Glowing jellyfish title. deep sea glowing fish
The depths of the oceans and seas are inhabited by many amazing living creatures, among which there is a real miracle of nature. These are deep-sea, which are equipped with unique organs - photophores. These special lantern glands can be located in different places: on the head, around the mouth or eyes, on the antennae, on the back, on the sides or on the processes of the body. The photophores are filled with mucus with glowing bioluminescent bacteria.
deep sea glowing fish
It is worth noting that glowing fish is able to control the glow of bacteria by itself, expanding or constricting blood vessels, tk. Flashes of light require oxygen.
One of the most interesting representatives glowing fish are deep-sea anglerfish that live at a depth of about 3000 meters.
In the arsenal of females reaching a meter in length, there is a special rod with a “bait-beacon” at its end, which attracts prey to it. A very interesting species is the bottom galateatauma (lat.Galatheathauma axeli), which is equipped with a light "bait" right in the mouth. She does not "trouble" herself with hunting, because it is enough for her to take a comfortable position, open her mouth and swallow the "naive" prey.
Anglerfish (lat. Ceratioidei)
Another interesting representative glowing fish is a black dragon (lat. Malacosteus niger). She emits red light with the help of special "spotlights" that are located under her eyes. For the deep-sea inhabitants of the ocean, this light is invisible, and the black dragon fish illuminates its path, while remaining unnoticed.
Those representatives of deep-sea fish that have specific organs of luminescence, telescopic eyes, etc., belong to true deep-sea fish, they should not be confused with deep-sea fish that do not have such adaptive organs and live on the continental slope.
Black dragon (Latin Malacosteus niger)
Known since glowing fish:
lantern-eyed (lat. Anomalopidae)
luminous anchovies, or miktofovye (lat. Myctophidae)
anglerfish (lat. Ceratioidei)
Brazilian luminous (cigar) sharks (lat. Isistius Brasiliensis)
gonostoma (lat. Gonostomatidae)
chauliodnye (lat. Chauliodontidae)
Luminous anchovies are small fish with a laterally compressed body, a large head and a very large mouth. The length of their body, depending on the species, is from 2.5 to 25 cm. They have special luminous organs that emit green, blue, or yellowish light, which is formed due to chemical reactions occurring in photocyte cells.
Glowing anchovies (Latin Myctophidae)
They are widely distributed throughout the oceans. Many species of myctophids have a huge number. The Myctophidae, together with the Photihthidae and Gonostomas, account for up to 90% of the population of all known deep-sea fishes.
Gonostoma (lat. Gonostomatidae)
The life of these deep-sea elusive representatives of the marine fauna is carefully hidden from prying eyes, so it takes place at a depth of 1000 to 6000 meters. And since the World Ocean, according to scientists, has been studied by less than 5%, humanity is still waiting for a lot of amazing discoveries, among them, perhaps, there will be new types of deep-sea glowing fish.
And with other, no less interesting creatures that inhabit the depths of the sea, you will be introduced to these articles:
Bioluminescence (translated from Greek "bios" - life, and Latin "lumen" - light) is the ability of living organisms to emit light. This is one of the most amazing phenomena. It does not occur very often in nature. What does it look like? Let's watch:
10 Glowing Plankton
Photo 10. Glowing plankton, MaldivesGlowing plankton in Gippsland Lake, Australia. This glow is nothing more than bioluminescence - chemical processes in the body of animals, in which the released energy is released in the form of light. Amazing in its nature, the phenomenon of bioluminescence, was lucky not only to see, but also to photograph the photographer Phil Hart (Phil Hart).
9 Glowing Mushrooms
The photo shows Panellus stipticus. One of the few mushrooms with bioluminescence. This type of mushroom is quite common in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. It grows in groups on logs, stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, especially on oaks, beeches and birches.
8. Scorpio
The photo shows a scorpion glowing under ultraviolet light. Scorpions do not emit their own light, but they glow under an invisible neon light beam. The thing is that in the outer skeleton of a scorpion there is a substance that just emits its light under ultraviolet radiation.
7. Glowworms Waitomo Caves, New Zealand
Luminous mosquito larvae live in Waitomo Cave in New Zealand. They cover the ceiling of the cave. These larvae leave strands of glowing slime, up to 70 per worm. This helps them to catch flies and midges that they feed on. In some species, such threads are poisonous!
