Endless Forms Most Beautiful - The Chimaera
One Strange Fish!
by Codie
I remember when Miss Baker showed us this one film in class and it had some weird sea animals that live WAY down deep in the ocean and I thought it would be fun to look at a really weird one. This fish is called a Chimaera fish. Their pretty cool because their skeleton is made entirely out of cartilage and live on temperate ocean floors. When scientists find creatures like these it really makes me wonder what else is down there. Have any ideas? Someday I hope I can discover a species just like scientists do today! Here’s a couple of websites you can go to for more weird sea creatures. Which ones do you think are the coolest?
October 14th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
That is one of the most amazing animals I have ever seen! I am sure there are tons of species in deep-ocean zones that we still have to discover and the idea of being able to find them is amazing. My personal favorite from the animals you showed us is this:
http://www.discoverydiving.com/images/photos/airvani/lizard_fish.jpg
Nice post!
October 14th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
That is one weird fish…its doesnt even look like a fish.There must be tons of new species down there that we dont know about yet. I think the coolest it the one on the national geographic.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I think the viperfish is one of the coolest. its teeth seem transparent… awesome. I couldent imagine bumping into one of those things, it does not look like a very sociable fish.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
That is was of the weirdest fish I have ever seen. I have never seen anything like it. I couldn’t amagine living at the depths that fish lives at. There are no tellings how many different fish like that one are down there. It would be neat if scientists could discover all those different kind of fish down there.My favorite of the fish that you showed us was on diving discovery.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I think my favorite is the Jewel Squid.I thought it was cool that one eye is bigger than the other so that they can look for prey in the dark. That would be kinda weird having one big eye and one small one.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Codie those creatures on your first link were petty crazy looking. i wish they had their names on them so I could have researched them. I do know, however, of a fish that is pretty interesting as well. It is called the Hawaiian Trigger fish, or Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (the Hawaiian name). Whenever it gets scared it hides in coral and then jams a trigger on its back into the rock so that preditors can’t get it out. Check out this site about the Trigger Fish it’s awesome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef_triggerfish
October 15th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
So, uh, ya know how wales crush their own body because of weight on land, if they were ever brought on land? Well, with some wales anyways, or something like that, my resources aren’t to reliable. anyways, if it’s bones are cartilage, then would the weight of this animal crush it’s internal organs? I also noticed that they don’t have that black circle in their eye. Why? Or, wait, isn’t that the part that recieves light, but if there’s no light, then they don’t have it? I’m not sure, just thinking out loud. Please reply.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
That was an awesome post Codie. Its funny how people think they know a lot, but there is really so much we don’t know. Your post showed me that and I bet there is so many different species in that ocean zone I do not know about. I think some of those species are really cool, but the viper fish has to be my favorite. Its teeth look pretty intimidating.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
After looking at the pictures on your link I think the glass squid is the coolest. It looks like a big clear balloon. I always enjoy looking at creatures that I have never seen before. It really makes me wonder how many other species are there that have not been discovered? Great posst codie.
October 16th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
My favorite fish has always been the deep sea angler fish! I’ve always been intrigued by them and how they catch their prey is so cool! I even heard a rumor that the male fish grows out of the side of the female. Now, I don’t know if thats true because it sounds pretty weird but you never know!
October 16th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I saw the picture and the eyes of this fish just drew me in to read the blog! haha My personal favorite is the viperfish its just so unique and mysterious looking. I admitt too that i do not know alot of species of animals and your post just makes me want to go out and learn about all of them!
