Who are the gopniks? Modern gopniks: a photo with a cap is back in fashion.

Everything inaccessible enchants. And what could be further from a person than ocean floor? Sea creatures are so different from terrestrial creatures. I really want to know more about them. What do they eat? How do they live and protect themselves? There is so much that I really want to know.

Looking at the surface of the water, it is difficult to imagine the diversity of life that lurks below. But these are not only animals, fish and plants. The basis of the marine food chain is plankton.

What is plankton?

The whole world sea ​​animals would cease to exist without him. Plankton are microscopic creatures that are invisible to the naked eye. Their design does not allow them to move arbitrarily in the water. The position of this creature depends on the current, they are not able to resist it.

There are two types of plankton in nature:

• zooplankton, which is formed from living organisms;
• phytoplankton are special marine plants.

The latter gives the water slightly green tint. There is so much plankton in the water that in one liter of it millions of these creatures are found. Moreover, they not only serve as food that all marine life eats, but also participate in the restoration of oxygen in the water.

Transparent antiquity, or Why the jellyfish is interesting

These inhabitants depths of the sea consist of 90 percent water. Moreover, jellyfish appeared on Earth so long ago that their distant ancestors witnessed the life of dinosaurs.

Some species of these animals have poison that can cause a burn on the skin of a person or even kill. For example, the box jellyfish is extremely dangerous. It kills as many people a year as do not die from all other inhabitants of the seas and oceans. The bite of this jellyfish kills in three minutes, and it moves at a speed of 2 m/s. It is difficult to escape from it, and surviving a bite is almost impossible.

The range of sizes of these creatures of different species is striking. The smallest of them are the size of a pinhead, while the largest have a dome with a diameter of two and a half meters, and their tentacles grow up to fifty meters.

Since jellyfish mostly die after reproduction, their life span is very short. Very rare specimens live in nature for more than two years. Most often they are given only a few months. In captivity, these marine inhabitants can live for quite a long time.

Boneless Giant - Octopus

These sea creatures are very interesting for children due to their unusual structure. After all, octopuses have tentacles instead of legs, and they have no bones at all. Thanks to last fact this creature can easily squeeze into a tiny hole, the diameter of which is only one centimeter.

Here are some Interesting Facts about sea inhabitants - octopuses:

• the blood of these creatures is blue;
• they have three hearts at once;
• octopuses are deaf;
• they can separate any part of the body, which will then grow back;
• octopuses easily change their color to adapt to their environment;
• they turn completely white with fear;
• in order to confuse the pursuer, these animals throw out a cloud of ink.

Some types of octopuses are extremely poisonous. For example, the blue-ringed one, which has a diameter of about 3-4 cm and weighs only 100 g. Its bite stops swallowing after 5 minutes. And after 30 minutes the person suffocates. Moreover, there is no effective antidote yet. The only way to save a person is to perform artificial ventilation until the poison stops working.

Wonderful cetaceans

These inhabitants of the deep sea are mammals. Even though their bodies are quite similar to those of fish, they are still very different. The main difference is in the way of breathing. Marine fish breathe air dissolved in water. Cetaceans lack this ability. They need to breathe air from the atmosphere. For this purpose, they are forced to float to the surface. There they inhale and exhale. The latter is visible as a fountain of air with a small amount of water.

These mammals give birth to their young in water. Therefore, the mother immediately after birth pushes to the surface for the first breath.

The largest marine mammals are blue whales. By the way, they are the largest animals on the ground. The dolphin is the smallest of the cetaceans.

A little about different types of whales

Blue whales are already born giants. Their length reaches 8 meters, and they weigh about 3 tons. The largest female of this whale that was caught weighed 190 tons.

Most cetacean species prefer sea ​​spaces. The exception is humpback whale, which lives near the coast. There are cases when these animals were spotted in bays and rivers. These sea creatures love to perform acrobatic stunts. They emerge from the water and dance gracefully.

These species of whales do not have teeth. Instead, the mouth is filled with horny plates called baleen. Through them, mammals filter plankton, which they feed on.

Such sea predators as sperm whale, feed on cephalopods and fish. They are wonderful divers. They can dive for squid to depths of up to two kilometers. While searching for prey, sperm whales are capable of not breathing for about two hours.

