When I look a deep sea animals today, it makes me think of what kind of deep sea creatures existed back in different time periods of earth’s history, it could be stuff we have never even imagined being possible
Unfortunately, it's incredibly likely deep sea animals won't fossilize. The low energy lifestyle most of them follow has reduced their bodies to almost gelatinous in structure. Add to that that any amount of sediment needed to bury a specimen is not likely to exist in the low flow of the deep sea floor. In addition, if anything in that environment dies, it's practically guaranteed that everything in the immediate area is going to take as much advantage from it as possible. Finally, tectonic forces would be necessary for the fossil to actually be moved somewhere where it can be discovered, which could take millions of years
I think it depends on how much the environment down there has changed over the years. It's possible that it's mostly the same as millions of years ago, then there would be no reason for species to go extinct or mutate.
The fact that these creatures cannot go up the surface without popping like a balloon, and no man-made machine can meticulously study these creatures beneath the seafloor is the exact definition of so close yet so far and it's both equally terrifying and amazing.
In my humble opinion, the freakiest deep sea animal has to be the barreleye. Even without knowing that they can rotate their eyes like that (I learned something new today!), it's just the weirdest that they have their eyes inside of their head. It upends our intuition about what eyes are and how they work in a way that no other animal does. That's why, to me at least, there's not even a competition about which animal is the freakiest.
@@terry.1428 I'm not sure if you're familiar with the general concept of animals, but the most common scenario is for them to have eyes that AREN'T completely encased by their head, as that makes it far more difficult for them to fulfill their primary purpose of seeing things.
I mean yeah, the machines they send down there make them go “Wtf is that? Is that thing gonna eat me? Am I in any danger?” I doubt they spend any time having existential crises though, so once it’s outta sight, it’s out of their minds.
I used to read and look at pictures from a book about sea animals at my grandparents', and it had some of these animals. It was fascinating. Makes you wonder what other species have existed without us knowing.
As a young teen in the mid to late 90s (born 1984) before the advent of Wikipedia and UA-cam, I would read and browse books at the public library about creatures like this as well. Very fascinating
It's crazy to me that a submarine got absolutely obliterated at 3500-4000m, yet a fish can just chill at 8000m comfortably. They are differently biologically but god damn that's just ridiculous
they have something like a balloon inside of them, that they can enlarge or pull together again, to reduce the pressure. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swim_bladder
When I was a kid, whenever I'd feel small or lonely...I'd look up at the stars. Wondered if there was life up there. Turns out I was looking in the wrong direction. When alien life entered our world, it was from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean...
I’ve always found that fascinating, ever since I was a child, reading old encyclopedias, before the wiki-boom. To know that the most weird and creepy creatures lived in the underworld was bone chilling.
Something about the bottom of the ocean feels like a 'cold, corrupted wasteland mirror' version of the surface. It's hard to put into words, but is surreal.
Deep sea animals are fascinating! Our camera crew talked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the pioneer of deep ocean exploration, and their amazing findings, including the barrel eye fish and one of the few dragonfish ever to have been seen alive. What's extremely interesting is to see and understand how scientists are able to capture these creatures and analyse their light-making abilities. Thanks to that, we were able to understand the three reasons why these creatures use bioluminescence.
@@veramae4098 There is also "Barotrauma", a 2D co-op submarine simulator PC game with survival horror and RPG elements, in which you dive into the icy waters of Europa..
It's not "survival of the fittest" as much as "survival of whatever works well enough," leading to a multitude of strange adaptations and mysterious animals in our planet's deep oceans.
This is a sentiment that definitely needs to be more common for the public to adequately understand natural selection. That being said, Fitness in biology refers to an organisms ability to successfully reproduce in it’s environment. Survival of the Fittest therefore describes the propensity that organisms which reproduce most successfully in their environment pass on their genes at higher rates, thus the traits which aided their reproduction will also propagate. The keyword is “most successful”; there is indeed no such thing as perfectly adapted: the world is in constant flux, and genetic changes themselves are mostly random and only refined by the process of natural selection. “Fitness” in biology does not mean what it does in normal contexts. It’s a classic case of the public confusing a scientific meaning with a similar colloquial one.
"Well enough" is fitness, relative to your environment. Fitness relative to your competition in that environment is where that term came from and it's accurate more than not. If you're at good enough and they're at amazing, you're likely not going to make it long.
Sort of. "Fitness" in evolutionary biology means, very specifically, "what works well enough [to contribute to the next generation's gene pool]". The misconception is less that we should use a different term and more in what that term means in everyday, colloquial use versus a specific academic field.
It all seems so pointless though,isn't it?Like why are they drifting in the ocean floor like that just to catch prey occasionally and repeat this process over and over again?
@@FlyingDwarfman Was headed here to point out what you did pretty well. Overall, though, there seems to be an assumption that evolution is *solely* driven by beneficial behaviors and/or mutations that better suit the organisms in question, but this is not always the case. And that's why koalas and pandas are a thing lol. Then there's the human factor- sure we're *great* at pushing species to the brink of extinction and beyond with our own behavior, but then we turn around and try to save others with almost no environmental impact, such as the aforementioned panda. This means that you could argue that we are the primary force driving their current and future evolution. The human factor overall is likely sparking adaptations that don't necessarily amount to the alteration of some species' environment. Evolutionary theory is long overdue for an overhaul and fresh coat of paint. I'm with Ian Malcolm on this one.
@@SamuelLanghorn Evolution of sex and asexuality in a group of freshwater fish. Top achievement was to prove a famous textbook theory wrong (RIP Muller's ratchet). Since my colleagues also trashed the other popular textbook explanation of sexual reproduction (RIP the Red Queen), we are back to square one and mostly clueless about why sex is a thing and what are its benefits (compared to asexuality). You're all welcome! 😂
@@JanKoci Are you referring to sex as male/female or sex as in the act of having sex? Excuse my ignorance, but if you ever need an electronic fish then I'm your guy!
