{"id":680,"date":"2021-10-15T10:40:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T17:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/?p=680"},"modified":"2021-10-15T10:42:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T17:42:11","slug":"skeletons-and-sea-creatures-learning-about-the-blobfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/skeletons-and-sea-creatures-learning-about-the-blobfish\/","title":{"rendered":"Skeletons and Sea-Creatures: Learning about the Blobfish!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blobfish…Why the \u2018World\u2019s Ugliest Animal\u2019 Isn\u2019t as Ugly as You Think It Is<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

The blobfish is the world\u2019s ugliest animal. But we don\u2019t think the contest was very fair<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Adapted from The Smithsonian, 2013<\/b><\/p>\n

Poor sad blobfish, voted the world\u2019s ugliest animal.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time again, when the whole world gathers together to pick on the blobfish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday<\/span>, after the votes were counted, <\/span>the blobfish was named the world\u2019s ugliest animal<\/span>. <\/span>The run-off was led by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society<\/span>. The Society was looking for a mascot, an ugly mascot. <\/span>As the Society says<\/span>: \u201cThe panda gets too much attention. We want to see the uglier animals too!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But we think the world was too hard on our friend the blobfish (or, if you want to call him by their proper name\u2014and really, they\u2019d prefer it if you would!\u2014<\/span>Psychro<\/span><\/i>l<\/span><\/i>utes marcidus<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, we think that droopy blobfish up there is actually holding up alright considering everything it\u2019s been through. <\/span>Psychrolutes marcidus<\/span><\/i> are a deep water fish that live off the coast of Australia, somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 feet beneath the waves. Down there, the pressure is up to 120 times higher than it is at the surface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t want to be in the deep ocean without a strong submarine. And, likewise, the blobfish really doesn\u2019t like being up here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many fish have something called a swim bladder, an organ full of air in their body that helps them move. <\/span>When you take fish with swim bladders out of their natural habitats<\/span> that air sac \u201cmay expand when they rise, which harms the fish\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

See what we mean about the blobfish having a hard time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The blobfish doesn\u2019t really have much of a skeleton, and <\/span>it doesn\u2019t really have any muscle<\/span>. So, up here, it\u2019s saggy and droopy. In fact, super-deep water fish often have minimal skeletons and jelly-like flesh. They are almost like a water balloon!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image above: what’s inside a blobfish? The bones are dyed red, the cartilage is dyed blue. What do you notice?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

So why do we think the world is too hard on the blobfish? Because if we put you 4,000 feet below the water your body and organs would be crushed and you\u2019d probably become gooey and gross.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the blobfish can withstand the deep sea. We think they are quite a lovely fish when they are left alone in their home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image: (left) the blobfish in the deep ocean look very different from the blobfish we usually see in photos (right)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blobfish…Why the \u2018World\u2019s Ugliest Animal\u2019 Isn\u2019t as Ugly as You Think It Is The blobfish is the world\u2019s ugliest animal. But we don\u2019t think the contest was very fair Adapted from The Smithsonian, 2013 Poor sad blobfish, voted the world\u2019s ugliest animal.\u00a0 It\u2019s that time again, when the whole world gathers together to pick on … Continue reading Skeletons and Sea-Creatures: Learning about the Blobfish!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8574,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,6,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}