Summary:
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Well below the sun-lit horizon, life thrives in a world of pressure, darkness, and alien beauty.
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Meet the Dumbo Octopus, floating gracefully with ear-like fins off the sea bottom.
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The Goblin Shark, a living fossil with a prehistoric appearance, strikes prey with its blade-like snout.
Well below the horizon of the sun-light–beyond even the flitting light-blue, beyond the falling silence–there is a world which is more like an alien place than sort of like ourselves. Pressure crushes. Darkness swallows. And yet… life thrives.
The Dumbo Octopus
The Dumbo octopus is floating gracefully off the bottom of the sea with ear-like fins that gave it its popular name. And it does not have a prey that looks like, in fact, it is nearly… sweet. The ghostly presence of a small person in a mostly alien abyss.
The Goblin Shark
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The Goblin shark is what is called a living fossil, and it appears prehistoric-and it is virtually so. It has a long, blade-shaped snout and a jaw that launches outwards in a second to seize its prey on the spot; time forgot all about developing it further.
The Vampire Squid
Vampire squid does not suck blood contrary to its name. Rather, it lives by floating in the waters that lack oxygen and feeds on the marine garbage. Whenever threatened it turns inside out and shows its spiny arms in an impressive, near-theatric display of defense.
The Blobfish
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Meet the face of unofficial mascot of awkwardness: the Blobfish. It appears quite normal in its natural habitat in high pressure conditions. However, upon being exposed to air, the pressure is altered abruptly, thus making it undergo metamorphosis into that well known drooping, gelatinous face familiar to all of us.
The Barreleye Fish
The head of the Barreleye is clear. Yes–transparent. Rebellious, bright green hemispherical eyes, twisting upwards and inward inside, can be seen searching for prey in the distance against a dull glossy sky, straying sunlight. It is as though viewing a real sub-sea ship under glass.
The Giant Isopod
Suppose there were a pill bug… as big as a housecat. The Giant isopod is crawling on the ocean floor; it is armored and it can live a number of years without any food. It is a reminder to how evolution sometimes can merely magnify things–and leave the rest of it so marvelous peculiar.
The Frilled Shark
Frilled shark is such a piece of wrath of the past that with more than 300 teeth in the form of tridents, and a serpentine formation, only one thing can be said about it, it was a fish that swam out of a prehistoric nightmare. Its movements are those of an eel; they make it one of the most unpleasant animals ever to be filmed.
The Anglerfish
A shadow with an inbuilt lantern. The Anglerfish goes floating at night with a torch-like offering dangling on its head as a fisherman tosses his hook into the night time. Its haunting bioluminescent shine and its needle like teeth make it one of the best iconic predators in the ocean.
