• 6 months ago
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/

Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV

Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en

Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00:00 You are a marine biologist who is on a mission to explore organisms that live in the deeper and darker parts of the ocean.
00:00:06 As you prepare to dive, your ship's object detection system starts beeping.
00:00:10 Something within the water is approaching, and it's really fast, and it seems like it's a...
00:00:15 Megalodon!
00:00:16 You try to take your oxygen tank and other diving equipment off to prepare for what's to come.
00:00:21 But in the blink of an eye, the Megalodon attacks your ship, breaking it into two pieces like the Titanic.
00:00:27 You fall into the cold waters of the ocean.
00:00:31 You immediately try to swim back to the surface in a panic, but the Megalodon notices you.
00:00:36 You know you're not fast enough to escape.
00:00:38 As the Megalodon swims towards you, your survival instinct takes control.
00:00:43 You curl your body to minimize its surface area and decrease your risk of injury.
00:00:47 Then the Megalodon opens its 11-foot-wide mouth.
00:00:51 The force of the water pushes you against the back of its throat, which is wide enough to fit a small car.
00:00:56 Fortunately, you are able to grab onto one of its 276 teeth as tightly as you can until its jaw slaps shut with a loud banging sound.
00:01:05 Thanks to that, you don't immediately end up in its stomach.
00:01:07 You are in its mouth, standing on its tongue, which is almost larger than a couch.
00:01:11 With panic, you try to push your way out of its mouth, but its jaw muscles are extremely strong.
00:01:16 You start waiting for it to open its mouth on its own so that you'll swim out.
00:01:20 But when it finally does, the water pressure is so strong that it even pushes you further back from its throat.
00:01:27 You try holding onto the roof of its mouth, but it is too slippery for you to get a grip on, so you finally end up in its stomach.
00:01:34 It's so dark inside there.
00:01:36 While your eyes slowly adjust, you start hearing its heart.
00:01:40 There is still no oxygen, so you keep your diving gear on.
00:01:44 Good thing you didn't get a chance to take it off before.
00:01:47 However, if you were able to take your snorkel off, it would smell rotten due to the methane gases.
00:01:52 You start looking around and see the stomach is full of the remains of the megalodon's previous meals.
00:01:57 There are skeletal remains of fish and sharks all around, and even other divers who weren't as lucky as you.
00:02:03 Fortunately, the wetsuit you're wearing is super protective.
00:02:07 You start feeling more pressure around you, which means the megalodon started its descent deeper into the ocean.
00:02:13 The rising panic causes your muscles to twitch.
00:02:16 You start feeling extremely exhausted.
00:02:18 That's why you need to do something now and do something fast if you want to make it out alive.
00:02:23 You remember that your diving equipment includes an emergency knife.
00:02:26 It's small, but it's really sharp.
00:02:29 You take that out and try cutting through the megalodon's skin.
00:02:32 The megalodon's swimming slowly gets weird as you continue trying to cut your way out.
00:02:37 You can tell it doesn't want you inside itself anymore, so it finally barfs you out, making you the only survivor of a megalodon attack.
00:02:46 Many terrifying animals live deep beyond the waves, like this vampire squid living 3000 feet below the surface in almost complete darkness.
00:03:01 This animal has a cloak like a vampire's. That's why it's called the vampire squid.
00:03:07 Deep down at the bottom, it can't use ink to defend itself, so this animal has developed an unusual tactic.
00:03:14 It glows slightly to scare away predators.
00:03:17 If this tactic fails, the vampire squid can turn its body inside out, revealing tiny spikes.
00:03:25 When you translate its scientific name, Vampyrotuthis infernalis, it literally means "vampire squid from the nether."
00:03:33 Despite its terrifying looks, it's a harmless ocean animal.
00:03:40 This previous creature was not from space, but this object definitely is.
00:03:45 Before Elon Musk found a way to reuse rockets, NASA would simply drop old ones after launching astronauts into space, most of the time in the ocean or deserts.
00:03:57 In 2012, Jeff Bezos launched a mission to find the Apollo 11 rocket.
00:04:03 They found it by using sonar, but it was in terrible condition.
00:04:07 It was sitting on the bottom of the ocean, not far from the predicted site.
00:04:11 They were able to rescue the engine and reconstruct two of them.
00:04:15 The most famous lost city is Atlantis, but sadly, we still haven't discovered it.
00:04:24 However, Heraklion was also just a myth until one British pilot saw something that looked like a city while flying over the Mediterranean Sea.
00:04:34 He reported it, and 60 years later, a group of divers went there.
00:04:39 They were shocked when they found an entire city underwater.
00:04:43 It was loaded with artifacts that could tell us a lot about the history of the place.
00:04:48 Now, it's one of the best underwater archaeological sites in the world.
00:04:53 It's believed that the rising sea caused the whole city to go underwater.
00:04:58 The Titanic sank in 1912.
00:05:03 The wreck was claimed to be officially discovered 74 years later.
00:05:08 In reality though, a fisherman found the Titanic 8 years earlier while fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
00:05:14 He was pulling out his net when he spotted a head stuck in it.
00:05:18 Luckily, it was just a doll's head.
00:05:20 Years later, after the fisher had passed away, his son sold the doll to a doll collector.
00:05:26 She did a lot of digging and research on every person who had a porcelain toy on the Titanic.
00:05:32 She found the owner of the doll.
00:05:34 Ava Hart was on the Titanic and had a doll with her.
00:05:38 Ava survived the catastrophe by a miracle, but her toy didn't.
00:05:43 Hart even wrote about the doll in her journal, and every detail matched the toy found by the fisherman.
00:05:50 The tripod fish lives deep in the abyssal zone, around 20,000 feet below the surface.
00:05:59 It's adapted to such immense depths and uses its tripod fins to stay still on the bottom.
00:06:05 This creature doesn't have big eyes, but even if it did, these eyes would be useless in the darkness.
00:06:12 Instead, the tripod fish uses its fins like antennas to detect any movement in the water.
00:06:18 This creature doesn't have much luck when it comes to its love life, so it had to develop unique tactics to reproduce.
00:06:25 One fish can be both male and female.
00:06:29 The next bizarre creature is the lizard fish.
00:06:36 It has tons of razor sharp teeth, a huge mouth, and really big eyes, which it uses for hunting.
00:06:43 All this makes the animal look freaky.
00:06:46 The lizard fish lives at depths of around 11,000 feet in the midnight zone, where there is zero light.
00:06:53 This freak of nature basically eats everything it can fit inside its mouth, from small fish to other lizard fish.
00:07:00 On the other hand, when they see other reptile fish, they probably fall in love instead, because finding mates at those depths is not an easy task.
00:07:09 Like the tripod fish, the lizard fish can be both male and female at the same time.
00:07:15 When you think of a river, you usually picture it on land.
00:07:22 Still, nature is quite unpredictable, and it created a river flowing under the ocean in California.
00:07:29 It's running at a depth of around 2 miles.
00:07:32 This river has everything that an ordinary river has, sunken logs, trees, and rocks.
00:07:38 And despite its uniqueness, it's not the only one in the world.
00:07:43 There are also others in the Amazon and Greenland.
00:07:49 A terrifying creature was discovered near Angola's coast by a remote operating vehicle.
00:07:55 It looks like it doesn't have a head or a body.
00:07:58 It was sitting at a depth of around 4,350 feet below the surface.
00:08:04 After doing research, scientists concluded it wasn't anything from a sci-fi movie.
00:08:09 It was just a cluster of siphonophores stuck together.
00:08:17 In 2015, some random guy was diving in Caesarea, and something shiny caught his eye.
00:08:23 He reached out, grabbed it, and realized it was a gold coin.
00:08:28 After that, he examined the bottom and found out that there were many more.
00:08:33 He reported the incident to the local authorities, and they concluded that he had found Arabic treasure.
00:08:39 The coins were made of solid 24-carat gold and were a few thousand years old,
00:08:44 but due to the perfect salinity and temperature, they looked brand new.
00:08:49 The coins belonged to a ship carrying cargo.
00:08:52 It was caught up in a storm and unfortunately sank.
00:08:56 One of the weirdest things ever discovered was found in the Baltic Sea.
00:09:03 It's an anomaly that looks as if it was created by a different civilization.
00:09:08 It was discovered by Swedish researchers, and they basically had no idea what it was.
00:09:14 They had to ask tons of other scientists for their opinions.
00:09:18 When you look at this formation from above, it's 200 feet long and looks exactly like a fallen spaceship.
00:09:25 It's hard to believe that it's a natural formation, but spoiler alert,
00:09:30 it's totally made by nature because the Baltic Sea has gone through many erosions throughout history.
00:09:36 Most likely, the bizarre formation is the result of these processes.
00:09:41 A group of divers in Madagascar were shocked when they found this 7-foot monstrosity of a knife on the sea floor.
00:09:51 The speculation started immediately, and many said that the knife was from some giants
00:09:56 that had fought megalodons and lived on Earth thousands and thousands of years ago.
00:10:01 That could make a nice story, but the knife is most likely a movie prop that was lost at sea.
00:10:07 One of the ocean's most bizarre animals is the frilled shark.
00:10:12 It's believed that this fish is the reason for all those sea serpent stories that sea explorers of the past wrote about.
00:10:19 These animals live pretty deep in the ocean, but sometimes they can be seen in shallow waters.
00:10:26 It's super rare, but possible.
00:10:29 The frilled shark has a big mouth sporting around 300 teeth.
00:10:33 It also has a long body that looks like a lizard's, and it is truly a unique species of shark.
00:10:40 Its prey can be half of its size because this shark's stomach is like that of a snake,
00:10:45 and it can swallow huge fish or crustaceans.
00:10:49 Spotting a few worms in your garden is no big deal, but after seeing a 26-foot long one in the ocean,
00:10:58 you will make your wetsuit a little wetter.
00:11:01 This worm is super rare, and it's completely harmless to humans.
00:11:05 It's actually not a giant worm.
00:11:08 It's a cluster of zooids that are stuck together in a worm-shaped formation.
00:11:12 They usually only eat plankton, bacteria, and other tiny things that can be found in the ocean.
00:11:18 Probably the scariest thing in the ocean that is 100% real is the magna pina,
00:11:25 which can be found at crazy depths of 20,000 feet below the surface.
00:11:30 This monster looks like an underwater slenderman,
00:11:33 but it's just a squid with really long tentacles that can reach a terrifying size of 8 feet.
00:11:40 This guy has only been seen a few times, and basically, we don't know much about this creature so far.
00:11:49 The Meg, aka Megalodon, roamed the oceans long after dinosaurs were wiped out by the great meteorite.
00:11:55 It was one of the largest and most dangerous hunters that have ever lived on Earth, as well as the biggest shark.
00:12:02 But then, about 3.6 million years ago, the last of its kind disappeared from our planet,
00:12:08 leaving only huge teeth for modern archaeologists to keep finding.
00:12:12 There are a few theories about why it could have happened, but scientists might have found the true reason.
00:12:18 The Megalodon, which means "big tooth", was the largest shark ever to exist.
00:12:23 It reportedly lived around 20 to 3.6 million years ago and was truly enormous.
00:12:29 Its bite was more powerful than that of a T-Rex, and likely any other powerful predator that has ever roamed this planet.
00:12:36 It's probably not surprising since this marine creature had extremely strong jaws that could span from 9 to 10 feet wide.
00:12:43 That's enough to swallow two grown-up people side by side.
00:12:47 The jaws were also lined with 276 teeth, and they reached 7 inches in length.
00:12:52 That's as long as a small hedgehog.
00:12:55 Once these teeth got worn down, the shark got rid of them and grew new ones.
00:12:59 Such large, sedated teeth helped the Meg to eat meat easily.
00:13:03 The shark itself could grow up to 59 feet long. That's twice the length of a London double-decker bus.
00:13:10 The animal was also pretty heavy.
00:13:12 While a fully grown T-Rex weighed about 8 tons, the weight of a large Megalodon could be more than 30 tons.
00:13:18 With no competitors, the enormous shark was the real king of the oceans.
00:13:22 It hunted other sharks, large fish, and even whales.
00:13:26 Then why did such a magnificent creature disappear from the face of the Earth?
00:13:30 The previous theories mentioned the Great White Shark.
00:13:33 The Megalodon is usually described as some gigantic version of this marine animal.
00:13:37 And this is a common mistake made because most people think these creatures were related.
00:13:42 But in reality, the Meg looked more like a modern bull shark.
00:13:46 Its snout was snout, its lower jaw was rather flat, and long and massive pectoral fins supported the animal's weight.
00:13:53 But what's more important, the ancestors of today's Great Whites existed at the same time as the Megalodon.
00:13:59 Now, with great size comes great clumsiness.
00:14:02 And although the Meg was huge and powerful, it was also not as nimble as smaller and quicker Great White Sharks.
00:14:08 Great Whites could have rivaled a Megalodon for food, and were often more successful hunters thanks to their agility.
00:14:14 They couldn't fight the Meg openly, but were fast enough to steal its food.
00:14:18 So according to this theory, the only food left for the Megalodon were whales and equally big marine animals.
00:14:26 Grown-up Megs could easily catch such beasts, but their offspring were much smaller and more vulnerable than their parents.
00:14:33 Could smaller sharks have used this to their advantage?
00:14:36 Maybe while Megasharks were still little, they became a meal for Great Whites, as well as Bull and Tiger Sharks.
00:14:42 Even at those times, a Great White Shark could reach the length of 20 feet, while a Megalodon kid was definitely smaller.
00:14:50 But even if there had been no open confrontation between young Megalodons and smaller grown-up sharks,
00:14:56 Meg kids wouldn't have been able to find food for themselves to grow to adulthood.
00:15:00 The reason is the same. The population of other sharks was growing, and they were rivaling each other, and the Meg for convenient food.
00:15:07 The more Great Whites and other sharks appeared in the oceans, the less food remained for young Monster Sharks.
00:15:14 Eventually, they probably starved.
00:15:17 But it's just one of the theories that try to explain why the Meg went extinct, and here's another one.
00:15:22 A new study has shown that the Meg was most likely a warm-blooded predator, able to regulate its body temperature,
00:15:28 and that might have been the reason why this species disappeared with time.
00:15:33 Scientists analyzed isotopes of the tooth enamel of the Megalodon,
00:15:36 and concluded that the animal could easily maintain a body temperature that was around 13 degrees F warmer than the temperature of the surrounding water.
00:15:45 Such a temperature difference is much greater than what other sharks living at the same time as the Meg had,
00:15:50 and it's large enough for the ancient predator to be classified as warm-blooded.
00:15:55 These days, most fish are cold-blooded. Their body temperature is the same as the surrounding water.
00:16:00 But some sharks, like Mackerel Sharks, keep the temperature of all parts of their bodies a bit warmer than the surrounding water,
00:16:07 but it doesn't make them completely warm-blooded because they simply store heat generated by their muscles.
00:16:13 And in mammals, body temperature is regulated by a special region of the brain called the hypothalamus.
00:16:19 Anyway, the Meg's warmer body allowed the animal to move faster, deal with cold water better, and spread out all over the world.
00:16:27 But eventually, it might have led to a disaster.
00:16:30 The Megalodon lived during the Pliocene Epoch pronunciation.
00:16:34 It began approximately 5.3 million years ago, and finished 2.5 million years ago.
00:16:40 During that period, global cooling occurred. It also caused the changes in sea level, which the Megalodon probably didn't survive.
00:16:48 The main problem for the predator was to maintain an energy level allowing its body temperature to remain elevated.
00:16:54 But to do it, the animal had to eat a lot, and I mean it.
00:16:58 But it was a challenging task in a time of changing marine ecosystems, and while competing with newcomers, such as the Great White Shark.
00:17:05 If this theory is true, then the amount of energy the Meg had to use to remain warm could have contributed to its extinction.
00:17:12 This new information is very important to us.
00:17:15 It shows that many marine predators in modern oceans might be experiencing the effects of ongoing climate change too.
00:17:22 By the way, have you heard that there have been several cases when people were sure they had seen the Meg?
00:17:27 Or at least some similar extremely large monsters.
00:17:30 And these sightings happened relatively recently.
00:17:33 For example, in July 1916, the New Jersey coast of the US was terrified by a series of shark attacks.
00:17:40 They happened during an oppressive heat wave when hundreds of beachgoers tried to find shelter from the heat near the water.
00:17:46 People described the culprit that had caused all that havoc as a giant shark, much bigger than any regular one.
00:17:53 Since then, scientists have been debating which shark species was involved in those accidents.
00:17:59 The most popular guesses have been the Bull Shark and the Great White.
00:18:04 A picture of a huge shark roaming the Pacific Ocean not far from Guadalupe Island appeared in 1999.
00:18:11 The creature was nicknamed "Deep Blue."
00:18:14 It could be distinguished from others by a wavy pattern separating its gray back and white belly.
00:18:20 But even though some people claimed it could be the infamous Megalodon,
00:18:24 experts came to the conclusion it was a female white shark, the largest ever seen.
00:18:29 The average length of a male white shark is 11 to 13 feet.
00:18:33 Females are bigger, up to 15 or 16 feet, but Deep Blue reached more than 25th in length.
00:18:38 No wonder people were confused.
00:18:40 For the last time, Deep Blue was spotted in 2013 near the western coast of Mexico's Baja, California.
00:18:47 But look, there's another jumbo shark, and you can meet it in any part of the world.
00:18:53 Its largest specimens can reach 40-feft long and weigh about 5 or even 6 tons.
00:18:57 Could it be if not the Megalodon itself but one of its relatives?
00:19:01 Again, a wrong guess.
00:19:03 That's the Basking Shark.
00:19:05 This animal prefers subpolar seas, with temperatures not higher than 58 degrees F,
00:19:11 even though some of these animals do migrate to warmer places.
00:19:14 Like whale sharks, Basking Sharks are harmless and don't attack snorkelers or divers.
00:19:20 These creatures have loads of small teeth, but they don't use them when feeding.