@@----.__ sex as in "meiosis and recombination" 😂 in case of the fish the asexuals are all female (typical in biology) and they actually do mate with males of related sexual species. But the gametes (egg and sperm) never merge, instead only DNA of mother is used to produce offspring while the male contribution is effectively wasted (the science term is gynogenesis). Since the asexual females are stealing sperm that could make sexual fish, they act as so-called sexual parasites as they decrease the fitness of the sexual species they invade. In some species it even leads to arms races in recognition and "intelligence", pretty interesting... 😁
i noticed something about those magnapinna squids.. in ancient cave drawings you can see depictions of what looks like this squid. really makes you wonder if this was a coincidence or if people back then somehow had a way to see these squid? or possibly over time this squid went deeper and deeper into the ocean? who knows
We know very little about the behavior of deep-sea animals. This can make them seem even more mysterious and even creepy. For example, some deep-sea fish have been known to emit bioluminescent flashes of light. The purpose of this behavior is unknown, but it has led to speculation that these fish may use their light to communicate with each other or to attract prey.
@@nobodyspecial6267 so many reasons, actually. Examples of complex bioluminescence in marine animals range anywhere from distractionary escape tactics to reproductive attraction and prey luring. There's a lot of other functions in the middle, as well. More research is needed, and we're finally getting the opportunity due to AUV technology.
Or to advertise to potential mates that they're open for business or possibly as a defensive technique to startle potential predators. The bio luminescent may serve several purposes simultaneously. It certainly serves some important purpose(s) due to its commonality. My money would be on it benefiting reproduction somehow whether through identifying partners; making them uber-attractive to the opposite sex; or enabling them to not become something else's diner. Peace.
@@EmberMcLain23it's because they're not supposed to be out of water or out of the hadal zone. Their bodies evolved to withstand pressure and they would essentially burst out if they're pulled out of their depth zone. The same way we aren't supposed to be at their depths
Magnapinna is definitely one of the most intriguing animals down there! There's a video where one quickly and violently swings its arms in different directions, almost like it's hunting, making it look even more mysterious and horror-like than it does moving normally
I have seen it but there are theories that the arm swinging motion is caused by the deep sea robot's currents, not by the creature itself. Not sure, though.
@@tiffany15O5 If this is the vid with the squid in full frame, then it can't be. Octopus Lady made a great video on this, but to get a 40ft squid fully in frame, the ROV would have had to be incredibly far away and thus its current wouldn't affect it. Plus, the squid was retracting its filaments which isn't something we've seen in confirmed video of ROVs interfering with magnapinna.
I've loved vampire squids since I was a kid. It's so nice to see people come together in the comments and talk about different deep sea creatures! They're some of my favorite ocean animals despite their creepy looks
One of my favorite deep sea animals is the black dragonfish. I can't help but find that it looks strickingly similar to the monster from Alien, and at the same time is mesmerizing and beautiful. I know that it may sound weird because it's not exactly something that most people would deem to be beautiful, but there's just something about it that makes it very intriguing and captivating to me. Its hunting mechanism is somewhat similar to the angler-fish, but at the same time its whole body can glow and it has transparent teeth that make it impossible for its prey to see as it swims right to their doom
Crazy how evolution works. The land, albeit risky, has huge benefits and untapped potential for the creatures of the sea. And so they walk on land to evolve to survive better there.
This video is so awesome. I've been waiting for this one as well and it's well worth the wait. These creatures are so wonderful and so mysterious and the more we get more knowledge, the more fascinating they become. And just when I thought the barreleye couldn't get cooler I learned here that they can actually roll their eyes. Duuuuuude. It's so cool. Absolutely well done as always. Thank you for making these high quality content here on YT and making it free for the world to see.
Lack of light and rarity of food, they have to be 90% water to withstand the water pressure at the depth they are in, have to feel their ways around (no flashlight) when they cannot see, (and to find mate), etc. So much down there to learn. Thank you for sharing.
Just finished playing Dredge a little while ago. Didn't realize that game's fish are all real till I saw this. Thought some were made up, but I was obviously wrong. I was able to identify many from the game in the video. Which is pretty cool.
That game was so good. It's also cool that many of the fish they feature already have some amount of creepiness, so the Lovecraft influences feel fitting and enhance what is already there
Theres really so many fish and different animals out there that most people arent at all familiar with its kinda wild. Thats why watching the live deep sea ROV streams they have here on youtube on occasion is my favorite thing ever. Not much cooler content around in my opinion, glad its almost back to dive season!
really happy about the conclusion of this video! it's easy to think these creatures are creepy, but its so rewarding to realize just how cool they are :D
in the end creepy is a word used for things that are strange to us. and thats just it. its very subjective and an evaluation of difference. pretty kuch because they live in such a different enviroment that we do. thus evolving is very different ways
Astonishing- the quality of your vids by all definitions is one of, if not the best presentations in YT. You've restored my belief in intelligence still existing in these diminishing returns contemporous times. THANK YOU!
Saw this in Nebula early, I like the platform, but I think it really suffers from not having comments, comments make content like this so much more interesting to watch than just watching and getting no feedback or discussion out of it.
I know everybody finds these animals so creepy but I can't help but wonder and admire, they're so beautiful. Like how are they even living down there? It's wild and such an amazing thing about our planet. They're all so interesting too! So different to other animals. It's fascinating. Edit: spelling
How do they live down there? Because they adapt and have been doing so for I don't know how many millions of years. I bet if they knew about us, they would say "Whoa, how do those guys live up there? "
@@IcanSeeMyselfOutThanks That is not what I meant mr. Obvious with no joy for the world. I meant it in awe, curiosity as to what adaptations allow them to do so, and how IS their life at such depths.
Watching this made me think about how there are so many different worlds in the universe of all different sizes, separated from each other in ways but all connected. Not only in terms of anything beyond earth and how we’re actually so tiny in our whole planet, but even something like the microscopic world of germs and how in the same idea as this video, there are entire “creatures” within that world unknown to us (unless you study those things of course lol). Yet they have their own world they live and thrive in. The entirety of existence is so far beyond our limited knowledge.
What I find great is that due to that submersible crash and the entire world getting crazilly obsessed with that, at least a lot more people seem to have more attention to the deep sea, finally. Would be great if more people started respecting the oceans of our planet. Because so much needs to change in our behaviour.
Barrel eye fish still still not quite as creepy as snails, slugs, and nudibranches that can pull their eyes into their body and look at their food as it's being swallowed and digested.
