Exploring Our World
Earth's Amazing Creatures - Part 3
1. The Nembrotha Cristata
The Nembrotha cristata, a colourful sea-slug found in the tropical Indo-West Pacific Ocean. They grow to about 50mm in length and have black bodies with a strange luminous green “trim”. Like most nudibranchs, they deliver a painful sting. They do not produce the stinging cells themselves but incorporate them into their own tissues from their prey, stinging jellyfish.
2. The Okapi
This mammal is native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. Despite the zebra-like stripes, it is actually more closely related to giraffes.
3. The Pink Fantasia
The Pink Sea-Through Fantasia is a swimming sea cucumber located about 2,500 metres deep in the Celebes Sea in the westerly Pacific Ocean. They swim using the fingerlike webbing beneath their bodies. The Fantasia feeds by straining nutrients from deposits on the bottom.
Just like other bioluminescent beings, this species can emit light. When in peril, it uses that light to frighten potential predators.
4. Sarcastic Fringeheads
Found in the waters off the West Coast of America, the sarcastic fringehead is a small but ferocious fish which as a large mouth and aggressive territorial behavior, for which it has been given its common name.
5. Star-Nosed Mole
The star-nosed mole is easily identifiable by the twenty-two pink fleshy appendages ringing its snout which is used as a touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer's organs, with which this hamster sized mole feels its way around. With the help of its Eimer's organs, it may be perfectly poised to detect seismic wave vibrations.
It is found in moist low areas of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.
6. Chimaeras
This strange cartilaginous fish uses its long snout to scan over the sea floor for the electrical impulses of its prey that bury in the muddy sea floor.
7. The Blue Sea Slug
This creature is a species of blue sea slug. You could find it in warm waters of the oceans, as it floats on the surface because of a gas-filled sac in its stomach.
The sea slug uses the coloration to its advantage as it floats on the ocean's surface. The blue side of their body faces upward to camouflage it against the blue of the sea, while the silver side faces downward to camouflage it against the bright surface of the water.
This species of sea slug is not defenseless as it floats. If the pretty colors don't hide it well enough from potential predators, the sea slug's sting is its next line of defense.
All blue dragons are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs. When two blue dragons mate, they both produce egg strings. Because of the lack of a hard substrate to attach the eggs to, the eggs often float freely in the water or are placed on the remains of prey until the larvae hatch.
Incredibly unique one-of-a-kind creatures!