If you're a fish, there's nothing more irritating than a blood-sucking parasite stopping you from having a good night's sleep. That's exactly why Parrotfish go to extreme lengths to prevent this from happening.Every night before going to sleep, Parrotfish secrete a mucus cocoon that envelops their entire bodies with a protective biopolymer – something similar to a mosquito net. The genius thing about it is that this net lets small molecules to pass through, but blocks anything larger (i.e. bloodsucking parasites). Oh, and the whole process only takes the Parrotfish around 2.5% of its daily energy budget. Not too pricey for a good night's sleep!
Scientists think the first fishes evolved from sea squirts. Their main evidence for this is how fish larvae resemble sea squirts in appearance. Sea squirts are invertebrates that attach themselves to a solid surface like a rock instead of swimming around. They also feed passively by filtering water that passes through their bodies. In those senses, they're closer to coral than fishes.
Two species of jawless fishes still live in the present day. Among these jawless fish species are lampreys or long, eel-like fishes with round mouths lined with teeth. They latch onto the sides of bigger fish like trout and inject special chemicals to keep the wound from healing. As the fish bleeds, the lamprey sucks up the blood to feed itself. Definitely one of the more disturbing fish facts
Not all experts agree, but at top speeds of nearly 70 mph, the sailfish is widely considered the fastest fish in the ocean. Clocked at speeds in excess of 68 mph , some experts consider the sailfish the fastest fish in the world ocean
An Australian lungfish in an aquarium at Chicago managed to live for 84 years, from 1933 to 2017. Interestingly, it died not because of natural causes, but because the aquarium staff euthanized it as extreme old age caused pain to the fish. That said, it's entirely possible it might have lived longer.
North Atlantic right whales gather small organisms near the water surface, straining seawater with their long baleen plates. The whales' surface feeding behavior and buoyancy make them vulnerable to collisions.
The sea snail makes up a majority of snail species. More diverse than land snails, sea snails come in many shapes and sizes. Though they usually come in spiral shells, some sea snails have conical or bivalve-shaped shells. Most of them have gills, but some have lungs and only stay active during the low tide
It takes lobsters an average of 5 to 7 years (depending on the water temperature) to grow to legal size, and they grow more slowly as they get larger. Therefore a lobster that weighs 3 pounds is an estimated 15-20 years old, and a 25 pound lobster would be approximately 75-100 years old.
Just two vestiges of ice remain from our planet's last ice age: the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The latter of the two is staggering in size. Clocking in at 5.4 million square miles, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), it's roughly the size of the continental United States and Mexico combined!
No species of dumbo octopus discovered has a functional ink sac. This is very peculiar because the ink sac is a trait that is found in most species of octopus and squid. In fact, it is a defining characteristic of the entire class Cephalopoda.For most cephalopods, the ink sac is an indispensable adaptation because it allows them to confuse and hide from predators. Without the ink sac, most cephalopods would be much more vulnerable to sharks, whales, and large fish that try to eat them. But, there are few large predators in the depths of the ocean. Part of this is due to the fact that there is very little prey at extreme depths. So, without many sharks, whales, or large fish, the dumbo octopus would rarely (if ever) be required to use an ink sac to escape from predators. Since the ink sac costs energy to grow, maintain, and fill with ink, it would be a complete waste for the dumbo octopus to keep its ink sac. Some time ago, an octopus mutated to not have an ink sac and was, therefore, able to produce more offspring than its relatives with ink sacs. This adaptation was very good, which is likely why all dumbo octopuses are without ink sacs!