"Why Animals Get Creepier the Deeper You Go", or perhaps more accurately, "The stranger life becomes as we venture further into habitats hostile to our biological constructs."
Sure, but a more scientifically accurate title equals less clickbait. Less clickbait equals less views and thus less science communication. Sometimes you need to use a little BS to hook people into studying science.
imagine being a squid who got lost and went a bit lower than it’s supposed to and the scientists said this guy is one of its kind. the only one found under 6000 meters.
The science fiction movie “ Europa “ has a bioluminescent octopus type creature that lives in the ocean under the all encasing ice cap. This creature goes about stalking and killing the hapless astronauts walking around on the ice surface, breaking though the ice to reach them.
meanwhile on another planet, in a deep sea civilization. "damn, this expedition was cray zee! All these surface dwellers just walking there, basically in a vacuum! With nothing to float it! And enduring all the incoming radiation from that giant yellow orb, which is even higher up than the surface. It is so high up, we cannot even begin to hope to understand how high up it is. Or what it is."
We are used to seeing humans and animals with body shapes, mouths, limbs and senses that make sense in our environment. I'm pretty sure these deep sea creatures think we are the creepy ones.
"GREAT DARKNESS WHAT IS THAT!?!?!?" "I dunno Blorg, butit's freaking me out" "Why is it so... long" "Where are its fins?" "Why are its eyes so small?????"
Fun fact: a famous Bulgarian author back in the day wrote a children's picture book about an anglerfish, of all things. Believe it or not, he managed to make the fish a sympathetic character that you feel sorry for, and the book was a deadly tearjerker. I read it many years ago and barely remember it, but I still couldn't help tearing up just from the vague memory while writing this comment. You may guess the ending by the title of the book: 'Pop!'
I still remember that story of a man who went down into the trench in a tiny pod with a single window, and told that chilling tale of a creature that peered into his window and watched him for a while
I enjoyed the video, and learned too. I don’t believe they answered their own question in the title. I guess I expected an overview of isolated evolution and how human phycology is often prejudiced against creatures who’s anatomy differs from our own. At a point in human development (even without prior exposure) fear of spiders (to many limbs) and snakes (not enough limbs) can be observed. Even though the video didn’t go the way I interpreted the title to describe, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the show!
@@BSLS123 right, but “creepy” is a human construct not an objective reality. A single sentence connecting evolutionary divergence to a human response (cringe/fear) would have tightened up the stated premis of the video. Look, I liked it, and I think it if you begin with a question you should at least make a passing effort at addressing it in the body of your presentation. It’s basic essay structure we learn in middle school.
What a well made piece of work you've done here. It's Informative, educational , entertaining, well spoke and relevant(among other things). A pro grade level production I enjoyed very much, thankyou.
If deep ocean is home for such weird yet amazing creatures imagine what astonishing animals could have evolved if we had more of such extreme environments.
Tbh we have lots of weird creatures up here it’s not not weird because we are used to them, and dinosaurs used to exist like that’s crazy. Look at giraffes those are some weird animals when you think about it
That "barrel eye" fish at 9:45 is an amazing feat of bio-engineering and evolution. Seems like an overly complicated solution though just to see directly upwards. Why didn't it evolve the behavior to float upright if viewing upwards was so important? So much more simpler. 🤔
12:45 I have to disagree with commentator. I don't know if they see the camera and lights shun on them, but their look and them seemingly stopping observing whatever recording equipment they are curious about, spells cute and beautiful to me
Truly mesmerizing! The ocean, and any body of water for that matter, both entrances and frightens me. For such life to exist and yet we know so little about it…the more I think of this, the more I come to believe that we humans are the “aliens” and we’ve just been visiting this body of rock and water; we’re hurtling through the universe at an unfathomable speed which isn’t even the size of an atom compared to the inconceivable size of the universe.
Still find it frustrating that so much money gets spent on sending science projects into space while we could use plenty of autonomous deep sea exploring vehicles to learn what’s going on on our own water planet.
really interesting take on the topic! I enjoyed how you presented the information. but honestly, I feel like some animals we consider creepy are just misunderstood. like, why is it that we find certain creatures terrifying? maybe it’s just their unique adaptations that help them survive. what do you all think?
@9:38 I thought I was looking at some computer rendering where the head was made transparent for the viewer to see the internal organs better. Nope, that's literally how it looks.
I’m always a fan when videogame use actual species of fish in their fishing/sea exploration settings, Dave the Diver and Dredge got me here and honestly, it’s fascinating everything that the ocean is, it is even a less explored concept than even space exploration, because we actually still don’t know much about deep sea creature and how *alien* they can be.
I kind if knew the minute the sub was reported missing that it imploded, while cautiously and optimistically hoping I was wrong. Then it was reported debris was found, but they were still talking about how much oxygen they had left, and that it was possible to find them. But I knew then that it imploded. Going down to that depth is like the trash compacter from Star Wars and doing so in a tin can pressurized from the inside. The pressure would always win out, especially in a highly improvised submersible. It was like a car crusher, crushing a stuffed animal. The only positive about the event was that all five aboard were completely unaware they were dying as it all happened so fast their brains hadn’t even computed what was going on. They were instantly snapped out of existence. If there is ever a way to go, this was it, painlessly and obliviously.
I read a comment online that said they would have heard the carbon fiber starting to crack and fail. This is why they were ascending at the time of the implosion
Probably your most beautiful and interesting video yet. This one's gonna be a very hard act to follow, well done. The Barreleye is like some kind of organic spy satellite. I presume we don't have any footage of it feeding yet.
Protection, photo-reception, or other. It’s likely the eyes sunk in as it evolved. New species of cave fish still have eye sockets but no or vastly differently adapted eyes.
Their eyes are better protected and need less support to stay in place. With normal eyes, you need complex eye sockets that limit the range of movement while eyes inside the head are held in place by the surrounding tissue which allows them to have a much greater range of movement. Also these deep sea fish all have very simple skeletons as calcium (which is needed to build a skeleton) is a rather rare ressource in the deep sea food chain. So this also reduces the amount of calcium needed and thus makes it easier for them to compete with other species that might require more calcium to grow.
I was in the titanic sub on its third research mission as a mission specialist. I saw many different squid and one dead armadillo before laying eyes on the Titanic. It was marvellous.
