I bet we've all seen this glob and thought, "Man, that is one ugly animal."
But in reality, these blobs don't really look well, like blobs.
Let's go a little deeper, shall we?
9,200 metres below sea level, the blobfish looks way better. All that droopy gelatinous flesh is held up by the water pressure and you have this guy;
The sudden change in pressure is what makes the blobfish look like a droopy old guy.
The sagging jaw is so that the fish can grab anything and I mean anything that passes by it's jaws. Dr. David L. Stein when dissecting blobfishes found multiple fish, sea cucumbers, anemones, starfish and crabs. He also found a plastic bag and many rocks.
Here's an interesting fact, Blobfish don't have any red muscle. That's the muscle that allows you and me to run or lift a box, but blobfish don't have that since they are bottom dwellers and quite literally wait for dinner to swim by.
Sadly, the droopy blobfish in the internet famous picture is already dead. When this strange fish is pulled out of the water and is surrounded by pressure that is 120 times less than what it's used to, it's insides crush and it dies... painfully...
So give this fish a little love, it doesn't really look like a droopy grandpa in it's natural habitat!
So now you know. What other animals do you want us to blog about?
Stay blessed and curious,
Fauna
credits:
Science Insider