00:19:24 Instead, they swim with their huge mouths open and swallow plankton.
00:19:29 A grown-up Basking Shark can filter nearly 2,000 tons of water per hour.
00:19:35 [Basking Shark swallows plankton]
00:19:39 It was the largest fish our Earth had ever seen, and its bite was strong enough to crush a car.
00:19:56 The largest of its teeth found was the length of a remote control.
00:20:00 It consumed about 2,500 pounds of food a day.
00:20:05 That's like 3,300 cans of tuna for you.
00:20:09 The earliest Megalodon fossils are from about 20 million years ago.
00:20:14 But you won't see its skeleton, and that's because the mighty Meg had no bones.
00:20:19 A skeleton made from bones gives most animals their body shape and strength.
00:20:25 Sharks, though, come from the same subclass as rays, skates, and sawfish and have cartilage instead of bones.
00:20:32 Cartilage is a tissue that is softer and more flexible than bones,
00:20:36 but it's still tough enough to shape the body and protect the internal organs.
00:20:40 Some areas are more flexible since cartilage is weaker,
00:20:43 and some, like the shark's head, are much tougher thanks to calcified cartilage.
00:20:48 Their snouts, though, are made of really soft and flexible cartilage
00:20:53 to work like a bumper in case of a collision with some dangers.
00:20:57 Who knows if they'd be able to do all this with a heavy skeleton?
00:21:01 Plus, cartilage makes their jaws more flexible,
00:21:04 and they can open their mouths much wider than they would with a jaw made of bone.
00:21:09 Our hero, Meg, was no exception, and it had the strongest bite of all living creatures,
00:21:15 which was also made possible by a skeleton made of cartilage.
00:21:19 Sharks take full advantage of their cartilage.
00:21:22 It helps them swim and turn fast while hunting.
00:21:25 One drawback of this type of skeleton is that it was really tricky for scientists
00:21:30 to establish the shape and size of Meg.
00:21:33 Normally, they would do it using fossilized bone skeletons or their parts.
00:21:38 With Meg, they had to guess based on the teeth they found and comparisons with living relatives.
00:21:45 A more recent 3D computer model was based partially on scans of a preserved spine
00:21:51 discovered in the 1860s.
00:21:54 The model showed that Meg was bigger, faster, and even hungrier than scientists had previously thought.
00:22:01 Looks like an average Megalodon was 52 feet long.
00:22:05 That's slightly bigger than the height of the Hollywood sign
00:22:08 and weighed 10 times as heavy as an elephant.
00:22:11 There were also much bigger creatures.
00:22:14 Scientists still aren't sure how the Megalodon got this size.
00:22:18 The fact that there were bigger and smaller Megs probably has to do with a little something called Bergman's rule.
00:22:25 It says that the temperature of the surrounding environment affects the animal's body size
00:22:30 because they either need to conserve or shed heat.
00:22:33 The Megalodons that reached cooler waters probably needed more body weight
00:22:37 to make sure they survived in low temperatures.
00:22:40 Those living in warmer waters had to be smaller to avoid burning up.
00:22:45 If the researchers were correct in their calculations,
00:22:48 it also means that Meg reached a cruising speed of over 3 miles per hour,
00:22:53 which is much faster than other sharks.
00:22:56 The still-living Great White Shark can cover a distance of nearly 7,000 miles without stopping,
00:23:02 which is 9/10 as long as the diameter of Earth.
00:23:06 It looks like the Megalodon could have gone much further.
00:23:10 Megalodons managed to survive on our planet for nearly 70 times longer than humans have.
00:23:15 They were roaming the oceans for around 20 million years,
00:23:19 and you could see them pretty much anywhere except near the poles.
00:23:22 Scientists discovered the most northern fossils off the coast of Denmark
00:23:26 and the most southern in New Zealand.
00:23:29 The reason why there were no Megalodon teeth found in Antarctica
00:23:33 is most likely that these adapted to only warm tropical and subtropical waters.
00:23:39 The younger ones liked to keep to the shores,
00:23:42 while full-grown adults preferred coastal areas,
00:23:45 but they could easily move into the open ocean as well.
00:23:49 When our planet went through a period of global cooling and drying
00:23:53 and the seas began to freeze around 3.6 million years ago,
00:23:57 there was less and less room for Meg to thrive.
00:24:00 Much of their prey, like smaller whales, seals, and sea turtles,
00:24:04 disappeared or relocated to waters that were too cold for our hero.
00:24:08 And at the same time, the number of its natural competitors,
00:24:11 like smaller predatory sharks like the great white shark, and whales increased.
00:24:16 This shifting food chain dynamics could have been even more dangerous for the Meg
00:24:21 than the cold ocean water.
00:24:24 You're used to seeing them on the big screen as heartless monsters,
00:24:27 but these huge sharks were actually loving and caring family guys.
00:24:32 Scientists discovered several Megalodon nursery areas in Florida,
00:24:36 Maryland, Panama, and off the coast of Spain.
00:24:40 It looks like they gave birth to their young in shallow water environments.
00:24:44 Then, little Megs would stay there with adults protecting and raising them
00:24:48 until they were ready to fight off predators.
00:24:51 The mighty Meg had 276 teeth in 5 rows in its mouth.
00:24:56 Similar to other sharks, it was fast in replacing its worn out or lost teeth.
00:25:02 With 4 or 5 rows of teeth in its mouth,
00:25:04 it basically acted like a conveyor belt, able to grow back damaged or missing teeth.
00:25:10 This means that an adult Megalodon probably would have grown several thousand teeth
00:25:15 throughout its lifetime.
00:25:17 Although the great white shark is often mentioned as Meg's closest relative,
00:25:22 they'd hardly be distant cousins.
00:25:24 The ancestors of today's great white existed at the same time as the Meg,
00:25:29 but they weren't best friends and even rivaled each other.
00:25:33 The great white shark wouldn't win in a head-to-head fight with a Meg,
00:25:37 but it was a better hunter using its smaller size and agility
00:25:41 to snap up the giant's prey quickly.
00:25:44 This only left the bigger fish and whales for the Meg,
00:25:47 but its food supplies began to run out as the whales swam to the cooler new seas.
00:25:52 Rather than a great white, the Megalodon is more like a modern bull shark.
00:25:57 It had a short snout, a flat lower jaw,
00:26:00 and huge pectoral fins to support its massive weight and size.
00:26:05 We also speak of Meg as an extinct giant,
00:26:08 but can we be 100% sure it isn't hiding somewhere as we speak?
00:26:13 After all, we've only explored 5% of our oceans altogether.
00:26:18 The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth,
00:26:22 and you could dip the whole of Mount Everest in its deepest part,
00:26:26 and over a mile of it would still be above the surface.
00:26:29 If a Megalodon or two needed a place to hide, that would be the perfect spot.
00:26:35 It wouldn't be the coziest place to live though, with its cold water and total darkness.
00:26:40 Plus, the pressure there is 1,000 times stronger than at sea level.
00:26:45 So if a Meg really were hiding down there, it would have serious issues with its teeth,
00:26:50 because calcium would dissolve under that pressure.
00:26:53 To survive here, it would also need to learn to navigate in complete darkness.
00:26:58 That means it would have either become bioluminescent
00:27:02 or evolved to grow massive eyes like the giant squid.
00:27:06 If the Meg were still around and true to its dietary choices,
00:27:10 it would have to eat smaller fish, and that would be a problem for us humans.
00:27:14 Especially those of us who love fish that is.
00:27:17 And the ocean isn't cooling down these days.
00:27:20 The Megalodon would love its temperature and would thrive and reproduce faster than ever.
00:27:25 Those giants would create some massive problems for cargo ships and cruising vessels.
00:27:31 In case you're now scared at the thought of meeting a Megalodon, relax.
00:27:36 Most scientists don't think it's possible because of our hero's size.
00:27:40 Most foods that Megalodons like to eat live in shallow ocean areas and not in the deep, deep sea.
00:27:47 Meg would need to come up for dinner every now and then,
00:27:50 and it's kinda hard to miss a creature this big.
00:27:53 They're both giant prehistoric creatures to us,
00:27:56 but the Megalodons and the dinosaurs never actually coexisted.
00:28:00 The dinosaurs probably died out about 66 million years ago.
00:28:05 Megalodons seem to have appeared a bit later.
00:28:08 It was one of the biggest creatures ever to roam the Earth.
00:28:12 It was longer than your average school bus and could easily weigh more than 10 elephants combined.
00:28:18 But where did it live? How did it end up having this size?
00:28:22 And most importantly, why is it extinct nowadays? Let's find out!
00:28:28 The Megalodon was the largest predator ever known in our planet's history.
00:28:32 In terms of its location, the Megalodon lived practically in all waters on our globe, except near the poles.
00:28:39 The reason why there were no Megalodon teeth found in Antarctica
00:28:43 is probably that the gigantic creature adapted to only warm tropical and subtropical waters.
00:28:49 The younger ones liked to keep to the shores, while full-grown adults preferred coastal areas.
00:28:54 But they could easily move into the open ocean as well.
00:28:57 How do we know the Megalodon was so widely spread?
00:29:01 We can only presume based on the fact that they discovered the most northern fossils
00:29:06 off the coast of Denmark and the most southern in New Zealand.
00:29:10 The discussion of how the Megalodon got this size is still open in the scientific community.
00:29:15 They recently found out that not all the specimens from this fascinating species reach the same huge size.
00:29:22 This has to do with a little something called the Bergman's rule,
00:29:26 which says that the temperature of the surrounding environment affects the animal's body size
00:29:31 because they either need to conserve or shed heat.
00:29:34 The Megalodons that reached cooler waters probably needed more body weight
00:29:38 to make sure they survived in low temperatures.
00:29:41 On the contrary, those living in warmer waters had to be smaller to avoid burning up.
00:29:46 But what did this enormous fish look like?
00:29:49 Most modern depictions show the Megalodon resembling an enormous great white shark.
00:29:54 But, well, it seems it may not necessarily be correct.
00:29:58 The Megalodon likely had a much shorter nose and a flatter jaw
00:30:02 that looked almost squashed when compared with a great white shark.
00:30:06 It also seems to have something in common with the modern blue shark
00:30:10 – extra-long pectoral fins.
00:30:12 They needed these to support their weight and size while navigating the planet's waters.
00:30:17 Lastly, the lady Megalodons, eww, seem to have been about twice as large as the gentlemen.
00:30:23 As for their offspring, even a small Megalodon was enormous,
00:30:27 at least 6.5 feet from nose to tail.
00:30:30 How do we know that?
00:30:32 Because specialists have stumbled upon Megalodon nursery habitats in Panama,
00:30:36 Maryland, the Canary Islands, and Florida.
00:30:39 Even the piles of used diapers were enormous!
00:30:43 Nah, not really.
00:30:45 Surely the scariest aspect of the Megalodon's looks was its mouth.
00:30:49 I mean, think about it. Megalodon had whales for dinner,
00:30:52 so it obviously needed to open its mouth wide enough.
00:30:56 Scientists have estimated that its jaw would span a mind-boggling size, 9 by 11 feet wide.
00:31:02 Just to paint you a better picture,
00:31:04 that means it could have easily gulped down two adult people side by side.
00:31:09 Wait, which two adults?
00:31:11 Those impressive jaws also feature 276 teeth.
00:31:15 Based on modern reconstructions of the force of its bite,
00:31:18 it looks like it may have been one of the most, if not the most, powerful animals of prey ever to exist in.
00:31:25 For comparison, humans can have a bite force of around 1300 newtons.
00:31:30 Today, great white sharks have been estimated to be able to bite down with a force of over 18,000 newtons.
00:31:37 The Megalodon tops all the records, with an estimated power of bite up to 10 times greater than that.
00:31:44 It could basically crush a car with very little effort.
00:31:47 Its teeth were also pretty amazing.
00:31:50 Similar to sharks, the Megalodon was fast in replacing its broken or worn teeth.
00:31:55 With 4 or 5 rows of teeth in its mouth, it basically acted like a conveyor belt,
00:32:00 going back damaged or missing teeth within about 48 hours.
00:32:04 This means that an adult Megalodon probably would have grown several thousand teeth throughout its lifetime.
00:32:10 It was nice of them to do that, though,
00:32:12 since it's probably one of the reasons why Megalodon teeth are so common in fossil records,
00:32:17 and we're able to study them properly.
00:32:20 To maintain its impressive physique,
00:32:23 the Megalodon had to eat somewhere around 2500 pounds of food per day.
00:32:28 Can't wrap your head around that?
00:32:30 Well, it was the equivalent of 1 and a quarter cows per day to survive.
00:32:35 That's like if you had to eat 3300 cans of tuna every day.
00:32:39 I've used the word "Megalodon" a lot, but have I mentioned where it comes from?
00:32:44 When translated from Greek, it means "giant tooth."
00:32:47 Ah, those clever Greeks!
00:32:49 However, this giant shark's full scientific name is a bit more complicated –
00:32:53 Carcharocles Megalodon.
00:32:56 But are these gigantic predators actually extinct?
00:33:00 We tend to believe so, but let's be honest for a second.
00:33:03 We've come to know more about the surface of Mars than the depths of our oceans.
00:33:08 Like, we've only explored 15% of our oceans altogether.
00:33:12 Who knows what may be lying out there in the deep?
00:33:15 Maybe some ancient predators?
00:33:18 The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth.
00:33:22 The Challenger Deep, its deepest part, is so deep that you could dip the whole of Mount Everest in there
00:33:28 and it would still be over a mile above the surface.
00:33:31 That's deep.
00:33:33 If a Megalodon or two ever needed a place to crash, that would be a discreet enough location.
00:33:39 However, the Mariana Trench is not a particularly comfy place to be yet.
00:33:44 You know, because it's cold and steeped in total darkness and all.
00:33:47 The temperatures here are around 36 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.
00:33:51 And to top it all off, the pressure is a thousand times stronger than at sea level.
00:33:56 So, it's safe to assume that if any Megalodon is hiding in here,
00:34:00 its teeth and bones might not be looking so good.
00:34:03 Because of the intense pressure here in the Mariana Trench,
00:34:06 proteins and calcium start to dissolve and disintegrate.
00:34:10 That's why, for example, the Hadal snailfish, the deepest-dwelling fish we've discovered,
00:34:16 has evolved to feature flexible cartilage instead of bones.
00:34:19 To survive here, the Megalodon would also need to learn to navigate in complete darkness.
00:34:25 That means they would have to either become luminescent
00:34:28 or evolve to grow massive eyes like the giant squid.
00:34:32 While it may sound like an intriguing and good idea for a movie script,
00:34:36 most scientists don't think it's possible.
00:34:39 Why? Well, most of them say it's because of the Megalodon's size.
00:34:43 Most foods that Megalodons like to eat live in shallow ocean areas and not in the deep, deep sea.
00:34:49 Specialists believe that if these animals were actually still roaming our waters,
00:34:53 there's no way we wouldn't know about it.
00:34:56 They would need to come up for dinner every now and then, right?
00:34:59 Their food is also the most likely cause of why the Megalodon is not alive anymore.
00:35:04 While some specialists believe the Megalodon became extinct
00:35:08 because of a drop in the ocean water temperature,
00:35:10 most scientists suggested that the shifting food chain dynamics may have been more to blame.
00:35:16 Why? Because at some point, there was less and less of its primary food source, baleen whales.
00:35:22 And at the same time, the numbers of its natural competitors,
00:35:25 like smaller predatory sharks like the great white shark, and whales, increased.
00:35:31 The Megalodon did live on this planet a lot more than we did,
00:35:35 and way back when we didn't even exist yet.
00:35:38 They were here for nearly 70 times longer than we, modern humans, have,
00:35:42 inhabiting the oceans for around 20 million years.
00:35:46 Homo sapiens appeared around 300,000 years ago.
00:35:49 The Megalodon managed to survive for so long mostly because of its unbeatable size.
00:35:55 I mean, they can make a meal out of almost everything in the sea at the time.
00:35:59 We may think about both of them as prehistoric creatures,
00:36:02 but the Megalodons and the dinosaurs never coexisted on Earth.
00:36:07 The dinosaurs probably died out about 66 million years ago.
00:36:11 Megalodons seem to have appeared a bit later.
00:36:14 That's because the oldest Megalodon fossils we have yet discovered are from the Miocene Epoch,
00:36:20 which began 23 million years ago.
00:36:23 So long, Meg!
00:36:25 The Megalodon was the biggest shark to ever live.
00:36:31 Not only that, it's one of the biggest fish and the largest predator in Earth's history.
00:36:36 Over three times longer than the biggest great white shark on record,
00:36:40 the females have also been found to be twice the size of the males.
00:36:45 The Megalodon could swallow a small car without even touching its teeth,
00:36:49 if cars had been around then.
00:36:51 In fact, the Meg was so big and powerful that it had no natural predators.
00:36:56 It was the uncrowned king of the seas, swimming freely from ocean to ocean.
00:37:01 This cosmopolitan creature was found all over the world from America to Europe and Australia and Japan,
00:37:08 assuming there were countries back then.
00:37:10 Meg fossils have been found on every continent except Antarctica.
00:37:15 Everybody skips Antarctica.
00:37:17 Science tells us that the Megalodon went extinct over 3.6 million years ago,
00:37:22 but could they still be alive at the deepest depths of the ocean?
00:37:26 The fearsome name "Megalodon" comes from two Greek words,
00:37:30 "megas" meaning big and "odont" meaning tooth.
00:37:34 Combined, they mean big tooth, and it certainly lived up to its name.
00:37:38 Just one of its chompers is the same size as a human head.
00:37:41 It had 276 humongous teeth in total, across five terrifying rows.
00:37:48 In all of history, only a couple of saber-toothed cats and the T-Rex had consistently bigger teeth.
00:37:54 Now that's a showdown I'd like to watch.
00:37:57 The Megalodon vanished millions of years ago, leaving only huge teeth to be found by modern archaeologists.
