The luxurious "birthing room" for fish on the seabed is 150 times the size of Beijing

Recently, scientists' research objects seem to have all rolled up their sleeves, vying for the title of "who is the biggest", such as the 2.4 million square kilometers of the crocodile icefish "cradle", millipedes as big as a car... bigger than big, let's take a look at what they are!

Undersea Kingdom

Hidden under the Weddell Sea in Antarctica is a 2.4 million square kilometer fish breeding colony. If you don't have an idea of ​​this data, you can convert it like this: Beijing is about 16,000 square kilometers, and the area of ​​this breeding colony is equivalent to 150 Beijings!

Alligator Icefish Lair | References [1]

This is a breeding colony of Neopagetopsis ionah. Neopagetopsis ionah belongs to the Channichthyidae family. They are not related to crocodiles, but are named because they have a mouth similar to that of crocodiles. They do not have hemoglobin in their bodies, and even their blood is transparent. Their metabolism depends entirely on dissolved oxygen in their bodies.

The crocodile icefish found in the nest this time is Neopagetopsis ionah | BOLD systems

This huge breeding colony of crocodile icefish contains about 60 million active nests, containing more than 60,000 tons of fish biomass, making it the largest fish "birthing room" ever discovered. Most of the nests have an adult crocodile icefish, each guarding more than 1,700 eggs.

The researchers were conducting seabed observations and depth measurements and found that there was an upwelling of seawater in this area, and the temperature was about 2°C higher than the surrounding area. They investigated here and unexpectedly discovered such an "underwater kingdom". The researchers also found many dead bodies of crocodile ice fish nearby. They speculated that for predators, this huge crocodile ice fish delivery room is the granary on which they depend for survival. Weddell seals often wander around the nests and feed on these fish.

Weddell's seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) | Mia Wege, University of Pretoria

This huge colony of crocodile icefish nests is a very unique ecosystem. Researchers believe that this discovery could promote the establishment of a regional marine protected area in the Southern Ocean under the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

Prehistoric giant insect

Prehistoric creatures have once again refreshed human imagination - scientists have discovered the largest worm in history, which is as big as a car!

Giant millipede fossil | Neil Daves

A fossil unearthed in northern England has broken the record for the largest arthropod. It is a millipede (also known as millipede) from the genus Arthropleura, which is from 326 million years ago, 100 million years earlier than the dinosaurs. Similar to modern millipedes, its body is made up of multiple articulated segments; but different is that this prehistoric millipede is estimated to be 55 cm wide, 2.63 meters long, and weigh 50 kg. Because it is so large, it takes four people to move the fossil.

A reconstruction of a giant millipede (with scale). To be exact, this guy is about the length of a mini car, a little shorter than the average length of a sedan, but it's scary enough to imagine... | Neil Davies

After the death of a millipede, the body segments usually separate; therefore, the researchers speculate that this fossil may be the shell of a millipede. At present, the understanding of this prehistoric giant insect is very limited, and it is impossible to determine what they feed on and how they maintain their huge bodies. Scientists speculate that they may prey on other invertebrates or even small vertebrates.

What's even more legendary is that this fossil was a "fallen paper": one day, a piece of sandstone fell from a cliff onto the beach, and the rock cracked, revealing a giant millipede fossil; later, a doctor happened to pass by and eventually set this new historical record.

The largest begonia

In Medog County, Tibet Province, my country, researcher Tian Shiroko of Chenshan Scientific Research Center discovered the world's largest begonia, the tallest of which is 3.6 meters tall and the thickest part is nearly 12 centimeters in diameter. People even need to stand on the top of a car to accurately measure their height.

Researcher Tashiro Kou and Begonia | Qing-Gong Mao

Begonia is one of the plant genera with the most members. Currently, there are more than 2,050 known species of begonia, and many new species are constantly being discovered. However, most of them are relatively short, and those taller than humans are quite rare. After research, the "giant" begonia discovered this time was described as a new species, Begonia giganticaulis, and was listed as an endangered species based on their distribution.

For easy transportation, the begonia is cut into 4 sections | Tashiro Takashi

In order to transport the begonias to Shanghai, researcher Tashiro Ko had to cut them into four sections. The final begonia specimen was about 3.1 meters high and 2.5 meters wide. It appeared at the first Chinese Begonia Exhibition held at Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, stunning many tourists.