Just think about all the squid, jellyfish, and other deep sea creatures throughout Earth's history that never fossilized and will never be known, there could of been creatures larger and weirder than anything alive today. There could of been mushrooms bigger than the biggest trees today, but never left a trace behind when some great extinction event happened 200mya.
Mostly evolution. The further in the ocean means the more difficult it is to survive, so the ‘creepiness’ is really just thousands, millions of years of evolution and adaptation. Though, the crushing pressure, lack of sunlight, and lack of food also plays a part. Some organisms, like glass squid, are completely transparent, which would harm animals in sunlight due to the UV rays. But thanks to no sunlight in the depth of the ocean, it’s in fact safer for some animals to be partially or fully transparent
I guess they were born there. So every bit of their body had that same pressure when it has been "put together". We only implode there because we carry our low pressure insides into a high pressure environment. They were never affected by the difference in pressure. In the opposite way they swoll up and die if they leave the high pressure.
think of the blob fish. its all loose and like jelly on the survace. but when its in its normal enviroment in the deep it looks pretty much like a regular fish. their bodies are a lot softer and squishy wich will tighten up when the pressure is so high.
Another excellent, informative, easy to understand, very well researched, picture perfect video from Real Science. Thanks for sharing what we will probably never be able to see for ourselves. Nature is truly incredible and resourceful
When I look a deep sea animals today, it makes me think of what kind of deep sea creatures existed back in different time periods of earth’s history, it could be stuff we have never even imagined being possible
Unfortunately, it's incredibly likely deep sea animals won't fossilize. The low energy lifestyle most of them follow has reduced their bodies to almost gelatinous in structure. Add to that that any amount of sediment needed to bury a specimen is not likely to exist in the low flow of the deep sea floor. In addition, if anything in that environment dies, it's practically guaranteed that everything in the immediate area is going to take as much advantage from it as possible. Finally, tectonic forces would be necessary for the fossil to actually be moved somewhere where it can be discovered, which could take millions of years
what if some never went extinct, in the first place?
I think it depends on how much the environment down there has changed over the years. It's possible that it's mostly the same as millions of years ago, then there would be no reason for species to go extinct or mutate.
Like water dragons
97% of earth species have gone extinct so we'll never know
The fact that these creatures cannot go up the surface without popping like a balloon, and no man-made machine can meticulously study these creatures beneath the seafloor is the exact definition of so close yet so far and it's both equally terrifying and amazing.
I would love to understand how they survive at those pressures.
@@chrisgentry4427 The pressure is equalized in their body. They'll pop on the surface like we will do in space.
@@user0000user technically if you brought them up very very slowly they'd live right?
Some can survive if brought up slowly enough.
See that one Bobfish in Japan
@JkK-pu9nt it's good to have many eyes (angel)
In my humble opinion, the freakiest deep sea animal has to be the barreleye. Even without knowing that they can rotate their eyes like that (I learned something new today!), it's just the weirdest that they have their eyes inside of their head. It upends our intuition about what eyes are and how they work in a way that no other animal does. That's why, to me at least, there's not even a competition about which animal is the freakiest.
I agree but there is much out there that’s creepy. That sounds like an alien and deep waters seem to have many
I think the deep sea angler is. Or the deep see viper fish.
Mantis shrimp eyes are way cooler imo
arent most animals eyes inside their head ?
@@terry.1428 I'm not sure if you're familiar with the general concept of animals, but the most common scenario is for them to have eyes that AREN'T completely encased by their head, as that makes it far more difficult for them to fulfill their primary purpose of seeing things.
They probably think we're creepy.
Haha 😂
I mean yeah, the machines they send down there make them go “Wtf is that? Is that thing gonna eat me? Am I in any danger?”
I doubt they spend any time having existential crises though, so once it’s outta sight, it’s out of their minds.
They never see light so that by itself should be a spook
Well, we are creepy.
Well then my nose is creepy cuz it big
I used to read and look at pictures from a book about sea animals at my grandparents', and it had some of these animals. It was fascinating. Makes you wonder what other species have existed without us knowing.
The loch Ness monster.
a ton have possibly even nonexistent anymore
Most likely millions of species.
Yo momma
As a young teen in the mid to late 90s (born 1984) before the advent of Wikipedia and UA-cam, I would read and browse books at the public library about creatures like this as well. Very fascinating
It's crazy to me that a submarine got absolutely obliterated at 3500-4000m, yet a fish can just chill at 8000m comfortably. They are differently biologically but god damn that's just ridiculous
Pressure is equalized in their body
@@thabg007 bingo
If deep sea fish go to surface , they became baloon and died
Well, the fish were blessed with millions of years of evolution whereas the sub was cursed with an average person-in-charge (Stockton Rush)
they have something like a balloon inside of them, that they can enlarge or pull together again, to reduce the pressure. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swim_bladder
12:20 Everything in the depths looks like a lovecraftian horror... Except this fish for some reason. Looks like a big goofy Axolotl.
When I was a kid, whenever I'd feel small or lonely...I'd look up at the stars.
Wondered if there was life up there.
Turns out I was looking in the wrong direction.
When alien life entered our world, it was from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean...
Is this the beginning script of pacific rim? xD
I swear I read this comment in a book or saw it in a movie
@@czpiaor I guess you did
ua-cam.com/video/OXaaAqQK8Lg/v-deo.html
@@Drossol Definitely is, yes
@GoChuckWood It's an intro for a movie
I’ve always found that fascinating, ever since I was a child, reading old encyclopedias, before the wiki-boom. To know that the most weird and creepy creatures lived in the underworld was bone chilling.
I read those! Lol. Books! Had a entire animal/wildlife A-Z set that I'd read over and over again.
Something about the bottom of the ocean feels like a 'cold, corrupted wasteland mirror' version of the surface. It's hard to put into words, but is surreal.
Deep sea animals are fascinating! Our camera crew talked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the pioneer of deep ocean exploration, and their amazing findings, including the barrel eye fish and one of the few dragonfish ever to have been seen alive. What's extremely interesting is to see and understand how scientists are able to capture these creatures and analyse their light-making abilities. Thanks to that, we were able to understand the three reasons why these creatures use bioluminescence.