6 Glowing Jellyfish, Japan
Photo 6. Glowing jellyfish, Japan An amazing sight could be seen in Toyama Bay in Japan - thousands of jellyfish washed up on the shore of the bay. Moreover, these jellyfish live at great depths, and during the breeding season they rise to the surface. At that moment, they were brought in huge numbers to land. Outwardly, this picture is very reminiscent of luminous plankton! But these are two completely different things.
5. Luminous mushrooms (Mycena lux-coeli)
What you see here are glowing Mycena lux-coeli mushrooms. They grow in Japan during the rainy season on fallen Chinquapin trees. These mushrooms give off light thanks to a substance called luciferin, which oxidizes and gives off this intense greenish-white glow. It is very funny that, in Latin, Luciferu means “the light of the giver.” Who would know! These mushrooms live for only a few days, and die when the rains end.
4. Glow of the ostracod Cypridina hilgendorfii, Japan
Cypridina hilgendorfii - this is the name of shellfish ostriches, tiny (for the most part no more than 1-2 mm), transparent organisms living in the coastal waters and sands of Japan. They glow thanks to the substance luciferin.
An interesting fact is that during the Second World War, the Japanese collected these crustaceans in order to obtain light at night. After wetting these organisms in water, they begin to glow again.
3. Glowing fireflies
Photo 3. Long exposure photo of fireflies This is what the habitats of fireflies look like, taken at a slow shutter speed. Fireflies flash to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
2. Luminous bacteria
Luminous bacteria are an amazing natural phenomenon. Light in bacteria is produced in the cytoplasm. They live mainly in sea water, and less often on land. One bacterium emits by itself a very weak, almost invisible light, but when they are in large numbers, they glow with a more intense, very pleasant blue light.
1. Medusa (Aequorea Victoria)
In the 1960s, Japanese-American scientist Osamu Shimomura at Nagoya University identified the luminescent protein aequorin from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Shimomura showed that aequorin is initiated with calcium ions without oxygen (oxidation). In other words, the light-emitting fragment is not a separate substrate in itself, but a substrate strongly associated with the protein. This, in turn, made a huge contribution not only to science, but also to medicine. In 2008, Shimomura was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.
“... The whole sea is on fire. Blue jewels play on the crests of the waves. In those places where the oars touch the water, deep brilliant stripes light up with a magical brilliance. I touch the water with my hand, and when I take it back out, a handful of luminous diamonds fall down, and gentle, bluish, phosphorescent lights burn on my fingers for a long time. Today is one of those magical nights about which the fishermen say: "The sea is on fire!"
(A.I. Kuprin.)
Have you ever seen such a picture when you were relaxing at sea? Is it really an amazing phenomenon? Today I will tell you Why does the sea glow?
The ability of living things to glow is called bioluminescence. know how to glow mushrooms, fireflies, some types of jellyfish and fish. The mechanism of luminescence is similar in all organisms. All of them have luminous cells, which contains a substance - luciferin. Under the action of oxygen, it is oxidized, and light quanta break out.
Bioluminescence in jellyfish.
Comb jelly glow.
The glow of coastal waters, so beautifully described by Alexander Kuprin, evokes phyto- and zooplankton. It can be ctenophores, tiny crustaceans. But most often, an even and strong glow is due to the massive development microscopic algae- dinoflagellates, namely, planktonic algae Nochesvetka (Noctiluca scintillans). You can only see it with a microscope. The body of the nightlight is a transparent cell with a tail-flagellum. During in a liter of sea water can be found several million nightlight cells! It is because of this that the sea burns with lights.
Algae Nochesvetka (Noctiluca scintillans)
Mass accumulation of nightlight.
In our country, you can see this magic of nature in the Black, Azov and Okhotsk seas. It's better to watch it on quiet, warm, dark nights, when the storm comes complete calm. The peak of luminosity falls on end of July - September- the period of mass summer-autumn development of plankton. Maybe that's why World Maritime Day is celebrated on September 24, when the sea is so elegant?! :) The spectacle of the luminous sea is one of the most fascinating natural phenomena. I wish you the luck to see him!
Jellyfish can rightly be called one of the most mysterious inhabitants of the deep sea, causing interest and a certain fear. Who are they, where did they come from, what varieties are there in the world, what is their life cycle, are they so dangerous, as popular rumor says - I want to know about all this for sure.