Specimens displayed at the Chinese Begonia exhibition | Tashiro Takashi

Chenshan Botanical Garden is applying for the Guinness World Record for the largest begonia specimen.

Giant Ichthyosaur

Scientists have discovered a two-meter-long skull - it belonged to a 246-million-year-old ichthyosaur that may have been the earliest giant marine creature on Earth.

Two-meter-long ichthyosaur skull | Martin Sander / Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Ichthyosaurs are an extinct group of marine reptiles that, like cetaceans, evolved from their terrestrial ancestors returning to the ocean and needing to breathe air. Ichthyosaurs first appeared 250 million years ago, slightly earlier than dinosaurs. Ichthyosaurs became extinct about 90 million years ago, but in their time, ichthyosaurs were one of the dominant species in the water, with huge bodies and rich species diversity.

This ichthyosaur skull was unearthed in Nevada, USA, and belongs to a new ichthyosaur species, Cymbospondylus youngorum. Researchers estimate that its body length should be more than 17 meters, similar to that of a male sperm whale. But when it appeared, the earliest ichthyosaurs had only appeared for more than 3 million years; that is, it took whales 45 million years to evolve into their current huge size, while ichthyosaurs only took 3 million years, which refreshed scientists' understanding of the speed of evolution.

Ichthyosaurs (Cymbospondylus youngorum), humans, and sperm whales. The left side represents the rate of evolution of body size: this type of ichthyosaur evolved a large body very quickly. | Stephanie Abramowicz / Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Coincidentally, a 180 million-year-old ichthyosaur fossil was discovered in the UK. It is the largest and most complete ichthyosaur found in the UK in more than 200 years. It is a triangular-toothed Temnodontosaurus trigonodon. Temnodontosaurus trigonodon has large eyes with a diameter of 20 cm, the largest eyes of all known vertebrates. At first, when researchers saw the exposed jaw fossil, they thought it was just a pipe or a pile of stones; they realized after digging that this was likely an unprecedented discovery.

Excavation site | Nigel Larkin / Twitter

It took paleontologists and volunteers more than three weeks to carefully excavate the fossil amidst the accumulation of guano and bad weather. It is 10 meters long and contains a whole spine made up of more than 150 bones. The head alone weighs nearly 1 ton. In order to protect this huge and fragile specimen, they also used a lot of plaster and wooden splints.

The fossil is about 10 meters long | Anglian Water

Scientists are still studying this amazing fossil, and they hope that it can be put on permanent display near the site of its discovery in the future.

Calendar Girl's Easter Egg

After seeing "bigger than big", let's see "smaller than small"! Recently, scientists discovered the world's smallest snail in cave sediments in northern Vietnam. It is a new species, Angustopila psammion. Its shell is only 0.48 mm high and its volume is only 0.036 cubic millimeters. Five snails added together are only as big as a grain of sand!

The world's smallest snail, Angustopila psammion | References [8]

In order to clean the surface of the snails during the study, scientists needed to put them under a microscope and even used a manicurist's special brush.

Scientists believe that this snail is so small that it can access food particles that other species cannot eat, and it can also avoid predators. What powerful eyes must be able to detect even such a small snail!

References

[1]A vast icefish breeding colony discovered in the Antarctic: Current Biology (cell.com)

[2]Icefish breeding colony of 60 million active | EurekAlert!

[3]https://jgs.lyellcollection.org/content/early/2021/11/19/jgs2021-115

[4]https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf5787

[5]Tian DK, Wang WG, Dong LN, Xiao Y, Zheng MM, Ge BJ (2021) A new species (Begonia gigantica) of Begoniaceae from southern Xizang (Tibet) of China. PhytoKeys 187: 177–193. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.187.75854

[6]Rutland Sea Dragon (anglianwater.co.uk)

[7]Giant 'Sea Dragon' Unearthed From Mud Is The Largest Ever Found in The UK (sciencealert.com)

[8]World's smallest snail: Newly discovered land snail could fit inside a grain of sand | New Scientist

Author: White Stork on the Shore, Mai Mai

Editor: Mai Mai, Window Knocking Rain

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]