10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

If you were a producer of films and someone would suggest that you make a film about aliens from the tentacles, which could change shape, become invisible and shoot a blinding cloud of chemicals, you would just sigh and say: "No, it's an octopus."

We take for granted the fact that there are several million of these creatures that live around us. At some point, the science just jumped into the back seat of the evolution and provided a terrifying curiosity for some time to steer. However, even among the strangest creatures in the world there are those who can be called extreme.

1. Medusa Atoll (Atolla Jellyfish)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

Medusa Atoll quite common. They live in every ocean of the world, but on the beach you have them, of course, did not meet, as they usually live at depths exceeding 700 meters. Like many other deep-sea creatures are bioluminescent (they light up like fireflies). However, the Atolls do not use your light to capture their prey, as do the monkfish - they use their light to escape from enemies. If a predator catches atolls, it begins to emit a riot of light pulses, similar to the strobe pulses. This light show attracts fish of large size, which is more interested in predator who attacked on the atoll, and jellyfish will have a chance to escape.

In Atolls have one elongated tentacles, which it uses to capture prey. They grab prey end tentacles and drag defenseless creature in the water, yanking it back and forth as long as it does not remain on the force to fight - just like a fisherman comes with a very big fish.

2. Common ice fish or mackerel icefish (Antarctic Ice Fish)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

Extremophiles (animals that live in extreme conditions) usually look quite unusual. However, mackerel icefish can rightly claim to be the winner in the competition for the strangest look. As its name suggests, this fish lives in deep waters of Antarctica and thrives in temperatures below zero, and to a depth of one kilometer.

These fish are absolutely colorless, even their blood is transparent. They all have the same blood, but it does not contain hemoglobin - the protein contained in red blood cells that is responsible for the movement of oxygen and gives blood red. They are the only vertebrates in the world, having such a characteristic, and researchers are still trying to figure out why it occurred in mackerel icefish. In addition, in their blood antifreeze protein, which does not allow them to freeze the blood and soft tissues. It is this protein, they can live at temperatures below zero, and not turn into a fish icicles.

3. Imperial shrimp (Emperor Shrimp / Periclimenes imperator)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

A tiny, colorful imperial shrimp is more like candy than a living creature, but its striking color plays a very important role ... in fact, we have no idea why they are so colorful, even though that scientists are studying them more since 1967. It is possible that they simply have no camouflage needs. Imperial shrimp lives almost exclusively on the backs of sea slugs, known as a nudibranch, namely the form titled "Spanish Dancer" (Hexabranchus marginatus), which has very few enemies, because it absorbs toxins from their food. In fact, they are in general no one is hunting, so it's possible that they just love to show off.

4. Blue Angel (Blue Dragon Sea Slug / Glaucus atlanticus)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

Most animals eat other animals that are less than their size. This is the law of nature. On the other hand, the blue angel laughs in the face of logic and preys on the largest and most dangerous creatures, which he can only find - such as the Portuguese ship, but if they are not around, then he preys on other blue angels. Eating tentacles Portuguese boat, blue angels absorb knidotsity stinging cells which they hoard in their body bags to be used in the event that they will attack someone.

However, at this strange creature that does not end. Most sea slugs crawling on the ocean floor. A blue angels? They swallow air bubbles and floating just under the water surface. If you look at them from below, when they are near the surface, they look like spiders running on the mirror. They just float wherever they are waves, eating everything that will meet on their way.

5. Sea slug Felimare Picta

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

Felimare picta - is the name of species of sea slugs that live in warm, subtropical waters, particularly in the area of ​​the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are six different subspecies Hypselodoris species, and they are actually subsection detachment nudibranch, all members of which look completely ridiculous.

From the order of nudibranch quite small, and generally reach only about 20 centimeters in length, although scientists have found somewhat nudibranch whose length is greater than 64 centimeters. They are mollusks (and snails), but instead of the shells to protect themselves they use other tricks hoarded in their sleeves colorful - e.g., sweating acid. If it do not you think an extraterrestrial power, it is not clear about what you think aliens.

