Jinzo X's video: Deep Sea Gigantism - Why Are Deep Sea Animals So Big Documentary

“Deep Sea Gigantism” is the scientific term often used to describe any situation in which deep-sea living organisms grow to be phenomenally larger than their shallow-water counterpart. Apart from the all-too-obvious difference in size, animals with deep-sea gigantism also tend to live much longer. Interestingly, about 71% of the earth’s surface is submerged underwater, and the ocean holds over 96% of all of the earth’s water. Given the expansive nature of the ocean, therefore, it is no wonder we know more about the moon and Mars than we know about what’s in the depths of our oceans. While several animals are known to exhibit deep sea gigantism, we must caution that we are yet to discover them all. This is partly because exploration of these oceanic depths such as the Mariana Trench is nearly impossible! This is due to bone-crushing intense water pressure at these depths. Occasionally when we make it to these depths, these creatures are often very elusive. Living at depths where there is immense pressure, absence of sunlight, and complete darkness, these animals have adapted to their environment such that some have developed keener senses and others — bioluminescence. We shall therefore examine examples of creatures of deep-sea gigantism. First on our list is the giant deep-sea dwelling Colossal Squid which lives as far down as 3,280 feet or 1,000 meters in the Antarctic and south of New Zealand waters. While the average size of a shallow-water squid is just 2 feet (60 centimeters), the colossal squid can grow to be 43 feet or 13 meters long and weigh as much as 1,500 pounds or 700 kilograms thanks to deep-sea gigantism! A close cousin of the Colossal Squid is the Giant Squid. Giant Squids measure also about 43 feet or 13 meters! National Geographic has it that the largest ever found measured a whopping 59 feet or 18 meters in length! It probably weighs over a 1 ton. The third on the list is the Japanese Spider Crab. You probably may not have heard that before. While shallow-water sea crabs such as the Long-beaked Spider Crab often measure just about 1 centimeter/0.4 inches across in diameter, the deep sea Japanese Spider Crab is a phenomenally larger giant! It is often found at depths of 160 to 2,000 feet or 50 to 600 meters. It has 10 spider-like legs which measure 18 feet/5.5 meters from claw to claw but the crab itself measures 13 feet/4 meters across and lives to be 100 years old on average! It can be found in the pacific water of Japan and as far south as Taiwan. Fourth on the list of deep-sea gigantic animals is the Giant Tubeworm which was discovered relatively recently. First discovered in 1977, about 300 new species have been discovered since then. It lives close to the ocean’s hydrothermal vents where mineral-rich extremely hot water seeps out of cracks in the ocean floor at depths of up to 5,280 feet or 1,600 meters! It measures 1.6 inches/4 centimeters across in diameter and as much as 8 feet or 2.4 meters in length. It feeds through chemosynthesis as it has no eyes and no stomach. The 23 feet or 7 meters long Greenland Shark also deserves to be included in our brief list. It weighs as much as 2,220 pounds or 1,025 kilograms! According to natural world facts, there are 400 years old specimens! They reside at depths reaching 6,500 feet about 2,000 meters where they live almost completely blind. Other deep-sea gigantic animals include the Giant Pacific Octopus, Giant Sea Crab, and Deep Sea Isopod. Now to the interesting question: Why and how did they get this big? Narrator: Larry G. Jones