From an unbelievable monster squid, to the massive Blue Whale … Here are 10 of the World’s Biggest Sea Creatures!
Lion’s Mane Jellyfish
This is considered the largest species of jellyfish on the planet. The largest recorded specimen had a bell that measured more than 7.5 feet … and tentacles over 120 feet long. They use their stinging tentacles to capture and eat prey like fish and smaller jellyfish. They come in a variety of colors, and tend to favor cold water environments from the Arctic to the Northern Pacific Oceans. Both of those qualities were captured on film by Alexander Semenov … a marine biologist who took a series of stunning photographs featuring the massive jelly. He had occasion to take the pictures while diving in the remote waters of the White Sea Biological Station on the coast of western Russia. Diving in waters of minus-2 degrees Celsius, the environment is clear enough to see 40 meters underwater. That yielded these images that give the creature an alien look, as it's thin tentacles billow about, searching for prey. Did you know that larger specimens of these jellyfish are usually purple … while smaller, younger jellies are often lighter orange or tan.
Monster Squids
Giant squids are deep ocean creatures that are said to grow up to 43 feet long … that’s second only to the length of the Colossal Squid, estimated at some 46 feet and can weigh more than 1,600 pounds. They’re two of the largest living organisms in the world, and are often thought to be the real-life basis of the mythical Kraken. In 2015, Russian fishermen encountered a gigantic squid that tried to feast on a fish they were hauling to their vessel. You can see images of the squid captured from video. The men prodded the creature with poles and seemed to drive it away, but it kept grabbing at the fish with its beak. After battling back and forth with the immense creature, it finally gave up and swam away. But in all the confusion, it was never established whether the cephalopod was a giant squid or a colossal squid.
We found this photo, but not a whole lot of information to go with it. It’s said to be a huge creature -- obviously -- that was caught in Cambodia. We haven’t been able to identify the location, but it does appear that the animal is surrounded by net fishermen … Although it seems those folks would need more than a net to capture a beast that size! We tend to think this picture may have been manipulated. For one thing, the creature seems to be laying on the bottom of what appears to be a rather shallow pond … so how would it be able to swim to that location? We’re not 100% convinced on this one … What do you think?
Blue Whale
This is an easy choice for the second spot … the Blue whale is the largest animal known to have ever existed! Because of their massive size, the animals are difficult to weigh … but the heaviest estimated weight recorded was around 191 tons, although experts feel the creatures could easily weigh 200 tons or more. The greatest recorded length for a blue whale was around 104ft. These animals have a diet made up mostly of krill … and they can put away some 40 million krill -- or the near equivalent of 8,000 lbs -- each day. Did you know Blue Whales belong to the same family as Humpback Whales?
What sea creature could possibly be bigger than the blue whale? Well, the answer could be … the sea itself! That’s according to a study conducted by the University of Illinois. It suggests that the sea became a type of global ‘mega-organism’ that covered the Earth some 3 billion years before giving rise to the progenitors of all living creatures today. Scientists refer to this massive organism as LUCA (L-U-C-A) … it’s an acronym for ‘Last Universal Common Ancestor’. And the study indicates that LUCA is traceable to every domain of life … including animals, plants and fungi (fun-jie). Experts say it was this mega-organism that filled the Earth’s oceans, and became a type of global genetic exchange for cells that struggled to survive on their own. Those cells freely swapped their genes and proteins with one another for hundreds of millions of years, giving rise to a massive single organism … which eventually split into the domains of bacteria, eukaryotes (you-kare-ee-oats), and archaea (ar-kee-uh). As cells evolved ways of providing for their own existence, LUCA was broken apart … giving rise to the birth of all things living today!
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