobfish populations are recovering slowly. It takes 4.5 to 14 years for the blobfish population to double.

7 Sea urchin

Sea urchins are very ancient animals of the echinoderm class that inhabited the Earth already 500 million years ago. On this moment known around 940 modern species sea ​​urchins. The body size of a sea urchin varies from 2 to 30 centimeters and is covered with rows of calcareous plates that form a dense shell. Based on body shape, sea urchins are divided into regular and irregular. U the right hedgehogs body shape is almost round. U wrong hedgehogs The body shape is flattened, and the anterior and posterior ends of the body are distinguishable. Spines of various lengths are movably connected to the shell of sea urchins. The length ranges from 2 millimeters to 30 centimeters. Spines often serve sea urchins for movement, nutrition and protection.

In some species, which are distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans needles are poisonous. Sea urchins are bottom crawling or burrowing animals that usually live at a depth of about 7 meters and are widespread on coral reefs. Sometimes some individuals can crawl onto. Correct sea urchins prefer rocky surfaces; incorrect - soft and sandy soil. Hedgehogs reach sexual maturity in the third year of life, and live about 10-15 years, up to a maximum of 35.

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Largemouth lives in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans at depths from 500 to 3000 meters. The body of the largemouth is long and narrow, in appearance it resembles an eel 60 cm, sometimes up to 1 meter. Due to the giant stretching mouth, reminiscent of the beak bag of a pelican, it has a second name - pelican fish. The length of the mouth is almost 1/3 of the total body length, the rest is thin body, passing into the caudal filament, at the end of which there is a luminous organ. The largemouth does not have scales, a swim bladder, ribs, an anal fin or a full-fledged bone skeleton.

Their skeleton consists of several deformed bones and light cartilage. Therefore, these fish are quite light. They have a tiny skull and small eyes. Due to poorly developed fins, these fish cannot swim quickly. Due to the size of its mouth, this fish is capable of swallowing prey that is larger than itself. The swallowed victim ends up in the stomach, which can stretch to enormous sizes. The pelican fish feeds on other deep-sea fish and crustaceans that can be found at such depths.

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The sac-eater or black eater is a deep-sea representative of perciformes from the suborder chiasmodidae, living at a depth of 700 to 3000 meters. This fish grows up to 30 centimeters in length and is found throughout tropical and subtropical waters. This fish got its name from its ability to swallow prey several times its size. This is possible due to the very elastic stomach and the absence of ribs. A bagworm can easily swallow fish 4 times longer and 10 times heavier than its body.

This fish has very large jaws, and on each of them the front three teeth form sharp fangs, with which it holds the victim when it pushes it into its stomach. As the prey decomposes, a lot of gas is released inside the bagworm's stomach, which brings the fish to the surface, where some black gobblers have been found with swollen bellies. Watch the animal in its natural conditions habitat is not possible, so very little is known about its life.

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This lizard-headed creature belongs to the deep-sea lizard-heads that live in the tropical and subtropical seas of the world, at depths from 600 to 3500 meters. Its length reaches 50-65 centimeters. Outwardly, it is very reminiscent of long-extinct dinosaurs in a reduced form. It is considered the deepest sea predator, devouring everything that comes in its way. Bathysaurus even has teeth on its tongue. At such a depth, it is quite difficult for this predator to find a mate, but this is not a problem for it, since the bathysaurus is a hermaphrodite, that is, it has both male and female sexual characteristics.

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The smallmouth macropinna, or barrel eye, is a species of deep-sea fish, the only representative of the genus macropinna, which belongs to the order Smeltfish. These amazing fish have a transparent head through which they can watch their prey with their tubular eyes. It was discovered in 1939, and lives at a depth of 500 to 800 meters, and therefore has not been well studied. Fish in their normal habitat are usually motionless, or move slowly in a horizontal position.

Previously, the principle of operation of the eyes was not clear, since the fish’s olfactory organs are located above the mouth, and the eyes are located inside the transparent head and can only look up. Green color The eyes of this fish are caused by the presence of a specific yellow pigment in them. It is believed that this pigment provides special filtering of light coming from above and reduces its brightness, which allows the fish to discern the bioluminescence of potential prey.

In 2009, scientists found that thanks to the special structure of the eye muscles, these fish are able to move their cylindrical eyes from the vertical position in which they are usually located, to the horizontal position when they are directed forward. In this case, the mouth is in the field of view, which provides an opportunity to capture prey. Zooplankton of various sizes, including small cnidarians and crustaceans, as well as siphonophore tentacles along with cnidocytes were found in the macropinna vein. Taking this into account, we can come to the conclusion that the continuous transparent membrane above the eyes of this species evolved evolutionarily as a way of protecting cnidarians from cnidocytes.

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The first place in our ranking of the most unusual inhabitants of the depths was taken by a deep-sea monster called an anglerfish or devil fish. These scary and unusual fish live at great depths, from 1500 to 3000 meters. They are characterized by a spherical, laterally flattened body shape and the presence of a “fishing rod” in females. The skin is black or dark brown, naked; in several species it is covered with transformed scales - spines and plaques; ventral fins are absent. There are 11 known families, including almost 120 species.

The anglerfish is a predatory sea fish. A special growth on its back helps it hunt other inhabitants of the underwater world - one feather from the dorsal fin separated from the others during evolution, and a transparent sac formed at its end. In this sac, which is actually a gland with liquid, surprisingly, there are bacteria. They may or may not glow, obeying their master in this matter. The anglerfish regulates the luminosity of bacteria by dilating or constricting blood vessels. Some members of the anglerfish family adapt even more sophisticatedly, acquiring a folding fishing rod or growing one right in their mouth, while others have glowing teeth.