The Deeper You Go, the Creepier Deep Sea Creatures Get

Some deep-sea creatures look like they swam straight out of prehistoric times – and some of them almost did. But which of today's sea monsters actually shared the oceans with the dinosaurs? If you're curious about the creatures that ruled the world long before us, and which of them were actual dinosaurs or not – check out our merch: https://wildsparks-shop.fourthwall.com/en-usd ____________________________ In this video: Deep sea creatures live in trenches so deep the Grand Canyon would vanish inside them. Many people picture the deep ocean as empty, with too little food, light or warmth for real life. Yet the deeper you go, the creepier and bigger its creatures get. So why do deep sea creatures grow so big in a place that seems built to starve them? The ocean is divided into zones by depth, and each zone changes the rules of survival. In the sunlit epipelagic zone, photosynthesis fuels food chains full of large animals. Whale sharks grow over 40 feet, or 12 meters, long. Bluefin tuna reach 10 feet, or 3 meters, and swim up to 43 mph (70 km/h). Near the surface, size is a tool, a weapon and a defense. Below 656 feet, that starts to change. The twilight zone, or mesopelagic zone, lies between 656 and 3,281 feet (200 to 1,000 meters) deep. Hatchetfish, fangtooth fish, squid, wolf eels and chain catsharks live here. Sunlight fades to a dim blue, and food arrives mostly as marine snow drifting down from above. Most animals stay small, with oversized eyes and their own bioluminescent light. Deeper down, that rule bends again. The bathypelagic zone is permanently dark, and the water sits just above freezing. The pressure is more than 100 times what we feel on land. Yet this is home to the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, which can reach about 43 feet, or 13 meters. Some have washed ashore, giving people a rare look at a real sea monster. What lives at the bottom of the ocean? In the abyssal zone, pressure reaches 400 to 600 times surface levels. The giant isopod, a relative of the wood louse, grows to the size of a football and scavenges whatever sinks from above. The dumbo octopus, named for its ear-like fins, can reach 6 feet, or 1.8 meters. We still have better maps of Mars than of this seafloor. The deepest part of the ocean is Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, about 35,876 feet, or 10,935 meters, down. The hadal zone is named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. A steel ball dropped from the surface would sink for over an hour before reaching the bottom. James Cameron reached it on a solo dive in 2012 and found that it was not lifeless. The deepest fish ever confirmed on camera, a hadal snailfish, was filmed at 27,349 feet, or 8,336 meters. Deep sea life is slow, cold and patient, and that is exactly what makes it remarkable. The video follows the question zone by zone, down to the trenches, and asks what body size really means for an animal in total darkness. With new species still being found, what else is waiting down there? #DeepSea #OceanZones #MarineBiology #WildSparks #deepsea # deepseacreatures