00:38:04 Only around 80% of the ocean has been explored, so who knows what's lurking at the bottom.
00:38:12 If you did manage to make it down, it's unlikely that you'll run into Meg though.
00:38:16 The sharks, like us, preferred warm coastal waters.
00:38:20 Deep ocean living would be too cold for the beasts, and food would be scarce.
00:38:25 Their entire bodies would also have to evolve to avoid being squished by the enormous water pressure down there.
00:38:31 It's unlikely that they're still around, but not impossible.
00:38:35 Now, about the appearance of the Megalodon.
00:38:38 Scientists believe it didn't look like a great white shark.
00:38:41 The Megalodon belongs to a different fish family and most likely looked like a giant sand tiger shark.
00:38:47 Flattened snout, small eyes, its dorsal fin moved backward.
00:38:53 The sand shark has two dorsal fins about the same size.
00:38:56 The coloration is light brown with a white belly.
00:39:00 It may have had brown red spots like a sand shark all over its body.
00:39:04 We used to think of the Megalodon as something scary from the first finds of its fossils.
00:39:09 That was back in the Renaissance era.
00:39:11 People found some teeth in the rocks.
00:39:14 At first, these teeth were thought to be the tongues of dragons or snakes.
00:39:18 And here is the first drawing of what the owner of these teeth supposedly looked like.
00:39:23 A massive snout with a scary nose and a bunch of razor sharp teeth.
00:39:28 The Megalodon is usually described as a sort of giant great white shark, but this is just a common myth.
00:39:35 In fact, the ancestors of today's great white existed at the same time as the Meg.
00:39:41 But they weren't the best buddies and were even in competition with each other.
00:39:46 The great white shark was a better hunter using its smaller size and agility to snap up Meg's prey quickly.
00:39:53 They were also known to eat Meg pups who were only half their size.
00:39:58 This didn't help the whole extinction thing.
00:40:00 We also have evidence that Megalodons were brutal hunters, kings of the food chain.
00:40:05 The first combat tool in their arsenal was the battering ram.
00:40:14 The Megalodon would take its prey by surprise.
00:40:16 It had only one chance to hit it.
00:40:18 If it missed, it would take too long for a second round.
00:40:21 The maneuverability of the Megalodon was comparable to a large truck.
00:40:26 While a great white was no match for an adult Meg in a head to head fight,
00:40:31 they sure weren't scared of stealing their food.
00:40:33 This only left the bigger fish and whales for the Meg.
00:40:37 But its food supplies began to run out as the whales swam to the cooler new seas.
00:40:42 The whales adapted to prefer the colder temperatures, leaving our friend the Meg behind.
00:40:47 The Megalodons either starved or were frozen into extinction by the Ice Age.
00:40:52 Rather than a great white, the Megalodon is more like a modern bull shark.
00:40:57 It had a short snout, a flat lower jaw, and huge pectoral fins to support its massive weight and size.
00:41:03 As scary as they are, these sharks were actually caring family guys.
00:41:08 Several Megalodon nursery areas have been discovered in Florida, Maryland, and Panama.
00:41:12 They gave birth to their young in shallow water environments.
00:41:16 We know this from discovering loads of tiny Megalodon teeth found in these areas.
00:41:21 I wonder if they had nannies too.
00:41:24 But how come there are so many Megalodon teeth out there for us to analyze?
00:41:28 Due to their messy, aggressive eating habits, sharks regularly lose their teeth.
00:41:34 They lose a set of teeth every one to two weeks. That's 40,000 teeth in a lifetime.
00:41:39 They must rake in a fortune from the tooth fairy.
00:41:42 Because of this, their teeth were continually raining down to the ocean floor.
00:41:46 Luckily for us, they're also the hardest part of the shark's skeleton.
00:41:50 Which is why so many teeth have survived and become fossilized.
00:41:54 It's fair to say the first discoveries of the Meg's teeth confused people.
00:41:59 Early discoverers thought that the Meg's teeth were petrified tongues of ancient serpent creatures.
00:42:04 They even used to call them "tongue stones".
00:42:07 It's also a common myth that the Megalodon was around at the same time as the dinosaurs.
00:42:12 Although this would have been pretty cool.
00:42:15 The dinosaurs were wiped out around 66 million years ago.
00:42:18 But the Megalodons came much later.
00:42:21 The oldest Meg fossil is only around 23 million years old, but it's tricky to pinpoint the exact date.
00:42:28 After all, calendars weren't invented yet.
00:42:31 They became extinct way before humans even evolved.
00:42:35 The earliest Homo sapiens, which is a fancy name for the first humans, emerged about 2.5 million years ago.
00:42:42 But what if the Megalodon shark didn't go extinct?
00:42:45 Whale populations have dropped drastically since these guys were last around.
00:42:50 So there'd be way fewer whales for them to chomp down on.
00:42:54 Whales have also gotten a lot smarter and learned new defensive moves, making them way harder to take down.
00:43:00 It's estimated that they ate around 12 tons of food each day.
00:43:04 The Kraken is a colossal squid, a legendary sea monster.
00:43:12 The biggest hunk of calamari you ever saw.
00:43:15 And if this monster had existed, the world would have changed beyond recognition.
00:43:21 The Kraken has powerful tentacles, solid muscles with suckers at the end.
00:43:25 They're impossible to escape.
00:43:27 The Kraken can break a ship in half, or just pull it down into the depths.
00:43:32 But the worst thing about the Kraken is its size.
00:43:35 According to old sailors' stories, its size is almost 10 soccer fields.
00:43:41 Hey, maybe the Kraken could play soccer!
00:43:44 The Kraken legends said the monster was so giant that sailors mistook it for a small island.
00:43:51 In past centuries, it would have been impossible to defeat such a beast.
00:43:54 If the Kraken existed in reality, it might have had offspring.
00:43:59 Yeah. In all the world's oceans, there would be giant monsters that could sink any ship.
00:44:05 It's unlikely that the Kraken would have competitors in its habitat, so its population would grow strongly.
00:44:11 Since the Kraken is enormous, it would need a lot of food, so the population of other large sea animals would fall significantly.
00:44:20 Blue whales, great white sharks, other giant squids, all the big sea creatures would be endangered.
00:44:26 The Kraken belongs to the cephalopod genus.
00:44:29 This species includes squid and octopus, some of the most intelligent creatures on the planet.
00:44:35 The Kraken is a skilled hunter and will never fight in the open.
00:44:39 Colossal squids live in deep waters, and they have the largest eyes among all animals.
00:44:46 The squid's eye is the size of a dinner plate. Thanks to this, they can see their prey from far away.
00:44:51 Similarly, a Kraken would spot the ship much sooner than sonar could pick up the Kraken.
00:44:57 It would always have the drop on you. Well, that's not good.
00:45:01 In 1857, a squid beak was discovered on the coast of Denmark.
00:45:07 Other huge squid remains were found in the Bahamas, and then scientists were convinced that gigantic squids existed.
00:45:15 While colossal squid have been officially discovered since then, it's been more than a hundred years, and we still don't know what the max size they can grow to.
00:45:23 The fact is, colossal squids are one of the most elusive creatures on Earth.
00:45:28 They live in the depths of the ocean, where it's challenging for scientists to reach.
00:45:32 Any dive to a greater depth requires powerful, bulky equipment.
00:45:36 Underwater bathyscaphes and cameras make a lot of noise and light, which squids notice from afar.
00:45:43 They flee before we can see them.
00:45:45 It's difficult to say if these huge squids were the size of a small island, but the truth is, we've only studied about 5% of the ocean.
00:45:53 It may be that in its depths, monsters much more terrible than the Kraken swim.
00:46:07 The Megalodon shark roamed the ocean, scaring and chewing everything to pieces long after the dinosaurs were wiped out by the great meteorite.
00:46:16 We know that it was the largest and most dangerous hunter that ever lived, as well as the biggest shark.
00:46:22 It was the king of all seas, swimming freely between most parts of the ocean.
00:46:28 But then, about 2.5 million years ago, the last of its kind disappeared from Earth forever, leaving only huge teeth to be found by modern archaeologists.
00:46:38 And it could be because of the great white sharks.
00:46:41 The Megalodon is usually described as a sort of gigantic version of this marine animal.
00:46:47 This is a common misconception people make, because these creatures were thought to be related.
00:46:53 In fact, the Meg looked more like a modern bull shark. It had a short snout, a flat lower jaw, and long and massive pectoral fins that supported its weight.
00:47:03 And what's more important, the ancestors of today's great whites existed at the same time as the Megalodon.
00:47:10 But with great size comes great clumsiness.
00:47:14 Although the Meg was huge and powerful, it was also not as nimble as the smaller and quicker great white sharks.
00:47:22 Researchers believe that great whites actually rivaled with the Megalodon for food, and were often more successful hunters thanks to their agility.
00:47:30 They couldn't fight the Meg openly, but were fast enough to steal its food.
00:47:35 So, the only food left for the Megalodon were whales and equally big marine animals.
00:47:41 Adult Megs could easily catch such beasts, but their offspring were much smaller and more vulnerable than their parents.
00:47:50 Scientists believe other sharks could have used this to their advantage.
00:47:53 While the Megalodon was still little, it often became a meal for great whites, bull, and tiger sharks.
00:48:00 Even then, a great white shark could be almost 20 feet long, while a Megalodon pup was typically twice as small.
00:48:07 A pretty easy meal for a great white.
00:48:11 But even if there had been no open confrontation between young Megalodons and smaller adult sharks, Meg pups wouldn't have been able to find food for themselves to grow to adulthood.
00:48:20 The population of other sharks was growing, and they were rivaling with each other and the Megs for food.
00:48:27 The more great whites and other sharks there were, the less food remained for the young monster sharks.
00:48:33 Eventually, they would have simply starved.
00:48:37 As if this wasn't enough for the Megalodon to cease to exist, their favorite big munch, the whales, began to adapt to changing conditions on Earth.
00:48:45 The Meg was a warmth-loving shark, and it was abundant in tropical and subtropical waters.
00:48:52 When they first evolved, about 20 million years ago, the climate on the planet was much milder.
00:48:58 Both land and seas were generally warmer, and so the Meg could swim and eat wherever it pleased.
00:49:05 As years went by, the climate went on changing, though.
00:49:08 It became extremely cold closer to the poles, and lots of marine animals and fish had to adapt to this temperature shift.
00:49:16 But the Megalodon didn't cope as well.
00:49:19 It still loved warm waters, so it stayed where it felt comfortable, even if that area was shrinking.
00:49:25 What it didn't realize was that whales were among those who became okay with the cold.
00:49:31 The big marine mammals went further north, and Meg was left without a supper.
00:49:36 Stonefish aren't going to win any beauty contests, unless the pageant is for best rock look-alike.
00:49:47 Their tiny unreflective eyes and rough skin blend in perfectly with their environment.
00:49:53 A large head, an even bigger mouth, and a home full of, yeah, it's rocks.
00:49:59 And just 'cause you're on the beach doesn't mean you're safe.
00:50:02 Stonefish can survive for 24 hours out of the water.
00:50:06 Stepping on one, or even handling one, won't be that fun.
00:50:10 Their dorsal fin spines have extremely strong venom.
00:50:14 It shoots out when they get stepped on, and it can lead to paralysis or even heart failure.
00:50:19 You'll need help fast.
00:50:21 No wonder they're one of the most dangerous creatures in the water, or anywhere.
00:50:27 Be careful when scrambling around rocky areas.
00:50:29 They love to play hide-and-seek.
00:50:31 If there were a prize for the most hideous fish in the ocean, the deep-sea dragonfish would win.
00:50:42 With slimy, scaleless skin, massive teeth, and a face only a mother could love,
00:50:48 this bad boy of the sea is nothing to mess with.
00:50:52 It likes to swim between 700 feet and 6,000 feet below the surface of the ocean,
00:50:57 where the waters are the darkest and coldest.
00:50:59 Along with some other creatures on this list,
00:51:02 the deep-sea dragonfish relies on its bioluminescent body parts to catch prey.
00:51:07 It also uses its hanging appendage, which boasts a little red light on the end,
00:51:13 coming out from its lower jaw.
00:51:15 Many fish mistake this little light for prey,
00:51:19 luring them right into the jaws of the deep-sea dragonfish.
00:51:22 Very clever, dragonfish. Very clever indeed.
00:51:26 The Mariana Trench is an underwater trench with a depth of 35,000 feet,
00:51:35 nearly 7 miles below the ocean's surface.
00:51:38 Let that sink in.
00:51:40 While scientists know the Mariana Trench exists,
00:51:43 it's one of the least explored places on Earth.
00:51:47 It's also the deepest area of Earth's oceans.
00:51:49 And although many creatures down there probably haven't even been seen by humans yet,
00:51:54 scientists have had the creepy pleasure of getting to know the fangtooth.
00:51:59 The fangtooth fish shamelessly lives up to its name.
00:52:02 Just look at that thing.
00:52:04 The fangtooth is carnivorous and feeds on just about anything it can find
00:52:09 that gets caught in its sharp-toothed mouth.
00:52:11 These fish rely on their contact chemoreception to find prey.
00:52:16 In other words, they can sense chemical residue
00:52:19 that comes off of other living organisms in the deep sea.
00:52:22 This is because they don't have any light-producing cells on their bodies,
00:52:26 unlike many other deep-sea fish.
00:52:29 On top of all that, it's pretty dark down there,
00:52:32 so whatever crosses their path, they chomp on.
00:52:35 While these guys look pretty scary, they're not a threat to humans.
00:52:39 They only grow about 7 inches long.
00:52:43 Even so, I wouldn't want to run into one of these things
00:52:46 during a relaxing swim in the ocean.
00:52:48 The dunkleosteus
00:52:51 Strangely enough, this prehistoric fish, known as the T-Rex of the seas,
00:52:57 had no teeth.
00:52:59 Those were replaced with bony plates
00:53:02 that allowed it to have the strongest bite among other monsters of its size.
00:53:06 The goblin shark
00:53:11 If you thought the movies about sharks were scary,
00:53:13 this next deep-sea creature will make you swear off going for dips in the ocean forever.
00:53:18 However, it lives 3,000 feet underwater,
00:53:22 so you'll never likely see it face to face.
00:53:25 The goblin shark looks like a cross between a shark
00:53:28 and a creature from your worst nightmare.
00:53:31 These sharks boast a protruding, sword-like snout
00:53:34 with a jaw that juts out to match.
00:53:38 Unlike other sharks that have more of a gray hue,
00:53:40 this creepy thing looks not so pretty in pink.
00:53:44 Aside from their scary demeanor,
00:53:46 what do scientists really know about the goblin shark?
00:53:49 Well, not much, except that they can grow up to 18 feet in length.
00:53:54 Looks like there's still a lot to learn about these guys,
00:53:57 if you dare to.
00:53:59 By the way, did you know that sharks don't sleep?
00:54:03 Many species have to keep water moving over their gills to get oxygen.
00:54:07 So, they can't fall into a deep sleep like we do.
00:54:10 That's why they stay half-awake during rest.
00:54:13 Typically, sharks don't even close their eyes.
00:54:17 This shark is a living horror,
00:54:23 with lower teeth being big and sharp,
00:54:26 while the upper ones are much smaller.
00:54:28 When its teeth fall off,
00:54:30 the shark eats them to maintain calcium levels.
00:54:33 Pretty smart solution for a shark.
00:54:37 The frilled shark
00:54:39 Studying the frilled shark is like looking through a portal back to prehistoric times.
00:54:45 That's because scientists think that these eel-like sharks
00:54:48 haven't changed much since their oldest ancestors roamed the deep sea waters.
00:54:53 So, they're sometimes referred to as living fossils.
00:54:57 These sharks' mouths are filled with a terrifying 25 rows of backward-facing sharp teeth.
00:55:03 300 in total!
00:55:05 They're designed to grasp prey and hold them tight so they can't get away,
00:55:10 according to early studies of the shark conducted in 1884
00:55:14 and published in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute.
00:55:17 Luckily for swimmers,
00:55:19 the frilled sharks live between 390 feet and 4,200 feet below the ocean's surface.
00:55:26 So, they'll probably never run into them.
00:55:28 Probably.
00:55:30 This is probably the worst nightmare of any dentist.
00:55:34 The northern stargazer
00:55:36 Take a look at this cutie.
00:55:39 The northern stargazer is definitely not something you'd wish to see on the ocean floor.
00:55:44 This horrid creature hides its body under the sand,
00:55:47 leaving its face above to wait for prey.
00:55:50 The tasseled wobbegong
00:55:56 Here's another carpet shark on our list.
00:55:59 It lies low on the bottom of the sea
00:56:03 and only waits for its prey to come by.
00:56:05 The Australian ghost shark
00:56:09 The Australian ghost shark isn't really even a shark,
00:56:12 but a very bony fish.
00:56:14 It's also a living fossil.
00:56:16 It hasn't changed within the last 400 million years.
00:56:20 Believe it or not,
00:56:23 sharks and humans have a common ancestor that lived around 440 million years ago.
00:56:29 Even though we both evolved in our own way,
00:56:32 there are still some signs of that connection.
00:56:34 For example, the genome of an elephant shark is very similar to humans.
00:56:40 The leoplerodon
00:56:44 This list of terrifying creatures would be incomplete
00:56:48 without mentioning the terrifying and prehistoric leoplerodon.
00:56:53 This carnivorous marine reptile existed during the Colobian stage of the Middle Jurassic era
00:57:00 and ruled the waters at 9 feet in length.
00:57:03 Scientists believe leoplerodon thrived in this deep sea trench
00:57:07 because of its ability to swim long distances and its four paddle-like limbs.
00:57:12 While they probably weren't able to propel themselves toward prey like other animals of the area,
00:57:18 they did manage to accelerate and attack very ruthlessly and efficiently.
00:57:23 Additionally, they relied on their long snouts to smell prey,
00:57:28 which leads scientists to believe they didn't rely on sight for hunting.