Another carnivorous mammal - killer whale. She has proven herself to be a brutal killer. But there are no documented facts about attacks on people.

Amazing whale narwhal differs from all others in having a long straight tooth. Despite their menacing appearance, they are very friendly.

The most famous cetaceans are dolphins. They are incredibly smart and quick-witted. They are easy to tame and train. By the way, they have a well-developed vocal apparatus and produce a large number of different sounds.

Unusual fish

The names of sea creatures such as: sunfish, needlefish, flounder and swordfish. The first of them floats near the surface of the sea. This makes its fin visible above the water. From a distance it looks like a shark fin. However, it is completely harmless.

Needlefish is different in a unique way hunting. She hides behind other fish and approaches the prey. At the right moment, she instantly sucks the poor thing into her mouth.

Angler invented his own style of hunting. This predator shakes its antenna with a growth, appearance resembling a worm. The fish “bite” at him, and he eats them.

A flying fish invented a way to escape from enemies. She learned to glide over the sea. This is facilitated by its well-developed lateral fins.

Fish with eyes on one side

Flounders can have eyes only on the right or left side of the body. It all depends on the species. These marine fish are unique in that their eggs do not contain fat. This causes the eggs of most flounder species to float near the surface.

These fish do not like deep water. They live mainly near the coast. Rare individuals swim to depths of more than one kilometer.

Interestingly, flounder species are differentiated by mouth size. They can be largemouth or smallmouth. The first of them are predators, whose mouth is symmetrical and “equipped” with teeth on the sighted and blind sides of the body. Examples of such fish are halibut and flounder. They feed mainly on worms and small fish, mollusks and crustaceans, as well as brittle stars.

Warlike Swordfish

This name arose due to the unusual xiphoid process, which is located on her upper jaw. This is not the only feature. Swordfish have no scales. All this, plus a sickle-shaped tail and special shape fins, allows her to be the fastest creature on Earth. Swordfish is capable long time swim at a speed of about 130 km/h.

For such speeds you need space. Therefore, it can only be found in the open ocean.

Swordfish fry feed on plankton. But after they grow to 2 cm, they begin to hunt. Their prey is small fish. At the same time, they begin to develop a sword-shaped appendage. The fry grow very quickly, and after a year their length is about 50 cm.

The predator feeds on everything that comes in its way. And the size of the prey doesn't matter. With her sword she strikes the sea dweller. There are known facts that pieces of shark bodies were found in the stomachs of caught fish.

A little about predators living in the seas

The most famous sea predators are sharks. They were able to survive the dinosaurs. Their sizes depend on the species. The largest of them reach 10-12 meters. And not all shark species are predators. There are some that feed on plankton. Sharks move very quickly due to their streamlined body shape. Unlike fish, they lay eggs, not eggs. These eggs may be attached to the bottom or algae. And some species of sharks carry eggs inside themselves. Shark eggs hatch completely viable.

Prominent representatives of this family: brindle and gray shark. The first one is painted in a very original way. So much so that it resembles a tiger. She doesn't swim far from coastline. Its diet consists of fish and crustaceans, birds and small mammals.

Gray shark also does not swim far into the sea. She looks for fish and crustaceans in the shallows. It does not purposefully attack people. But a person running in panic can be mistaken for a victim.

Other unusual predators - stingrays. Their bodies are strongly flattened and resemble a scarf. When the stingray lies on the bottom, it is perfectly camouflaged. His swimming style resembles flying in the water column. Some species of stingrays are poisonous. They have a spike on their back that releases a poisonous substance. And their mouth is on their belly. Moreover, it is equipped with a large number of sharp teeth.

Leopard seal is a formidable and dangerous predator. This seal got its name because of its color, similar to the spots of a leopard. It feeds on penguins and other warm-blooded animals of the Antarctic. But the leopard seal does not mind picking up carrion or feasting on squid or fish.

Amazing facts about sharks

Only the facts are listed here. There is so much made up about marine life that we need to get more reliable information.

