Aliens exist! And they live much closer than you think...
Agggh, what the heck is that thing?!
That's a Dumbo Octopus, a deep-dwelling species of octopus that "flies" with the two little "ears" on top of its head. It is rarely sighted shallower than 600m/2000ft.
In my How to Survive a Homemade Submarine series of blog posts (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here), I shared some amazing photographs of deep-sea creatures taken from Karl Stanley's submarine by myself and Lia Barrett.
I didn't have room in the blog narrative to weave in some of the other fantastic creatures Karl has spotted from his submarine. Weirdness like...
Part ray, part shark, part... pig? The seldom-sighted Rough Shark is a weird mashup of evolutionary adaptations.
And then there's this literal mashup: the Chimera. It's in the name.
Red is the new black in the abyss, as demonstrated by these Soldierfish. Since red wavelengths can't penetrate the ocean depths, their red scales effectively render these fish invisible.
See, this jellyfish-from-hell wears the red nicely!
Ok, now nature is just screwing with us. Clearly, this is just a penis with fins attached. Or it's a Jellynose Fish, if you want to be scientific about it.
These Sea Lillies may look like beautiful flowers, but look closer: those white spikes are it's legs, and that flower is it's head and mouth. Nightmare fuel!
OH HI THERE! DID SOMEONE SAY NIGHTMARE FUEL?
Read more about my adventures in a homemade submarine
- How to Survive a Homemade Submarine, Part 1
- How to Survive a Homemade Submarine, Part 2
- How to Survive a Homemade Submarine, Part 3
- How to Survive a Homemade Submarine, Part 4
Shameless plug: I lost my GoPro this past April while surfing in Nicaragua and I haven't been able to film any new adventures since! Every upvote helps me get a few more Steem Dollars closer to being able to buy a new GoPro and film more awesome content!
Have any questions about the deep-sea creatures in this post? Leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer it!
Thanks for sharing these photos. I think that they are marvellous. Not a place that I would like to go, underwater, so it is good to see what lives there.
Hello @thescubageek, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!