Jellyfish appeared more than 650 million years ago, they can be called one of the oldest organisms on Earth.
About 95% of the body of a jellyfish is water, which is also their habitat. Most jellyfish live in salt water, although there are species that prefer fresh water. Jellyfish - a phase of the life cycle of representatives of the genus Medusozoa, "sea jelly" alternates with an immobile asexual phase of immobile polyps, from which they are formed by budding after maturation.
The name was introduced in the 18th century by Carl Linnaeus, he saw in these strange organisms a certain resemblance to the mythical Gorgon Medusa, due to the presence of tentacles that flutter like hair. With their help, the jellyfish catches small organisms that serve as food for it. The tentacles may look like long or short, spiky threads, but they are all equipped with stinging cells that stun prey and facilitate hunting.
Life cycle of scyphoid: 1-11 - asexual generation (polyp); 11-14 - sexual generation (jellyfish).
Glowing jellyfish
Anyone who has seen how the sea water glows on a dark night is unlikely to be able to forget this spectacle: myriads of lights illuminate the depths of the sea, shimmer like diamonds. The reason for this amazing phenomenon is the smallest planktonic organisms, including jellyfish. One of the most beautiful is considered a phosphorus jellyfish. It is not found very often, living in the near-bottom zone off the coast of Japan, Brazil, and Argentina.
The diameter of the umbrella of a luminous jellyfish can reach 15 centimeters. Living in the dark depths, jellyfish are forced to adapt to the conditions, provide food for themselves, so as not to disappear altogether as a species. An interesting fact is that the bodies of jellyfish do not have muscle fibers and cannot resist water flows.
Since the slow-moving jellyfish, floating by the will of the current, cannot keep up with moving crustaceans, small fish or other planktonic inhabitants, you have to go to the trick and force them to swim themselves, right to the predatory open mouth opening. And the best bait in the darkness of the bottom space is light.
The body of a luminous jellyfish contains a pigment - luciferin, which is oxidized under the influence of a special enzyme - luciferase. Bright light attracts victims like moths to a candle flame.
Some types of luminous jellyfish, such as Ratkeya, Aquorea, Pelagia, live near the surface of the water, and, gathering in large numbers, they literally make the sea burn. The amazing ability to emit light has interested scientists. Phosphors have been successfully isolated from the jellyfish genome and introduced into the genomes of other animals. The results were quite unusual: for example, mice whose genotype was changed in this way began to grow green hairs.
Poison Jellyfish - Sea Wasp
Today, more than three thousand jellyfish are known, and many of them are far from harmless to humans. Stinging cells, “charged” with poison, have all types of jellyfish. They help to paralyze the victim and deal with it without any problems. Without exaggeration, for divers, swimmers, fishermen is a jellyfish, which is called the Sea Wasp. The main habitat of such jellyfish is warm tropical waters, especially a lot of them near the coast of Australia and Oceania.
Transparent bodies of soft blue color are invisible in the warm water of quiet sandy bays. The small size, namely, up to forty centimeters in diameter, also does not attract much attention. Meanwhile, the poison of one individual is enough to send about fifty people to heaven. Unlike their phosphorescent counterparts, sea wasps can change direction, easily finding careless bathers. The poison that enters the body of the victim causes paralysis of smooth muscles, including the respiratory tract. Being in shallow water, a person has a small chance to escape, but even if medical assistance was provided in a timely manner and the person did not die from suffocation, deep ulcers form at the “bites”, causing severe pain and not healing for many days.
Dangerous little ones - Irukandji jellyfish
A similar effect on the human body, with the only difference that the degree of damage is not so deep, is possessed by the tiny Irukandji jellyfish, described by the Australian Jack Barnes in 1964. He, as a true scientist, standing up for science, experienced the effect of poison not only on himself, but also on his own son. Symptoms of poisoning - severe headache and muscle pain, convulsions, nausea, drowsiness, loss of consciousness - are not fatal in themselves, but the main risk is a sharp increase in blood pressure in a person who personally met Irukandji. If the victim has problems with the cardiovascular system, then the probability of death is quite high. The size of this baby is about 4 centimeters in diameter, but thin spindle-shaped tentacles reach 30-35 centimeters in length.
