In the open ocean, there’s nowhere to hide. There are no rocks to slip under, no kelp to duck behind—nothing but clear water all around. “Every direction you look looks pretty much the same—it’s this ridiculous unearthly blue,” says Sönke Johnsen, a marine biologist and professor at Duke University. If you went swimming out here in the clear blue, you’d stick out like a billboard. Everything with eyes could see you coming. Being visible isn’t safe for creatures that live here; it’s too easy to be spotted by both potential prey and potential predators. So many of them have adopted a remarkable form of camouflage: they’re transparent.
I See Right Through You
Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way it passes through a window. An amazing variety of open-ocean animals can do this: bowl-shaped jellyfish, comb jellies as long as a person, small shrimp-like arthropods, big-eyed squid, tiny larval fish, and snails that look like Christmas ornaments.
These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet (1,000 m)— as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Johnsen says these animals drift through life alone: “They never touch anything unless they’re eating it, or unless something is eating them.”
And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see-through? It’s trickier than you might think.
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