00:57:32 This means they could have thrived in the dark Mariana Trench.
00:57:36 Around 150 million years ago,
00:57:39 leoplerodon became extinct due to competition for prey against other thriving marine reptiles.
00:57:46 And I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Thank goodness for that!"
00:57:51 Considering that scientists have only explored 5% of the ocean floor
00:57:57 and found some of the scariest sea creatures imaginable,
00:58:00 one can only dream of what other animals reside in the deep sea waters.
00:58:04 Perhaps it's best to keep them in your imagination. Am I right?
00:58:09 This shark is a filter feeder, and it's friendly to humans,
00:58:17 although its huge mouth can look quite threatening.
00:58:20 Like basking sharks, it swims with its mouth constantly wide open,
00:58:26 as if it were on Twitter.
00:58:27 This deep sea eel has an easily distended belly
00:58:34 that allows it to swallow prey twice its size in a single monstrous bite.
00:58:39 They have very unusual jaw shapes and can reach about 2-3 feet in length.
00:58:44 Do you see that large log near the ocean floor?
00:58:49 Maybe it's part of an old ship.
00:58:51 Treasure! Gold! Diamonds! I'm rich!
00:58:55 As you get closer, you notice something.
00:58:57 It's swimming! It's not a shark or a dolphin.
00:59:01 It's a saltwater crocodile!
00:59:04 Now don't panic.
00:59:06 If you bump into one of these reptiles in the sea,
00:59:09 it's unlikely it'll think of you as food.
00:59:11 Crocodiles have a special valve in their throat
00:59:14 that stops them from drowning underwater.
00:59:16 But that doesn't mean they can't bite!
00:59:19 Usually, they're heading to a nearby island,
00:59:24 and the easiest way there is to body surf.
00:59:26 They can't really take the ferry, you know.
00:59:28 Watching one from a distance should be okay.
00:59:31 Just don't swim to shore right away.
00:59:33 They love to ambush their lunch in shallow water.
00:59:36 If there's one time I'd want to see a great white shark,
00:59:40 it's when I'm diving with crocodiles.
00:59:43 They'll gladly take a crocodile-sized nibble,
00:59:46 given the right motivation.
00:59:48 Most of the ocean is still shrouded in mystery.
00:59:52 Whether we're talking about dark corners
00:59:54 or creatures that are hiding in the depths.
00:59:56 But sometimes, it gives us a peek
00:59:59 into scary things it hides in its cold, dark depths.
01:00:02 Like when you hear on the news
01:00:04 that there are some deep-sea creatures washed ashore
01:00:06 after a powerful storm once again.
01:00:09 Some just look weird,
01:00:11 while others are real monsters
01:00:13 that live at depths of more than 3,300 feet.
01:00:16 The coldest and deepest parts of the ocean
01:00:21 have created one specific phenomenon called gigantism.
01:00:24 So, sea spiders, squids, worms, and many other animals,
01:00:28 mostly invertebrates, or creatures without backbones,
01:00:31 they're all way bigger and scarier
01:00:34 than the versions we see in the more shallow areas.
01:00:37 In the Pacific depths,
01:00:39 you can see a sea sponge as large as a minivan.
01:00:42 Or what about the colossal squid
01:00:45 that lives in sub-Antarctic waters
01:00:47 and is nearly 14 times longer than the arrow squid?
01:00:50 A type that mostly lives in New Zealand.
01:00:52 Researchers found many of these underwater monsters
01:00:56 in the abyssal zone of the ocean.
01:00:58 Back in 2021,
01:01:00 the researchers showed images of the giant phantom jelly.
01:01:03 It was at a depth of 3,200 feet.
01:01:06 Its tentacles were 33 feet long.
01:01:09 Wow, I wouldn't like to face that one on the beach.
01:01:12 It probably eats only small fish and plankton,
01:01:16 but it can swim to depths of more than 21,000 feet.
01:01:19 And down there,
01:01:20 this giant jelly doesn't have enough food.
01:01:23 How does it survive then?
01:01:25 Scientists haven't figured it out yet.
01:01:28 And there are even more questions related to the giant squid,
01:01:32 the biggest one ever found.
01:01:34 This monster is 43 feet long
01:01:36 with a weight of nearly a ton.
01:01:39 Imagine if those tentacles would grab your car
01:01:42 or something like that.
01:01:44 They would smash it like it was a toy.
01:01:48 There's no light in the abyssal zone.
01:01:50 Sunrays just can't penetrate that deep.
01:01:53 So there's no algae or underwater plants there.
01:01:56 Local animals mostly eat snow.
01:01:59 Marine snow is not like the regular one
01:02:02 you build a snowman with.
01:02:04 It consists of any small flakes or remains
01:02:07 that fall from the surface of the ocean.
01:02:09 Maybe even some leftovers
01:02:11 that animals up there couldn't eat.
01:02:13 So it's not much.
01:02:16 But apparently, it's enough
01:02:17 for very large creatures that hide deep down there,
01:02:20 like giant squids.
01:02:22 Squids that generally live at such depths
01:02:25 don't bother going after their prey.
01:02:27 They just wait until the poor animal
01:02:29 swims right up to their long tentacles
01:02:31 and falls into a trap.
01:02:33 It may not be the best method ever
01:02:35 because not many animals will even swim
01:02:37 into these dark, cold parts.
01:02:39 But it's the method that saves energy.
01:02:41 A giant squid eats only one ounce of fish daily.
01:02:45 Which is approximately 45 calories.
01:02:47 That's nearly 50 times fewer calories
01:02:50 than an average person should eat per day.
01:02:52 So when a squid gets one fish,
01:02:55 it saves it for a couple of days.
01:02:57 I hope giant squids won't get the idea
01:03:00 to go to the surface and look for food
01:03:02 when there's not enough of it in the abyssal zone.
01:03:04 And I hope even more
01:03:06 that giant Greenland sharks won't get that same idea.
01:03:09 You can find them at depths of up to 7,200 feet.
01:03:14 They're twice as slow as we usually walk.
01:03:16 They swim at a speed of 1.12 feet per second.
01:03:20 Their slowness is part of the energy-saving mechanism
01:03:23 that creatures down there need to survive.
01:03:26 But they can speed up in the form of short bursts
01:03:29 when they need to catch prey.
01:03:31 But they kinda change their diet
01:03:33 from predator to scavenger,
01:03:35 considering their environment.
01:03:37 There will be more leftovers falling from the surface
01:03:39 than animals to go after.
01:03:42 Greenland sharks grow just 0.4 inches per year.
01:03:46 And they're mostly 20 feet long,
01:03:48 which means they live for a very long time,
01:03:51 sometimes up to 400 years.
01:03:54 They also have a slow metabolism,
01:03:56 and that's one of the main factors
01:03:58 for their long life, too.
01:04:00 Greenland sharks like to spend their time in cold waters.
01:04:04 They're adapted to that
01:04:06 since their tissues have specific chemical compounds
01:04:08 that prevent the forming of ice crystals
01:04:11 all over their body.
01:04:12 That means they have some sort of natural antifreeze.
01:04:15 So what makes them so big?
01:04:19 Scientists are still not sure,
01:04:21 but some theories try to explain it.
01:04:23 There's this thing called Kluiber's rule
01:04:26 that says bigger animals tend to be more efficient.
01:04:29 Just take a small fish and compare it to a whale
01:04:32 with a mass hundreds of times bigger.
01:04:34 The whale has a greater metabolism.
01:04:37 It conserves energy more efficiently
01:04:40 and loses less of it to the surroundings through heat.
01:04:42 Moving on, bigger animals can ingest bigger prey.
01:04:47 They're more likely to go through tough issues
01:04:49 in their environment
01:04:51 or defend themselves from predators going after them.
01:04:53 Also, the body gets bigger when temperatures are lower.
01:04:57 The Greenland shark is a perfect example.
01:04:59 So are giant sea spiders.
01:05:01 Sea spiders are generally common,
01:05:04 and you find some very small ones at 0.04 inches.
01:05:09 But in deeper parts of the Antarctic,
01:05:11 they become three-foot-long giants.
01:05:13 They grow so big because the cold water has more oxygen.
01:05:17 That way, more of it diffuses into the animal's body,
01:05:20 and that allows it to grow bigger.
01:05:22 Yeah, both as a creature and a nightmare.
01:05:26 And how about this giant tube worm?
01:05:29 Researchers found it accidentally
01:05:31 while they were exploring the mysteries
01:05:33 of the Pacific Ocean floor.
01:05:35 They stumbled upon unusual hydrothermal vents.
01:05:38 Volcanic heat is a thing that gets them going.
01:05:40 As water seeps down through faults or cracks in the rock,
01:05:44 these vents change their direction.
01:05:46 When the water gets out of the vent,
01:05:48 it's rich in different minerals and chemicals.
01:05:51 Most animals wouldn't survive
01:05:53 being around this toxic soup of chemicals,
01:05:55 but not these tube worms.
01:05:57 They came as a true surprise,
01:06:03 because not only are they not bothered by these toxic vents,
01:06:07 and the almost boiling temperature of the water,
01:06:09 but they developed entire ecosystems there.
01:06:12 They're unique because they don't need sunlight to survive.
01:06:16 Instead, small bacteria are their main source of energy.
01:06:20 That bacteria gets their energy
01:06:22 directly from these toxic chemicals.
01:06:24 So it's not photosynthesis,
01:06:26 but a process called chemosynthesis.
01:06:29 And these tube worms don't have mouths.
01:06:31 These bacteria live inside them.
01:06:34 Strange story, huh?
01:06:36 Plus, these scary worms reach up to 8 feet.
01:06:40 Giant isopods are no better either.
01:06:43 They lurk at the depths of the ocean
01:06:45 of 1,640 feet or more below,
01:06:48 far away from the sunlight,
01:06:50 looking like some monstrous woodlice.
01:06:53 They spend most of their time on the seabed,
01:06:55 hoping to find some food
01:06:57 falling from higher levels of the ocean.
01:06:59 Check out their small hooked claws
01:07:01 at the ends of their legs.
01:07:04 Isopods use them to remain more stable
01:07:06 while moving around the ocean floor.
01:07:08 Since there's no light,
01:07:10 they have long antennae
01:07:12 that help them feel their way around.
01:07:14 These sensory antennas are about
01:07:16 half the length of their body.
01:07:18 Giant isopods have pretty big eyes
01:07:20 compared to their body size, too.
01:07:22 They can grow over 12 inches from head to tail.
01:07:25 And these fellas are really patient.
01:07:27 Remember how we said animals down there
01:07:29 rarely get food?
01:07:32 Sometimes they need to wait for years
01:07:33 to get a proper meal.
01:07:35 That's why their metabolism is amazingly slow.
01:07:38 Five years later.
01:07:40 They can go for five years
01:07:42 without eating anything.
01:07:44 Imagine that.
01:07:46 I get hungry just talking about this.
01:07:48 In 2006,
01:07:50 a biologist did research
01:07:52 to compare the differences
01:07:54 between the shallows and the deep sea regions.
01:07:56 He realized the deep sea
01:07:58 mirrors the island rule.
01:08:01 Isolated parts of land
01:08:02 develop biodiversity
01:08:04 you won't find anywhere else.
01:08:06 Second, small-bodied life there
01:08:08 grows much bigger when it's isolated
01:08:10 compared to life on large land masses.
01:08:12 Resources are limited,
01:08:14 but also competition and predators.
01:08:17 And we don't know much
01:08:19 about these deep sea creatures.
01:08:21 It's too expensive and too complicated
01:08:23 to carry out such research.
01:08:25 So we'll just wait for more raging storms
01:08:27 to show us at least part of
01:08:30 where in the monstrous world
01:08:31 cold ocean depths hide.
01:08:33 Well, hey there.
01:08:35 We dive back in time
01:08:37 and into the oceans
01:08:39 over a half a billion years ago.
01:08:41 Just, you know, because we can.
01:08:43 Whoa, watch out!
01:08:45 It's not Megalodon or giant sea reptiles
01:08:47 you need to look out for here.
01:08:49 It's a bizarre, unearthly-looking creature
01:08:51 called Anomalocaris.
01:08:53 The name means "unlike any other shrimp."
01:08:55 And I think you'll agree.
01:08:57 It looks like a nightmarish cross
01:08:59 between a shrimp
01:09:00 and a modern-day centipede.
01:09:02 Two tentacles protruding from its face,
01:09:04 each lined with razor-sharp teeth.
01:09:07 Oh yeah, and this thing
01:09:09 was about the size of your leg.
01:09:11 With a wave-like movement of the flax
01:09:13 on each side of its body,
01:09:15 it was graceful for a terrifying creature.
01:09:17 It was also more advanced
01:09:19 than any other life on this planet
01:09:21 at the time.
01:09:23 Especially those huge eyes.
01:09:25 You have only one lens in each of yours.
01:09:28 This giant shrimp had 16,000.
01:09:29 That's four times more
01:09:31 than a common housefly.
01:09:33 And you know how good their vision is.
01:09:35 Good enough to dodge that swatter every time.
01:09:38 All this allowed Ani
01:09:40 to become one of the first animals
01:09:42 on this planet to feed on others.
01:09:44 Yep, there it is.
01:09:46 Earth's first hunter.
01:09:48 Its favorite meal? Trilobites.
01:09:50 Hey, try a bite!
01:09:52 Those are the ancient ancestors of crabs.
01:09:54 Some of their fossils have marks on them
01:09:57 in the same shape
01:09:58 as the monster shrimp's mouthparts.
01:10:00 Terrors of the past like this
01:10:02 got to be so giant
01:10:04 thanks to more oxygen in the atmosphere.
01:10:06 A perfect example of this
01:10:08 is Meganoropsis.
01:10:10 Imagine a dragonfly.
01:10:12 Now make it as big as a cat
01:10:14 and with a wingspan longer than your arm.
01:10:16 Megan, the monster-sized dragonfly,
01:10:19 could easily grab other insects
01:10:21 or even small animals,
01:10:23 and she ruled the air with quick movements.
01:10:26 Back then,
01:10:27 there were still no large birds
01:10:29 or other airborne enemies
01:10:31 for this behemoth bug,
01:10:33 so it was safe and free to grow
01:10:35 as large as this planet would allow.
01:10:37 Piranhas of the past
01:10:39 were also jumbo-sized.
01:10:41 Megapiranha was about three times
01:10:43 the size of the river terrors
01:10:45 we have today.
01:10:47 Its bite force was about the same
01:10:49 as a tiger's,
01:10:51 and those striped kitties
01:10:53 bite down two times harder than lions.
01:10:55 It not only dined on other fish
01:10:56 and any land creatures
01:10:58 that, you know, got too close to the water,
01:11:00 but it could also easily
01:11:02 crunch down on large turtles
01:11:04 and other unlucky shelled creatures.
01:11:06 And fun fact,
01:11:08 modern-day piranhas bark like dogs
01:11:10 when they're about to enter a confrontation.
01:11:13 It actually sounds more like a frog's ribbit.
01:11:15 But makes you wonder,
01:11:17 what did this mega-sized ancient cousin
01:11:19 sound like?
01:11:21 A bear roaring?
01:11:24 How about giant sea scorpions
01:11:25 the size of your bed?
01:11:27 Go back about 460 million years,
01:11:29 and you'd see them swimming under you.
01:11:31 And watch out for that tail.
01:11:33 Scientists still don't know
01:11:35 if these creatures could use it
01:11:37 to inject venom like your standard land scorpion,
01:11:39 but something tells me
01:11:41 I wouldn't want that thing
01:11:43 anywhere near me.
01:11:45 Then there's this guy,
01:11:47 Therizinosaurus.
01:11:49 Terry looks sort of like a goose
01:11:51 with long arms and a long neck.
01:11:53 Oh, and did I mention
01:11:54 this goose dino
01:11:56 is about 2 stories tall
01:11:58 and longer than a bus?
01:12:00 Its arms make the T-Rex's
01:12:02 look even more bite-sized.
01:12:04 Each 8 feet long,
01:12:06 almost triple the length of T-Rex's.
01:12:08 And on the end,
01:12:10 razor-sharp claws
01:12:12 the size of your whole arm.
01:12:14 Don't worry about those lengthy claws
01:12:16 too much, though.
01:12:18 Terry probably used them
01:12:20 to cut through giant termite nests.
01:12:22 So this huge reptilian goose
01:12:23 was more interested
01:12:25 in eating bugs and plants.
01:12:27 Another mega-monster for you?
01:12:29 Megatherium.
01:12:31 The giant ground sloth
01:12:33 could look a giraffe straight in the eye
01:12:35 and weighed as much as a hippo.
01:12:37 It moved mainly on its hind legs
01:12:39 and used its massive tail as support.
01:12:41 It had huge paws
01:12:43 with colossal knife-sized claws.
01:12:45 The sloth could use them
01:12:47 to defend itself from enemies
01:12:49 and to bend tree branches
01:12:51 in search of food.
01:12:52 But the biggest danger
01:12:54 to the giant ground sloth
01:12:56 wasn't dinosaurs or saber-toothed tigers.
01:12:58 It was our own species.
01:13:00 Yep, humans showed up
01:13:02 just in time to meet this fellow.
01:13:04 And to, um, eat him up.
01:13:06 Titanoboa was a terrifying 50-foot snake,
01:13:10 as long as the great megalodon itself.
01:13:13 It was also more than 2 times heavier
01:13:15 than the heavyweight champion
01:13:17 among snakes today,
01:13:20 but crocodiles were a regular
01:13:21 on this serpent's menu.
01:13:23 Titanoboa could swim 3 times faster
01:13:25 than the fastest Olympic swimmer
01:13:27 our species has ever seen.
01:13:29 It was quicker and more dangerous
01:13:31 in the water than outside it.
01:13:33 And don't forget the boa part of the snake.
01:13:36 This massive snake wasn't venomous.
