The 10 Weirdest Ocean Creatures – And Where to Find Them
Interested in marine biology colleges in Florida? Then you’re probably interested in our top-ten list of the weirdest and strangest ocean creatures.
1. Clown FrogFish
This strange creature from waters around Indonesia is bright yellow with red markings. But some frogfish, who like to keep a low profile, can change colors to blend in with their surroundings.
2. Sea Pen
A sea pen is actually a colony of polyps with tentacles that form branches and look like a quill pen. Sea pens, found in the shallow waters of New Zealand, root to the sea floor with an anchoring bulb to which the colony can retreat if it is threatened.
3. Blob Sculpin
These bulbous creatures are hard to spot because they are reclusive by nature. The two-foot-long fish nest on sea floors up to a mile deep off California’s coast, and the males guard the eggs until they hatch.
4. Red-Lipped Batfish
Red lips attract prey and fins help these fish “walk” on the seafloor near the Galapagos Islands. They also have a retractable snout that they can use to get prey close to their mouths.
5. Giant Spider Crab
Native to Japan, giant spider crabs can grow up to 12 feet long. They forage on the ocean floor up to 1,000 feet deep, which is nearly 2 miles.
6. Giant Tube Worms
These amazing creatures can survive with zero sunlight, freezing temperatures, and the crushing pressure of the deep undersea environment—and some are even adapted to live at the edge of hydrothermal vents in the East Pacific, out of which spurts superheated water infused with toxic chemicals.
7. Vampire Squid
These animals have the largest eyes of any animal proportional to their size. They live at 10,000 feet under the surface in the mesopelagic and bathypelagic regions of the world’s temperate and tropical world oceans and can survive in the low-oxygen environment of those layers.
8. Leafy Seadragon
The fins of this creature look like leaves and help it move through the water as well as camouflage it to look like drifting seaweed. These animals are found on the southwestern coast of Australia.
9. Kiwa, God of Shellfish, Crab
This crab was discovered more recently south of Easter Island on a hydrothermal vent 5,000 feet under the surface. It has fur covering its long claws that contains bacteria to detoxify its food, and it is likely blind.
10. Metapseudes
Lots of these odd arthropod creatures were found in coral rubble in Western Australia, but marine biologists aren’t sure yet what it does, only that it looks strange.
Florida Tech: One of the best marine biology colleges in Florida
Then check out our top-ten list of the weirdest and strangest ocean creatures.Interested in marine life? Florida Institute of Technology offers a marine biology degree in a Florida oceanside location teeming with marine life to explore and research. Learn more about our Marine Biology Degree to study these and other sea creatures, some right where they live!
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