Bright beauty - jellyfish Physalia
Another inhabitant of tropical waters that is very dangerous for humans is Physalia - the Sea Boat. Her umbrella is painted in bright colors: blue, purple, magenta and floats on the surface of the water, so it is noticeable from afar. Entire colonies of attractive sea "flowers" attract gullible tourists, beckoning them to pick them up as soon as possible. This is where the main danger lurks: long, up to several meters, tentacles are hidden under water, equipped with a huge number of stinging cells. The poison acts very quickly, causing severe burns, paralysis and disruption of the cardiovascular, respiratory and central nervous systems. If the meeting took place at great depths or simply far from the coast, then its outcome can be the saddest.
Giant Jellyfish Nomura - Lion's Mane
The real giant is the Nomura Bell, which is also called the Lion's Mane for some external resemblance to the king of beasts. The diameter of the dome can reach two meters, and the weight of such a "baby" reaches two hundred kilos. It lives in the Far East, in the coastal waters of Japan, off the coast of Korea and China.
A huge hairy ball, falling into the fishing nets, damages them, causing damage to the fishermen and shooting themselves when they try to free themselves. Although their poison is not fatal to humans, meetings with the Lion's Mane rarely take place in a friendly atmosphere.
Hairy Cyanea - the largest jellyfish in the ocean
One of the largest jellyfish is considered Cyanea. Living in cold waters, it reaches its largest size. The most gigantic specimen was discovered and described by scientists at the end of the 19th century in North America: its dome was 230 centimeters in diameter, and the length of the tentacles turned out to be 36.5 meters. There are a lot of tentacles, they are collected in eight groups, each of which has from 60 to 150 pieces. It is characteristic that the dome of the jellyfish is also divided into eight segments, representing a kind of octagonal star. Fortunately, it does not live in the Azov and Black Seas, so you can not be afraid of them when going to the sea to relax.
Depending on the size, the color also changes: large specimens are painted in bright purple or purple, smaller ones are orange, pink or beige. Cyanei live in surface waters, rarely descending into the depths. The poison is not dangerous to humans, causing only an unpleasant burning sensation and blisters on the skin.
The use of jellyfish in cooking
The number of jellyfish living in the seas and oceans of the globe is truly enormous, and none of the species is threatened with extinction. Their use is limited by the possibilities of extraction, but people have long used the beneficial properties of jellyfish for medicinal purposes and enjoy their taste in cooking. In Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries, jellyfish have long been eaten, calling them "crystal meat". Its benefits are due to the high content of protein, albumin, vitamins and amino acids, trace elements. And with proper preparation, it has a very refined taste.
Jellyfish "meat" is added to salads and desserts, to sushi and rolls, soups and main courses. In a world where population growth steadily threatens the onset of famine, especially in underdeveloped countries, jellyfish protein can be a good help in solving this issue.
Jellyfish in medicine
The use of jellyfish for the manufacture of medicines is typical, to a greater extent, in those countries where their use in food has long ceased to be a subject of surprise. For the most part, these are countries located in the seaside, where jellyfish are directly harvested.
In medicine, preparations containing processed bodies of jellyfish are used to treat infertility, obesity, baldness and gray hair. The poison extracted from stinging cells helps to cope with diseases of the upper respiratory tract and normalize blood pressure.
Modern scientists are struggling to find a drug that can defeat cancerous tumors, not excluding the possibility that jellyfish will also help in this difficult struggle.
If on a dark night a plankton net, a special device for catching planktonic organisms, is raised onto the deck of a ship, it begins to glow with a phosphorescent greenish-white light.
A luminous trail often leaves a trail of light behind a ship sailing in the ocean. Even a human hand lowered into the sea begins to glow.
It is enough to look through a magnifying glass or a microscope at a sample taken from a plankton net to make it clear that the cause of the phosphorescent glow is planktonic organisms, primarily jellyfish. Their shape is quite diverse: there are jellyfish in the shape of a plate, conical, hemispherical; some jellyfish have numerous tentacles, while others have few or no tentacles. Here there are representatives of both hydroid (mainly from the order of trachilids) and scyphoid, belonging to the order of crown jellyfish.
In the trachylid jellyfish, the crossot ( Crossota) and pantachogon ( Pantachogon) on the edge of the umbrella there are many thin long tentacles. The umbrella of these jellyfish is thin-walled, but muscular. they swim in short, quick bursts. All other deep-sea jellyfish swim very slowly. Their umbel has a thick, cartilaginous mesoglea that hinders the pulsating movements common to other jellyfish.
