Weird animals: 17 of the most bizarre animals on Earth
Sea pig
This high definition video framegrab was taken from MBARI’s ROV “Doc Ricketts” aboard the R/V Western Flyer at a depth of approximately 1260 meters on March 9, 2010. You can just see the red baby crab peeping out from underneath the sea pig ©MBARI research
The sea pig, or Scotoplanes globose, is a species of sea cucumber named after its round body and pink colouring, and is certainly one of the weirdest animals. These bloated, water-filled sausages can grow up to 15cm in length, and are found in all of the world’s oceans. There’s a lot of them, too. When there’s a tasty meal to be had, for example, a whale corpse that has sunk to the seafloor, sea pigs will gather in their hundreds to take advantage of the feast, using a ring of feeding tentacles to shovel food into their mouths. Just like a real pig, they’ll eat almost anything.
Like the blobfish, these deep-sea vacuum cleaners have evolved for life at depth, specifically on the abyssal plain in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Sea pigs pump water around their bodies to keep themselves inflated and bringing them too close to the surface causes them to shrivel up and die.
They have a pretty effective defence, too; toxic chemicals in their skin deters predators from wanting to chow down on this forbidden sea bacon. But this doesn’t seem to bother another inhabitant of the seafloor, juvenile king crabs. In fact, they may use this toxic trait to their advantage. On the flat, muddy plains of the seafloor where it’s difficult to burrow and hide from predators, the baby king crabs hitch a ride on wondering sea pigs. Clinging to the sea pigs’ ‘belly’, the vulnerable baby king crabs are safe from predators, while they shed their shell to grow.
This high definition video framegrab was taken from MBARI’s ROV “Doc Ricketts” aboard the R/V Western Flyer at a depth of approximately 1260 meters on March 9, 2010. You can just see the red baby crab peeping out from underneath the sea pig ©MBARI research
The sea pig, or Scotoplanes globose, is a species of sea cucumber named after its round body and pink colouring, and is certainly one of the weirdest animals. These bloated, water-filled sausages can grow up to 15cm in length, and are found in all of the world’s oceans. There’s a lot of them, too. When there’s a tasty meal to be had, for example, a whale corpse that has sunk to the seafloor, sea pigs will gather in their hundreds to take advantage of the feast, using a ring of feeding tentacles to shovel food into their mouths. Just like a real pig, they’ll eat almost anything.
Like the blobfish, these deep-sea vacuum cleaners have evolved for life at depth, specifically on the abyssal plain in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Sea pigs pump water around their bodies to keep themselves inflated and bringing them too close to the surface causes them to shrivel up and die.
They have a pretty effective defence, too; toxic chemicals in their skin deters predators from wanting to chow down on this forbidden sea bacon. But this doesn’t seem to bother another inhabitant of the seafloor, juvenile king crabs. In fact, they may use this toxic trait to their advantage. On the flat, muddy plains of the seafloor where it’s difficult to burrow and hide from predators, the baby king crabs hitch a ride on wondering sea pigs. Clinging to the sea pigs’ ‘belly’, the vulnerable baby king crabs are safe from predators, while they shed their shell to grow.
Advertisements
23 August 2023
Advertisements
