Coral is an Anthozoa that live in colonies and form the vital reefs that sustain ocean ecosystems. Sometimes called the rainforests of the seas, coral reefs provide the primary habitat to more than a quarter of the ocean’s animals. Unfortunately, coral reefs are threatened. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, overfishing, and water pollution is causing bleaching, what happens when coral colonies die off. About 10% of the ocean’s reefs are dead, and 60% are at risk.
Coral is a prehistoric organism, and, luckily, like the sea sponge, it lives virtually forever. On average, coral reefs are 5,000 to 10,000 years old! Coral have a stomach and a mouth. The mouth is surrounded by stinging tentacles that suck in its food. They grow very slowly, about 1 to 8 inches per year. Coral reefs cover only about 1% of the ocean floor.
Tuatara
A tuatara is a singularly unique animal. Don’t call it a lizard, or a dinosaur, although its reptilian relatives have been dead a long time. Found in New Zealand, the closest genetic species is an extinct group of reptiles that existed during the prehistoric days of the dinosaur. Discovering the tuatara’s lineage in 1989 was like finding a living fossil. It comes from the Sphenodontia order, which had not been known to flourish since the Jurassic Age, about 200 million years ago. The last of the Sphenodontia species was thought to have died out 60 million years ago. And then they found the tuatara hiding out in burrows on offshore New Zealand islands.
Tuatara eggs can take up to 15 months to hatch. As an evolutionary trait, it’s not the best. Rats have plenty of time to eat them to extinction. But a mature tuatara can live to be 100 and can survive near-freezing temperatures. They are also able to remain active at cool temperatures, which gives them a reptilian edge. Interestingly, the hatchlings are born with a third eye, including a lens, retina, and cornea. Scales and pigment cover it by the age of six months. Like the marsupials found down under, these critters are marvelous.
Blue Whale
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest creature to have ever graced the planet. It’s as large as an average ship and outsizes, even, the most gigantic of the extinct dinosaurs. It’s difficult to imagine how enormous these beasts of the sea are. Its massive heart, alone, can weigh as much as a small car. With a lifespan comparable to humans, the great blue will live 80 to 90 years average. The oldest blue whale lived 110 years. Scientists were able to calculate its lifespan based on ear wax buildup. It works sort of like the rings on a tree method, whereby, the layers of wax can accurately be counted to determine the whale’s age. Their diet is based on swallowing up huge schools of tiny krill. If they can find it, blue whales can devour four tons of krill a day. This is the extent of their hunting activity.
On the flip side, blue calves, even though they weigh 3 tons at birth, can fall prey to great whites and orcas. The only significant predator to the blue whale is hunting by man. Before bans on whaling were put in place, blue whales were very nearly exterminated due to 19th and, and especially, 20th century global whaling. The magnificent blues were harvested for various commercial purposes. Today they are considered endangered, although their numbers have risen to about 9,000.
Yangtze Sturgeon
Also known as Darby’s sturgeon, Chiangjiang sturgeon, and river sturgeon, the Yangtze Sturgeon (Acipenser dabryanus) comes from the Yangtze River in China. Unfortunately, due to overfishing, dam construction, and pollution, this amazing fish is on the brink of extinction. Its species is 250 million years old, a contemporary of the dinos. Hopefully, it will overcome the harsh effects of modernity now that a recent experiment to breed the fish has been successfully completed.
The Yangtze sturgeon can live an astounding 100 years feeding on aquatic plants and small fish. They can grow to a great length of 16 feet and weigh 200, to a jaw-dropping, 1,100 pounds. They are the world’s largest sturgeon.
Baird’s Beaked Whale
Beaked whales are average-sized whales that have a uniquely pointed, or beaked nose, similar in shape to a dolphin’s snout. These toothed whales grow to lengths of 13 to 43 feet and weigh up to 16 tons. The average lifespan for beaked whales is fairly long, 54 years for females and 84 years for males. Because of their preferred deep-sea habitat, less is known about beaked whales than other species.
Beaked whales (Berardius bairdii) can be found living in schools in the cold waters of Alaska. They take long deep dives, plunging down for 11 to 30 minutes, even up to an hour or more, to gather their favorite seafood, such as sardines, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, squid, mackerel and octopus.