/r/deepseacreatures
View and submit posts containing the wonderful, dark, and largely unknown world in the deepest depths of our oceans.
No memes, captioned images or rage comics
Trolling, spamming, or posting pornographic or NSFL content are all subject to immediate ban.
Use descriptive titles
Make sure what you are posting is real (please post fictional creatures to /r/thedepthsbelow). This includes fan art, collages, sculptures, etc.
Be civilized, and treat other users with respect.
Absolutely no personal information
Post deep sea creatures only! Please, no living things from shallower waters. As a rule-of-thumb, if it is found in the lower (350m) mesopelagic (twilight) zone or deeper, it may be posted here.
Duplicate content will be removed at the discretion of the mod team.
No self-promotion of content from any source (YouTube, Blogs, Websites, etc.) unless you are an active member of the community. You must have at least 5 pieces of quality content submitted to the subreddit for every self-promoted video/article you post.
This zone is exposed to the surface, and receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur. You won't find any deep sea creatures here! Examples of life found here.
This is much deeper than epipelagic, but not the deepest. Creatures from the lower part of this zone (500m-ish) may be posted here. Photosynthesis is stunted here, due to insufficient light penetration. At about 500m, oxygen is greatly depleted. Hatchetfish, Snipe eels, and Stomiidae (dragon and viperfish) are all found in varying depths of this zone.
Alright, this is where it gets deep! At this point, the ocean is pitch black, and many organisms have adapted by becoming bioluminescent (think glowing fish). Many animals here survive on a substance called "marine snow" which is a combination of dead or dying organisms, protists, fecal matter, and other inorganic silt (sand, rock, etc.) Creatures here come in many shapes and sizes, from big, (bigfin squid, 8m in length) to small. (osedax worms, approx 10mm in length)
Just looking at the name of this harsh zone should give you an idea of how deep it is! Few creatures manage to survive the extremely cold waters, and the complete lack of light. The various anglerfish are some of them.
This zone is truly abyssal, and almost completely unexplored by humans. It's name was derived from Hades, the underworld in greek mythology. Here is a chart that details the pelagic zones.
Source: NOAA
Citation for image: Baum, S. (2011). Epipelagic zone.
Educational and scholarly articles are encouraged. If your post is not scientifically verifiable (such as an urban legend), or not based in reality, please consider posting to /r/thedepthsbelow.
We welcome all marine or deep ocean enthusiasts here. You don't have to be a marine biologist to post, but please try to keep your posts factually accurate. False or sensationalist posts may be subject to removal. Citations for articles or information are encouraged, but not required.
/r/deepseacreatures
I was reading about tomopteris and their bioluminescent features. From what I've read, they're the only marine organism to produce yellow light?
It seems like scientists don't know why.
How come yellow is so uncommon? I know that blue light travels farther underwater, but could there be an advantage to producing yellow light?
The barrel eye is oddly adorable imho.
Here’s the link for anyone who’s curious: https://www.peppermintnarwhal.com/
Told my roommate about my obsession with deep sea biology so she showed me the Kurzgesagt channel.
Possibly my favorite book of all time. It got me hooked (no pun intended) into the world of deep sea research. I’ve got more some more deep sea books in my to read pile, including The Underworld by Susan Casey.
I’m sure there are others in this subreddit that have read these books and/or more. I’d love to discuss your thoughts and opinions on them. Also I’m open to more reading suggestions!
Thanks!
I am sorry in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this. If it is, i would be happy if you direct me to where i should ask it.
I know bits and pieces about how they survive with no food(sea snow, symbiotic chemosyntehtic baacteria, predation, etc.) But i cant wrap my head around the lack of oxygen. Can someone enlighten me?
Help! I'm looking for the name of a small, jelly-like creature that kinda slithers along the bottom of the ocean and takes on the qualities of whatever it eats. Like if it eats some sea "thing" with poisonous spikes on it, it would grow some poisonous spikes or something. And I think they all look different. Thanks in advance to anyone who may know!!!
PS: I really hope this doesn't violate any rules. I did read them first!!!
Really interested if anyone would like to elaborate on why, or just your input on when deep sea creatures come to surface! I finished reading a few articles about one surfacing on a beach in Oregon. I know it’s not the first but I’m just going down a rabbit hole about this and all other deep sea creatures atp😅🥲
I watched this years ago and I want to rewatch it! It starts out with the researchers looking for a Coelacanth colony out around… India? Or maybe around the Philippines. Ultimately they don’t ever find the Coelacanth out there but they find another fish down deep that they follow for the rest of the program. It has Tripod Fish like pectoral fins if I remember right. I want to say it came out three or four years after the dinofish documentary. Sorry this is such a vague request but I’ve searched and searched and can’t find anything.
142k members in this subreddit and hardly anything happens :(
I was looking for a post discussing this but haven’t seen any yet. I guess it’s still kind of new footage.