Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment Animals

Deep-sea marine animals lay eggs near hydrothermal vents so they hatch faster

This is the first time scientists have seen a marine animal doing this.

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu
February 8, 2018
in Animals, News
ADVERTISEMENT
Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

ADVERTISEMENT

Deep-sea skates lay their eggs in the vicinity of hydrothermal vents to accelerate hatching, a surprising new study reveals. This is the first time that biologists have recorded such a behavior in marine animals.

A 'black smoker' (left), the hottest type of vent. Skate egg cases collected in the area (right). Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust.
A ‘black smoker’ (left), the hottest type of vent. Skate egg cases collected in the area (right). Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust.

The first time scientists suspected something like this was happening was in 2015 when they were surveying the seafloor northwest of the Galapagos Islands. The team, which was comprised of researchers at the University of Rhode Island and the Charles Darwin Research Station, was exploring the underwater mountains around the Galapagos when their remotely-operated submersible caught sight of something peculiar. Large numbers of egg cases of deep-sea skate, which are related to sharks and rays, were found littering the hot water around hydrothermal vents.

“We were on a really deep dive in a hydrothermally-active rift valley, with walls 30 meters tall on either side, and the ROV was meandering back and forth looking for vents,” said Brennan Phillips, an assistant professor of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island. “We started noticing all these egg cases, and we recorded their location and collected a few but then just kept going.”

Later, Phillips and colleagues analyzed the egg locations and found these coincided with known hydrothermal vent locations. A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet’s surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at spreading centers, ocean basins, and hotspots.

The researchers hypothesize that the eggs are intentionally placed by the skates where the water is warmer than average in order to speed up hatching.

In total, 157 egg cases, each the size of an iPhone, were observed by the researchers. DNA analysis suggests these belonged to the Pacific white skate (Bathyraja spinosissima), which lives up to two thousand metres deep. Hence, not very much is known about this elusive creature.

Pacific White Skate. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Pacific White Skate. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

About 58 percent of the egg cases were collected from within 20 meters of a black smoker, which is the hottest kind of hydrothermal vent, and 89 percent of all egg cases discovered by the group were laid in water that was hotter than the background temperature of 2.76 degrees Centigrade.

However, the eggs weren’t placed right next to the vents — temperatures there can exceed hundreds of degrees. Instead, most of the eggs were found in the lukewarm water not too far from the vents and near extinct vents, the authors wrote in Scientific Reports.

More skate egg cases. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust.
More skate egg cases. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust.

Phillips says that other marine animals likely do the same. When he showed the data to shark experts, they nodded their heads and said they had anecdotal evidence of shark and ray egg cases found near hydrothermal vents.

Non-marine animals take advantage of naturally warmer-than-average hot spots, as well. The Polynesian megapode (Megapodius pritchardii) nests in volcanically-heated soils, for instance. Even some dinosaurs likely did the same, judging from Cretaceous era sauropod fossils. 

Phillips believes that sharks, rays, skates, and possibly other animals — all of which evolved about 500 million years ago — have adapted to these unusual conditions and made the most of them.

“Seafloor volcanism comes and goes, and it is often one of the causes of mass extinctions,” he said. “It’s interesting to me that we’re seeing sharks and skates thriving around volcanoes and vent sites, like they’re especially resilient and have evolved to withstand the hot water environment.”

 

Tags: deep-sea skateegghydrothermal ventpacific white skate
Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.