Small deep-sea jellyfish meator ( Meator) has completely lost its typical medusoid form. It looks like a transparent ball with a dark core. These jellyfish live at a depth of 1 to 6 km in darkness and cold. There are absolutely no plants here, so all deep-sea inhabitants either lead a predatory lifestyle, or are content with dead organisms that sink to the bottom from the upper layers of water rich in life.
One of the most beautiful jellyfish is considered phosphorus olyndias ( Olindias phosphorica), or in another way - a phosphorescent or luminous jellyfish. It belongs to the class Hydroid ( Hydrozoa), a subclass of Limnomedusa ( Limnomedusae).
This is an unusually beautiful marine animal that emits an attractive glow. The phosphorus olyndias jellyfish is an extremely rare animal and many underwater photographers spend months and years capturing this natural wonder. Indeed, the way the Phosphorus olyndias carries its shining umbrella is an unforgettable sight.
Phosphoric olyndias lives off the coast of Japan, Argentina and Brazil, and, as a rule, keeps in coastal waters near the very bottom. In the diameter of the umbrella, jellyfish of this species reach 15 centimeters. The luminous jellyfish feeds on small fish and plankton. Phosphoric olyndias can fold and unfold its tentacles to grasp prey. The victim is struck by poison from the tentacles, after which it is sent to the mouth and further into the gastric cavity.
For humans, this luminous jellyfish poses some danger with its goads, but its bite is not fatal and usually causes mild irritation, like the Black Sea cornerot.
At the depths of the ocean, there is always an acute shortage of food, and therefore all the inhabitants of the deep water are constantly busy looking for it. Obviously, the deep-sea dwellers, who have special adaptations to help them get food, gain an advantage over other inhabitants of the deep.
Deep-sea jellyfish are present in almost every sample of water taken from the depths of the ocean. What allowed them to multiply so much and take one of the first places in terms of numbers among deep-sea inhabitants? At first glance, this is difficult to explain, especially given their slowness and primitive organization. Deep-sea jellyfish do not pursue prey, but lure it.
They feed mainly on crustaceans, but on occasion they eat any other deep-sea animals, attracting them with bright light.
Light in the dark is one of the most effective baits for any living creature, so flashlight jellyfish have adopted it to attract potential prey. After all, jellyfish are not capable of chasing prey in search of food, since they are not adapted to swim quickly.
All deep-sea jellyfish are reddish or brownish in color. The presence of a red-brown pigment is associated with the ability to emit light. Many other deep-sea organisms or parts of their bodies that are capable of emitting light are painted in the same color.
The fat-like substance luciferin, under the influence of the enzyme luciferase, slowly oxidizes, emitting bright light. Just as night moths flock to the light of a lantern, crustaceans gather in the light of jellyfish, and after them other deep-sea animals that feed on crustaceans. They become the prey of a jellyfish when they are in close proximity to its tentacles.
It should be noted that the very high efficiency achieved as a result of the luciferin oxidation reaction is approximately 50%. This is a lot, considering that in any other reactions that give light, it accounts for only a fraction of a percent, the rest of the energy is spent on heat generation.
Some jellyfish living near the surface of the sea also have the ability to glow. Among them is a small hydromedusa ratkea ( Rathkea), Aequorea jellyfish ( Aequorea) and the scyphoid jellyfish Pelagia nocturnus ( Pelagia nochiluca). Often these jellyfish appear in very large numbers, and then the waves seem to be flaming, and fireballs appear on the blades of the oars - the jellyfish stuck to them glow so brightly.
Recently discovered the ability of some corals to glow under the influence of ultraviolet rays. The reason for this phenomenon has not yet been established, there are suggestions that such a glow (fluorescence) facilitates the processes of photosynthesis of symbiotic algae, or protects corals from an excess of hard ultraviolet radiation. Some types of madreporous and other corals have the ability to such a glow.
From the benthic coelenterates, some hydroids and many sea feathers glow. However, the luminous ability of these organisms, apparently, is not related to nutrition, since they flash with bright light only when mechanically stimulated. Apparently, the ability of these organisms to suddenly emit bright light in the form of a flash is a defensive reaction and serves to scare away animals that accidentally stumble upon them in the dark.
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