Wait until we get into the under ice oceans of Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
"2010" by Arthur Clarke, book turned into a movie gives some hints.
@@veramae4098 There is also "Barotrauma", a 2D co-op submarine simulator PC game with survival horror and RPG elements, in which you dive into the icy waters of Europa..
@@veramae4098 That's really cool, I didn't know there were oceans on one of Jupiter's moons!
It's not "survival of the fittest" as much as "survival of whatever works well enough," leading to a multitude of strange adaptations and mysterious animals in our planet's deep oceans.
This is a sentiment that definitely needs to be more common for the public to adequately understand natural selection.
That being said, Fitness in biology refers to an organisms ability to successfully reproduce in it’s environment. Survival of the Fittest therefore describes the propensity that organisms which reproduce most successfully in their environment pass on their genes at higher rates, thus the traits which aided their reproduction will also propagate. The keyword is “most successful”; there is indeed no such thing as perfectly adapted: the world is in constant flux, and genetic changes themselves are mostly random and only refined by the process of natural selection. “Fitness” in biology does not mean what it does in normal contexts.
It’s a classic case of the public confusing a scientific meaning with a similar colloquial one.
"Well enough" is fitness, relative to your environment. Fitness relative to your competition in that environment is where that term came from and it's accurate more than not. If you're at good enough and they're at amazing, you're likely not going to make it long.
Sort of. "Fitness" in evolutionary biology means, very specifically, "what works well enough [to contribute to the next generation's gene pool]".
The misconception is less that we should use a different term and more in what that term means in everyday, colloquial use versus a specific academic field.
It all seems so pointless though,isn't it?Like why are they drifting in the ocean floor like that just to catch prey occasionally and repeat this process over and over again?
@@FlyingDwarfman Was headed here to point out what you did pretty well.
Overall, though, there seems to be an assumption that evolution is *solely* driven by beneficial behaviors and/or mutations that better suit the organisms in question, but this is not always the case. And that's why koalas and pandas are a thing lol.
Then there's the human factor- sure we're *great* at pushing species to the brink of extinction and beyond with our own behavior, but then we turn around and try to save others with almost no environmental impact, such as the aforementioned panda. This means that you could argue that we are the primary force driving their current and future evolution. The human factor overall is likely sparking adaptations that don't necessarily amount to the alteration of some species' environment. Evolutionary theory is long overdue for an overhaul and fresh coat of paint. I'm with Ian Malcolm on this one.
I have a PhD in biology and this channel still manages to consistently blow my damn mind! Love it!
What was your thesis topic?
@@SamuelLanghorn Evolution of sex and asexuality in a group of freshwater fish. Top achievement was to prove a famous textbook theory wrong (RIP Muller's ratchet). Since my colleagues also trashed the other popular textbook explanation of sexual reproduction (RIP the Red Queen), we are back to square one and mostly clueless about why sex is a thing and what are its benefits (compared to asexuality). You're all welcome! 😂
@@JanKoci Are you referring to sex as male/female or sex as in the act of having sex? Excuse my ignorance, but if you ever need an electronic fish then I'm your guy!
@@JanKoci nice paper (I saw it in Molecular Ecology). Do you work in academia or in private industry?
@@----.__ sex as in "meiosis and recombination" 😂 in case of the fish the asexuals are all female (typical in biology) and they actually do mate with males of related sexual species. But the gametes (egg and sperm) never merge, instead only DNA of mother is used to produce offspring while the male contribution is effectively wasted (the science term is gynogenesis). Since the asexual females are stealing sperm that could make sexual fish, they act as so-called sexual parasites as they decrease the fitness of the sexual species they invade. In some species it even leads to arms races in recognition and "intelligence", pretty interesting... 😁
I gotta say: her voice is soooo relaxing and beautiful, perfect for documentaries
Her voice?? It's not a her or a he. It's AI
i noticed something about those magnapinna squids.. in ancient cave drawings you can see depictions of what looks like this squid. really makes you wonder if this was a coincidence or if people back then somehow had a way to see these squid? or possibly over time this squid went deeper and deeper into the ocean? who knows
It was on land at one point
@@c____89idk how it would move on land
Probably washed up on shore.
We know very little about the behavior of deep-sea animals. This can make them seem even more mysterious and even creepy. For example, some deep-sea fish have been known to emit bioluminescent flashes of light. The purpose of this behavior is unknown, but it has led to speculation that these fish may use their light to communicate with each other or to attract prey.
You answered your own question, what else could it be for?
@@nobodyspecial6267 so many reasons, actually. Examples of complex bioluminescence in marine animals range anywhere from distractionary escape tactics to reproductive attraction and prey luring. There's a lot of other functions in the middle, as well. More research is needed, and we're finally getting the opportunity due to AUV technology.
Or to advertise to potential mates that they're open for business or possibly as a defensive technique to startle potential predators. The bio luminescent may serve several purposes simultaneously. It certainly serves some important purpose(s) due to its commonality. My money would be on it benefiting reproduction somehow whether through identifying partners; making them uber-attractive to the opposite sex; or enabling them to not become something else's diner. Peace.
Thanks for the phrasing, captain Obvious
Another speculation is that they are paid actors and putting up a light show for us
12:41 What? That fish is adorable!
I KNOOOW I just wanna pinch its cheeks 😂😂
Looks like a Pokémon
Take it out of the water and it’ll look like a giant booger
"beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - which gives an ugly guy like me hope
@@EmberMcLain23it's because they're not supposed to be out of water or out of the hadal zone. Their bodies evolved to withstand pressure and they would essentially burst out if they're pulled out of their depth zone. The same way we aren't supposed to be at their depths
Magnapinna is definitely one of the most intriguing animals down there! There's a video where one quickly and violently swings its arms in different directions, almost like it's hunting, making it look even more mysterious and horror-like than it does moving normally
I have seen it but there are theories that the arm swinging motion is caused by the deep sea robot's currents, not by the creature itself. Not sure, though.
We have psycho people here. Then we should have psycho squid down there
I believe it was swept up in the ROV current
@@tiffany15O5 If this is the vid with the squid in full frame, then it can't be. Octopus Lady made a great video on this, but to get a 40ft squid fully in frame, the ROV would have had to be incredibly far away and thus its current wouldn't affect it. Plus, the squid was retracting its filaments which isn't something we've seen in confirmed video of ROVs interfering with magnapinna.
