QUICK FACTS
Name: Headless rooster monster (Enypniastes eximia)
Where it lives: The depths of the world’s oceans
What it eats: Marine snow (natural matter that floats from the floor right down to the seabed)
If you occurred upon this weird creature within the ocean, you could possibly be forgiven for pondering somebody had flung a rooster carcass into the ocean and it was bobbing alongside on the present — therefore its nickname, “the headless chicken monster.”
But this unusual creature is definitely a sea cucumber that lives deep beneath the floor, typically under 1,600 toes (500 meters) and right down to the seafloor.
It is a deep burgundy color, has webbed structures on its body for swimming and grows to a length of up to 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) — roughly the same size as a small roast chicken.
Scientists know very little about this mysterious deep-sea cucumber because it is very fragile and easily damaged when researchers try to collect samples.
It has been observed crawling along the seafloor using appendages called “tube feet” to scoop up sediment and stuff it into its mouth. According to a video from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, headless rooster monsters try to extract natural materials from the sediment.
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Like ploughing a subject, working the seafloor helps maintain the habitat wholesome by clearing out and aerating the sediment, in response to an NOAA post by Christopher Mah, a zoologist specializing in invertebrates on the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
This is a gruelling solution to get vitamins. “You really have to pass a lot of sediment through your gut to get any nutrition out of this sediment,” an NOAA consultant stated within the video.
The sea cucumber also can swim by holding itself upright and flapping fin-like buildings that fringe the highest and backside of its physique. “Although it typically spends its days gobbling up detritus among sediment grains on the seabed, the unique behavior to swim through the water column helps it avoid predators, locate to new feeding areas, and delight science teams,” a consultant from Nautilus Live wrote within the textual content accompanying a YouTube video of the creature.
This gelatinous animal is neutrally buoyant however has a cheeky technique to provide itself an additional raise. When it must take off into the water column, it typically lightens the load by pooping because it swims away.