Friday, November 1, 2013

This Week's Sci-light!

Friday seems anticlimactic after having Thursday Halloween fun.  However, I thought I'd extend the festivities into today's Sci-light by looking for "spooky" animals.  And what better place to look than in the ocean.  Since the planet is 70% water by surface area and 90% of the living space is water, it's no wonder that diversity in species and adaptations abound in the depths.

Hairy crab, Photo courtesy of NIWA
My fun began with pictures of Odd Deep-Sea Creatures from  National Geographic.  These amazing organisms have been found at volcanos, canyons and deep sea corals.  The Trichopeltarion janetae  or "hairy crab" was first described in 2008.

Photograph by David Wrobel, SeaPics
Surfing the site, I found more  Deep-Sea Creature Photos.  I was scrolling through photos of the Pacific Viperfish (pictured to the right), the Atlantic Wolffish, and a Frilled Shark and reading short excerpts about these amazing organisms.  Then I came upon the Vampire Squid (below).  The volumonous glass-blue eye captured my imagination.  Indeed, it's eye is special because proportionally, it is the largest of any animal on Earth.  When googling for more information on the Vampire Squid, I happened across some videos imbedded in another blog by Jennifer Frazer.
 Kim Reisenbichler, National Geographic

What curious creatures will inspire you?  It doesn't matter. 
Just stay Sci-Curious!