October 16th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Great post Codie! All the animals that were on the attached websites were cool. It is really interesting because they are all so different compared to the everday sea creatures that you see. It is neat to know that these creatures adapt to their “home” and when they adapt they come up with these really cool features. It just makes me wonder how many more species are undiscovered and what cool features they have.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Codie,
I have to say, I really enjoyed reading your post! Marine biological fieldwork is what I’d like to do as a career after school and this really sparked my interest. But the thing that first grabbed my attention more than anything was the title of your post “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”. In fact, I read a book this summer with that exact same title (”Endless Forms Most Beautiful” by Sean B. Carroll)! It talked about the new and uprising field of scientific discovery called Evolutionary Development or “evo devo” for short. Evo Devo deals with exactly what it says- the evolution of different and diverse species in our world and the developments that the evolutionary process broght on to them. It was an incredibly fascinating book, but one of the things I really took away from it was the idea that many different species we see today actually divulged from a common ancestor. The closer to the common ancestor two species are, the more genes they have in common, and therefore the more closely related they are. How this really pertains to your post (besides the fact that it and the book have the same title!) is that on the reference page you have listed, it shows the evolutionary chain of the Chimaera. According to this chart, the majority of sharks we see in the oceans today, at some point divulged from this common ancestor- the Chimaera! And speaking of endless forms most beautiful, isn’t it remarkable the the endless forms taken on by most modern shark species are very dissimilar to to the Chimaera? So these fish really are in “endless forms most beautiful”! But, even though you might say that none of these fish look exactly “beautiful” to you, nature has selected them out of thousands of other forms to fit into thier specified environments which makes them “beautiful” and essential to thier individual ecosystems. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
I absolutley loved the post Codie, but I would be really careful siting Wikipedia in your sources. People can just get on and change information at thier own leiasure, and I’m not sure that any of the species of Chimaera fish are 1800 meters long. The largest actual fish known to man in existence is the whale shark and it only grows to be 66 feet in length, which is roughly 25+ meters (Georgia Aquarium Staff). Other than that, excellent post and I really enjoyed reading all about the Chimaeras!
October 17th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Thanks so much stevie! Your comment actually really interested me! Where did you get this book from? I would really like to read it. Marine biology is one of my favorite things to study as well. I know that the Wikipedia site is not very reliable, but I thought it was one of the sites i found that gave the most information. Since the chimaera is quite strange there are not many sites on it. Thank you for your awesome comment!
October 17th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I agree with danielle the viper fish is the coolest. the chimaera fish is pretty scarry if i caught that i wouls race back to shore in my boat it almost looks like something on it would glow.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I liked the one from the National Geographic site. Its amazing how many odd things live down there are HOW they survive in those conditions. Because people can rarely get down there it makes it even more mystrious and interesting. I heard once that EVERY time someone goes down there they come back up having found a new species. It makes you wonder how many weird things are in the ocean.
October 21st, 2007 at 2:07 pm
The viperfish from national Geographic was the coolest one to me! THat thing is awesome, it’s teeth are almost translucent! it’s really strange to think that there are so many different species in the ocean that we don’t even know exist!! Cool post Codie!
October 21st, 2007 at 7:22 pm
The viperfish is creepy looking! It’s weird to think that species could survive so deep in the ocean- talk about adaptation! Seeing pictures like these really makes you wonder what kind of species have yet to be discovered. Great post Codie!
October 21st, 2007 at 7:52 pm
That is the strangest fish I have ever seen in my life! Those white eyes make it look possessed or something. It must be really flexible if it’s skeleton is made entirely out of cartilage. Maybe I could reach my feet if my skeleton was made like that. To answer one of codie’s questions, I have seen a lot of cool sea creatures and I think that some of them are absolutely amazing. I saw some tv show on discovery channel or something that had these amazing creatures that would light up and produce their own light. It was really amazing to see and when you saw scenes of many different species that all produced different colors of light, it would take your breath away. It really does make you wonder though how many species are really down there.
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I really enjoyed looking at the fish on that first link! My favorites were the two pink ones side by side, they looked really weird. I always thought it was cool that we knew more about the moon than the bottom of the ocean. It just shows that there is so much in front of us that we’ve never discovered!
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Awesome post Codie! I have to say that I have no clue what is down there, but if I had to guess, I would say glowing and really freaky looking (no offense meant to the animals of course). Those fish were soooo awesome looking! I liked that one on the National Geographic link, the one that looked like a mix between a dinosaur, a beetle, and a jellyfish. Was it glowing or was that milky color just it’s skin? I also liked the one they descrimed as “cartoon looking” It really did look like it had cartoon eyes! It was so cute I wanted to keep it as a pet! Cool post!!
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I say a movie on the animals that live way down on the ocean floor once. It was amazing to see all the strange animals that live there. Its cool that its skeloton is made entirely out of cartilage kinda like our noses. I think that the micro-organisms are the coolest, or maybe the fish. I heard on the program that we know more about space than we know about the deep-sea.
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Wow, that thing is pretty weird looking! You are right, Codie, there are so many undiscovered creatures in the world, especially in the deep sea. It just makes you wonder what other things lie beneath the surface of the ocean! I loved the pictures from the National Geographic link, especially the polka dotted one. It looked like it had google eyes! =)