#spooky creatures

- An Eye of the Depths -

| At 6,000 meters deep |

"Captain Ulrich, we have reached our designati-"

[loud metallic clang]

"What was this? Can you check the flash camera, Jessa?"

Tada, pixel version

Edit: noooooo, it got rid of the quality 😭

Made Incarnate (Aka c!Whirlwind's other personality) from the School Au eating a churro

Because it's Whirl's birthdayy! Happy birthday 🥳Enjoy the churro

Also made some spooky mimicreature designs, Harcourt's minions, I liked the 2nd one experimented with more

Common Hollow Dwellers enjoy getting snacks, and will do a little dance when given food!

What happens when a whale dies at sea?

When a whale dies, its body often sinks to the seafloor and its carcass is what’s known as a whale fall. The whale's body becomes a major food source for a variety of deep sea creatures for decades to follow and is quite the spooky sight! In the GIF below, you can see the amount of decomposition that happens within just one year!

Scientists have identified four different stages of a whale fall, all of which overlap and blend together.

Stage 1 (pictured above) is the Mobile Scavenger Stage. This stage occurs for the first couple of months to the next 5 years where free moving scavengers consume and remove the whale’s soft tissue.

Stage 2 (pictured above) is the Enrichment-Opportunist Stage. This stage can last up to 2 years! A great number of Osedax worms (pictured in red), crustaceans, and other organisms colonize the bones and enriched sediments surrounding the whale fall.

Stage 3 (pictured above) is the Sulphophilic Stage, which can take up to 50 years! When the tissue is removed from the bones, bacteria, Osedax worms, clams, and other organisms break down lipids, within the fatty bones and produce sulfides, which other organisms can then consume.

Stage 4 (pictured above) is the Reef Stage. It is currently unknown how long this stage can last because whale falls have only been studied for a couple of decades but it is believed that the skeleton left behind eventually provides structure for deep-sea suspension feeders. 

Throughout these four stages, there are many different creatures that benefit from a whale fall. Check out our video to learn more!

Spooooky!

Have you met any spooky creatures of the deep today?