Daily Fish Fact #565

HI idk if any of these r repeats (sorry if they are😖😖) but id love 2 see facts abt panther groupers!! gars are also rlly fun imo any kind and i also love sturgeons..... if u have any fun facts abt the differences between types of sturgeons i would rlly love 2 hear !!!! sorry again if this isnt the kind of stuff u wanted 2 hear omg . love ur blog keep it up💕💕💕💕💕‼️

Thank you for your kind words friend! Of course I'm happy to provide! :DD I do repeats all the time so it's completely fine, and even then I have not done panther groupers yet! So...

Daily fish fact #570

Panther grouper!

Juvenile panther groupers are pure white with black spots, but as they age they gain splotches of beige and grey! They're also called humpback groupers because of their distinct hunched form.

And there you have it! I shall do gars and perhaps a sturgeon next! Differences between sturgeon species, I'm not so sure about... they all vary from each other in different ways, like distribution, body shape, colouration, snout length and shape, and so on! My good buddy @sturgeonposting has several informational posts about sturgeons, so be sure to check them out if you want to see many facts!

The Sea Creature of the Day is the Basking Shark!!!

honestly these guys... ive seen so many people say that they're afraid of them and that's completely understandable but they're just the silliest lil guys to me and i love them so much. they only feed on much smaller creatures and are entirely harmless to humans- in fact, they've been known to circle around boats but entirely avoid divers! i've always liked to imagine that they just like saying hi 🥰

even though they're massive and slightly scary looking, these guys have never been documented to directly hurt a human and are just friendly lil guys who want to eat all of the plankton they can find, and i love that for them 💜

Is it known what baby coelacanths look like??

Yes! An expedition filmed one in Manado Bay, North Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2009!

"It was measured by a laser beam from the R.O.V. to be 31.5cm. The fish was positioning itself in a small cave."

the deep sea creatures when a scientist shows up with a flashlight outta no where

Sharks are older than trees

Sharks have been munching their way through the oceans since way before the dinosaurs started munching their way across the land. when sharks first burst into the evolutionary ladder even trees had not begun to grow.

Between 485.4 and 443.8 million years ago was a time known as the Ordovician period. This was the era when sea life began to really take off, fish began to evolve in to an abundance of different species and plant began to creep their way onto the land. It is believed that towards the end of this era is when the first shark, or shark like, species began to form. The evidence for this comes in the form of a small amount of fossilised "shark like" scales that have been dated to around 450 million years old.

The next piece of early shark evidence comes in the form of the oldest shark like teeth ever found dating back to around 410 million years ago at the begin of the Devonian era. they belonged to what research describe as the least shark like shark and called Doliodus problematicus. Doliodus problematicus had a diamond shaped body and likely didn't look very shark like at all but it did have shark like teeth and a shark like skull.

Shortly after this around 390 million years ago is when the first trees started to emerge about 60 million years after the estimated date of the first shark scales. They are similar to conifers and are estimated to grow up to 50 meters tall, creating large forests in the carbon rich atmosphere of the time.

So there you have it the first sharks (or shark like creatures) could have been swimming in our seas almost 60 million years before the first forests began to grown on land. I hope you enjoyed reading and thanks for staying till the end.

Phylum #1: Ctenophora, the comb jellies!

For quite a long time, it was believed that sponges were our most distant cousins, standing on the opposite side of the animal tree of life. Turns out it isn't the case - shiny, jelly-like creatures are the most alien of animals!

But these aren't true jellyfish, or anything close! Comb jellies don't sting, and don't have much in common with jellyfish except in appearance - in fact, they likely evolved most of their body plan completely independently!

They get their name from the rows of combs going down their body, with which they swim. These can often reflect light in unusual way, bringing a gamer vibe in the ocean depths!

Comb jellies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, not all jelly-like. Some scurry on the seafloor, while others look like huge floating ribbons. And some are even voracious predators, hunting... other comb jellies!

So true bestie what did you say btw i was dissociating

This is a metal snail (Volcano Snail) that lives on underwater volcano vents in the Indian Ocean. Its shell and scaly feet both are armoured with layers of iron, making it the only animal to incorporate iron sulfide into its skeleton 🐌

📷: Dr Chong Chen/IUCN