What is Midnight Zone?

About Midnight Zone:

• The ocean water column is made up of five zones: the sunlight zone (epipelagic), the twilight zone (mesopelagic), the midnight zone (bathypelagic), the abyssal zone (abyssopelagic), and the hadal zone (trenches).
• Sunlight is rapidly absorbed as it travels through water. Red, orange, and yellow are absorbed quickly, leaving water a brilliant blue, but even these wavelengths disappear as light travels deeper.
• By about 1,000 meters (about 3,300 feet) depth, even the faintest light has been extinguished, leaving these deep ocean waters in perpetual darkness. 
• The resulting bathypelagic, or midnight, zone extends to about 4,000 meters (about 13,100 feet), which reaches the ocean floor in many places.
• The midnight zone is the single largest habitat on the planet, accounting for 70% of all seawater.
• In addition to the lack of light, the midnight zone is characterized by a steady temperature of around 4° Celsius (39° Fahrenheit). 
• Life that exists in this zone must be able to function in cold temperatures and withstand extreme hydrostatic pressure.
• Pressure varies with depth, and in this zone, it ranges from 100 to 400 atmospheres.
• Organisms here have special adaptations including well-developed visual systems, bioluminescence used both to lure prey and attract mates, and well-developed auditory systems that allow them to hear other animals moving nearby.

Key Facts about Bathydevius Caudactylus:

• It is a new species of mollusk discovered within the ocean’s midnight zone.
• Although the apple-size species is classified as a sea slug, the marine animal is unlike any sea slug scientists have seen before.
• It is a swimming sea slug that glows with bioluminescence and has a body with a paddle-like tail and a large gelatinous hood, and it’s the first sea slug found to live in the deep ocean. 
  • Typically, sea slugs live on the seafloor or in coastal environments like tide pools, while only a few are known to live in open water near the surface.
• Bathydevius moves up and down the water column by flexing its body or drifting in the currents.
• It is hermaphrodite, which includes both male and female reproductive organs. 

Q1: What is bioluminescence?

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Bioluminescent creatures are found throughout marine habitats, from the ocean surface to the deep seafloor.

News: Apple-Sized “Mystery Mollusk” Discovered In Ocean’s Midnight Zone

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