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Researchers discover new ocean predator in the Atacama Trench
- wglb 2y agoReferenced paper https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772000.2024.2416430 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772000.2024.2...
- Scarblac 2y agoIs its head on the left or the right?
- Loughla 2y agoLeft
- IG_Semmelweiss 2y agoit looks like a shrimp, so its the left
- pvaldes 2y agoHead is at the same side than the antenna and the eyes. Left.
- Gys 2y ago> At nearly 4 centimeters in length, this crustacean uses specialized raptorial appendages to capture and prey upon smaller amphipod species in the Atacama (Peru-Chile) Trench's food-limited realm.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoVery unappetizing
- vouaobrasil 2y agoLife is so diverse and beautiful!
- maxFlow 2y agoGetting Lovecraftian vibes.
- usrusr 2y agoPredator sounds dramatic, but there really isn't much non-microscopic life in the oceans that isn't predatorial. Large herbivores are land-evolved.
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoWould you consider the blue whale to be a carnivore, then?
- SaggyDoomSr 2y agoblue whales eat krill, almost exclusively. so... yeah, definitely carnivores. i don't think there are any herbivore whales.
- ternnoburn 2y agoConsidering they eat crustaceans, predominantly, wouldn't you?
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoNot really. It seems to me term filter feeder exists outside the whole carnivore/herbivore dynamic, which seems like less of a dietary thing and more of a behavioral thing anyway (though of course many animals are simply unable to digest stuff like cellulose, so it is also dietary... but then again these things are messy)
- swores 2y ago> "carnivore/herbivore dynamic, which seems like less of a dietary thing and more of a behavioral thing" They're literally terms to describe dietary habits, nothing else. A human who eats meat is a carnivore, regardless of whether they're hunting live animals or being served chicken nuggets on a plate - the only behaviour that's relevant is whether the diet includes meat or not.
- adrian_b 2y agoWhile there are no herbivores there, many animals at that depth are suspension feeders or deposit feeders, i.e. they filter the water or the mud for either alive micro-organisms or for organic substances that come from the decomposition of dead animals or algae. At that depth an important food source is formed by the dead bodies or parts of bodies of various big or small animals, which fall from shallower water after their death. Because at high depths there is no primary production in most places (with the exception of vents where free dihydrogen or dihydrogen sulfide may feed bacteria), most animals must eat the dead organic matter that falls from above. Predators that eat alive animals from that depth must be much fewer than the animals which eat dead matter, otherwise they will die of hunger.
- throwaway48476 2y agoIt's unfortunate that there's no in situ pictures included. It looks like the blob fish which is only blob shape when not under ocean deep pressure.
- pvaldes 2y agoIs just an Amphipod. A sea flea. Is showing the typical shape in the group. For people without taxonomic knowledge, we could say that is "a type of shrimp" There are thousands of species in its group. The title is unnecessarily dramatic.
- ungreased0675 2y agoI wonder what they taste like.
- preisschild 2y agoShow them who the real apex predator is :)
- undebuggable 2y agoI presume on the surface it looks nothing like in the ocean depths where it's under enormous pressure.
- dudeinjapan 2y agoThey must have reached R’lyeh
- trebligdivad 2y agotwo nice words in there that are new to me; 'hadal' and raptorial'
- AnthonBerg 2y agoDidn’t notice ‘hadal’! Kind of glid by. Thanks! Looked up the meaning and the roots of the word. Feel compelled to mention that the etymology is pretty wild. hadal: “of or relating to the deepest ocean; beyond 6000 meters” ← Hades, Greek god of the underworld ← ᾍδης (Hā́idēs) which is ‘Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (“not”)+ *weyd- (“see”) + *-ēs (“adjectival suffix”), literally “that which is unseen”’ or ← ‘from *sm̥weyd-(from *sm̥- (compounding stem) + *weyd-(“see”) + *-ēs (“adjectival suffix”), literally “see-together” or “uniter”)’ … according to Wiktionary: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/ᾍδης https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/ᾍδης That’ll be one exploding-head emoji for me please.