THE (NEARLY IMMORTAL) LIVES OF SEA URCHINS IS THE FOCUS of this terrific video from the terrific folks at PBS’s Deep Look. Like most marine denizens, they endure long – and perilous – journeys as tiny larvae before settling into on some suitable substrate for a life eating algae. Once they transform into adults, they’re pretty much invulnerable, says Deep Look, with life expectancy as long at 200 years. The transformation process is amazing.
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TO MOST DIVERS, SEA CUCUMBERS WOULD SEEM LIKE THE INACTION FIGURES of the oceans. Mainly, they come off as inert, sausage-shaped lumps lying randomly on the sandy bottom and perhaps the least interesting objects on the reef. It’s time for real sea cucumber facts. Actually, some of them have real Captain Echinoderm moves in them. For one thing, they’re nocturnal so what you see in the daytime isn’t what you’d get at night, when they
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THE ESTIMABLE FOLKS AT THE MONTERREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE are celebrating their success at breeding the comb jelly Leucothea pulchra with a video chowing off its otherworldly, pulsating beauty. As a comb jelly, L. pulchra (whose Latin name means “beautiful sea goddess”) is more properly known as a ctenophore, a gelatinous sea creature somewhat resembling a jellyfish. CTENOPHORES VERSUS JELLIES Unlike with your basic jelly, ctenophores don’t sting. Instead, they have sticky tentacles that trail
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SEA SPIDERS ARE CREATURES WITH LONG LEGS radiating from tiny central bodies. In a class of marine arthropods called Pycnogonida, they’re found in more than 1,300 species in oceans all over the world LOOKS SIMILAR, WORKS VERY DIFFERENTLY The only association they have with terrestrial spiders is … a physical appearance of long legs and tiny central bodies. Other than that, they are totally unlike real spiders, or anything else, for that matter. IT’S ALL IN
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MANTIS SHRIMPS ARE HOT. Not as hot as sharks and manta rays always are, but in recent years they’ve been experiencing a flurry of attention, from a NatGeo special – “KILLER SHRIMP” (naturally) – to a spate of research looking at their speed of attack, strength and visual acuity. Despite their common nomenclature, mantis shrimps are neither shrimps nor assassins of divers or other human beings. They are highly efficient predators of other marine animals, they’re strong, tough
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