Earlier Tuesday the scientific world was treated to exciting, fresh footage from an exploratory research survey that took place in Antarctica.
The research team, headed by Dr. Martin Riddle, was a part of an international effort to map life on the bottom surface of the Antarctic Ocean. Specifically, there is concern among scientists about increased ocean acidification and degradation that process can have upon coral gardens.
Breaking Video - Many Mysterious, New Benthic Species Discovered in Antarctic Ocean(Article continues after video)The thought is that as ocean acidity increases, such significant changes may occur that the calcium-carbonate skeletons of coral regions can suffer degradation and animals can experience problems with growth, thus causing problems with life-cycles and population dynamics. If this does occur, it will cause notable and perhaps disastrous cascading effects for oceanic flora and fauna.
Exploring the DepthsWith that in mind, the research team took off to begin a mission that involved 20 days of sampling, to initially perform a comprehensive 'census of marine life'. The data collected in this short period of time, mainly in the form of video and collected samples, has left many excited. As for the scientists on the excursion: "We were baffled."
The first amazing footage collected by the scientists, as seen in the included video above, came from catching and documenting Giant Sea Spiders on film. The impressive Antarctic sea spiders, which may look a bit menacing, exceed the size of a very large dinner plate.
Gigantism seems to be more common occurrence in deep-sea animals. Click image for full size to do it justiceYou will notice the spiders have a long, straw-like tube on the body. This is called a 'proboscis' (think like a nose hose) but instead of breathing, is used to 'suck' (actually create vacuum) its prey dry, hence the "vampire" portion accredited to some sea spiders. To get an idea of how this works, it is currently the same thing
Heather Mills is trying to do to good Sir Paul McCartney.
Dr. Riddle notes that of all the things he observed on the excursion, the most notable aspect of these benthic -or bottom dwelling- animals are their diverse and divergent appearance, along with adaptations, due to different evolutionary pressures. Some of these animals were found beyond depths of 6,500 feet (over 1 mile) from the ocean's surface.
Within these benthic, Antarctic animals, an impressive phenomena of particular interest involves the prevalence of
gigantism. This genetic condition is something occasionally seen within land animals, even within humans. For some reason it seems to be more common in the deep ocean, even warranting special classification as deep-sea gigantism. One example as noted occurs with giant sea spiders. Another stems from another new discovery of this mission, really big tunicates.
The 'gardens' of plankton-eating tunicates seemed to have an average height of around 3 feet tall! Resembling in part something you may see from Mario's Mushroom kingdom, these impressive animals have bodies that are very slender and of glass-like composition.
There were many other impressive animals discovered, including giant sea worms (more responsive than one may expect, from personal experience) and numerous samples are being sent out worldwide for proper assay and analysis of dna and tissue sampling. The follow-up reports to these discoveries will be quite interesting.
To Seek Out New Life and New CiviliationsThe old matra from Star Trek, famously delivered by all Enterprise captains, is actually an important take home message that we should get from this excursion. In our hussle and bussle lives of impressive technology in communications and hopes of exploration off this planet, it's easy to overlook what we have here.
Over the past 20 days, we have come across a group of animals rich in diversity, many of which previously unknown to humanity. Their underlying secrets and course of evolution will be something that researchers will study from years to come. As with all life on Earth, there is much that we can learn from them. And there they have been, all along, on our planet.
It's important to remember that this survey was prompted due to concerns about oceanic acidification. Fortunately in our census of marine life, we were able to find some quite frankly beautiful new discoveries and will be able to see if changes within the ocean, their home, is causing any harm to these forms of life.
While it's important to always look skyward and plan for hope of the future, it's equally as important to enjoy, preserve and discover what we figuratively have at our fingertips. That's my sciencey "enjoy the marvel of nature, evolution" and preserve it point of the day.
To wrap up this week in science, here is a recap of one of our photo galleries of some impressive and unusual animals for you. Enjoy.
