You know why cartoons about sea life are popular with kids? It’s because animators use adorably stylized versions of actual sea creatures, which are in reality completely horrifying. (Seriously, compare The Little Mermaid’s Flounder to an actual flounder. Ew.) But an international group of scientists has just found a legitimately precious sea creature, and it just so happens to be the new world champion for Earth’s deepest dwelling fish. A 30-day  expedition to the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest known point on the planet – uncovered a lot of fascinating sea life, but this wispy, angel-like little fella is unlike anything researchers have seen before.

Scientists involved in the expedition believe the ghostly creature to be a newly-discovered type of snailfish, though they admit that nothing like it has ever been seen before. The team wasn’t able to capture a specimen for examination and did not name the new species. The ethereal fish, with long, wispy fins and an impossibly cute cartoon-like face, was recorded swimming some five miles beneath the surface of the ocean. That’s a good 500 meters deeper than the previous “deepest dweller” record holder, also a snailfish.

Co-chief Scientist Dr. Jeff Drazen from the University of Hawaii said of the expedition, “Many studies have rushed to the bottom of the trench but from an ecological view that is very limiting.  It’s like trying to understand a mountain ecosystem by only looking at its summit.” This trip to the bottom of the sea was unique in that the researchers weren’t just interested in what was at the very bottom of the trench – they gathered information all the way down, setting new depth records for several known species of fish. As for our little angel-faced friend up there, hopefully future expeditions will be able to tell us a little more about how he deals with the crushing pressure of life at five miles under.

The post World’s New Deepest-Dwelling Fish is a Ghostly Beauty first appeared on Gajitz.

The deep ocean is a scary place full of bizarre creatures and vicious predators. Although most humans will never personally encounter these creatures, knowing that they are down there is a little spooky. The harp sponge, discovered in 2012 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, is a rather beautiful organism, but its delicate appearance and musical name belie its sinister personality.

The harp sponge is so named because its graceful physical structure is shaped somewhat like a harp. It has horizontal branches that support a number of vertical branches, each of which terminates in a swollen ball. All along the vertical branches are jagged hooks that the sponge uses to ensnare its prey. When an unsuspecting crustacean wanders a bit too close to the hooks, it will find itself hopelessly stuck in the sponge’s grasp. The innocuous-looking sea creature then forms a digestive membrane that surrounds the prey and dissolves it so the sponge harp can absorb the meal through its pores.

Since there are few rocks in the spaces that the harp sponge occupies, it has developed root-like structures known as rhizoids to hold it on the soft mud-like sediment. Scientists believe that the sponge’s unusual fanned-out structure evolved over time to help it capture as much food as possible. Some sponge harps have been observed with only two horizontal branches, but others have been known to sport as many as six. This physical framework, as well as the number of vertical branches, also helps the sponges procreate.

The swollen spheres atop each vertical branch hold packets of sperm, which are released to float off to fertilize other harp sponges. Since the sponges are found in fairly deep waters – 10,800 to 11,500 feet – there aren’t strong currents to carry the seeds far and wide. The fertilized sponges are therefore usually quite close to the ones that released the sperm. When the seeds reach the host sponge, the the fertilized eggs form the swollen areas partway up the vertical branches as seen in the images above.

The post Face the Music: Sea Predator Looks Deceptively Delicate first appeared on Gajitz.

Plastics are one of the biggest threats to environmental health, and have been for over half a century. They never break down into compounds that can be absorbed by the earth; they just get distributed all around the world by a variety of methods, harming animals and clogging waterways. Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have introduced a material that could take the place of conventional plastics – and it’s completely natural.

The new material is called shrilk, and it’s made of the same biological material as shrimp shells, which just so happens to be the second most abundant natural material on the planet. Chitosan is a form of chitin, a material that can be found in insect shells, crustacean carapaces, and butterfly wings. The researchers chose to synthesize the material from shrimp shells because they are abundant and most often discarded after they are removed from the shrimp.

Although there have been previous attempts to make biodegradable plastics to replace the harmful ones we currently use, those materials are often not robust enough to make objects like toys and cell phones. The method used to make shrilk is inexpensive and allows it to be made into objects by injection molding or traditional casting.

Shrilk is not only made from an environmentally safe material; they are biodegradable and begin to break down within a few weeks. When they do, they leave behind beneficial materials that actually support the planet’s health. In an early shrilk experiment, the bio-plastic was placed into a container with a black eyed pea plant and provided vital nutrients to the plant. Since we obviously can’t keep using and discarding plastic in the way we do now, shrilk might just be the answer to our packaging and product needs.

The post Mighty Shrimp: Tough Bio-Plastic Made From Shrimp Shells first appeared on Gajitz.