01:13:38 Instead, it liked to squeeze.
01:13:41 Remember that giant shrimp from earlier?
01:13:44 Well, Opabinia looks like
01:13:46 its teeny-tiny finger-sized collar
01:13:49 and tiny finger-sized cousin.
01:13:50 And instead of two toothy tentacles,
01:13:52 this thing had a vacuum hose
01:13:54 coming out of its face.
01:13:56 On the end of that trunk,
01:13:58 what looks like a single crab claw.
01:14:00 Add 5 eyes and a mouth under its head,
01:14:02 and you've got a recipe
01:14:04 for something not of this planet.
01:14:06 Only, it is.
01:14:08 This creature used its trunk
01:14:10 like an elephant does.
01:14:12 Its claw grabbed food from the bottom of the ocean
01:14:14 and brought it up to its mouth.
01:14:16 This thing is so weird-looking
01:14:18 that apparently,
01:14:19 when the scientists who discovered it
01:14:21 presented his findings to an audience,
01:14:23 they all laughed as if he were joking.
01:14:25 Now, a real-life monster.
01:14:28 The Tully monster.
01:14:30 From a distance,
01:14:32 it looks a bit like Nessie.
01:14:34 That long neck and teeth-line jaws.
01:14:36 But get closer,
01:14:38 and you'll see it's more like a long nose
01:14:40 with a mouth attached at the end,
01:14:42 like a mosquito.
01:14:44 Its eyes are further back,
01:14:47 and it's a little snail-like.
01:14:48 Tully was an ancient mollusk
01:14:50 about the size of your forearm.
01:14:52 It probably dined on jellyfish and shrimp
01:14:54 300 million years ago.
01:14:56 Thylacosmolus
01:14:58 will put a smile on your face
01:15:00 as long as you don't get too close.
01:15:02 No, it's not a relative of the saber-toothed tiger.
01:15:05 It was a marsupial,
01:15:07 making it more related to a kangaroo
01:15:09 than anything.
01:15:11 And if you compare them to body size,
01:15:13 its fangs were actually longer
01:15:16 than the saber-toothed tigers.
01:15:17 And they grew continuously.
01:15:19 As for that beard on its chin,
01:15:21 that's actually all chin.
01:15:23 The lower jawbone grew down to a point
01:15:25 under the mouth.
01:15:27 Those fangs were rooted to the skull,
01:15:29 going way back to its eyes.
01:15:31 When the mouth was closed,
01:15:33 that bony beard protected
01:15:35 the long, sharp teeth from breakage.
01:15:37 Staganapolis
01:15:39 Not to be confused with Minneapolis.
01:15:41 Might look like a big crocodile
01:15:43 with a squished-in snout,
01:15:45 but it was mostly harmless.
01:15:46 Its small head and very few teeth
01:15:48 meant the reptile didn't have much
01:15:50 to work with when protecting itself.
01:15:52 That's what all those armored scales were for.
01:15:55 And no need for huge fangs
01:15:57 or long rows of razor-sharp teeth
01:15:59 when you're a plant-eater.
01:16:01 That beak-like tip on its nose
01:16:03 allowed the stag to dig up plants.
01:16:05 So, really, this reptile
01:16:07 was more like a 10-foot-scaly pig
01:16:09 than a croc.
01:16:11 Basilosaurus
01:16:14 This is a type of ancient whale
01:16:15 that lived on our planet
01:16:17 about 45 million years ago.
01:16:19 Not quite as long as a blue whale,
01:16:21 but this guy was still big enough
01:16:23 to munch down on other whales
01:16:25 and even sharks.
01:16:27 Some people believe these monsters
01:16:29 could still exist today.
01:16:31 Eyewitnesses claim to have seen
01:16:33 a giant sea dragon,
01:16:35 and Basilosaurus fits the description.
01:16:37 Plus, 90% of our oceans are unexplored.
01:16:39 There's plenty of space
01:16:41 to hide a sea monster.
01:16:43 But scientists haven't found
01:16:44 any fossils of this ancient whale
01:16:46 younger than 3.7 million years.
01:16:48 So, this myth is busted.
01:16:51 Stegosaurus
01:16:53 is one of the most recognizable
01:16:55 dinosaurs that ever lived.
01:16:57 It can easily be distinguished
01:16:59 by those huge spikes on its tail
01:17:01 and the bony plates on its back.
01:17:03 It was twice as long as a giraffe
01:17:05 and nearly five times heavier.
01:17:07 But compared to its body size,
01:17:09 it had the world's smallest brain.
01:17:12 It was no larger than a dog's.
01:17:13 Pelagornis
01:17:15 had the largest wingspan
01:17:17 of any bird ever discovered.
01:17:19 It was twice the size
01:17:21 of the largest bird today,
01:17:23 the wandering albatross.
01:17:25 Such huge wings made it hard
01:17:27 for the bird to take off.
01:17:29 It could only do so
01:17:31 by jumping off cliffs.
01:17:33 And when it finally spread its wings,
01:17:35 this giant could only go
01:17:37 about 40 mph.
01:17:39 The fastest bird today
01:17:41 was the giant.
01:17:42 The largest and most ferocious
01:17:44 predator to ever haunt the oceans,
01:17:46 the Megalodon shark
01:17:48 dominated the seas for centuries
01:17:50 before becoming extinct
01:17:52 millions of years ago.
01:17:54 However, scientists managed to discover
01:17:56 very few remnants of the giant shark.
01:17:58 Everything we know about
01:18:00 the great sea beast we've learned
01:18:02 thanks to fossils of its giant teeth,
01:18:04 which are just about the size
01:18:06 of the average human hand.
01:18:08 Scientists estimated the size
01:18:10 of the giant shark using calculations
01:18:11 based on the measurement
01:18:13 of the length of a Megalodon tooth.
01:18:15 On average, the size of a Megalodon shark
01:18:17 was 33 feet long.
01:18:19 The largest of the species
01:18:21 could reach up to 58 feet long.
01:18:23 However, these megasharks
01:18:25 may have been even bigger
01:18:27 than we ever thought.
01:18:29 At the Florida Museum of Natural History,
01:18:31 a group of students examined
01:18:33 3D printed replicas of Megalodon teeth
01:18:35 to calculate the shark's size
01:18:37 using the tooth length method.
01:18:39 Each student calculated
01:18:40 a different size for the same shark
01:18:42 with their estimates ranging
01:18:44 from 40 feet to 180 feet.
01:18:46 A late paleontologist took a look
01:18:48 at the students' equations.
01:18:50 He realized that the method they used
01:18:52 to calculate Megalodon sizes for decades
01:18:54 isn't that accurate at all.
01:18:56 So, they invented a new method
01:18:58 to calculate the Megalodon size
01:19:00 based on the width of the Megalodon tooth
01:19:02 instead of its length.
01:19:04 It turned out that the average Megalodon
01:19:06 would be around 65 feet long.
01:19:08 It's almost double the size
01:19:09 scientists previously thought
01:19:11 and would mean that the average Megalodon
01:19:13 is the length of two school buses.
01:19:15 A Megalodon skeleton
01:19:17 has never been discovered.
01:19:19 Shark skeletons are made
01:19:21 mostly of cartilage,
01:19:23 meaning that they decompose quickly.
01:19:25 Luckily, sharks continuously shed
01:19:27 and regrow teeth throughout their lives.
01:19:29 One shark can go through
01:19:31 40,000 teeth in a single lifetime.
01:19:33 Scientists have managed to study
01:19:35 different types of shark species
01:19:37 to find out the truth.
01:19:38 The Megalodon shark had around 276 teeth.
01:19:40 When they fell out,
01:19:42 these teeth landed in seabed
01:19:44 where they stayed for millions of years
01:19:46 fossilizing.
01:19:48 Scientists found those teeth,
01:19:50 and they're the only real record we have
01:19:52 of the Megalodon's existence.
01:19:54 The word "Megalodon" means "giant tooth."
01:19:56 Its tooth is around 7 inches long.
01:19:58 For comparison,
01:20:00 the largest tooth of a great white shark
01:20:02 is only 3 inches long.
01:20:04 To find a bigger set of choppers,
01:20:06 it took 65 million years
01:20:07 to find the great Tyrannosaurus rex
01:20:09 whose teeth measured a whopping 12 inches.
01:20:12 Megalodon teeth have been discovered
01:20:14 all over the world.
01:20:16 It means that,
01:20:18 unlike other marine animals of its time,
01:20:20 the Megalodon was intercontinental.
01:20:22 Even today,
01:20:24 most sharks and marine animals
01:20:26 tend to stick to one sea or ocean.
01:20:28 The Megalodon shark swam freely
01:20:30 around the world,
01:20:32 moving between tropical and subtropical waters.
01:20:35 It lived on every continent
01:20:36 apart from the freezing cold waters of Antarctica.
01:20:38 When a Megalodon makes a starring appearance
01:20:40 in a movie or TV show,
01:20:42 it's portrayed to look like a giant version
01:20:44 of a great white shark.
01:20:46 Scientists previously believed
01:20:48 that the Megalodon and the great white shark
01:20:50 both descended from one common ancestor.
01:20:52 Still, it's not true.
01:20:54 In fact, it's more likely
01:20:56 that the Megalodon was the arch-enemy
01:20:58 of the great white shark's ancestor,
01:21:00 the broad-toothed Mako shark.
01:21:02 That means Megalodon
01:21:04 would have looked so similar
01:21:05 to the great white after all.
01:21:07 In reality,
01:21:09 the Megalodon would have a shorter nose
01:21:11 than the great white,
01:21:13 along with longer pectoral fins
01:21:15 to give the giant shark
01:21:17 a stockier and more threatening build.
01:21:19 Not only was the Megalodon
01:21:21 the largest shark in the world,
01:21:23 but it was also one of the biggest fish
01:21:25 ever to exist.
01:21:27 An apex predator of this size
01:21:29 would have needed a huge diet
01:21:31 to keep it moving.
01:21:33 The Megalodon diet
01:21:34 consisted of larger species of fish,
01:21:36 dolphins, and even other species of sharks.
01:21:38 Ancient fossilized whale bones
01:21:40 with cut marks of Megalodon teeth
01:21:42 have been discovered.
01:21:44 It means Megalodons weren't intimidated
01:21:46 by the size and tried to feast
01:21:48 on the giant whales of the past.
01:21:50 Scientists have used computer simulations
01:21:52 to try and work out the hunting style
01:21:54 of the ancient shark.
01:21:56 Using this technology,
01:21:58 scientists have discovered
01:22:00 that the Megalodon's attack style
01:22:02 was different from that of modern day sharks.
01:22:03 Modern sharks dive straight
01:22:05 for their prey's most vulnerable spot,
01:22:07 for example,
01:22:09 the soft underbelly of a seal.
01:22:11 The Megalodon's teeth were uniquely suited
01:22:13 to biting through tougher areas of cartilage.
01:22:15 So, evidence suggests
01:22:17 that a Megalodon would first
01:22:19 chew the tougher fins of their prey,
01:22:21 rendering them unable to swim away
01:22:23 before launching into their final attack.
01:22:25 The mouth of a Megalodon
01:22:27 was around 10 feet wide and 9 feet tall,
01:22:29 large enough for you
01:22:31 to swim into without touching any teeth.
01:22:32 However, we don't recommend that.
01:22:34 Their mouths were so large,
01:22:36 a Megalodon could swallow a small car
01:22:38 without even having to bite down on it.
01:22:40 Research teams from Australia
01:22:42 and the US collaborated
01:22:44 to work out the biting power
01:22:46 of the Megalodon using computer simulations.
01:22:48 The results were terrifying.
01:22:50 While the modern Great White Shark
01:22:52 has the biting power of 1.8 tons of force,
01:22:54 the Megalodon could easily
01:22:56 chomp down on its prey
01:22:58 with a biting power of 8.8 tons.
01:23:00 The bite of the Megalodon
01:23:01 would easily be able to cut through steel
01:23:03 and overpower any other predator in the ocean.
01:23:05 Scientists believe
01:23:07 that the Megalodon
01:23:09 has the most powerful bite
01:23:11 of any creature that has ever existed.
01:23:13 The Megalodon's bite
01:23:15 would easily overpower the T-Rex,
01:23:17 which has a biting force of 6 tons.
01:23:19 Mysteriously, no one knows
01:23:21 exactly when or how
01:23:23 the Megalodon went extinct.
01:23:25 However, several theories
01:23:27 are floating around
01:23:29 about how this could be the case.
01:23:30 The Megalodon had become extinct
01:23:32 by the end of the Pliocene,
01:23:34 which was a phase of global cooling
01:23:36 that spanned over 5 million years
01:23:38 and ended over 2.6 million years ago.
01:23:41 New evidence suggests
01:23:43 that the last Megalodon
01:23:45 lived at least 3.6 million years ago,
01:23:47 right in the middle of the Pliocene era.
01:23:49 Another theory claims
01:23:51 that these megasharks disappeared
01:23:53 because of the changing Earth temperatures
01:23:55 occurring during the Pliocene.
01:23:58 The tropical waters of the world's oceans
01:23:59 plummeted to colder temperatures.
01:24:01 Scientists believe
01:24:03 that this led to the extinction
01:24:05 of a third of all large marine animals,
01:24:07 meaning that the Megalodon's food source
01:24:09 took a massive hit.
01:24:11 Without much prey left to hunt,
01:24:13 the Megalodon inevitably went extinct.
01:24:15 Megalodon sharks would give birth
01:24:17 to their pups in waters close to the shore.
01:24:19 The shallow coastal waters
01:24:21 provided a perfect nursery
01:24:23 for the newborn sharks,
01:24:25 keeping them distant
01:24:27 from the sharks that lurked in the open waters.
01:24:28 As ice formed around the Earth's poles
01:24:30 and sea levels dropped,
01:24:32 these pupping grounds were destroyed.
01:24:34 The Megalodon pups would have had no choice
01:24:36 but to swim in the deep ocean waters,
01:24:38 making them more vulnerable
01:24:40 to dangerous predators.
01:24:42 A new theory suggests
01:24:44 that the explosion of a star,
01:24:46 called a supernova,
01:24:48 could be responsible
01:24:50 for the extinction of the Megalodon.
01:24:52 Around 2.6 million years ago,
01:24:54 a supernova over 150 light-years away from Earth
01:24:56 lifted up the prehistoric sky
01:24:57 and lingered there for months.
01:24:59 A few hundred years after the supernova had faded,
01:25:01 particles of cosmic energy
01:25:03 from the star explosion plummeted to Earth.
01:25:05 The energy particles
01:25:07 carried dangerous amounts of radiation.
01:25:09 Researchers believe that this radiation
01:25:11 could cause the mass extinction
01:25:13 of many marine animals,
01:25:15 including the Megalodon.
01:25:17 Radiation from the particles
01:25:19 extended hundreds of yards down into the ocean
01:25:21 and was more dangerous for bigger creatures
01:25:23 than for smaller ones.
01:25:25 The bigger the creature is,
01:25:26 the more radiation they would absorb.
01:25:28 The 60-foot-long Megalodon
01:25:30 was large enough
01:25:32 to absorb great amounts of radiation.
01:25:34 Some people believe that the Megalodon
01:25:36 is still alive today,
01:25:38 lurking at the depths of the ocean waters.
01:25:40 But it's unlikely to be true.
01:25:42 Megalodons are a warm-water species,
01:25:44 which means they would be unable
01:25:46 to survive in the cold waters
01:25:48 of the deep ocean.
01:25:50 Most of the Megalodon's potential prey
01:25:52 live in shallower waters,
01:25:54 so there would be very little
01:25:55 for the Megalodon to eat
01:25:57 at a deep sea level.
01:25:59 Simply put,
01:26:01 if there were an animal
01:26:03 as big as the Megalodon
01:26:05 still living today,
01:26:07 we would've spotted it by now.
01:26:09 Now prepare yourself
01:26:11 for some weird stuff.
01:26:13 We're going to dive into the fascinating world
01:26:15 of sea cucumbers,
01:26:17 the squishy detritivores
01:26:19 that are nature's very own recyclers.
01:26:21 These exotic marine creatures
01:26:23 are not only amazing,
01:26:24 but trust me,
01:26:26 they've got some unique talents
01:26:28 that are worth talking about.
01:26:30 Sea cucumbers are colorful little creatures
01:26:32 with a digestive tract
01:26:34 that's basically just a hole at either end.
01:26:36 Their bodies are fat and squishy,
01:26:38 covered in leathery skin,
01:26:40 and guess what?
01:26:42 They breathe through their butts!
01:26:44 These amazing creatures have found a way
01:26:46 to make the most out of every part of their body,
01:26:48 few as they are.
01:26:50 Now, you might be wondering
01:26:52 what's the secret to their unique set of skills?
01:26:53 Well, they play a crucial role
01:26:55 in cleaning our planet's waters.
01:26:57 They munch on all the debris
01:26:59 found on the seabed
01:27:01 and break it down internally,
01:27:03 removing all the bad stuff in the process.
01:27:05 It's like having little vacuums
01:27:07 cleaning up the ocean floor.
01:27:09 Believe it or not,
01:27:11 sea cucumbers are in high demand
01:27:13 in the kitchen too.
01:27:15 They're harvested and traded in many countries.
01:27:17 The Asian market, in particular,
01:27:19 absolutely loves them.
01:27:21 You can find them being sold
01:27:22 cooked and dried
01:27:24 under all sorts of fancy names.
01:27:26 Or, if you prefer a more direct approach,
01:27:28 you can just call them sea slugs.
01:27:30 Now, here's the fun part.
01:27:32 A dried sea cucumber
01:27:34 can cost you up to a whopping
01:27:36 $1,400 per pound!
01:27:39 These squishy delicacies
01:27:41 are truly worth their weight.
01:27:43 But let's take a step back in time.
01:27:46 The tradition of eating sea cucumbers
01:27:48 goes way back,
01:27:50 more than a thousand years in Asia
01:27:51 to be precise.
