5/3/2023 0 Comments Vampire squidsLive goldfish are among this fangy predator’s favorite prey. In recent years, the payara has gained popularity as an occupant in large, “aggressive” freshwater aquariums. While this large, 1.5-to-3 foot fish does not suck the blood of its prey, its six-inch-long fangs, which protrude from an undershot jaw, result in a face only a (payara) mother could love. On the freshwater side, the vampire fish is a nickname for the payara, an abundant gamefish found in the Amazon Basin. Instead, the vampire squid squirts a copious cloud of sticky, bioluminescent mucus toward would-be predators (and the occasional research ROV). Nor can it change color to confuse intruders the way its shallow-water cousins can living as it does in the deep ocean, where little light penetrates, color-changing is a pointless strategy. The vampire squid is an extreme example of a deep sea cephalopod, thought to reside at aphotic (lightless) depths from 600 to 900 metres (2,000 to 3,000 ft) or. If threatened, this defensive deep-sea Dracula does not eject ink, as do most of its cephalopod cousins. The vampire squid is an extremophile, inhabiting the dark ocean depths from 2,000-3,000 feet. So how did it get the eerie official name Vampryoteuthis infernalis That means vampire squid from heck, you see. Its scientific name, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, literally means “vampire squid of Hell”! While it does not suck blood like its mythical namesake, the vampire squid is a “living relic” that evolved from an ancestor of the octopus, and its lineage goes back 165 million years in the fossil record. Despite the scary name, modern vampire squid are docile denizens of the deep sea but their Jurassic ancestors may have been a lot fiercer. Its huge, bright blue eyes - proportionally the largest in the animal kingdom - dark color, and the velvety, cloak-like webbing that connects its arms give the vampire squid its common name. Vampire Squids living fossils Vampyromorphs fossils have been found from the Jurassic period, between 201 million and 174 million years ago. Originally thought to be an octopus because it lacks the two long tentacles that usually extend past a squid’s eight arms, the vampire squid possesses characteristics of both squid and octopi, and occupies its own order in taxonomy (scientific classification). Its a cephalopod thats found at deep-sea. Most squids and octopuses, meanwhile, spawn just once and. Despite its name and similar appearance to a squid or an octopus, the vampire squid is actually neither of the two. The vampire squid is a small ( 12-inch-long ) cephalopod found in deep temperate and tropical seas. Based on these numbers, the scientists think the vampire squid's adult stage lasts up to eight years, with an even longer total life span.
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