Weird Creatures From the Deep

A massive census of the oceans has turned up a trove of strange marine wildlife, from jellyfish to octopuses to anemones

  • By Jess Righthand
  • Smithsonian.com, August 06, 2010
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Deep-water octopus

((photograph by I. MacDonald), Felder, D.L and Camp, D.K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico - Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.)


Deep-Water Octopus

One of 25 species in the deep-water genus Benthoctopus, this cephalopod lives in Gulf of Mexico waters as deep as 13,000 feet. Mollusks—a group that includes squid, octopuses, clams, snails and slugs—are one of 12 different phyla or sub-phyla documented by the Census of Marine Life. The group accounts for 17 percent of all marine species, according to the Census, making mollusks the second most diverse group, after crustaceans.

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Comments (13)

Wow! Weird and viciously crazy. I wonder if the paranas have kindshipped with them?

want more news on the wonders of the earth and space like this!!! thanx to u all...

I was an Associate many years ago and enjoyed the view into the world the magazine offered. Today, with the availability of the Internet the exoerience is greatly enhanced with the digital expansion of the many wonders of earth and space. Magazines cannot present all the new knowledge becoming available, although the magazine is a treasure. Keep up the excellent work!

Presumably you put one picture on every page to maximise exposure to advertising when clearly scrolling down though the images would have been much friendlier. It means you are more interested in selling than informing. It also means I only spent enough time on this site to register my complaint and then left, so defeating your object.

THIS IS A REALLY COOL FISH

Holy Mole!

This earth is such an amazing place! We all need to learn as much as possible about it and do our very best to preserve it. Thanks to the Smithsonian and all of it's scientists, researchers, photographers and behind the scenes people that try to educate us.

how can u say that

the pic those not look real !

Give more details.

Amazing how many species we discover from our Ocean, yet we can see out in space to the Big Bang. Earth is fascinating.

That is a mean looking fish!

thanks fer bringing such creatures to light for the sake of ordinay yet curious people.pl try to give detail information



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