an aggregation of sperm whales in the waters near sri lanka. photos by tony wu, who described the scene thusly: “there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, gathered in all directions as far as the eye could see. most were adult females, though there were some large males present, as well as juveniles. the whales fed intermittently, but also spent substantial time at the surface and in shallow water socializing.”
this is a sea angel (clione limacina), photographed by alexander semenov swimming with its wing like fins in russia’s white sea. these translucent pteropods, measuring only a few centimeters in length, are actually sea snails sans shells. lacking this cumbersome but protective shell, sea angels instead synthesize bad tasting compounds that dissuade predators from eating them. (see also: bobtail squid and josh lambus’ work)
Dark ghost shark (Hydrolagus novaezealandiae) and the pale ghost shark (Hydrolagus bemisi), both are shortnose chimaera of the family Chimaeridae, found on the continental shelf around the South Island of New Zealand in depths from 30 to 850 m.
Both ghost shark species are taken almost exclusively as a bycatch of other target trawl fisheries
She got torn up by a boat propeller off New South Wales in 2001 and proceeded to walk it off. Swim it off. Whatever. The scars from the propeller slices healed ~20cm deep down her back and across her tail fluke. Since then, whale watchers down under look for “the Blade Runner” every year. Just the sight of her starts conversations about whether we humans should reconsider being such gigantic floppy penises to our rad cetacean bros.
nobody will ever be harder core than the Blade Runner. She has surpassed badassery.
Q:I'm not sure if it applies to one specific species of eels or all of them, but did you know that they have a second pair of jaws deep in their throat? When they bite down on their prey the second pair of jaws launches from the back of the throat and drags the prey deep into the throat of the eel. The "aliens" movie got there design from them.
ahh yeah the pharyngeal jaws ! theres actually a BUNCH of fish that have a little pair of em inside, but youre right in that moray eels specifically have a pair that are SUPER mobile compaired to other fish
whats amazing is just how FAR BACK they are when not in use - cichlid fish are also pretty well known for em, in that they have a less impressive set that works mainly the same way !
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