Deep Sea Creatures & Adaptations

" Deep Sea Creatures"

The ocean is composed of thousands of different types of species. The fish, turtles, sharks, and sea weed we all see is no where near what the bottom of the ocean is made up of or looks like. There is a whole, new, extraordinary world in the deep sea with creatures we never knew existed with their own life cycles, characteristics, and adaptations.

Due to the wide variations of environmental settings available to the animals, the sea floor allows organisms to live in, on, or near it. Along the bottom, kelp, sea grass, and also sandy beaches cover the ocean's rim; also with the help of coral reefs, mangroves, marshes, and rocky and muddy habitats. Those that live on the bottom crawl, slither, and burrow themselves into the sediments. Others, stay fixed on one place and stay stationary there. Examples of these are algae, see grass, sea urchins, mollusks, etc.

A change in water temperature, salinity, and sometimes wave energy, determines how and where deep sea creatures live and their physical characteristics. Finding space to live on the bottom of the sea floor is as competitive as it is fierce. For the most part, the only reason we know so much more about the deep water is because the creatures are slow, which unable them to avoid the attempts of scientists to collect and study them.

One major adaptation in the creatures of the bottom of the sea floor is adapting with one another for food. Most creatures along the shoreline partner up together for food. For example, the ocean wrasse and certain fish. Thanks to the cleaner wrasse, fish stay healthy. The wrasse cleans particles of food from fish's teeth, gills, and skin.

Another form of adaptation is the way creatures have special ways of griping onto the rocky bottoms so they are not swept away. For example, sea slugs have a sticky, glue - like bottom. Their bottom sticks to the rock and helps them climb either up or down with out falling off which would endanger them more to be eaten by predators.

A third adaptation for animals of the deep, is blending in with their surroundings and light. For example, the great white shark swims at the bottom of the ocean silently while hunting for its prey. The fish higher up can not see the shark due to blending in with the darkness and attacks instantly one it sees its victim.

Another name for the ocean bottom is the twilight zone. Since there is not enough light, or occasionally non at all, plants can not grow. Therefore, animals must eat one another or climb up to parts of the ocean where sun light reaches to find food. For example, jelly fish and shrimp hide at the bottom during the day and move up towards the surface