Yep it looks like an actual alien. And I have no idea how it can withstand the enormous pressure down there.
I've loved vampire squids since I was a kid. It's so nice to see people come together in the comments and talk about different deep sea creatures! They're some of my favorite ocean animals despite their creepy looks
For some reason I find them kinda adorable
13:43 glad to say that I've never thought about the deep sea this way, it's so interesting and intriguing to me
One of my favorite deep sea animals is the black dragonfish. I can't help but find that it looks strickingly similar to the monster from Alien, and at the same time is mesmerizing and beautiful. I know that it may sound weird because it's not exactly something that most people would deem to be beautiful, but there's just something about it that makes it very intriguing and captivating to me. Its hunting mechanism is somewhat similar to the angler-fish, but at the same time its whole body can glow and it has transparent teeth that make it impossible for its prey to see as it swims right to their doom
Same!! Stomiidae are utterly fascinating to me, especially given how small they actually are. I love these goofy anime blushing fish
Ok but that sounds AWESOME
8:30 I have always wondered what pushed the first species to leave the sea to explore lands... Now I know... FEAR
Crazy how evolution works. The land, albeit risky, has huge benefits and untapped potential for the creatures of the sea.
And so they walk on land to evolve to survive better there.
Food!
This video is so awesome. I've been waiting for this one as well and it's well worth the wait. These creatures are so wonderful and so mysterious and the more we get more knowledge, the more fascinating they become. And just when I thought the barreleye couldn't get cooler I learned here that they can actually roll their eyes. Duuuuuude. It's so cool. Absolutely well done as always. Thank you for making these high quality content here on YT and making it free for the world to see.
if they're creepy to us, then we must be ULTRA TERRIFYING to THEM!
Lack of light and rarity of food, they have to be 90% water to withstand the water pressure at the depth they are in, have to feel their ways around (no flashlight) when they cannot see, (and to find mate), etc. So much down there to learn. Thank you for sharing.
Just finished playing Dredge a little while ago. Didn't realize that game's fish are all real till I saw this. Thought some were made up, but I was obviously wrong. I was able to identify many from the game in the video. Which is pretty cool.
That game was so good. It's also cool that many of the fish they feature already have some amount of creepiness, so the Lovecraft influences feel fitting and enhance what is already there
@@EM7575Funny how the game has the aberration fish that make them creepier, but abysmal/hadal fish are already creepy enough on their own
Theres really so many fish and different animals out there that most people arent at all familiar with its kinda wild. Thats why watching the live deep sea ROV streams they have here on youtube on occasion is my favorite thing ever. Not much cooler content around in my opinion, glad its almost back to dive season!
really happy about the conclusion of this video! it's easy to think these creatures are creepy, but its so rewarding to realize just how cool they are :D
I've yet to find any behavior in wild species that comes even *remotely* close to being as creepy and unsettling as some people lol.
in the end creepy is a word used for things that are strange to us. and thats just it. its very subjective and an evaluation of difference. pretty kuch because they live in such a different enviroment that we do. thus evolving is very different ways
to realize how far away they are from us*
We have a vampire, Junji Ito's artwork, 75 degree eyeroll... and a tripod.
Blue Planet footage is still stunning even 20 years later
Astonishing- the quality of your vids by all definitions is one of, if not the best presentations in YT. You've restored my belief in intelligence still existing in these diminishing returns contemporous times. THANK YOU!
1:15 this is the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen
Saw this in Nebula early, I like the platform, but I think it really suffers from not having comments, comments make content like this so much more interesting to watch than just watching and getting no feedback or discussion out of it.
I feel the same about Nebula. I understand the business decision, but I do like the conversations.
Definitely need a part two of that! The depth really is beautiful and scary
If we can go deeper into the water soon then yes
I know everybody finds these animals so creepy but I can't help but wonder and admire, they're so beautiful. Like how are they even living down there? It's wild and such an amazing thing about our planet. They're all so interesting too! So different to other animals. It's fascinating.
Edit: spelling
Agreed. If the video creator changed the music to something relaxing it would have had a better vibe.
Fascinating? Yeah. Beautiful? Nah
@@angry2270 :(
How do they live down there? Because they adapt and have been doing so for I don't know how many millions of years. I bet if they knew about us, they would say "Whoa, how do those guys live up there? "
@@IcanSeeMyselfOutThanks That is not what I meant mr. Obvious with no joy for the world. I meant it in awe, curiosity as to what adaptations allow them to do so, and how IS their life at such depths.
Watching this made me think about how there are so many different worlds in the universe of all different sizes, separated from each other in ways but all connected. Not only in terms of anything beyond earth and how we’re actually so tiny in our whole planet, but even something like the microscopic world of germs and how in the same idea as this video, there are entire “creatures” within that world unknown to us (unless you study those things of course lol). Yet they have their own world they live and thrive in. The entirety of existence is so far beyond our limited knowledge.
What I find great is that due to that submersible crash and the entire world getting crazilly obsessed with that, at least a lot more people seem to have more attention to the deep sea, finally. Would be great if more people started respecting the oceans of our planet. Because so much needs to change in our behaviour.
🤓
@@Khayreeecringe :/
@@NoiFox whats cringe is commenting about a submarine on every video about water get lifes
i agree
The deepier the creepier
Barrel eye fish still still not quite as creepy as snails, slugs, and nudibranches that can pull their eyes into their body and look at their food as it's being swallowed and digested.
"Why Animals Get Creepier the Deeper You Go", or perhaps more accurately, "The stranger life becomes as we venture further into habitats hostile to our biological constructs."
Or those are apart of Satans army
@@meeshafletcher a part of Satan's army, what the hell are you smoking, you need to share.
Sure, but a more scientifically accurate title equals less clickbait. Less clickbait equals less views and thus less science communication. Sometimes you need to use a little BS to hook people into studying science.
This guy gets it. They are only "creepy" because we haven't seen them before. If they were flying around up here with us, they lose their novelty
@@IcanSeeMyselfOutThankswhat about spiders
imagine being a squid who got lost and went a bit lower than it’s supposed to and the scientists said this guy is one of its kind. the only one found under 6000 meters.
