New organisms are being discovered all the time. But sometimes, what appears new, turns out to be known.
This bizarre looking creature was caught off of the coast of Brazil this past week. About 100 pounds, and 6 feet in length, you would think that it couldn't be missed. Yet it lives in the ocean depths, and is seldom seen near the surface. Its body is highly gelatinous (jelly-like) making it less than desirable as seafood (probably a good thing, given the arguments of last week's post!). Scientists know it by it's gelatinous, bulbous "nose" at the front of its head. Hence its name: the Jellynose.
The Jelly-like body is due to the fact that the fish has an extremely high fat content in its body. This probably allows it to store energy, as food is hard to find at the depths where it lives - about 1,000 feet below the surface. Unlike most other fish, the Jellyfish body does not have scales. Nor does it have true bones. Instead, like rays and sharks, it has cartilage. Overall, their body form and function (and DNA) places them firmly in true "bony" fish family - teleosts - rather than the family of cartilaginous sharks and rays, Chondrichthyes. Jellynoses appear to be a true anomaly.
There are 30,000 known fish species in the world. Who knows how many more species have yet to be discovered. Some scientists think hundreds. But many more scientists believe that the number could go into the thousands.
Little else is known about the Jellynose family.
Seeing something like this always makes me feel humbled once again, by the great diversity of life on Earth.
12 comments:
Jellynose... hah. What a strange creature. Yet intriguing. I am always really impressed by beasts of the deep sea. Their ability to adapt to that kind of a habitat is so extraordinary. Though the jellynose doesn't have a super bada$$ name it does hold my respect.
Just imagine for a second that the world was ruled by jellynoses and there were as many as them as there are humans now... Weird I know but then think about a jellyfish discovering one human, knowing very little about them and trying to analyze us. Today in the Jellynose Times... A human was discovered. hah. (My mind is dancing Mr.Engler)
The earth is a truly amazing place. It holds so much diversity and crazy discoveries after thousands of years of humans researching it.
Yes, Lui, your mind is dancing.
What music is playing? ;)
For one, can I say, "Ew, gross. I'm glad it lives in the deep depths of the ocean!" It always freaks me out what's in the ocean, deeo down. For all we know there are huge monsters, or a civilization of sea people plotting to take over the world. I think they're melting the ice caps to create more land...or ocean for their growing population. It's kind of like a Team Aqua in Pokemon where they're trying to melt things so there can be more room for water pokemon.
So, now for a real response...
I do get freaked out a bit by what we haven't discovered. Looking at civilization, we know so much, but when you sit down and think about it, we know so little. How things can survive even where there is no sunlight, is scary. I vote that if the world is ever in danger, they're the last to die, most likely because no one can get to them. Unless the world implodes...Then they'll be the first to die.
-Magg!e
The jellynose is probably the only fish I will never eat. That thing is truly disgusting. It almost looks like a combination between an eel, a normal fish, and a pile of blubber. I don't know. It's very odd, though. I suppose the coolest part about it is how very little we still know. We are still discovering so much... We really don't know that much about nature. We may not even know half of what exists in nature, and that discoveries like this are happening to this day just point out this fact.
It is an interesting creature, though. One thing I would have been interested in is what exactly it DOES eat. You mentioned that the jellynose's high fat content was to store energy due to the lack of food in the murky depths of its habitat. I was wondering what it actually eats in order to gain the fat in the first place. No matter, though. Cool article, I hope there are more discoveries (and posts) like this one.
-Tyler
It is things like this that remind us that we know more about other planets then we do about our world. Some times the things closest to home are the most different. The more we explore out side the Earth the farther from it we get, we start to forget that there is more here then we know.
Will we ever find a limit to the new information about the Earth, well only if we stop looking for it, really is always changing.
Gabriella
Whoa. Jellynose fish are very weird. Very cool fish. I would love to find one twisting its way through the dark blue...that would be soo cool. i think its cool how it stores its fat for energy in the cold dark waters. I think they musthave a lot of predators because of its fat filled body and lack of self defence. Very cool fish.
Ben
It is things like this that remind us that we know more about other planets then we do about our world. Some times the things closest to home are the most different. The more we explore out side the Earth the farther from it we get, we start to forget that there is more here then we know.
Will we ever find a limit to the new information about the Earth, well only if we stop looking for it, really is always changing.
Gabriella
you know what i hate, how people find something like a gelatinous fish, and call it "the jelly fish" Are you telling me they couldn't think of something a litttle bit more unique. maybe the slim pickns fish. im not really sure why, i guess i just like how it sounds. maybe the linoleum fish. good word, linoleum.
N E way, that's preety cool, minus the name. If it could talk, would the linoleum fish say that it was the first linoleum fish to find a human on the coast of Brazil? who knows. Its preety amazing that, even after all the time we've spent here, we're still finding out stuff to add to science books. the irony is that if well accepted scientific theories prove to be true, then preety soon, the earth will blow up, along with all its inhabitants, and things will have to be discovered all over again.
What i like about people discovering new species is that its not like people discovering new elementso f the periodic table. its not just some science person blasting protons into an existing elements to make a name for themselves. its real stuff. to bad they kida waste it on names like the jelly fsih.
~erika
RESPONSE: ewww giant pink thing out of water
RESPONSE #2: (in water) oooooo pretty pink eeel
I think there are very few creatures that are new if not any. Most that are new are artificial. They are human made, or should I say genetically modified by humans to acquire traits desired.
Zonkeys are quite interesting if you travel to Mexico they are in a tourist trap. They will ask you if you'd like to ride a zonkey for a price. Zonkeys are also an example where the animal was not genetically modified. In Africa, Zebras and donkeys live in close quarters and thus, the Zonkey evolved.
I believe this type of neoanimals is rare but not rare in the ocean. Fish look very similar and live in communities, close quarters. Perhaps this Jellynose fish did evolve and is new but evolving that way was a long time ago and scientists would not know what it is similar too and would have evolved from not know the depths of the ocean's diversity.
What fascinates me is the awe and wonder in creation. Humans continue to try to take care of animals. The depths of the ocean never seen by human eye. Even though you can nto see the life deep down unda', the community thrives without our care, what is amazing is that God, takes care of that community and those fish. It is amazing how the world works and the diversity not even understood or known to man.
~BeccaPage
Uuuhh COOL! It's pretty great that there are still things on the planet that have NOT been discovered. Kind of reminds us that we're NOT all knowing and great. And it sort of gives you hope for "a brighter tomorrow" (ew). With all the things that we are currently losing in the world-fruit bats, rotary phones, paper mail, respect- it's pretty nice to know that there are still things out there that we don't know about. This jellynosed thing isn't that exciting, but it's still exciting in that HEY maybe if we don't kill it before we find it, we can get ourselves an animal or plant that'll cure cancer or something. Right? G makes an interesting point, I concur.
Laura
I have always have been fascinated with the exploration of space, however I also find it ironic that we know in some cases more about space than we do about the depths of our oceans. I remember when I was around ten years old I had a book on marine animals. One thing the book describes the discovery of the (basking shark?) I’m sure hundreds of new fish etc. have been discovered since then.
-chris
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