6. Actinium Gorgonevaya blotch (Gorgonian Wrapper / Nemanthus annamensis)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

In the waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans inhabit some of the most diverse marine life on the planet, among them is and actin Gorgonevaya blotch. Actinium Gorgonevaya blotch is the Sea anemones, so yeah, it's a terrifying creature is a predator. And it is as fierce as it seems, looking at his appearance - such as actin anemones Gorgonevaya blotch produce a substance called cnidocyte, which is essentially a small poisonous fragmentation grenade. Anemone tentacles lined knidotsitov layer and when fish passing touches their tentacle (or tentacles million) cells down the trigger and the cell explodes, sending a fish body paralyzing harpoons.

Biological process, during which the anemone shoots venom, is one of the fastest reactions in the animal kingdom. To the cell cnidocyte fired their deadly content requires less than 700 ns (nanosecond equal to one billionth of a second).

7. Octopus Vanderpus (Wonderpus)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

has one of the coolest Latin names in the animal kingdom Wunderpus photogenicus is a rare predatory octopus, dwell in the Philippine coast. Its name comes from the fact that people are very fond of his pictures, since these octopus quite photogenic. But kittens too photogenic and Vanderpus not the same cute and fluffy as they are. They are hunters, nocturnal. They hunt, pursuing prey crawling on the ocean floor in long and flat tentacles. When they go into Stealth mode, their bright color visibly fades to the color that will allow them to merge with the sand and coral. But if you try to attack one of them, they immediately become bright red and orange to warn predators that they had better keep away from Vanderpusov. Also, like most octopus Vanderpusy surprisingly clever. This video shows how Vanderpus coral builds a wall to hide behind it. Every day we learn about Vanderpusah something new (they were only discovered in 2006), and they help us in this - a pattern of white spots on their backs unique to each individual, as a human fingerprint.

8. Samara (Lionfish)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

In nature, there are 10 kinds of krylatok, and, needless to say, they are among the most recognizable species of fish in the world. Wildly beautiful and incredibly dangerous, all the 10 endemic species of the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, although the two species have been introduced to the east coast of North America in 90 years. It was a mistake, because they breed like rabbits underwater, and they have no natural enemies.

In fact, the uncontrolled growth of their numbers became so big a problem that researchers in Honduras trying to teach sharks to hunt krylatok. Sharks usually bypass them by. However, ironically, the greatest danger for these predators are themselves: in the absence of food, lionfish eat each other.

9. siphonophores Giant (Giant Siphonophore / Praya dubia)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

Visually, the creature does not seem to be something particularly impressive, but in order to truly appreciate the tremendous siphonophores need to look at its size. They live at great depths and can reach more than 40 meters in length, which is equal to the height of the building and more than thirteen-length adult blue whale.

However siphonophores giant itself is not a single organism. This is actually a colony, consisting of millions of creatures who called zooid. Each cluster zooids performs a specific function: some of them are responsible for the food, others for the defense of the colony. When they are cohesive, colony functions as a single body. It's like a country, or (perhaps more accurately) to a bunch of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of each other, hidden in a long coat. And due to the fact that siphonophores live so deep (approximately at a depth of one kilometer from the water surface), they are always under enormous pressure, which is equal to half a ton per square centimeter of body surface area. As a result, they are very difficult to study. When they are lifted too close to the surface, they burst like balloons due to the reduced pressure.

10. Purple Australian worm (Bobbit Worm / Eunice aphroditois)

10 sea creatures, similar to the aliens

The Australian purple worm is nothing that would not be absurd or disgusting. Even its name came from a court case in 1993, which featured a woman named Lorena Bobbitt (Lorena Bobbitt), a knife, and. . . something else, like a worm. Composed in equal parts of Graboid from the movie "Tremors" and the wicked fiend, magenta Australian worm can grow to three meters in length. He dug into the seabed, leaving on the bottom surface only a small part of his body. When the fish swims past him, the worm rolls, fish captures its huge claws and drags her into the ground.

Most instances of Australian purple worm was found not in the ocean, and on quite by accident, tucked away in an aquarium with salt water. They fall into the tanks, hidden in the rocks and soil, which are taken from the ocean, and then grow slowly, without attracting attention. In 2009, the Australian giant purple worm was discovered in the Blue Reef Aquarium (Blue Reef Aquarium) in England. He was spotted after workers dismantled the aquarium tank to understand why all the fish disappears.