Portrait of 'food transporter' for the ocean floor

This strange creature named Larvaceans lives a few hundred meters from the water. By absorbing and processing all the oceanic floating nutrients, Larvaceans helped maintain the life of the bottom-living organisms.

Deep below the ocean there is a creature that is smaller than the palm but is designated as "foster brother" of the ocean floor.

This strange creature named Larvaceans lives a few hundred meters from the water. By absorbing and processing all the oceanic floating nutrients, Larvaceans helped maintain the life of the bottom-living organisms.

Picture 1 of Portrait of 'food transporter' for the ocean floor
Portrait of Larvacean.

According to a study in the Science Advances magazine, tiny creatures are marine animals and animals that have a primitive spinal cord but have a tadpole-shaped head and a tail like a tentacle. with mucus. They have extremely impressive water filtration capabilities. In 1 hour, they can purify nearly 19 liters of water like the water we use every day. Giant larvaceans can filter all the water around them in Monterey Bay (USA) within 500 days. If all individuals work at the same time with regular productivity, the same amount of water will be filtered out in just 13 days. And through this capacity, the food that follows the flow of water will also be purified to move between the floors of the ocean.

To understand exactly how they work, scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have equipped a remote control car with a laser illumination to track the details of the process food when they pump water into their mouths through contact-tassels filled with mucus. All information from the car video recorder has been recorded by scientists and published in the recent Science Advances magazine.

Picture 2 of Portrait of 'food transporter' for the ocean floor
The surrounding mucous membrane will be the food for organisms on the ocean floor.

Accordingly, after filtering the food according to the absorbed water source, the head of Larvaceans will "release" back to the ocean surface the nutrients they do not need. Larvacean's body continues to process nutrients and create a mucous membrane to carry food. And when this mucous layer is too heavy, this mucous membrane along with some nutrients will be "released" to the ocean floor. Like that, this "waste" part will feed the ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean.

Larvaceans are considered a huge digestive system of the ocean , reusing and effectively manipulating all nutrients without waste. And with food scarcity at the bottom, their vital existence is undisputed.