Benthic Bio - The Places On Earth Where Everything Interesting Happens
| CREATURE FEATURE: GEOMETRIC MORAY | |
|---|---|
| |
| speaker of riddles! forlorn prophet of the western indian ocean! | |
| Should we worry? | |
| |
| # of mature individuals: | who even knows |
| conclusion: | probably not |
| Characteristics | |
| scientific name: | Gymnothorax griseus |
| size: | up to 65 cm/≈2.1 feet |
| bad size visualization: | two rulers end-to-end |
| family: | muraenidae (moray eels) | range: | western indian ocean | habitat: | shallow coastal waters, coral, rocky reefs |
| are they hermaphrodites: | YES!!!!!! synchronous!!!!! |
| Cool I guess, but sell me on it! | The geometric moray is gorgeous! Come ON! Look at him! The purplish face, the dots arranged in hypnotizing pseudo-geometry. . .he kind of looks like the erasers that we all stabbed with pencils in second grade, right? But cool and draconic. Like all members of Muraenidae, he secretes mucus that helps him slither through tight crevices. I'm pretty sure this mucus is at least a little bit toxic, too, but there really isn't too much information on this particular species and I'm counfounded as to where to look for more. Maybe I'll email a researcher or something. The word Gymnothorax comes from the Greek gymnos, meaning naked, and thorax, meaning breast. The word griseus is derived from Latin and means grey (which he sure as hell is). |
If all goes according to plan, October 2024 will see the launch of NASA's Europa Clipper. It will have a dry mass of 3,241 kg, will power itself with solar panels, and will spend four years peering into the deep of Jupiter's moon Europa.
My favorite of the Galilean moons, Europa is one of the most promising places in our solar system where we might find life. Its surface is composed mostly of water ice and beneath it, respirating with tides caused by the immense gravitational pull of Jupiter, is an ocean. A biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig ocean. Deep, deep down at the bottom of this ocean, scientists may find hydrothermal activity - the same sort of hydrothermal activity that here, on earth, harbors (HAHA) some of the most interesting life on the planet. I'm biased, though.
This section of my website will not be about microscopic aliens in the unknowable oceans of foreign moons; it'll be about the funky dudes living in the depths of our own blue marble. I brought up Europa to spur your imagination. Show you what inspired me. Behold our own benthic neighbors, and imagine what their cousins on distant worlds might look like!
Or maybe they won't be cousins, and instead they'll be forbidden lovers or something. Maybe eels on Europa and eels on Earth meet up every other Tuesday to smoke and kiss on the lips. We won't judge, as long as it isn't both.
Once it concludes its mission, the Europa Clipper probe will likely be disposed of by crashing it into the surface of Ganymede.
information above sourced from nasa.gov and wikipedia.
Thalassologues
Listen to me talk to myself about cool stuff! For FREE!
Piles of digestible information below - just don't get your stomach acid all over my page, please:
eels that lie to you
the best member of sygnathidae (leafy sea dragon)
pink vent fish are just as related to blobfish as olms are to axolotls
Creature Feature Citations
Conservation status and population numbers: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
General information/characteristics: Wikipedia
Name etymology, habitat, hermaphroditism: https://www.fishbase.se/summary/8058