Surely many have heard, and someone has seen photos of sea monsters. However, most people consider them fiction, a kind of "horror story." Is it really? We will talk about this in our article.
Prehistoric sea monsters
We will start our conversation with acquaintances with animals that have already disappeared from our planet. Millions of years ago, huge sea monsters lived in the depths of the seas and oceans. One of them is a dacosaurus. His remains were first discovered in Germany. Then they were found on a fairly vast territory - from Russia to Argentina.
Sometimes it is compared to a modern crocodile, with the only difference being that the Dacosaurus reached five meters in length. Its powerful teeth and jaws have led researchers to believe that it was the top marine predator of its time.
Nothosaurus
These sea monsters were slightly smaller than the Dacosaurus. Their bodies did not exceed four meters in length. But Nothosaurus was also a formidable and aggressive predator. His main weapon was outwardly directed teeth. The diet of these animals consisted of fish and squid. Scientists claim that notosaurs attacked their prey fromambushes. Possessing the smooth body of a reptile, they sneaked up on prey silently, attacked and ate it. Nothosaurs were close relatives of pliosaurs (a kind of deep sea predators). As a result of the study of fossil remains, it became obvious that these sea monsters lived in the Triassic period.
Mosasaurus
These were real sea monsters. The monsters reached a length of fifteen meters. They lived in the underwater world in the Cretaceous period. The head of these giants resembled the head of a modern crocodile, their jaws were armed with hundreds of sharp teeth. Thanks to this, the predator could kill even very well-protected opponents.
10 Terrifying Sea Monsters
We told you about some prehistoric animals. Do such creatures inhabit the underwater world today? It turns out yes. And although they are not as huge as their ancestors, they are able to cause with their appearance, if not panic horror, then amazement for sure. We will introduce 10 sea monsters to you.
Pike blennies
As long as this fish does not open its mouth, it does not really stand out among the ordinary inhabitants of the sea, although it has strange, like an old man, wrinkled cheeks. But as soon as she opens her mouth, she instantly becomes a frightening monster that is ready to swallow whole everything that comes in its path.
This creature is territorial. The huge mouth of pike blennies is used forclashes with fellow tribesmen, although their battles in the struggle for territory, or rather, the water area, are more like a collision of two parachutes.
Sea flycatcher
At first glance, it seems that these creatures came to us from another planet.
But no. They live in deep-sea canyons offshore California. Tunics (second name) are predators, resembling carnivorous flycatcher plants in their appearance. They live in the depths of the sea, entrenched at the bottom, waiting for an unsuspecting victim to swim next to their luminous open mouth. As soon as she gets close, the husk instantly grabs her. This way of hunting prevents these creatures from being too fussy about food.
The tunicates, outwardly resembling extraterrestrial life forms, have an amazing ability to reproduce without mating with other individuals - they produce both sperm and eggs at the same time.
Fish attacking from below
Representatives of Astroscopus guttatus are real sea monsters. The second name of this creature is the speckled stargazer. It would seem that some small fish with large eyes can bear such a nickname, but this creature does not fit such a description.
Not the most attractive looking, the speckled stargazer spends most of its time on the sea floor, buried in the silt, watching everything that moves nearby from below. He has special organs above his eyes that emit electrical discharges.
Hiloglot
This creature belongs to the sac-like, order of ray-finned fish. It has adapted to live at great depths. Against the background of a huge mouth, the body of the itologlot seems disproportionately small. These fish lack scales, ribs, swim bladder, pyloric appendages, pelvic and caudal fins. Most of the skull bones are reduced or completely disappeared. The preserved skeleton is difficult to compare with that of other fish in order to establish kinship. A slight resemblance between the juveniles of pouch-shaped eels and leptocephalic eels suggests some "family relationships" between the mentioned species.
Moray eel
These huge sea monsters scare and fascinate at the same time. They can grow up to three meters and weigh over fifty kilograms. A diver with experience will never approach a moray eel. These are extremely dangerous predatory fish. They attack with lightning speed. Cases of people dying from their attacks have been recorded. Their appearance is reminiscent of snakes. But the danger of moray eels lies not in a poisonous bite, as was believed in antiquity. Instantly, this predator can tear the flesh of a person, and so much that the diver dies, bleeding.
