The Deep

A World Oceans Day Meditation

Creatures of the Deep

From sunlit shallows to the lightless abyss, the ocean teems with life beyond imagination.

Depth: Surface-500m

The largest animal ever, heart the size of a car, tongue weighs as much as an elephant

Depth: 0-2000m

Three hearts, blue blood, can taste with 2,240 suckers per arm

Depth: 0-1200m

Unchanged for 100 million years, migrates 10,000 miles

Depth: 0-300m

Echolocation creates 3D images, sleeps with one eye open

Depth: 0-1200m

Can detect one drop of blood in 25 gallons of water

Depth: 0-500m

Largest brain-to-body ratio of any fish, recognizes itself in mirrors

Depth: 0-200m

Songs can travel 10,000 miles, complex syntax like human language

Depth: 300-1000m

Eyes the size of dinner plates, legendary sea monster inspiration

Depth: 1000-4000m

Males fuse to females permanently, becoming parasitic appendages

Depth: 3000-4000m

Named for ear-like fins, deepest-dwelling octopus

Depth: 0-3000m

Echolocation so loud it could burst human eardrums

Depth: 200-700m

Living fossil unchanged for 500 million years

Depth: 150-600m

Leg span of 12 feet, can live 100 years

Depth: 600-900m

Neither squid nor octopus, living fossil from 300 million years ago

Depth: 600-1200m

Normal appearance at depth, famous 'blob' is decompression damage

Depth: 0-50m

Master of camouflage, males carry eggs

Depth: 0-1500m

Tusk is a sensory organ with 10 million nerve endings

Depth: 150-500m

'Living fossil' believed extinct for 65 million years until 1938

Depth: Surface

Not a jellyfish but a colonial organism of four specialized polyps

Depth: 0-50m

24 eyes, most venomous creature in the ocean

         ___
        /   \
       |() ()|
        \ ^ /
      .-'   '-.
     /  /| |\  \
    |  / | | \  |
    |_/  |_|  \_|
       |_| |_|