01:27:53 And as demand for these curious creatures grew,
01:27:55 so did the need to find them elsewhere.
01:27:58 This led to over-exploitation
01:28:00 of local fisheries,
01:28:02 causing sea cucumber stocks
01:28:04 to diminish in many countries.
01:28:06 Uh-oh, not good for our little
01:28:08 sea cucumber friends!
01:28:10 One of the most interesting examples
01:28:12 of sea cucumbers
01:28:14 is the pink see-through fantasia.
01:28:16 Not only does it look amazing,
01:28:19 but it's also a great defense system,
01:28:20 where it uses bioluminescence
01:28:22 to scare off predators.
01:28:24 Thankfully, some brilliant researchers
01:28:26 around the world
01:28:28 have decided to act.
01:28:30 They're on a mission to breed sea cucumbers
01:28:32 and replenish the depleted fisheries.
01:28:34 They're also exploring
01:28:36 how these creatures can be
01:28:38 a reasonable food resource
01:28:40 and help reduce the damage
01:28:42 done by fish farming.
01:28:44 In Scotland, for instance,
01:28:46 where a team of enthusiastic students
01:28:48 is working for this particular purpose,
01:28:49 their goal?
01:28:51 To figure out how sea cucumbers
01:28:53 can absorb as much of the bad stuff
01:28:55 they can in the water.
01:28:57 They might just be the aquatic superheroes
01:28:59 we've been waiting for.
01:29:01 Meanwhile, in Sweden,
01:29:03 marine biologists are working hard
01:29:05 to restore the population
01:29:07 of red signal sea cucumbers.
01:29:09 These poor creatures have been
01:29:11 fished out of local waters,
01:29:13 but specialists are determined
01:29:15 to give them a fighting chance.
01:29:17 How sea cucumbers can fit
01:29:18 into seafood cultivation.
01:29:20 Their lab is like a sea cucumber daycare,
01:29:22 carefully nurturing
01:29:24 the next generation
01:29:26 of these wiggly wonders.
01:29:28 And let's not forget about Canada.
01:29:30 Research scientists are focusing
01:29:32 on the giant red sea cucumber.
01:29:34 These magnificent creatures
01:29:36 can grow up to 20 inches long
01:29:38 and are perfect for co-cultivation
01:29:40 with other species.
01:29:42 They're even developing
01:29:44 special containment systems
01:29:46 that make it easier to keep
01:29:47 sea cucumbers where they're needed
01:29:49 the most.
01:29:51 Okay, speaking of amazing sea creatures,
01:29:53 what about a fish that can fly?
01:29:55 Heard that right,
01:29:57 we're about to stumble upon a land
01:29:59 where fins meet fly.
01:30:01 And the ocean becomes a runway
01:30:03 for these airborne acrobats.
01:30:05 Prepare to be fin-tastically entertained.
01:30:07 Nah, I didn't write that one.
01:30:09 So picture this,
01:30:11 you're lounging by the warm ocean waters,
01:30:13 minding your own business,
01:30:15 when suddenly,
01:30:16 you see a fish soaring through the air
01:30:18 like a torpedo.
01:30:20 That's right, they are real,
01:30:22 and they got some serious style.
01:30:24 With their sleek bodies
01:30:26 and pectoral fins that resemble wings,
01:30:28 they're the high flyers of the sea.
01:30:30 Now, you might be wondering,
01:30:32 why would a fish take to the skies?
01:30:34 Well, it turns out,
01:30:36 these magnificent creatures
01:30:38 have developed this nifty gliding ability
01:30:40 as a sneaky trick to escape
01:30:42 from their underwater foes.
01:30:44 Those guys are all on the lookout
01:30:45 for a tasty flying fish snack.
01:30:47 When it comes to their diet,
01:30:49 these avian fishes are quite the foodies.
01:30:52 They chow down on a variety of treats,
01:30:54 including the ever-popular plankton.
01:30:56 Mmm-mmm.
01:30:58 Who knew tiny floating organisms
01:31:00 could be so delicious?
01:31:02 Now let's take a closer look
01:31:04 at the flying fish family album.
01:31:06 We've got a whopping 40 known species
01:31:08 strutting their stuff in the sky.
01:31:10 And here's a fun fact,
01:31:13 all of them have tails
01:31:14 that are forked in an uneven manner,
01:31:16 with the lower lobe
01:31:18 being longer than the upper one.
01:31:20 It's like the fishy version
01:31:22 of a funky hairstyle.
01:31:24 And there's more.
01:31:26 Some of these weird flyers
01:31:28 even have super-sized pelvic fins,
01:31:30 giving them the appearance
01:31:32 of having four wings.
01:31:34 Can you imagine the envy
01:31:36 in the fish community
01:31:38 when they see these trendsetters gliding by?
01:31:40 Ok, now let's get to the nifty.
01:31:42 Now let's get to the nitty-gritty
01:31:43 of their airborne adventures.
01:31:45 The flying fish take-off
01:31:47 is a sight to behold.
01:31:49 First, they gather some serious speed underwater,
01:31:51 reaching a zippy 37 mph.
01:31:54 That's faster than some highway speed limits.
01:31:57 Then, like a rocket ready for blast-off,
01:31:59 they angle themselves upward
01:32:01 and break the ocean's surface,
01:32:03 ready to take flight.
01:32:05 But they don't stop there.
01:32:07 These thrill-seekers can reach heights
01:32:09 of over 4 feet in the air.
01:32:11 Can you imagine the view from up there?
01:32:13 They glide through the sky
01:32:15 covering long distances.
01:32:17 It's like the fishy equivalent
01:32:19 of a marathon.
01:32:21 And here's the best part.
01:32:23 When they approach the water again,
01:32:25 they can flap their tails
01:32:27 and continue their flight
01:32:29 without fully returning to the depths.
01:32:31 These fishy flyers
01:32:33 are also all about the nightlife.
01:32:35 Just like party-goers
01:32:37 flock to a glittering disco ball,
01:32:40 crafty fishermen take advantage of this
01:32:41 by setting up canoes
01:32:43 with just the right amount of water
01:32:45 to keep the fish comfy
01:32:47 but prevent them from escaping.
01:32:49 Then they add a luring light to the scene,
01:32:51 and, before you know it,
01:32:53 flying fish are caught left and right,
01:32:55 supplying a bountiful catch
01:32:57 for those lucky fishermen.
01:32:59 Don't worry, though.
01:33:01 These flying fish aren't on
01:33:03 the endangered species list.
01:33:05 Not yet, at least.
01:33:07 The next time you find yourself by the ocean,
01:33:09 keep an eye out for these marvelous creatures.
01:33:10 You'll never know
01:33:12 when you'll see a flying fish extravaganza.
01:33:14 Our next adventure takes us
01:33:17 into the quirky world of underwater romance.
01:33:20 Picture this.
01:33:22 A scene that looks like someone
01:33:24 doing the tango with their lunch.
01:33:26 Wait, what?
01:33:28 No, it's not a throwing-up contest, I promise.
01:33:30 We're diving head-first
01:33:32 into the jaw-dropping (pun intended)
01:33:34 mating ritual of the jawfish.
01:33:38 These curious creatures call
01:33:39 the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea
01:33:41 and the western Atlantic home.
01:33:43 And boy, do they know
01:33:45 how to make a spectacle of themselves.
01:33:47 Forget about pickup lines
01:33:49 or fancy gestures.
01:33:51 These jawfish rely on their unique
01:33:53 jaw-based moves
01:33:55 to pursue their potential partners.
01:33:57 It's like a dance-off,
01:33:59 but with their mouths.
01:34:01 Not only are these fishy fellas
01:34:03 skilled in the art of sand-scooping,
01:34:05 but they also double as diligent parents.
01:34:07 Talk about alliteration.
01:34:08 I mean, talk about multitasking.
01:34:10 The males take their parental duties
01:34:12 to the next level
01:34:14 by carrying the precious eggs
01:34:16 in their giant mouths
01:34:18 until they're ready to hatch.
01:34:20 It's like they have their own
01:34:22 aquatic daycare center going on.
01:34:24 When they're not busy
01:34:26 nurturing their offspring,
01:34:28 these jawfish transform their mouths
01:34:30 into fighting tools.
01:34:32 That's right, it's time for
01:34:34 the Jawfish Fighting Championship.
01:34:36 They're up ahead,
01:34:37 or rather, mouth-to-mouth,
01:34:39 in epic battles of mouth strength
01:34:41 and agility.
01:34:43 You know the old saying,
01:34:45 "Put your money where your mouth is"?
01:34:47 Well, these jawfish
01:34:49 take it to a whole new level.
01:34:51 Whether it's for romance,
01:34:53 parroting, or friendly competition,
01:34:55 these jawfish show us
01:34:57 that sometimes actions do
01:34:59 really speak louder than words.
01:35:01 They may look like they're having
01:35:03 a bad seafood experience,
01:35:05 but they're capable of finding love
01:35:06 and expressing themselves.
01:35:08 There are plenty of fish in the sea.
01:35:11 Some of them look totally like Nemo or Dory.
01:35:14 Then there's the butterflyfish
01:35:16 and fancy guppy,
01:35:18 which is indeed really fancy.
01:35:20 And then there's...
01:35:22 What on earth is that?
01:35:24 I would definitely not pay
01:35:26 for a diving experience to see this guy.
01:35:28 The anglerfish has the unofficial title
01:35:30 of the ugliest animal in the world.
01:35:34 But I wouldn't dare to break
01:35:35 that news to it.
01:35:37 There are more than 200 species
01:35:40 of anglerfish currently swimming
01:35:42 somewhere in the gloomy depths
01:35:44 of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans,
01:35:46 up to a mile below the surface.
01:35:48 Some of them prefer
01:35:50 different living conditions,
01:35:52 the shallow tropical environments.
01:35:54 Different kinds of anglerfish
01:35:56 vary in shape and size,
01:35:58 from the famous black sea devil
01:36:00 to frogfish, monkfish,
01:36:03 goldfish, goosefish,
01:36:04 batfish and sea toad.
01:36:06 The larger ones can be
01:36:08 half as long as a full-sized bed,
01:36:10 but most are less than a foot long.
01:36:12 Since the choice of meals
01:36:15 where these guys live isn't that huge,
01:36:17 they had to come up
01:36:19 with a unique hunting strategy.
01:36:21 They don't waste their priceless life energy
01:36:23 on following prospective prey.
01:36:25 Instead, they use a piece of dorsal spine
01:36:28 that sticks above their mouths
01:36:30 like a fishing pole.
01:36:32 Hence the name of the fish.
01:36:33 There's a sack of bioluminescent bacteria
01:36:36 that glows brightly in the dark
01:36:38 at the end of that rod.
01:36:40 The light lures prey,
01:36:42 and all the anglerfish has to do is wait,
01:36:44 and then enjoy its lunch
01:36:46 delivered right to its mouth.
01:36:48 Their bodies are pliable and huge,
01:36:50 so they can easily swallow prey
01:36:52 twice their size.
01:36:54 Deep sea anglerfish
01:36:56 eat whatever they can find.
01:36:58 Species that live in more shallow water
01:37:01 and can eat anything from shrimp
01:37:02 to snails and small fish.
01:37:04 Only female anglerfish
01:37:06 have the cool fishing rod feature though.
01:37:08 So what about their males?
01:37:10 Finding a soulmate deep under the sea
01:37:14 isn't that easy.
01:37:16 I mean, literally,
01:37:18 there's no light down there.
01:37:20 Plus, there are frigid temperatures
01:37:22 and low oxygen levels.
01:37:24 Anglerfish can't afford to go on many dates
01:37:26 in those conditions,
01:37:28 so they mate for life.
01:37:30 And if you feel awe about it,
01:37:31 I have to tell you,
01:37:33 they do it in quite a special way.
01:37:35 Male anglerfish
01:37:37 are much smaller than their ladies.
01:37:39 The contrast is so striking
01:37:41 that when researchers first got interested
01:37:43 in their love life,
01:37:45 they thought those males were actually
01:37:47 the offspring, or larvae,
01:37:49 hanging out next to their moms.
01:37:51 Certain anglerfish male species
01:37:53 have receptors that alert them
01:37:55 that there's a female nearby.
01:37:57 After they mate,
01:37:59 the male feeds him to his woman
01:38:00 and stays attached to her head, belly,
01:38:02 near her tail,
01:38:04 and other areas he can access.
01:38:06 While they morph together forever,
01:38:08 the female fish gets the male's cells,
01:38:10 DNA, and reproductive organs,
01:38:12 but loses her immune response cells.
01:38:15 The male gets free permanent housing
01:38:17 and nutrition.
01:38:19 Given the current real estate prices,
01:38:21 it sounds like a dream.
01:38:23 But that accommodation is shared
01:38:25 by up to eight males,
01:38:28 and it's rare that they ever feel like it.
01:38:29 You're unlikely to meet
01:38:31 this deep-sea fish in real life,
01:38:33 but if you meet an anglerfish
01:38:35 in your favorite video game,
01:38:37 remember that you can easily
01:38:39 out-swim it and make it kinder to you
01:38:41 with tranquilizing arrows.
01:38:43 Once you befriend it,
01:38:45 the anglerfish can be your scout
01:38:47 and help you discover new areas
01:38:49 with its bioluminescent pods.
01:38:51 Back in the real world,
01:38:53 down in the twilight zone of the ocean,
01:38:56 about 650 to 3,300 feet down,
01:38:58 the anglerfish isn't the only creature
01:39:00 you're lucky you'll probably never meet.
01:39:03 Many of the locals look like
01:39:05 they come straight out of science fiction
01:39:07 or horror movies,
01:39:09 but that's because they had to adapt
01:39:11 to this dark, deep world.
01:39:13 I did my best to get you prepared
01:39:15 for the creatures you're going to meet,
01:39:17 starting with the common fangtooth.
01:39:20 They spend most of their lives deep down,
01:39:23 but at night,
01:39:25 they move toward the surface to snack.
01:39:26 These guys are more active
01:39:28 than most other deep-sea dwellers.
01:39:30 They don't wait for food to come their way,
01:39:32 but actually follow it,
01:39:34 and then get it with their long, hungry teeth.
01:39:37 They don't have a built-in light bulb
01:39:39 like the anglerfish,
01:39:41 so they've developed a great sense of smell
01:39:43 and use as much sunlight as they can get there
01:39:45 in the depth to get around.
01:39:47 Sometimes, even the shadow
01:39:49 of a passing by prospective prey
01:39:51 is enough for them to switch
01:39:54 to action mode.
01:39:55 And though they don't look too charming,
01:39:57 they're completely harmless to humans
01:39:59 if you ever run into one of these guys.
01:40:01 Stoplight Loosejaw
01:40:05 sounds like a great name
01:40:07 for an alternative band,
01:40:09 but it's actually another deep-sea resident
01:40:11 with sneaky hunting habits.
01:40:13 It has special light-producing
01:40:15 photophores under each eye.
01:40:17 They emit green and red light
01:40:19 like a stoplight,
01:40:21 hence the name of the fish.
01:40:23 Unlike other fish,
01:40:24 these guys hardly ever leave
01:40:26 the twilight and midnight zones.
01:40:28 Their lower jaw is a quarter
01:40:30 of the total body length,
01:40:32 and the stoplight keeps it open all the time,
01:40:34 hoping to get some lunch.
01:40:36 It looks like a ferocious predator,
01:40:38 but mostly prefers zooplankton
01:40:40 with an occasional dessert
01:40:42 of shrimp, krill, and fish.
01:40:44 I'm sure you didn't expect
01:40:46 to meet a hybrid of an eel
01:40:48 and a bird,
01:40:50 but here it is,
01:40:52 the slender snipe eel has a beak,
01:40:53 much like that of a bird
01:40:55 with curving tips.
01:40:57 The beak is equipped
01:40:59 with tiny hooked teeth
01:41:01 that the eels use
01:41:03 to catch the antennae
01:41:05 of delicious shrimp.
01:41:07 And it sure is slender,
01:41:09 stretching up to 5 feet
01:41:11 and weighing only a few ounces.
01:41:13 Scientists don't know
01:41:15 all of this guy's secrets,
01:41:17 since it's pretty tricky
01:41:19 to study in their natural habitat,
01:41:21 so I'll pass this away.
01:41:22 Glass squids like to take it easy in life
01:41:25 and literally go with the flow.
01:41:27 They're filled with a solution
01:41:29 which is lighter than water,
01:41:31 so they don't have to make any effort
01:41:33 to move around the deep sea
01:41:35 looking for food and partners.
01:41:37 These creatures are transparent,
01:41:39 so they blend into any landscape
01:41:41 and don't even cast a shadow while moving.
01:41:43 Talk about a great survival tactic.
01:41:45 If danger finds it anyway,
01:41:47 it can transform into a lumpy ball,
01:41:50 pushing its head and tentacles
01:41:51 into its mantle cavity.
01:41:53 It can also release ink into the mantle
01:41:55 and go from transparent to black.
01:41:58 The same ink can protect it
01:42:00 against hungry whales and seabirds.
01:42:02 Another tactic they use
01:42:04 to scare off predators
01:42:06 is to activate their light-emitting organs
01:42:08 around their eyes.
01:42:10 Hmm, I'm getting hungry.
01:42:12 Maybe I can snack on this sea cucumber.
01:42:15 Ouch! It's moving!
01:42:17 So I guess it doesn't matter
01:42:19 if it's a sea cucumber or a sea cucumber.
01:42:20 So I guess it doesn't belong in a salad after all.
01:42:22 These soft-bodied fellows
01:42:24 live in all parts of the ocean,
01:42:26 from shallow waters
01:42:28 to the deep underwater world.
01:42:30 Most of them slowly move around
01:42:32 with their tiny feet,
01:42:34 but some crawl around by flexing their bodies.
01:42:36 Sea cucumbers can shed their internal organs
01:42:38 when there's a predator approaching.
