When it comes to manatees, many people will immediately think of large sea mammals weighing up to hundreds of kilograms, living entirely in the water, mainly eating plants. However, the manatee that we are about to talk about below is completely different. Scotoplanes, a genus of deep-sea sea cucumbers, they’re some of the strangest species in the world – or at least, one of the strangest species found at depths of thousands of meters. under the ocean.
Scientists say that manatees are about 15cm long, mainly living on the ocean floor. The places where this animal has been found include the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and sometimes found in Antarctica.
Manatees were first identified by Swedish zoologist Johan Hjalmar Théel during his mid-19th century global expedition aboard the HMS Challenger.
Despite its name, this manatee has nothing to do with land pigs. Instead, it got its funny name because of its slightly pink color and oddly shaped “four limbs,” making it look as if it had two ears and walked on four legs like a piggy bank.
The manatee is considered a type of sea cucumber or echinoderm, and this strange animal lives 1,200 – 5,000 m below the surface of the ocean.
Manatees are creatures that live on the seafloor and have pig-like skin. They are a genus of sea cucumbers, belonging to the class of echinoderms. Most of these animals have special tubular legs that move by contracting water cavities inside the skin.
The tubular appendages on the body are connected to a “water vascular system”, which allows manatees to navigate the ocean floor by sucking in and releasing water, essentially gliding across the ocean floor through pine needles. through hydraulic pressure.
Manatees also possess tentacles near their mouths. These strange physical features make it possible for them to put food in their mouths.
Manatees absorb food by filtering organisms in the mud as well as eating decaying animal carcasses. In the wild, this strange animal plays an extremely important role in the deep sea ecosystem.
Besides the peculiar appearance, the manatee’s respiratory system is also amazing. These strange creatures rhythmically expand and contract their muscles to pump water into their pores, which they then filter through a lung-like structure called a respiratory tree (scientifically speaking, but they actually breathe through their anus), allowing them to breathe and take in oxygen.
Because they often scour the ocean floor, manatees are considered “vacuum cleaners” on the ocean floor. And although they have few enemies in the deep ocean, manatees maintain a pretty effective defense mechanism: their skin contains toxins.
Like all echinoderms, Scotoplanes have an underdeveloped respiratory system and they breathe through their anus. Their bodies are made to live in the deep sea, and bringing them too close to the surface will cause their bodies to disintegrate. Despite having a lot of legs, manatees move quite slowly, only about the speed of a snail. Currently, their number in the world is not much, only about 300 to 600 left.
The skin of a manatee contains a toxic chemical called holothurian, so toxic that some fishermen in the Indo-Pacific use it to fish off local coral reefs.
However, so far, humans have only very limited understanding of this strange creature. Researchers have a hard time studying these strange animals because they cannot be brought to the surface to be examined. Manatees are fragile creatures whose bodies have evolved and adapted to high-pressure habitats on the ocean floor. Therefore, their bodies will almost immediately melt when brought ashore.
Therefore, scientists are forced to observe the organism from the surface using high-tech equipment such as remote control vehicles or ROVs.
Scotoplanes live on the deep ocean floor, especially in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, often at depths above 1,200 to 5,000 meters. Several related species can be found in Antarctica. Scotoplanes (and all deep-sea sea cucumbers) are animals that forage by extracting organic matter from deep-sea mud. Scotoplanes use their sense of smell to locate preferred food sources such as whale carcasses. Like many sea cucumber species, manatees often occur in very large densities, sometimes up to hundreds of animals in food-rich areas. Initial observations have recorded groups of 300 to 600 individuals.
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