Seahorses

There are almost 50species of seahorse, they are found in mostly shallow tropical and moderate waters around the world. In those waters they like to have shelter therefore they live in seagrass beds, coral reefs and mangroves. They can camouflage themselves to their surroundings. Even though they are a type of fish they do not have scales, they have boney plates arranged in rings right through their bodies and each specie of seahorse has its own particular number of rings. A very interesting characteristic that they have a coronet on their heads, on every individual just like a human fingerprint. Also something else that is interesting is that the female lays about 1,500 eggs into the male's pouch and the male carries them around until hatch fully developed which takes anywhere between 9 to 45 days.

Sharks

Tiger Shark

Leopard Shark

There are 440 species of shark ranging in length from 17 centimetres which is the dwarf lantern shark to the whale shark existing of up to 12metres in length. Sharks have been around for at least 420 million years. They are seawater animals apart from the bull shark and the river shark but they can live in both freshwater and seawater. Sharks because they are most commonly found 2,000 deep in the ocean. An average shark will lose 30,000 teeth in their lifetime but as they have multiple rows of teeth which also allow more teeth to grow as they are lost. I find sharks amazing as they have a very very good sense of smell as they can smell one part microscopic proportion of blood in the ocean.

My next post will be about Seahorses.

Jellyfish

Box Jellyfish

There are about 1270-1770 different species of jellyfish under the classes of Scyphozoa, Staurozoa, Cubozoa and Hydrozoa. They are found in every ocean around the world, located in either the deep sea or shallow water. There are also freshwater species that are less than an inch in diameter and have no sting as well as no colour. They use there tentacles to attract there prey and as the prey falls into them the tentacles send an electrical shock through the prey's body. The Portuguese Man of War is probably my favourite jellyfish as it actually not classified as a jellyfish as per say, as it is actually made up of individuals called zooids. Also the top of them floats on the surface of the water instead of many jellyfish that actually float in the water. Jellyfish are another example of intriguing life in our oceans.
My next post will be about sharks.

Dolphins

Orca / Killer Whale (above)

The Maui Dolphin (above)

Dolphins are marine mammals and there closest relative are whales and porpoises. There are nearly 40species the smallest dolphin is the Maui Dolphin existing of 1.2metres (4ft) and 40kg (90lb), the largest dolphin is the Orca also known as the Killer Whale even though its called a whale it is in fact a dolphin its length is 9.5metres (30ft) and its weight is 10tonnes. As you may already know dolphins are among the most intelligent creatures, as well as being clever they are very friendly and playful which has made them popular with people from around the world as well as in different centuries.  There are also hybrid dolphins  such as the Wholphin a cross between a bottle-nose dolphin and a killer whale/orca. Dolphins have 10times the hearing of a human's hearing, as it is believed that they have teeth that can receive incoming sound and pin point exactly where the location of the object is, this is called echolocation. These creatures are incredible an I have only mentioned at the most half of the information about them.

My next post will be on Jellyfish.