01:42:40 Those sticky organs distract the intruder,
01:42:42 and the happy cucumber moves on
01:42:44 and just throws the organs back.
01:42:48 What's that glistening in the distance?
01:42:49 Looks like someone dropped
01:42:51 gems in the water.
01:42:53 That's a sea sapphire,
01:42:55 also known as
01:42:57 the most beautiful animal you've ever seen.
01:42:59 Some males of this type of copepod
01:43:01 can change color from deep blue
01:43:03 to purple, red, or gold.
01:43:05 One second later, it's gone.
01:43:07 And it's back, shimmering bright.
01:43:09 The secret to this magic
01:43:11 is that their bodies are transparent
01:43:13 and reflect light differently
01:43:15 at certain angles.
01:43:17 It looks like it's their way
01:43:18 of communicating between each other
01:43:20 and attracting mates.
01:43:22 Female sea sapphires
01:43:24 don't have the same superpower,
01:43:26 but their eyes are bigger compared to males,
01:43:28 probably to spot them from a distance.
01:43:30 Males roam wild and free,
01:43:32 and their ladies stay in the crystal palaces
01:43:34 of strange barrel-shaped jellies
01:43:36 called salas.
01:43:38 The giant shark that terrorized the oceans
01:43:40 some 20 million years ago.
01:43:42 For 13 million years,
01:43:44 this 16-foot-tall creature
01:43:46 dominated the warm waters of our planet.
01:43:47 Though, some believe that the Meg
01:43:49 still lives in the most remote
01:43:51 and deepest parts of the ocean.
01:43:53 It's a hot summer day.
01:43:55 It seems only logical
01:43:57 to go for a swim in the sea.
01:43:59 You're floating on your back,
01:44:01 completely relaxed.
01:44:03 Your eyes are closed.
01:44:05 Your breath is even.
01:44:07 Water's pleasantly cool around your body.
01:44:09 A light breeze touches your face.
01:44:11 You feel calm enough to doze off.
01:44:13 Suddenly,
01:44:15 something bumps into your leg.
01:44:16 Yanked out of your half slumber,
01:44:18 you begin to flail
01:44:20 until you're face-to-face
01:44:22 with the invisible danger.
01:44:24 Luckily, all you spot is a couple
01:44:26 of easily recognizable fins
01:44:28 and cute smiley snouts.
01:44:30 Phew, just dolphins.
01:44:32 Guess you're lucky to meet them in the wild.
01:44:34 These amazing creatures are so close,
01:44:36 you can touch them.
01:44:38 You've heard people say
01:44:40 dolphins' skin feels rubbery,
01:44:42 but to your mind,
01:44:44 it's obvious to you
01:44:45 that its salty smell fills your nostrils.
01:44:47 You know, though,
01:44:49 that dolphins don't have sweat glands.
01:44:51 It means they don't sweat
01:44:53 and are pretty much odorless.
01:44:55 The smell you sense
01:44:57 comes from the water they swim in.
01:44:59 The largest and most ferocious predator
01:45:01 to ever haunt the oceans,
01:45:03 the Megalodon shark
01:45:05 dominated the seas for centuries
01:45:07 before coming extinct
01:45:09 millions of years ago.
01:45:11 However, scientists managed
01:45:13 to find a new species
01:45:14 that's been around for decades.
01:45:16 We've learned thanks to fossils
01:45:18 of its giant teeth,
01:45:20 which are just about the size
01:45:22 of the average human hand.
01:45:24 A Megalodon skeleton
01:45:26 has never been discovered.
01:45:28 Shark skeletons are made
01:45:30 mostly of cartilage,
01:45:32 meaning that they decompose quickly.
01:45:34 Luckily, sharks continuously shed
01:45:36 and regrow teeth
01:45:38 throughout their lives.
01:45:40 One shark can go through
01:45:42 a million teeth.
01:45:43 The Megalodon shark
01:45:45 had around 276 teeth.
01:45:47 When they fell out,
01:45:49 those teeth landed in the seabed
01:45:51 where they stayed for millions of years,
01:45:53 fossilizing.
01:45:55 Scientists found those teeth,
01:45:57 and they're the only real record
01:45:59 we have of the Megalodon's existence.
01:46:01 Megalodon teeth have been discovered
01:46:03 all over the world.
01:46:05 It means that unlike other marine animals
01:46:07 of its time,
01:46:09 the Megalodon was intercontinental.
01:46:11 While other marine animals
01:46:12 tend to stick to one sea or ocean,
01:46:14 the Megalodon shark
01:46:16 swam freely around the world,
01:46:18 moving between tropical
01:46:20 and subtropical waters.
01:46:22 Megalodon teeth have been found
01:46:24 in every continent
01:46:26 apart from the freezing cold waters
01:46:28 of Antarctica.
01:46:30 When a Megalodon makes a starring appearance
01:46:32 in a movie or TV show,
01:46:34 it's portrayed to look like
01:46:36 a giant version of a great white shark.
01:46:38 Scientists previously believed
01:46:40 that the Megalodon was a common ancestor.
01:46:41 Still, it's not true.
01:46:43 In fact, it's more likely
01:46:45 that the Megalodon was the arch enemy
01:46:47 of the great white shark's ancestor,
01:46:49 the broad-toothed mako shark.
01:46:51 That means Megalodon
01:46:53 wouldn't have looked so similar
01:46:55 to the great white after all.
01:46:57 In reality, the Megalodon
01:46:59 would have a shorter nose
01:47:01 than the great white,
01:47:03 along with longer pectoral fins
01:47:05 to give the giant shark
01:47:07 a stockier and more threatening build.
01:47:09 So even in prehistoric times,
01:47:10 it wasn't a good idea
01:47:12 to go swimming with a chunk
01:47:14 of raw meat in hand.
01:47:16 And it certainly isn't safe now.
01:47:18 Whether the Meg's hiding somewhere
01:47:20 in the depths,
01:47:22 which some still believe is true,
01:47:24 or it's gone forever,
01:47:26 younger cousins will still be there waiting.
01:47:28 Also, both of them like to go
01:47:30 after big marine mammals,
01:47:32 so they would certainly
01:47:34 have things to do together.
01:47:36 That is, until the Meg got moody
01:47:38 and went off on a different hunting style.
01:47:39 Great whites prefer to dive
01:47:41 straight towards their prey
01:47:43 and find its softest spot,
01:47:45 like exposed legs or underbelly.
01:47:47 Sometimes an entire tooth
01:47:49 would be found embedded in a bone
01:47:51 of some bigger animal,
01:47:53 such as a whale.
01:47:55 Without the main parts
01:47:57 they use for swimming,
01:47:59 poor sea animals were then helpless
01:48:01 and unable to escape.
01:48:03 Yet whales were just a smaller part
01:48:05 of Megalodon's diet.
01:48:07 The Meg probably wouldn't say no
01:48:08 to some random school of smaller fish
01:48:10 swimming into its mouth either.
01:48:12 Nothing better than a good snack
01:48:14 after a big tasty dinner.
01:48:16 Even those giant turtles
01:48:18 weren't safe with their thick shells.
01:48:20 The Meg probably took them
01:48:22 as a dare challenge on a daily basis.
01:48:24 Scientists have used computer simulations
01:48:26 to try and work out the hunting style
01:48:28 of the ancient shark.
01:48:30 Using this technology,
01:48:32 scientists have discovered
01:48:34 that the Megalodon's attack style
01:48:36 was similar to that of modern sharks.
01:48:37 Modern sharks dive straight
01:48:39 for their prey's most vulnerable spot,
01:48:41 for example,
01:48:43 the soft underbelly of a seal.
01:48:45 The Megalodon's teeth
01:48:47 were uniquely suited
01:48:49 to biting through tougher areas
01:48:51 of cartilage.
01:48:53 So, evidence suggests
01:48:55 that a Megalodon would first
01:48:57 chew the tougher fins of their prey,
01:48:59 rendering them unable to swim away
01:49:01 before launching into their final attack.
01:49:03 Some people believe
01:49:05 that this is unlikely to be true.
01:49:06 Megalodons are a warm water species,
01:49:08 which means they would be unable
01:49:10 to survive in the cold waters
01:49:12 of the deep ocean.
01:49:14 Most of the Megalodon's potential prey
01:49:16 live in shallower waters,
01:49:18 meaning there would be very little
01:49:20 for the Megalodon to eat
01:49:22 at deep sea level.
01:49:24 Simply put,
01:49:26 if there was an animal
01:49:28 as big as the Megalodon
01:49:30 still living today,
01:49:32 we would have spotted it by now.
01:49:34 Deep ocean living
01:49:35 would be too cold for the beasts
01:49:37 and food would be scarce.
01:49:39 Their entire bodies
01:49:41 would also have to evolve
01:49:43 to avoid being squished
01:49:45 by the enormous water pressure down there.
01:49:47 It's unlikely they're still around,
01:49:49 but not impossible.
01:49:51 Some good news
01:49:53 if you do run into one
01:49:55 is that the shark
01:49:57 is pretty unlikely to eat you.
01:49:59 You are way too small
01:50:01 a meal for the Megalodon,
01:50:03 but that's a different story.
01:50:04 In a beach full of swimmers,
01:50:06 the shark very well might creep up,
01:50:08 scooping several humans
01:50:10 into its giant mouth
01:50:12 without even chewing.
01:50:14 The fearsome name Megalodon
01:50:16 comes from two Greek words,
01:50:18 megas meaning big
01:50:20 and odont meaning tooth.
01:50:22 Combined, they mean big tooth
01:50:24 and it certainly lives up to its name.
01:50:26 Just one of its chompers
01:50:28 is the same size as a human head.
01:50:30 It had 276 humongous teeth in total
01:50:32 across five terrifying rows.
01:50:33 In all of history,
01:50:35 only a couple of saber-toothed cats
01:50:37 and the T-Rex
01:50:39 had consistently bigger teeth.
01:50:41 Now that's a showdown I'd like to watch.
01:50:43 The Megalodon vanished millions of years ago,
01:50:45 leaving only huge teeth
01:50:47 to be found by modern archaeologists.
01:50:49 They literally disappeared
01:50:51 with very few traces left.
01:50:53 Scientists believe that over time,
01:50:55 deep sea levels dropped
01:50:57 and the ocean's temperature went down rapidly.
01:50:59 Over a third of all marine life
01:51:01 was wiped out as the oceans cooled
01:51:02 and the number of animals
01:51:04 at the bottom of the food chain plummeted.
01:51:06 This had a catastrophic effect
01:51:08 on the hungry predators at the top.
01:51:10 Sorry guys.
01:51:12 It became way too cold
01:51:14 for these sun-loving sharks too,
01:51:16 which made it difficult for them to reproduce
01:51:18 since they gave birth in warm waters.
01:51:20 The Megalodon is usually described
01:51:22 as a sort of great white shark,
01:51:24 but this is just a common myth.
01:51:26 In fact, the ancestors of today's great white
01:51:28 existed at the same time as the Meg.
01:51:30 But they weren't best buddies
01:51:31 and were even in competition with each other.
01:51:33 The great white shark was a better hunter
01:51:35 using its smaller size and agility
01:51:37 to snap up the Meg's prey quickly.
01:51:39 They were also known to eat Meg pups,
01:51:41 who were only half their size.
01:51:43 This didn't exactly help
01:51:45 the whole extinction thing.
01:51:47 While a great white was no match
01:51:49 for an adult Meg in a head-to-head fight,
01:51:51 they sure weren't scared of stealing their food.
01:51:53 This only left the bigger fish
01:51:55 and whales for the Meg,
01:51:57 but its food supply was limited
01:51:59 and began to run out
01:52:00 as whales swam to the cooler new seas.
01:52:02 The whales adapted to prefer the colder temperatures,
01:52:04 leaving our friend the Meg behind.
01:52:06 The Megalodons either starved
01:52:08 or were frozen into extinction by the Ice Age.
01:52:11 Rather than a great white,
01:52:13 the Megalodon is more like a modern bull shark.
01:52:15 It had a short snout,
01:52:17 a flat lower jaw,
01:52:19 and huge pectoral fins
01:52:21 to support its massive weight and size.
01:52:23 As scary as they are,
01:52:25 these sharks were actually carried
01:52:28 by family guys.
01:52:29 Several Megalodon nursery areas
01:52:31 have been discovered in Florida,
01:52:33 Maryland, and Panama.
01:52:35 They gave birth to their young
01:52:37 in shallow water environments.
01:52:39 We know this from discovering loads
01:52:41 of tiny Megalodon teeth found in these areas.
01:52:43 I wonder if they had nannies too.
01:52:45 Wanna high-five a sea creature?
01:52:48 Well, put your flipper,
01:52:50 I mean hand up,
01:52:52 for the Tasmanian Red Handfish.
01:52:54 This fish doesn't swim like a fish.
01:52:57 It uses its flipper-like hands
01:52:58 to stroll around on the ocean floor.
01:53:00 These bottom walkers
01:53:02 are disturbed by swimmers and boats a lot.
01:53:04 Some people even want to take them home as pets.
01:53:07 I think it's better to just give them a wave
01:53:09 and swim on by.
01:53:11 The Vampire Squid
01:53:13 Its species name is Vampyrotuthis infernalis,
01:53:17 which translates to
01:53:19 "vampire squid from hell."
01:53:21 Oh yes, this vampire squid
01:53:23 means to terrify everyone with its name.
01:53:26 Its dark red color,
01:53:27 its spikes at the bottom,
01:53:29 and the scary fact
01:53:31 that it can basically turn itself inside out.
01:53:33 The vampire squid loves putting on a good show,
01:53:36 but it's as harmless as a kitten is to humans.
01:53:39 It's as if Dracula scared the pants off you,
01:53:42 but he didn't have blood-sucking fangs.
01:53:44 The vampire squid feeds on food particles
01:53:47 from plants and animal matter
01:53:49 floating near the ocean's surface.
01:53:51 Since they're not predators,
01:53:53 they need good defensive strategies,
01:53:55 and their vampiric look
01:53:56 is designed to ward off large creatures
01:53:58 who want to eat them.
01:54:00 Turning themselves inside out
01:54:02 is a defensive mechanism
01:54:04 since the spiky areas in the inner skin
01:54:06 are more intimidating.
01:54:08 They also shoot out a substance
01:54:10 that does not have color,
01:54:12 but is packed with bioluminescent particles
01:54:14 to distract predators.
01:54:16 The Vaquita
01:54:18 Going out on a boat off the coast of Mexico
01:54:20 sounds like the perfect vacation.
01:54:22 The sun, the blue water,
01:54:24 the most endangered sea creature
01:54:25 Wait, what?
01:54:27 The Vaquita isn't dangerous,
01:54:29 but don't expect it to stick around to say hello
01:54:31 or sign any autographs.
01:54:33 It's incredibly shy.
01:54:35 This little cow,
01:54:37 that's what it means in Spanish,
01:54:39 is one tiny sea mammal.
01:54:41 With those black markings around its eyes,
01:54:43 it looks more like a sea panda to me.
01:54:45 Seeing one should make you feel very special.
01:54:47 They're on the brink of extinction,
01:54:49 mostly because they get caught by accident
01:54:51 in fishing nets.
01:54:53 It's a shame that there's only 10 left in the wild.
01:54:54 The Blue Dragon
01:54:56 This little creature looks like something
01:54:58 out of a kid's fantasy movie.
01:55:00 It's called the Blue Glaucus,
01:55:02 casually referred to as the Blue Dragon
01:55:04 or Blue Angel.
01:55:06 It can be found in many places,
01:55:08 the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
01:55:10 It's kind of a mollusk
01:55:12 and it only grows to be about an inch long.
01:55:14 What you think is the back
01:55:16 is actually the mollusk's bright underbelly.
01:55:18 It regularly floats on its back
01:55:20 so that its blue eyes
01:55:22 help it camouflage with the water's waves.
01:55:23 The Blue Dragon isn't just pretty,
01:55:25 it's also smart.
01:55:27 It usually feasts on Portuguese Man O' Wars,
01:55:29 also known as Fisalia Fisalis.
01:55:32 The Blue Dragon stores their stinging cells
01:55:34 for later use,
01:55:36 in essence,
01:55:38 stealing their defensive mechanisms.
01:55:40 When the Blue Dragon is threatened,
01:55:42 it releases those stinging cells it's stored,
01:55:44 directing them at an enemy
01:55:46 to sting them with more power
01:55:48 than the Portuguese Man O' War
01:55:51 would have been capable of.
01:55:52 As they can store a huge amount of stinging cells,
01:55:54 they can be a threat to humans.
01:55:56 So, if you find one,
01:55:58 don't pick it up.
01:56:00 It's best to admire it from a distance.
01:56:02 The Barreleye Fish
01:56:04 If you ever wanted to have Superman's X-ray vision,
01:56:06 looking at the Barreleye Fish
01:56:08 will make you feel like you gained that superpower
01:56:10 at some point in your life
01:56:12 without even realizing it.
01:56:14 The Barreleye has a transparent head
01:56:16 so you can see how their eyes and brain look inside.
01:56:18 This magnificent creature
01:56:20 lives in the deep sea.
01:56:21 This is the lowest level of the ocean
01:56:23 where strange creatures roam
01:56:25 in near freezing temperatures
01:56:27 and constant darkness.
01:56:29 They're exposed to water's pressure
01:56:31 that's almost 1,000 times that of the surface.
01:56:34 If the idea of the deep sea
01:56:36 sends a shiver down your spine,
01:56:38 stay tuned to learn about another of its creatures later on.
01:56:41 The Barreleye Fish can be found in the Atlantic,
01:56:43 Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
01:56:45 You might be wondering,
01:56:47 why oh why would a fish
01:56:49 have a see-through head?
01:56:50 And that would be a fair question.
01:56:52 Since the species was discovered in 1939,
01:56:54 it was believed that the fish's eyes
01:56:56 were set to see straight ahead
01:56:58 and couldn't move.