To heck with space. We need to explore the sea more. It's filled with the stuff of dreams as well as nightmares.
The science fiction movie “ Europa “ has a bioluminescent octopus type creature that lives in the ocean under the all encasing ice cap. This creature goes about stalking and killing the hapless astronauts walking around on the ice surface, breaking though the ice to reach them.
meanwhile on another planet, in a deep sea civilization.
"damn, this expedition was cray zee! All these surface dwellers just walking there, basically in a vacuum! With nothing to float it! And enduring all the incoming radiation from that giant yellow orb, which is even higher up than the surface. It is so high up, we cannot even begin to hope to understand how high up it is. Or what it is."
Imagine them meeting us… the absolute amazement from both sides would be so cool
8:34 hey, the fish couldn't help it, dinner was eely eely good!
What’s lurking in the deep sea is so amazing, thanks for this video. It would be interesting to see what is living in the deepest lake too.
Thanks!
The ocean gate implosion has me researching the ocean like Crazy. Why do I wanna go down there now 😭
Sorry to hear you you weren’t into it before
It’s impressive that they were even able to capture those fascinating footages of those just as fascinating creatures❣️🤯
Yep, They were very brave to go deep down into the ocean like that. I know I woundn't want to do that.
We are used to seeing humans and animals with body shapes, mouths, limbs and senses that make sense in our environment.
I'm pretty sure these deep sea creatures think we are the creepy ones.
Plz shut it
"GREAT DARKNESS WHAT IS THAT!?!?!?"
"I dunno Blorg, butit's freaking me out"
"Why is it so... long"
"Where are its fins?"
"Why are its eyes so small?????"
@@Vinicantstopcryingnah let they talk I'm listening
@@book-obsessedweirdo8677 blorg
@@leviackerman2060
"BLORG. I THINK ITS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE!!!"
"QUICK! GET THE NOTE PAD!"
Fun fact: a famous Bulgarian author back in the day wrote a children's picture book about an anglerfish, of all things. Believe it or not, he managed to make the fish a sympathetic character that you feel sorry for, and the book was a deadly tearjerker. I read it many years ago and barely remember it, but I still couldn't help tearing up just from the vague memory while writing this comment. You may guess the ending by the title of the book: 'Pop!'
I still remember that story of a man who went down into the trench in a tiny pod with a single window, and told that chilling tale of a creature that peered into his window and watched him for a while
You mean iron lung?
@@Ittbitt9999 No. A man who apparently for real went down in the Mariana trench in a little pod.
@@SecariousJames Cameron
Sounds like the fish also was curious about the alien creature visiting their home
I enjoyed the video, and learned too. I don’t believe they answered their own question in the title. I guess I expected an overview of isolated evolution and how human phycology is often prejudiced against creatures who’s anatomy differs from our own. At a point in human development (even without prior exposure) fear of spiders (to many limbs) and snakes (not enough limbs) can be observed. Even though the video didn’t go the way I interpreted the title to describe, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks for the show!
I guess a main reason they get creepier is due to the lack of light which is sort of hinted at in the video
@@BSLS123 I think a video title warrants more than "hinting at". Or they coulr remove the "Why" at the beginning.
@@BSLS123 right, but “creepy” is a human construct not an objective reality. A single sentence connecting evolutionary divergence to a human response (cringe/fear) would have tightened up the stated premis of the video. Look, I liked it, and I think it if you begin with a question you should at least make a passing effort at addressing it in the body of your presentation. It’s basic essay structure we learn in middle school.
I agree. Like some other commenter said: if those Deep sea creatures could see humans, they would most likely think WE are creepy and disturbing.
I don't find any of these animals creepy. I find them fascinating.
I'll look at you when some of them float quietly into your room 😀
@@lategigi-bx4 ermml atchullay if they try to go out of the ocean they turn into a balloon
Yea I find the vampire squid and the super deep sea fish near Japan cute! 12:44 that thing is cute and no one can change my mind!
@@macrofurra Let's get him into the ocean then.
Yeah, the narrator sucks.
Man, a submersible implodes and I fall down a rabbit hole of all things deep ocean related!
2:05 I know this video is about creepy sea creatures, but this thing right here is _frickin’_ adorable.
What a well made piece of work you've done here. It's Informative, educational , entertaining, well spoke and relevant(among other things). A pro grade level production I enjoyed very much, thankyou.
If deep ocean is home for such weird yet amazing creatures imagine what astonishing animals could have evolved if we had more of such extreme environments.
Nice pfp btw
Tbh we have lots of weird creatures up here it’s not not weird because we are used to them, and dinosaurs used to exist like that’s crazy. Look at giraffes those are some weird animals when you think about it
lol is +70% of the planet not enough for you?
That "barrel eye" fish at 9:45 is an amazing feat of bio-engineering and evolution. Seems like an overly complicated solution though just to see directly upwards. Why didn't it evolve the behavior to float upright if viewing upwards was so important? So much more simpler. 🤔
could be to not spook its prey, or to save energy
I think that the "hadal snailfish" @12:38 is kinda cute
Same
I never realized how diverse and complex marine ecosystems are. Your channel has taught me so much about ocean life!
12:45 I have to disagree with commentator. I don't know if they see the camera and lights shun on them, but their look and them seemingly stopping observing whatever recording equipment they are curious about, spells cute and beautiful to me
always love to watch real science video.❤❤. From research to video editing and voice, everything, just perfect.
10:40 the comparison is to a proud human who never look down haha. Most of humans have more than 100 degree vision down to up
Yeh humans have a verticle fov of 200 degrees I’m not sure what was meant by that
I saw the diagram and I was like, something’s missing here haha. Glad I’m not the only one who noticed
Yet another incredible work! Beautiful, inspiring and educational!!
Truly mesmerizing!
The ocean, and any body of water for that matter, both entrances and frightens me.
For such life to exist and yet we know so little about it…the more I think of this, the more I come to believe that we humans are the “aliens” and we’ve just been visiting this body of rock and water; we’re hurtling through the universe at an unfathomable speed which isn’t even the size of an atom compared to the inconceivable size of the universe.
