Do you dream of visiting penguins and seals in Antarctica? We at Brain Berries think this is a great idea! But how about giving the sea pig or scaled worm some love while you're there? What are sea pigs and scale worms, you ask? Just a few of the strange sea creatures recently discovered in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. Not much is known about many of the animals that live down there, but we'll do our best to summarize it. When you visit Antarctica, these are 10 fascinating creatures you might discover!
1. Hoff
Crab The Hoff Crab ( Kiwa tyleri if you want to sound boring) gets its name from having a "hairy" chest that reminds everyone of actor David Hasselhoff's hairy chest. Are you jealous that you don't have a crab named after you? Then grow a hairy chest next time, okay? However, this crab lives in water temperatures of 32°F (0°C), which gets a little too cold for their tastes, so they huddle near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor to nest. feel comfortable and warm. Therefore, your chest hair is actually bacteria, which loves to scrape and eat your hair. Delicious!
2. Antarcturus spec.
The Antarcturus (spec?) has the distinction of being the only creature on this list without a fun and exciting name. Little is known about these guys (fun fact: Wikipedia articles have been written about them in Dutch and Vietnamese, but not in English as of yet, so get to work one of you nerds!) Just so you know, They are isopods that live at the bottom of the ocean and eat some delicious sponge or coral branch as part of their diet.
3. Beach Flea Beach
Flea sounds like something out of SpongeBob SquarePants, but it's not as weird as it sounds. If he's bothered he jumps like a coward, basically. It's also interesting to note that this crustacean pulls double duty: sometimes it likes to hang out in the water, but it's totally comfortable living on land just like you and me. It is related to crab, lobster and shrimp. So if you see one, feel free to dip it in hot butter, I guess.
4. The Scaled Earthworm
There's no getting around them, folks. The scaly roundworm (Eulagisca gigantea if you're nasty) looks awful, even with their Hollywood grins. They live on the ocean floor and can grow up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) long and 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide. It has this mouth part that is retractable that can be flipped inward and folded inside its body. An interesting trick, right? Okay, let's back up slowly.
5. The Ctenophore
The ctenophore (ctenophore) is a soft and transparent creature from our darkest nightmares. The thing looks like something out of the Aliens movie, guys. On the other hand, these jellyfish cousins are somewhat bright. And we all love to drool over shiny things, right? When light hits their palettes, they emit an array of different colors, giving them a really cool look. But don't take one of them and stick it in your mouth. One of our young interns learned this the hard way.
6. The Sea Pig
This is our personal favorite. Also known as the sea cucumber (two wacky nicknames!), it loves to feast on scum and decaying plant matter. Like a real pig, basically. But instead of tasting like delicious bacon, it tastes like decidedly delicious poison. Sad news though: the sea pig lives in the deepest part of the Southern Ocean, so you're unlikely to come across one.
7. Glass Sponges
Check this out: The glass sponge isn't made of glass and is useless as a dishwashing cleaning tool. So why is it called that? Well, their skeletons are made of silicon, which is one of the main components of glass. Satisfied with that answer? Glass sponges don't have a particularly sophisticated palate; they eat whatever the ocean sends their way. They are also unfortunately dying at high rates due to global warming. So let's do our part and heal the planet. Let's do it for the glass sponges, guys.
8. Antarctic Feather Star
The Antarctic Feather Star (or Promachocrinus kerguelensis if you want to sound like a super smart scientist) lives at the bottom of the Southern Ocean near the coast of Antarctica. They like cold water and have 20 feathered arms that allow them to swim with grace and poise. The real stars of the sea, I suppose.
9. The Sea Spider
Do you like the sea? Do you like spiders? Then you will absolutely love the sea spider! But eventually you'd be devastated to learn that they're not actually spiders. They are very interesting marine arthropods. They can grow over 14 inches (35 centimeters) long, by far the largest of their kind. Scientists aren't entirely sure why they get so big, so we're just going to assume it's a glandular problem until proven otherwise.
10. The Collembola
Collembola sounds like something you'd call an adorable furry creature that thrives on hugs and positivity, don't you think? But they are actually hexapods that are similar to insects in many ways. At less than 1 millimeter long, they are nevertheless the largest Antarctic animal that lives exclusively on land. In order to avoid freezing to death, they are able to slow down their metabolism levels in order to conserve energy, as well as produce glycerol. But if the conditions are very harsh, they will die anyway. Sad.
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