VID 20150315 132705

81. What is a kraken?

Kraken from ancient Mythologies 

In olden days, myths and legends about dangerous sea-creatures reflected their perils of ocean travel. Norwegian legends told of the kraken, a giant, many-armed monster that rose from the depths, wrapped its tentacles around unlucky ships, and dragged them down to the bottom. This legend is thought to be based on sightings of the mysterious deep-sea squid.

80. What is a chimera?

ACCORDING TO GREEK LEGEND, THE CHIMERA WAS A TERRIBLE monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a dragon’s tail. Strange deep-sea fish, called chimeras, also look as if their bodies have been assembled from the parts of other creatures. They have large heads with staring eyes like bushbabies, and buck teeth like rabbits. Their bodies end in long, thin tails like rats’ tails.

79. What is the fastest marine mammal?

Killer Whale Orca

The Orca, or killer whale, is the speed champion among sea mammals. It can race along up to 34 mph (56 kph) to catch its prey.

78. What are the tiniest sea-creatures?

Thousands of kinds of tiny creatures live in the world’s oceans. The smallest are made up of just one cell, and must be magnified a thousand times or more before we can see them. Plankton is the name given to the billions of tiny plants and animals that float near the surface of the oceans. They are the main food of many fish, and other sea-creatures.

77. What is the biggest fish?

Fish vary more in size than any other group of animals with backbones (vertebrates). The largest fish is the whale shark, which grows up to 49 feet (15 m) long and weighs 20 tons. Though giant in size, whale sharks are not fierce hunters. They feed mainly on tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill.

76. What record-breaking fish came back to life?

Coelacanths are giant primitive fish that scientists knew from fossils, but believed had died out millions of years ago. Then in 1938, a living specimen of the “extinct” species was caught off South Africa. Now scientists in submersibles have studied coelacanths living on the sea-bed, off the island of Madagascar. Coelacanths are giant, blue-scaled fish with muscled fins which they may use to perch on the ocean bottom.