musique musiqueAward Winning Undersea Images
These amazing undersea images are just some of the winners of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science 2013 underwater photography contest. Animals featured: a harbor seal, blue-ringed octopus, goliath grouper, a pod of dolphins and a male banded jawfish with his clutch of eggs.
neaq:
How do jellies move? Cnidarian jellies move by contracting muscle fibers at the bottom of their bell. Pushing water out propels the jelly forward. Although jellies don’t have what we would think of as a brain, these contractions are under some kind of nervous system control.
During the summer, jellies are everywhere in Boston Harbor [Video].
(Photos: B. Thayer)
The megamouth shark- an extremely rare species of deepwater shark, only around fifty-five specimens (as of 2012) have been sighted since its discovery in 1976.
This filter feeder is distinctive for its large head and rubbery lips framing a colossal mouth- all of which are pretty obvious in the pictures above. It’s also a pretty bad swimmer, which is actually kinda sad for a thing that spends its entire life swimming to survive.
A parting fact: the mouth of the megamouth is lined with little “lights” or photophores, sort of like the one on an anglerfish’s little fishy fishing rod. They are believed to act as a lure for plankton or small fishes.
So there’s the megamouth shark for you! Oh yeah, when I was looking through some blogs, I noticed that this person appeared to have some interest in megamouth sharks as well! There are documentaries and things on her blog, which you might want to check out if you’re interested :)
The gif, by the way, was from this video.