Drop Fish
The list of 10 terrifying sea monsters continues with the deep-sea blobfish. Close-set small eyes and a large mouth with downturned corners resemble the face of a sad person. The fish lives at a depth of one and a half kilometers.
Outwardly it is a gelatinous shapeless lump. The density of this bodycreatures are slightly less dense than water. Thanks to this, the drop overcomes long distances, swallowing everything edible in its path, without spending much effort.
The strange shape of the body and the lack of scales have put this species in danger of extinction. Living off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, the blobfish is often caught in fishing nets and sold as souvenirs.
When laying eggs, the drop sits on the eggs for a long time, and then carefully takes care of the fry. She tries to find for them uninhabited and deaf places at depth. Fish protect their offspring, ensuring their safety, and help them survive in difficult conditions. In nature, she has no natural enemies, but, as already mentioned, a drop can accidentally, along with algae, fall into the nets of fishermen.
Gunch Fish
This creature, which lives in the Kali River (between Nepal and India), loves the taste of human meat. Her weight reaches 140 kilograms. A person can be attacked not only in a secluded place, but also with a large crowd of people. They say that goonch began to experience a craving for human flesh because of … the customs of the person himself. For a long time, the Kali River has been used by local residents to "burial" the bodies of the dead. Partially burned corpses are thrown into the river after Hindu rituals.
Stone fish, or warty
This is one of the strangest and most dangerous species of fish. The wart is considered one of the most poisonous in the world. She usually lives in coral reefs. Full similarity with a stone allowsthis creature to remain invisible until the moment you step on it. And this step may be the last. Stone-fish has a very powerful poison, so its bite is often fatal. Signs of intoxication persist for long hours, as a result, a person dies in terrible agony. There is no antidote yet.
This dangerous werewolf can be found in the shallow waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as in the waters of the Red Sea, off the coast of Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Fiji.
Rauaga
This mackerel hydrolic is known as the vampire fish. Sometimes it is also called a fish-dog. It is so bloodthirsty that it is considered much more dangerous than piranha. The body of the creature is slightly more than a meter. Rauaga lives in South America and Venezuela.
These bloodthirsty creatures pose a threat not only to humans. Vampire fish is perhaps the only individual capable of coping with piranha.
Anglerfish (monkfish)
One of the rarest deep-sea animals with an ugly appearance lives in the seas and oceans - monkfish. It is also called the angler. The "monster" was first discovered in 1891. The fish lacks scales, and its place is occupied by ugly growths and bumps. The mouth of this monster is surrounded by waving tatters of skin that resemble algae. Dark coloration gives the angler a nondescript look. A giant head and a huge mouth opening make this deep-sea animal the ugliest on our planet.
The fleshy and long shoot that sticks out of the anglerfish's head serves as bait. This is a very serious threat to fish. The monkfish lure its prey with the light of a "fishing rod", which is equipped with a special gland. He lures her to his mouth, forcing her to swim inside on her own initiative. Anglers are extremely voracious. Often they attack prey that is many times their size. In case of an unsuccessful hunt, both die: the victim - from mortal wounds, the aggressor - from suffocation.
Huge monsters of the sea - mesonichtevis
These are colossal squids. They have a streamlined body shape that allows them to move at high speed. The eye of this sea monster reaches 60 centimeters in diameter. For the first time, a giant inhabitant of the deep sea was described in documents dated 1925. They indicate that the fishermen found huge squid tentacles (1.5 m) in the stomach of a sperm whale. A representative of these mollusks (weighing more than a hundred kilograms and more than four meters long) was thrown to the shores of Japan. It was a young one. Scientists believe that an adult squid reaches five meters in size, and the weight of the carcass in this case can be about 200 kilograms.
Isopod
Isopods (crayfish of enormous size) differ in impressive sizes. In length, they reach 1.5 m and weigh more than one and a half kilograms. Their body is covered with movable rigid plates that reliably protect against predators. In case of danger, giant crayfish curl up into a ball.
These creatures live at a depth of up to 750 meters, alone. Their state is close to hibernation. Isopods feed on sedentary prey: small fish, carrion sinking to the bottom, sea cucumbers.