I think they are all stunning, amazing creatures and not or creepy at all. It's fascinating to me not repulsive.
I don't think they are creepy, the right word to use is Unique
Indeed, i dont know why they used the word CREEPY
It's funny to think that these animals are just living their lives and we're here watching videos of them talking about how creepy and ugly they are.
LOL
I think they're neatl
Still find it frustrating that so much money gets spent on sending science projects into space while we could use plenty of autonomous deep sea exploring vehicles to learn what’s going on on our own water planet.
apparently space is easier 😄definitely has more bells and whistles to it
Ronald Reagan.
istg, i heard Hadal zone and my autistic ass went "PRESSURE REFERENCE?!"
really interesting take on the topic! I enjoyed how you presented the information. but honestly, I feel like some animals we consider creepy are just misunderstood. like, why is it that we find certain creatures terrifying? maybe it’s just their unique adaptations that help them survive. what do you all think?
12:27 awwwh they're adorable!
You have one of the best voices I've ever heard!
@9:38 I thought I was looking at some computer rendering where the head was made transparent for the viewer to see the internal organs better. Nope, that's literally how it looks.
Humans can't go more than a few 100 feet down without special gear and yet there are fish that comfortably exist MILES below the surface.
I’m always a fan when videogame use actual species of fish in their fishing/sea exploration settings, Dave the Diver and Dredge got me here and honestly, it’s fascinating everything that the ocean is, it is even a less explored concept than even space exploration, because we actually still don’t know much about deep sea creature and how *alien* they can be.
I kind if knew the minute the sub was reported missing that it imploded, while cautiously and optimistically hoping I was wrong. Then it was reported debris was found, but they were still talking about how much oxygen they had left, and that it was possible to find them. But I knew then that it imploded. Going down to that depth is like the trash compacter from Star Wars and doing so in a tin can pressurized from the inside. The pressure would always win out, especially in a highly improvised submersible. It was like a car crusher, crushing a stuffed animal. The only positive about the event was that all five aboard were completely unaware they were dying as it all happened so fast their brains hadn’t even computed what was going on. They were instantly snapped out of existence. If there is ever a way to go, this was it, painlessly and obliviously.
Any video about the ocean in 2023... ppl: OCEANGATE OCEANGATE OCEANGATE
I read a comment online that said they would have heard the carbon fiber starting to crack and fail. This is why they were ascending at the time of the implosion
does this mean the deeper you go, the more politicians you'll see?
Probably your most beautiful and interesting video yet. This one's gonna be a very hard act to follow, well done. The Barreleye is like some kind of organic spy satellite. I presume we don't have any footage of it feeding yet.
12:46 Excuse me those fish are absolutly adorablle looking just look at their adorable lil derpy faces!
"it's definitely not winning a beauty contest" @ one of the cutest fish I've ever seen in my entire life
Such a wonderful pictorial show of real life adapting to it's environment.
9:50 that fish got the byakugan
What else would one expect when they live next door to Cthulhu down there? ;)
"...and otherworldly is not." on the word "not", the animal appears to suddenly look at us. well done, production team, well done.
(13:58-13:59)
I mean, if they could watch us and talk about it, they’d probably say they think _we_ look really freaky to _them_ too.
Big question is why? What do they gain by having their eyes inside their head?
Protection, photo-reception, or other. It’s likely the eyes sunk in as it evolved. New species of cave fish still have eye sockets but no or vastly differently adapted eyes.
Their eyes are better protected and need less support to stay in place.
With normal eyes, you need complex eye sockets that limit the range of movement while eyes inside the head are held in place by the surrounding tissue which allows them to have a much greater range of movement.
Also these deep sea fish all have very simple skeletons as calcium (which is needed to build a skeleton) is a rather rare ressource in the deep sea food chain.
So this also reduces the amount of calcium needed and thus makes it easier for them to compete with other species that might require more calcium to grow.
I was in the titanic sub on its third research mission as a mission specialist. I saw many different squid and one dead armadillo before laying eyes on the Titanic. It was marvellous.
yeah right
6:26
I wouldnt want my sponge to be a dead thing lmao
Yeah wtf is that about
Just think about all the squid, jellyfish, and other deep sea creatures throughout Earth's history that never fossilized and will never be known, there could of been creatures larger and weirder than anything alive today. There could of been mushrooms bigger than the biggest trees today, but never left a trace behind when some great extinction event happened 200mya.
Bro she really did the snailfish like that, they are freaking adorable!
not creeper at all. they are fascinating
It's creepy
thanks for hiring humans for voice overs, it's refreshing.
ok but *why* do they get creepier as you go?
Mostly evolution. The further in the ocean means the more difficult it is to survive, so the ‘creepiness’ is really just thousands, millions of years of evolution and adaptation. Though, the crushing pressure, lack of sunlight, and lack of food also plays a part.
Some organisms, like glass squid, are completely transparent, which would harm animals in sunlight due to the UV rays. But thanks to no sunlight in the depth of the ocean, it’s in fact safer for some animals to be partially or fully transparent
The fact I will never see these organisms in person 😭
Maybe for the best🥲👍
That hadal snail fish is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen
am i the only one who thought the snailfish discovered in Japan was actually kinda cute with the derpy face?
It looks so goofy I love it
how can these deep sea animals withstand that much pressure?
I guess they were born there. So every bit of their body had that same pressure when it has been "put together". We only implode there because we carry our low pressure insides into a high pressure environment. They were never affected by the difference in pressure. In the opposite way they swoll up and die if they leave the high pressure.
think of the blob fish. its all loose and like jelly on the survace. but when its in its normal enviroment in the deep it looks pretty much like a regular fish. their bodies are a lot softer and squishy wich will tighten up when the pressure is so high.
Another excellent, informative, easy to understand, very well researched, picture perfect video from Real Science. Thanks for sharing what we will probably never be able to see for ourselves. Nature is truly incredible and resourceful
It bothers me how real science is attributing this incredible nature to evolution?!!!! 🤯 certainly there is a creator of all wonders on the planet.
@@lastochka100 If these are wonders then I fear to see what is an abomination
I was searching for spooky but the deep sea snailfish is one of the cutest thing that I ever seen in the ocean
Anyone here after getting into the missing submarine rabbit hole?