ASK CLAUDIO - DISCOVER THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCENES
Learn more about the wacky world of underwater marine sex with GREEN PORNO's marine biologist, Dr. Claudio Campagna!
CLICK ON AN ANIMAL TO LEARN MORE:
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TERROR FROM THE DEEP
Think this: triplewart seadevil. Now imagine additional 160 types of bony, marine monsters, some of them Lilliputian ogres the size of a small nut, others weighing 22 kg (or almost 50 lbs). Horrifying faces, pure mouths packed with needle teeth, so weird looking creatures that they end up being funny or, why not, beautiful. Welcome to the anglerfish.
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THE SILENT STALKER
Many species belonging to the order of the anglerfish live in the dark, cold and calm waters of the abyss, to depths of 4000 m (just over 2 miles). Some stay close to the bottom, others adventure to the surface. The bottom dwelling species rarely or almost never move, there is not much oxygen at depth of hundreds of meters. But stillness is a life style too; behavior is also "absence" of behavior. To keep the bulk of the body still is excellent to capture prey when you have an illicium and an esca - or a fishing rod and a bait. Arising like the horn of a rhinoceros, all anglerfish have a rodlike structure above the mouth, tipped with a flap of flesh resembling a light bulb. The bulb is a bioluminescent lure, an organ where specialized bacteria generate light chemically. A bit of moving light in the dark suggests food for the many creatures of the depths who have sensitive eyes.
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IT'S A TRAP
Food is always scarce, and temptation to eat is the omnipresent drive that allows survival. Touch the lure and a reflex will be trigger so fast that death comes like lightening. Eat to be eaten, that is the game that helps one anglerfish make another anglerfish via sexual reproduction. And sex is a weird predicament for some species, away from the sight of gods.
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A REAL CLINGER
For anglerfish, sex is an intimate union, a little too intimate. Males are ten times smaller than a female. As young, males live an independent life in the oceans, but when they mature, their digestive system degenerates, a sign to find a female or die. When they do, they do not let go for the rest of their lives. They become atrophic parasites of hers, sucking juices while attached to her body, and slowly dissolving in her tissues until they are only a gonads releasing sperm. An atrophic triplewart seadevil male... what a destiny to consider for reincarnation!
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BEAUTIFUL FREAKS
The sexual dimorphism and the parasitic behavior has been hypothesized to solve the problem of unusually low rates of encounter between the sexes... you can bet this is the view of male scientists. Males of one family are known to use scent to find females. But extravagance does not prevent threats, and some anglerfish are threatened, not surprisingly, by fisheries. People who eat this harmless animal, contribute to the disappearance not just of a species but to the most bizarre morphs of nature.
