From blind salamanders to glowing squid, a new book explores the incredible biodiversity found in places where the sun doesn't shine.
Snipe eel
, phantom anglerfish, cockatoo squid. Don't feel bad if you've never heard of these creatures, because even the scientists who study such things hardly ever see them.
Why is sunlight important to animals?
The energy from the sun is transferred from plants to animals when animals eat the plants. Animals also benefit from the sun's effect on their bodies, because
sunlight on skin produces vitamin D
, which is important in the formation of strong bones. Animals also get vitamin D by eating plants.
Do animals need sunlight?
Animals don't need energy from the sun
, not directly anyway. Animals get energy from the food they eat. However, that food either got its energy by eating other food, or by photosynthesis, and sooner or later almost all energy on Earth comes from the sun.
Can living things survive without the sun?
Without the Sun's rays, all photosynthesis on Earth would stop. … While some inventive humans might be able to survive on a Sun-less Earth for several days, months, or even years, life without the Sun would
eventually prove to be impossible to maintain on Earth
.
Do animals get energy from the sun?
All nutritional energy comes from the Sun: plants use chlorophyll to photosynthesize the Sun's energy into plant energy, and then
animals either feed
on plants for that energy or they feed on the animals that have eaten that plant energy. The food chain begins with the Sun and then the energy flows to producers.
Which animal does not have eyes?
Researchers said on Thursday that the red brittle star
Does all life on Earth require sunshine?
Most organisms either directly or indirectly use energy from the sun to survive, but
not all of them
. Plants and some microbes use the energy from the sun to perform photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, light energy is used to combine CO
2
in the air with water to make sugars and oxygen.
How long would we survive if the sun went out?
Likewise, if the sun simply “turned off” (which is actually physically impossible), the Earth would stay warm-at least compared with the space surrounding it-for
a few million years
. But we surface dwellers would feel the chill much sooner than that.
What happens if the sun dies?
After
the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will balloon into a red giant
, consuming Venus and Mercury. Earth will become a scorched, lifeless rock — stripped of its atmosphere, its oceans boiled off. … While the Sun won't become a red giant for another 5 billion years, a lot can happen in that time.
What happens if the sun disappeared for 1 second?
Suddenly, as the last of the sun's rays fell onto earth's daylight side
, the Sun would simply vanish. Eternal night would fall over the planet and Earth will start traveling into interstellar space at 18 miles per second.
What animals survive sunlight?
Lots of marine animals can be found in the sunlit zone
Do any animals absorb sunlight?
Instead, its exoskeleton uses the light energy to produce
electrical energy
in a solar cell. Four animals that make use of solar energy are a sea slug known as the eastern emerald elysia, an animal called the mint-sauce worm, an insect called the oriental hornet, and the embryos of the spotted salamander.
What do animals need to survive?
What four basic things do all animals need to survive? Animals need
food, shelter from weather and predators, water
, and a place to raise young.
What animal has 32 brains?
2.
Leeches
have 32 brains. A leech's internal structure is divided into 32 separate segments, and each of these segments has its own brain. In addition to that, every leech has nine pairs of testes — but that's another post for another day.
Which animal Cannot walk backwards?
Emus
. Emus are flightless birds that resemble ostriches, though they are slightly shorter. Unlike their look-alike, emus can only walk forward and not backward.
What animals dont have tongues?
Other animals naturally have no tongues, such as
sea stars, sea urchins and other echinoderms
, as well as crustaceans, says Chris Mah via email. Mah is a marine invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and has discovered numerous species of sea stars.