Strange and Wonderful Animals GalleryShare this Image Gallery on your Wordpress, Blogger, Myspace and more. Copy and post code below.
| <style type="text/css">#picstyle {width:520px;padding:5px 5px 10px 5px;height:400px;overflow:auto;}#picstyle img {width:160px;height:140px;border:1px solid #000000;margin:5px 0px 5px 5px;float:left;}</style><br><br><div id="picstyle"><b>Top 20 - 5</b><br><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125326/P_Evil_Overlord_of_The_Mantids"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/66485_cc32_vwe76bc469-e9af-435c-85d2-9ca54b72a54c.jpg" title="Evil Mantid Overlord" alt="Mantid"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125262/P_The_Proboscis_Monkey"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/proboscis%20monkey31e7ae03-aa2e-4375-9010-b46ab893cc93.JPG" title="The Accounting Proboscis Monkey" alt="Proboscis Monkey"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125267/P_The_Funny_Looking_Chimaera_Pup"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/chimaera_pupa4e9cea5-cd36-44aa-a1e6-9409aba7487b.jpg" title="Nose-y Chimaera Pup" alt="Nose-yChimaera Pup"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125328/P_High_Quality_And_See_Through"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/66426_cc5_vw946fdd9a-2e61-4df5-9641-5141854972e7.jpg" title="Take Me To Your Leader" alt="Take Me To Your Leader"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/123273/P_Ugly_Water_Dwellers_Gallery_7"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/4c3b773c6-81f6-4cd1-be9d-ecb2e3d5c776.jpg" title="Ancient Japanese Shark" alt="Ancient Japanese Shark"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125327/P_Every_Species_Has_A_Victory_Pose"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/66479_cc28_vw50414ffd-a24e-4c7b-a0ab-4036b526a71a.jpg" title="Rocky Of The Insects" alt="Rocky Of The Insects"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/comments/full/103787/This_Week_in_Science_SuperHumans"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/Whippets%20Mysostatin%20Hypertrophy8d817e3f-86d9-41e5-b15e-bea7c069ebb3.jpg" title="Buff Super Dog, Wendy The Bully Whippet" alt="Bully Whippet"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125292/P_The_Soft_Shell_Turtle"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/matamata68844f09-8f0e-4e5f-b00d-194ca723608a.jpg" title="The Soft Shell Turtle" alt="Soft Shell Turtle"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/123271/P_Ugly_Water_Dwellers_Gallery_5"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/5f84c9438-9da8-45d4-90f9-acc723d990ee.jpg" title="WTF A Penis Fish?" alt="WTF A Penis Fish"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/123942/P_The_Ugliest_Fish_in_The_World"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/Ugly%20Fisha1b0633f-9799-4c09-a2e5-815a4d9b5408.jpg" title="Ugliest Fish In The World" alt="Ugliest Fish On Earth"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/123264/P_Ugly_Water_Dwellers_Gallery_1"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/1ec16d02c-476d-4f8e-be35-705d10b69a03.jpg" title="I Must Break You" alt="The I Must Break You Fish"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125275/P_What_s_up_With_This_Animal_s_Nose"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/97187403b543c2afa4b0e39c795e351544dcb5a33856f5-c897-4f73-b899-40c3345de016.jpg" title="Star Nosed Mole Grosses Out Folks" alt="Star Nosed Mole"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/123265/P_Ugly_Water_Dwellers_Gallery_2"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/10f10338e3-26c2-4ff4-a31e-6d0247c527af.jpg" title="Bob The Blob Fish" alt="Bob The Blog Fish"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/125278/P_The_Barkeeper_Fish"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/36d677e91-8c56-42d5-9f24-1222fa45ed1e.jpg" title="The Barkeeper Fish" alt="Fish Looks Like Moe"/></a><a href="http://www.shoutwire.com/viewpicture/124391/P_Crazy_Crawlers_1"><img src="http://images.shoutwire.com/pic_full/cc198484bdd3-ceb8-4da8-9c58-55bcf178756c.jpg" title="The Christopher Walken of Mantids" alt="Mantid Pose"/></a></div>Visit <a href="http://www.shoutwire.com">ShoutWire</a> for more news, video and entertainment. |
When Zero first mentioned hearing about a Vampire Sea Spider from the cold, lonely grips of Antarctica, I called bullocks. Surely, such an animal that was rumored to suck its prey dry had to be a Hollywood legend or mean old woman on her 4th husband.
As it turns out, they are a real and have scientists totally baffled.
Some these 'spiders' manage to even get a leg span of 70-centimeters, giving a resemblance closer to a wiry gold-digger and divorce lawyer mixed into one.
This gallery is a sample of what we hope to do more of in 2008. If you have images you'd like to store or share, please visit the
IMAGE SECTION and
UPLOAD as many as you like.
If you'd like a gallery made and featured on front page, simply swing by
your forums to let us know.