Surely many heard, but someone saw a photo 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 begin our conversation with acquaintance 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 with a modern crocodile, with the only difference being that the dacosaurus reached five meters in length. Its powerful teeth and jaws gave researchers reason to argue that it was the main marine predator of its time.
Notaurus
These sea monsters were a little smaller than a dacosaurus. Their bodies did not exceed four meters in length. But the notosaurus was also a formidable and aggressive predator. His main weapons were externally directed teeth. The diet of these animals consisted of fish and squid. Scientists claim that notosaurs attacked their prey from an ambush. Possessing a smooth reptile body, they crept up to prey silently, attacked and ate it. Notosaurs were close relatives of the Pliosaurs (a species of deep-sea marine predators). As a result of the study of fossil remains, it became apparent that these sea monsters lived in the Triassic period.
Mozasaurus
These were real sea monsters. 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 reliably protected opponents.
10 terrifying sea monsters
We told you about several prehistoric animals. Do such creatures inhabit the underwater world today? It turns out yes. And even if they are not as huge as their ancestors, but they are capable of causing their appearance if not panic, then amazement for sure. We will present you 10 sea monsters.
Pike Sea Dog
While this fish does not open its mouth, it does not stand out among ordinary inhabitants of the sea, although it has strange wrinkled cheeks, like that of an old man. But as soon as she opens her mouth, she instantly becomes a terrifying monster, who is ready to swallow the whole of everything that only meets in his way.
This creature is territorial. Pike sea dogs use a huge mouth in a clash with their fellow tribesmen, although their battles in the struggle for territory, or rather, the water area, are more reminiscent of the collision of two parachutes.
Flycatcher
At first glance, it seems that these creatures came to us from another planet.
However, no. They live in deep canyons in the waters of California. Shellworms (second name) are predators that look like carnivorous flycatcher plants. 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 she approaches, the shell instantly grabs her. This way of hunting does not allow these creatures to be too picky in food.
Shells, resembling extraterrestrial life forms, have an amazing ability to reproduce without mating with other individuals - they produce both spermatozoa and eggs.
Fish attacking from below
Representatives of Astroscopus guttatus are real sea monsters. The second name of this creature is speckled stargazer. It would seem that such a nickname can be worn by some small fish with large eyes, but this creature does not fit such a description.
Having not the most attractive appearance, the speckled stargazer spends most of his time on the seabed, buried in silt, and watches from below for everything that moves nearby. He has special organs above his eyes that emit electrical discharges.
Iloglot
This creature belongs to the sackcloth-like, order of ray-finned fish. It has adapted to live in great depths. Against the backdrop of a huge mouth, the body of the hylogloth seems disproportionately small. These fish do not have scales, ribs, swimming bladder, pyloric appendages, ventral and caudal fins. Most of the bones of the skull are reduced or completely disappeared. The surviving skeleton is difficult to compare with that of other fish to establish kinship. A slight similarity of the sack-fry fry with the eel leptocephalus suggests some “family ties” 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 more than fifty kilograms. A diver with experience will never come close to a moray eel. These are extremely dangerous predatory fish. They attack lightning fast. There have been recorded cases of deaths from their attack. By their appearance they resemble snakes. But the danger of moray eels does not lie in a poisonous bite, as was believed in antiquity. Instantly, this predator can tear the human flesh, so much so that the diver dies, bleeding.
Drop fish
The list of 10 terrifying sea monsters is continued by a deep-sea drop fish. Close-set small eyes and a large mouth with the corners down, 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 body density of this creature is slightly less than the density of water. Thanks to this, the drop overcomes great distances, swallowing everything edible in its path, without spending much effort.
Strange body shape and lack of scales put this species at risk of extinction. Living off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, a drop of fish often falls into fishing nets and is sold as a souvenir.
Laying eggs, a drop sits on eggs for a long time, and then carefully takes care of the fry. She tries to find for them uninhabited and remote places in the depths. The fish protects its offspring, ensuring its safety, and helps to survive in difficult conditions. In nature, it has no natural enemies, but, as already mentioned, a drop can accidentally, along with algae, get into the networks of fishermen.
Gunch fish
This creature, found in the Kali River (between Nepal and India), loves the taste of human meat. Its 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 the gunch began to feel craving for human beings because of … the customs of man himself. For a long time, the Kali River has been used by local residents for the “burial" of the bodies of the dead. Partially burned corpses after the Hindu rites are dumped into the river.
Stone fish, or wart
This is one of the strangest and most dangerous fish species. Wart is considered one of the most poisonous in the world. Usually she lives in coral reefs. Complete similarity to the stone allows this 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 often becomes fatal. Signs of intoxication persist for long hours, as a result, a person dies in terrible torment. Antidotes do not exist 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-shaped hydrolytic is known as a 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. The vampire fish is perhaps the only individual able to cope with piranha.
Anglerfish (monkfish)
In the seas and oceans lives one of the rarest deep-sea animals with an ugly appearance - the monkfish. He is also called the angler. The "monster" was first discovered in 1891. The fish does not have scales, and its place is taken by ugly growths and tubercles. The mouth of this monster is surrounded by swaying rags of skin that resemble algae. The dark color gives the angler a plain look. A giant head and a huge mouth gap make this deep-sea animal the ugliest on our planet.
The meaty and long process that sticks out of the angler’s head serves as a bait. This is a very serious threat to fish. Monkfish lures its victim 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, which is several times larger than them in size. With an unsuccessful hunt, both die: the victim - from fatal wounds, the aggressor - from suffocation.
Huge monsters of the sea - mesonichtevis
These are colossal squids. They are distinguished by a streamlined body shape, which 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 indicated 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 one hundred kilograms and more than four meters long) was thrown to the shores of Japan. It was a young individual. Scientists believe that an adult squid reaches five meters in size, and the carcass weight in this case can be about 200 kilograms.