01:57:00 So it was assumed that they had tunnel vision.
01:57:02 Scientists Bruce Robinson and Kim Riesenbichler
01:57:05 from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
01:57:08 recently discovered that the fish
01:57:10 can move its eyes vertically
01:57:12 to see through the top of its translucent head,
01:57:14 thus noticing if there are predators
01:57:16 or prey nearby.
01:57:18 The transparent head
01:57:19 also allows more light to enter
01:57:21 so they can detect prey better.
01:57:23 It's believed that the Barreleye Fish
01:57:25 eats jellyfish and small fish species.
01:57:28 If you dive in the ocean at night,
01:57:31 you might be lucky enough to see
01:57:33 how Orange Ball Corallimorph blooms in the dark.
01:57:36 But make sure to be quick because
01:57:38 as soon as you turn on your flashlight
01:57:40 to take a good look,
01:57:42 it will retract its tubes back into itself.
01:57:44 The Megalodon
01:57:47 isn't the biggest shark known to humans.
01:57:48 If the entire shark species were a kingdom,
01:57:50 the prehistoric Megalodon
01:57:52 would be the ruler of the sea.
01:57:54 Megalodon roamed the ocean a long time ago,
01:57:57 oh, about 15.9 to 2.6 million years back
01:58:00 between the early Miocene
01:58:02 and late Pliocene eras.
01:58:04 While they've long been extinct,
01:58:06 people are still amazed to learn
01:58:08 about these gigantic sea beasts.
01:58:10 Megalodon could reach anywhere between
01:58:12 45 feet to 60 feet in length
01:58:14 with jaws more than 6 feet wide.
01:58:16 A fossil of a tooth
01:58:17 that once belonged to a Megalodon
01:58:19 measured at 7 inches.
01:58:21 Needless to say,
01:58:23 I'm pretty stoked that these guys
01:58:25 have long been extinct.
01:58:27 But there's still some adventurers out there
01:58:29 hoping to meet this monster one day.
01:58:31 The Dumbo Octopus
01:58:33 This adorable creature
01:58:35 or creepy creature,
01:58:37 or however you want to see it,
01:58:39 is officially called Grimpoteuthis.
01:58:41 More casually,
01:58:43 it's referred to as the Dumbo Octopus
01:58:45 because of its creepy character.
01:58:46 Though Dumbo, the elephant,
01:58:48 not the octopus,
01:58:50 was teased for his big ears,
01:58:52 it's highly unlikely that this adorable octopus
01:58:54 gets teased by its water neighbors.
01:58:56 They are the deepest living octopuses
01:58:58 living in the deep sea.
01:59:00 And you know how scary that place is.
01:59:02 They're only about 8 inches tall
01:59:04 and spend their days hovering
01:59:06 just above the sea floor
01:59:08 eating snails, worms,
01:59:10 and other food they find in the current
01:59:12 or near ocean vents.
01:59:14 They're called Dumbo Octopus
01:59:15 and they all have differences
01:59:17 in height, color, and body parts.
01:59:19 If you can't get enough strange animals,
01:59:21 you'll be glad to learn that the deep sea
01:59:23 has barely been explored by humans.
01:59:25 So keep an eye out.
01:59:27 There are bound to be more fascinating animals
01:59:29 discovered in the deep in the future.
01:59:31 The Sea Angel
01:59:33 These creatures might look
01:59:35 and sound pretty cute,
01:59:37 but their diet is far from sunshine and lollipops.
01:59:39 Their favorite food are sea butterflies.
01:59:41 They lay mucus traps for them
01:59:43 and wait in ambush.
01:59:44 The Squat Anemone Shrimp
01:59:46 This shrimp is tiny,
01:59:48 only 0.5 inches.
01:59:50 It's also known as a dancer shrimp
01:59:52 because of its peculiar behavior.
01:59:54 When agitated,
01:59:56 it raises its bottom above its head
01:59:58 and does a little dance.
02:00:00 Divers also say it readily jumps on their hands
02:00:02 and cleans them.
02:00:04 The Coconut Crab
02:00:06 This guy may look pretty creepy,
02:00:08 especially when the sun goes down.
02:00:10 Mature coconut crabs
02:00:12 are around 3 feet in length.
02:00:13 Their preferred foods are coconuts,
02:00:15 but they can also hunt down lizards
02:00:17 and even large birds.
02:00:19 The Slender Snipe Eel
02:00:22 Slender Snipe Eel is a slim and long creature
02:00:24 that's still a mystery for marine scientists.
02:00:26 It's 4 feet long
02:00:28 and it has at least 750 bones in its spine,
02:00:30 which is much more
02:00:32 than any other animal in the world.
02:00:34 The Sea Pen
02:00:36 Sea Pen is 7 feet long
02:00:38 and it has a lot of veins.
02:00:41 And it has a lot of varieties,
02:00:42 but most of them look indeed like a pen or a quill.
02:00:45 The similarity is even more striking
02:00:47 when the animal has a water-filled bulb
02:00:49 that anchors it to the floor.
02:00:51 The Persian Carpet Flatworm
02:00:54 This creature looks indeed like a carpet,
02:00:56 despite being very small by comparison.
02:00:58 It's only 4 inches long,
02:01:00 able to become both male and female.
02:01:02 It doesn't really mate with other flatworms.
02:01:04 Rather, it fights them
02:01:06 for the right to bear posterity.
02:01:08 The Flamingo
02:01:10 The Flamingo Tongue Sea Snails
02:01:11 Tourists love these extraordinary snails
02:01:13 for their pretty colors.
02:01:15 Thinking it's a shell,
02:01:17 but in fact, the shell is quite dull
02:01:19 and hidden underneath colorful soft tissues.
02:01:21 They eat softer, toxic parts of corals
02:01:23 and store their toxins
02:01:25 to protect themselves.
02:01:27 Think you know what lurks
02:01:29 in the depths of the ocean?
02:01:31 While nearly 95% of our oceans
02:01:33 haven't been explored yet,
02:01:35 it's hard not to let your imagination run wild.
02:01:38 But thanks to brave explorers,
02:01:39 deep-sea cameras,
02:01:41 and awesome archaeologists,
02:01:43 we do know about some pretty incredible
02:01:45 sea creatures living in our waters today
02:01:47 and millions of years ago.
02:01:49 From the 9-foot Spider Crab
02:01:51 to the 60-foot Prehistoric Megalodon,
02:01:53 these sea dwellers
02:01:55 come in all shapes and sizes.
02:01:57 But let's focus on sea creatures
02:01:59 famous for their huge size.
02:02:01 Can you guess which living species
02:02:03 of whale is in the middle of the ocean?
02:02:06 Can you guess which living species
02:02:07 of whale is the largest?
02:02:09 Well, it's not the Orca,
02:02:11 but that's a good guess.
02:02:13 The Orca is a toothed whale
02:02:15 that can grow to anywhere
02:02:17 from 23 feet to 32 feet,
02:02:19 which is slightly smaller than a school bus.
02:02:21 How about the Narwhal?
02:02:23 Nope, they're not the biggest either.
02:02:25 These "unicorns of the sea"
02:02:27 live mainly in Arctic waters
02:02:29 and only grow 13 feet to 20 feet in length.
02:02:32 And that's including their 9-foot Tusk.
02:02:35 Tired of guessing?
02:02:36 Okay, I give in.
02:02:38 The largest whale that still exists today
02:02:40 is the Blue Whale.
02:02:42 At a jaw-dropping 82 feet to 105 feet,
02:02:45 the Blue Whale is not only
02:02:47 the biggest whale we know of,
02:02:49 but is currently the largest animal
02:02:51 to have ever lived on Earth.
02:02:53 Seriously!
02:02:55 These animals are bigger than a T-Rex
02:02:57 and even the Prehistoric Megalodon.
02:02:59 If you were to put a Blue Whale
02:03:01 next to a school bus,
02:03:04 you'd swallow it.
02:03:05 Think about that!
02:03:07 According to National Geographic,
02:03:09 a Blue Whale's tongue
02:03:11 can weigh the same as an elephant.
02:03:13 And their hearts can weigh as much as a car.
02:03:15 That doesn't even sound possible!
02:03:17 It's no wonder these giants
02:03:19 need to eat about 4 tons of krill every day.
02:03:22 While there aren't too many animals living today
02:03:25 that can compete with the Blue Whale's epic proportions,
02:03:28 there is an entirely different species
02:03:30 that is a good contender.
02:03:33 And it's not quite what you would expect.
02:03:34 It's a jellyfish.
02:03:36 No, I'm not talking about
02:03:38 the little jellyfish that wash up on the shore
02:03:40 and ruin a perfectly good day at the beach.
02:03:42 I'm referring to the lion's mane jellyfish,
02:03:45 the biggest jellyfish around.
02:03:47 This invertebrate can grow up to 120 feet long.
02:03:51 They also come in different gorgeous colors,
02:03:54 like red, purple,
02:03:56 or even shades of orange.
02:03:58 As if their length wasn't impressive,
02:04:00 the lion's mane jellyfish
02:04:02 boast a whopping 8 sets of 70 to 150 tentacles.
02:04:05 That means they can have up to 1,200 in total.
02:04:09 And here's the giant oceanic manta ray,
02:04:13 the largest type of ray in the world.
02:04:15 Their wingspan can be longer than a bus.
02:04:19 These guys can reach 30 feet in length.
02:04:22 They also have the biggest brain
02:04:24 compared to body size among all fish.
02:04:27 Unlike their stingray cousin,
02:04:30 mantas don't have venomous tails.
02:04:32 And while the lion's mane jellyfish
02:04:35 and the blue whale are yet to be beaten
02:04:37 for the longest sea creature,
02:04:39 there is one marine creature
02:04:41 that can grow even larger in length.
02:04:43 The Portuguese Fisalia fisalis.
02:04:46 Tentacles and all can reach a length of 165 feet long,
02:04:50 and that's according to mentalfloss.com.
02:04:53 While this thing may look a lot like a jellyfish,
02:04:56 it's actually known as a sea creature.
02:04:59 It's actually known as a siphonophore,
02:05:01 and there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of them
02:05:03 that are genetically identical.
02:05:05 Their long tentacles help the organism catch prey,
02:05:10 and its sting is fatal to most animals,
02:05:13 even humans in some cases.
02:05:15 What's even creepier is that
02:05:17 if one of the tentacles comes off the organism
02:05:19 for whatever reason,
02:05:21 it can float around the water for days before decomposing.
02:05:24 Even if it's detached,
02:05:27 this tentacle can still sting you.
02:05:29 But don't go running out of the ocean just yet.
02:05:32 Your chances of being hurt by a Portuguese Fisalia fisalis sting
02:05:36 are pretty slim.
02:05:38 However, if you do get stung,
02:05:40 the side effects aren't pretty,
02:05:42 with welts, stomach cramps,
02:05:44 an elevated heart rate,
02:05:46 and an upset stomach.
02:05:48 While you don't want to go anywhere near these long creatures,
02:05:51 they sure are pretty to look at.
02:05:53 Check out all those colors.
02:05:56 The Shastosaurus is the biggest marine reptile that has ever existed.
02:06:00 These predators lived during the Late Triassic Period,
02:06:03 about 210 million years ago.
02:06:06 These amazing giants could reach lengths of up to 69 feet,
02:06:10 and weighed more than 75 tons.
02:06:12 This made the Shastosaurus as heavy as a blue whale.
02:06:16 And if you could stand this creature up vertically,
02:06:20 it'd be as tall as a seven-story building.
02:06:24 Despite appearances,
02:06:25 the Shastosaurus was actually pretty slim for its size.
02:06:28 Its rib cage was only six feet across.
02:06:31 You'd think that this big guy was chowing down on other dinosaurs,
02:06:35 but that's not the case at all.
02:06:37 This reptile survived on a diet that consisted of small fish and cephalopods,
02:06:42 like octopuses and squids.
02:06:45 The Albertonectes is a bright representative of the Pliosaur family,
02:06:51 meaning that this marine reptile had a small head on an incredibly long neck
02:06:55 and large flipper-like limbs that helped it move through the water.
02:06:59 These creatures occupied the seas around North America 76 to 70 million years ago.
02:07:05 The length of this sea monster could reach 38 feet,
02:07:09 with its neck taking up 23 feet of that length.
02:07:12 Its neck was a true record breaker.
02:07:16 It had a whopping 76 bones in it.
02:07:20 No other animal known to humankind has had so many vertebrae in its neck.
02:07:24 Scientists aren't sure why they needed such a lengthy neck.
02:07:28 They might have used it to collect shellfish off the seabed,
02:07:32 or perhaps it helped them capture their main prey, fish and squids.
02:07:36 This aquatic reptile also had gastroliths in its stomachs.
02:07:40 Some of them were as big as 5.5 inches in diameter.
02:07:44 The Tylosaurus belonged to the Mosasaur family.
02:07:49 It dominated the shallow seas of North America about 85 to 80 million years ago.
02:07:54 This was an enormous predator, with the biggest representatives reaching 45 feet in length.
02:08:00 It had a narrow hydrodynamic body,
02:08:03 with a blunt powerful head that the animal used to ram and stun its prey.
02:08:08 Its body was equipped with agile flippers and a long tail decorated with a maneuverable fin.
02:08:15 The Tylosaurus was a carnivore, and its diet included not only fish, turtles and small sharks,
02:08:21 but also other mosasaurs, plesiosaurs and flightless birds.
02:08:26 Meet Ophthalmosaurus.
02:08:29 This prehistoric reptile thrived during the late Jurassic period and lived in oceans all over the world.
02:08:36 Ophthalmosaurus weighed somewhere around 6,000 pounds and grew to approximately 16 feet long,
02:08:44 according to NewDinosaurs.com.
02:08:45 That's about the same length as the beluga whale that exists today.
02:08:49 It's too bad these guys went extinct before we had a chance to see them ourselves,
02:08:53 as their cartoonish wide eyes and dolphin-like features are pretty darn cute.
02:08:58 Of course, the Ophthalmosaurus evolved over time to become ophthalmologists,
02:09:03 or eye doctors that we know today.
02:09:06 No, that's just a lie. Just testing you.
02:09:10 The Mosasaurus is a truly gigantic predator that dominated the seas all over the world about 66 million years ago.
02:09:18 According to fossil evidence, some specimens could be more than 50 feet in length.
02:09:23 This fact makes the Mosasaurus the biggest marine carnivore of its time.
02:09:28 One of the most terrifying things about this creature was its crocodile-like head,
02:09:33 decorated with literally hundreds of razor-sharp teeth neatly organized in two rows on both jaws.
02:09:39 The thing is that it was pretty challenging for the Mosasaurus to grab its prey in the water.
02:09:44 That's why it had all these teeth, plus something special.
02:09:48 Pterygoid teeth anchored to the bones on the roof of its mouth.
02:09:52 This made hunting and holding onto its prey much easier.
02:09:56 The Stixosaurus belonged to the Pliosaur family and lived during the Late Cretaceous period,
02:10:03 around 85 to 70 million years ago.
02:10:07 At a glance at this dinosaur, you might mistake it for a sea snake, and it'd be an honest mistake.
02:10:12 Stixosauruses were about 35 feet in length, but over 16 feet of that consisted just of their long snake-like neck.
02:10:20 They had a comparatively small body and weighed approximately 4 tons.
02:10:25 Their mouths were full of razor-sharp cone-shaped teeth that they used to catch fish.
02:10:31 They didn't need to chew their prey, thanks to the 200 small stones called gastroliths in their bellies that probably aided in digestion.
02:10:38 At the same time, some scientists believe that the Stixosaurus used these stones to sink to the ocean bottom in search of particular types of fish.
02:10:47 Looks kinda like Nessie to me.
02:10:51 That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
02:10:57 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
02:11:01 Stay on the Bright Side!

Recommended

1:59:33
I
Up next
The Real Titanic Story: Surprising Facts Uncovered
Bright Side
2:16:07
75 Facts That Will Make You Want More
Bright Side
2:06:23
65+ Body Facts I Had to Fact-Check to Believe
Bright Side
2:04:25
Facts That Make You Realize We're Wonders of Weirdness
Bright Side
2:02:43
Jaw-Dropping Body Facts You'll Never Believe Without Proof
Bright Side
2:05:26
Space Facts That Will Inspire You to Look Up
Bright Side
2:08:35
These Facts Will Melt Your Brain in the Best Way Possible
Bright Side
1:59:02
75 Intriguing Facts to Liven Up Any Conversation
Bright Side
2:08:28
These Phenomena Show How Little We Know About Earth
Bright Side
3:07:47
Everyday Facts That Will Make You Question Everything You Know
Bright Side
2:04:03
Natural Phenomena Best Watched from a Distance
Bright Side
2:02:38
Terrifying Sea Creatures That Will Haunt Your Dreams
Bright Side
2:05:03
The Weirdest Stuff in Space: Cool Facts You Need to Know
Bright Side
2:01:25
If You're a What-If Curious Mind, Click and Dive In
Bright Side
2:01:04
Travel Tips So Cool, You'll Thank Us Later
Bright Side
2:05:25
The Deeper, the Scarier: Terrifying Creatures of the Deep Sea
Bright Side
2:06:05
50 Space Facts That Will Astonish and Astound You
Bright Side
2:12:30
70+ Optical Illusions Guaranteed to Confuse You
Bright Side
3:08:09
Body Facts You Can Share to Freak Out Your Friends
Bright Side
3:06:36
Dive Deep to Discover the Ocean’s Secret Inhabitants
Bright Side
2:04:20
A Cool Way to Check Your Attentiveness
Bright Side
2:10:24
Amazing Body Facts You Won't Forget Tomorrow
Bright Side
2:00:09
Black Hole That Shouldn't Exist + 99 Wild Space Facts
Bright Side
2:02:55
Safety Tips That Will Make You Feel Invincible
Bright Side
2:09:28
These Facts Will Make You the Perfect Icebreaker at Any Party
Bright Side