{"id":4799,"date":"2024-11-06T17:13:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T21:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2024-12-20T17:08:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T21:08:47","slug":"diving-deep-into-the-depths-exploring-biomechanical-adaptations-of-deep-sea-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/2024\/11\/06\/diving-deep-into-the-depths-exploring-biomechanical-adaptations-of-deep-sea-creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving Deep into the Depths: Exploring Biomechanical Adaptations of Deep-Sea Creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019ve ever been at the bottom of a deep pool or body of water, then you\u2019ve been able to feel some effects of water, also known as hydrostatic, pressure. Your ears begin to pop, your nasal cavity starts to feel a lot of pressure, and your eyes begin to feel compressed. Now imagine diving 10,000 ft deep, where you\u2019d feel 300 times the pressure you would feel during that small dive. Your bones would begin to crush and crack, your lungs would collapse, and much more. We still know very little about the ocean\u2013it is said that we know more about outer space than the ocean\u2013but as we keep exploring, we learn more about different deep sea creatures\u2013aquatic animals residing over 1,000 m below sea level\u2013and how they survive such immense hydrostatic pressure at abysmal depths. By discovering more about their physical adaptations, we can design better vehicles or modes of withstanding these high pressures to venture deeper into the sea. So, how do these creatures survive such immense pressures? What do they have biomechanically that we don\u2019t possess?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Jelly-Like Body<\/strong>
One key biomechanical difference between land\/shallow-water animals and deep-sea creatures is the bone structure. Our bones are rigid and calcified; they don\u2019t allow for much movement and are therefore brittle. The skeletal structure<\/a> of deep-sea creatures is much more flexible and less calcified, consisting mostly of cartilage, allowing for some compression and bending to withstand the high pressures. This increased flexibility is also not limited to just their skeletons, but also their skin. This makes the creatures look \u201cjelly-like\u201d when they are out of the water. Think of a blobfish. If you pressed your finger into one, it would be like poking a ball of slime. This compressibility makes them much more resistant to the high forces as it allows the body to deform to the pressure while staying flexible: not brittle. Their body is similar to a stress ball: it’s easy to compress at first but becomes stronger as you further compress. On the other hand, our skeletons are more like glass balls which are hard to squeeze, but once you generate enough force, they crack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\"Blobfish
Blobfish at a depth of 1220 m
Courtesy of Australian Museum<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"Blobfish
A Blobfish out of Water
Photo by Kerryn Parkinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Floatation Device<\/strong>
Most fish utilize a \u201cswim bladder\u201d, which is a gas-filled sac, to regulate their buoyancy so they can swim at different depths. Most deep-sea creatures, on the other hand, don\u2019t have this buoyancy regulator because the high hydrostatic pressure would rupture the sac due to a large pressure difference. Rather, their lighter skeleton and body, due to it being more gelatinous and having a high water concentration, are slightly less dense than water, allowing them to float above the floor of the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Problems in the Field<\/strong>
The biggest problem with studying deep-sea creatures is that many of them can\u2019t survive at the surface level because their bodies are so assimilated to the high pressures; they have a higher internal pressure than the pressure we feel on land, so they would expand to a point where they can\u2019t survive. Therefore, minimal studies<\/a> have been done on live deep-sea creatures. Experiments on living organisms would be beneficial to see live biological and physiological processes they use to adapt or react to stimuli. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have more studies of these creatures while in high-pressure atmospheres, which is difficult as we cannot survive under those pressures. However, studies on deep-sea creatures are improving with the advancement in remotely controlled underwater vehicles and high-pressure laboratories which will lead us to discover and better understand these mysterious creatures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured Imag<\/a>e courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2017.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever been at the bottom of a deep pool or body of water, then you\u2019ve been able to feel some effects of water, also known as hydrostatic, pressure. Your ears begin to pop, your nasal cavity starts to feel a lot of pressure, and your eyes begin to feel compressed. Now imagine diving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4937,"featured_media":5062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[505592],"tags":[348719,505553,356046,505450],"class_list":["post-4799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-fall","tag-bone","tag-extreme-conditions","tag-marine-biology","tag-tendons-ligaments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4799"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5196,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions\/5196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/biomechanics-in-the-wild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}