• These creatures are excellent at recognizing odors. Blood has a special place in this. They feel it even at very low concentrations.
• If the victim does not smell of blood, then the shark perceives its movement. For this she has lateral line, consisting of vibration-sensitive cells.
• Baby sharks are born with a large number of teeth and can immediately begin to get their own food.
• By the way, about teeth. In sharks they are attached to the gums, not the jaws. Moreover, they form from 4 to 6 rows. Her teeth grow throughout her life, moving forward to replace the lost ones.
• The force of pressure of each tooth of a white shark is the same as if a load of 3 tons pressed 1 cm 2.
• These gluttons eat everything. Moreover, even inedible things are found in their stomachs. But this is not the most surprising thing. A shark can hold food in its stomach without digesting it for several weeks.
• The entire skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. There is not a single bone in it.
• This sea creature does not have a swim bladder. This feature forces the shark to constantly move so as not to drown.

Enchanting reefs

Corals are formed from small animals. Although many believe that these are marine plants. Coral reefs are home to many animals and plants. This is due calm sea inside them. In addition, they have a lot of light and warmth. The inside of the reef is teeming with life, while the outside is empty and bottomless.

The largest coral has a length of more than two thousand kilometers. It is located off the coast of Australia.

Underwater volcanoes sometimes rise to the surface of the ocean. Regularly shaped coral reefs can form around such craters. They form coral islands called atolls.

The underwater world is extremely diverse, new species are constantly being discovered sea ​​fish and animals. Over 30,000 species of fish and an uneven number of mollusks and crustaceans live on Earth. Let's try to illuminate a small part of them.

SHARKS- one of the most formidable inhabitants of the ocean. The absence of bone tissue and gill covers, structural features of scales and many other structural features indicate their ancient origin, which is confirmed by paleontological data - the age of the fossil remains of the first sharks is approximately 350 million years. Despite the primitiveness of their organization, sharks are one of the most advanced predatory fish in the ocean.

Over a long period of existence, they have managed to perfectly adapt to life in the water column and now successfully compete with bony fish and marine mammals. Unlike bony fish, sharks and rays do not spawn, but lay large, cornea-covered eggs or give birth to live young.

Whale sharks (up to 20 meters) and the so-called giant sharks (up to 15 meters) reach the greatest size. Both of them, like baleen whales, feed on planktonic organisms. With their mouths wide open, these sharks slowly swim in the thick of plankton accumulations and filter water through gill openings covered with a network of special outgrowths of the surrounding tissue. A giant shark filters up to one and a half thousand cubic meters of water in an hour and removes from it all organisms larger than 1-2 millimeters.

There is very little information about the reproduction of planktonic sharks. Eggs and embryos giant shark generally unknown. The smallest specimens of this species are 1.5 meters long. A whale shark lays eggs. It is safe to say that these are the largest eggs in the world, their length reaches almost 70 centimeters, width - 40. Planktivorous sharks are slow and not at all aggressive. Whale sharks are not at all dangerous to humans.

Some species of sharks live near the bottom and feed on bottom-dwelling mollusks and crustaceans. These are small (no more than a meter in length) cat sharks. They live near the coast, often forming large schools.

Sharks of other species are found in the open ocean, and they do not form schools, but prowl alone or in small groups. It happens that such sharks approach the shores, and most of the attacks on swimming people are carried out by them. Among these predators, the most dangerous are white, blue-gray, tiger, blue, longarm and hammerhead sharks. Although statistics show that there are much fewer cases of people dying from sharks than is commonly believed, you should still be wary of any shark whose length exceeds 1 - 1.2 meters, especially when there is blood or food in the water. Sharks have a phenomenal ability to detect long distance a wounded or helpless animal by its convulsive movements or by blood getting into the water.

Different types of sharks lead different lifestyles and differ quite greatly from each other in body structure and behavior. Together with stingrays, sharks belong to the most primitive group of fish, which is called cartilaginous, since their skeleton consists only of cartilage and is completely devoid of bone tissue. If you "stroke" a shark or ray from head to tail, their skin will seem only slightly rough, but when you move your hand in the opposite direction, you will feel sharp teeth like coarse grain. sandpaper. This happens because each scale of cartilaginous fish is equipped with a small spine, pointing backwards. The outside of the pin is covered with a layer of durable enamel, and its base in the form of an expanding plate is embedded in the skin of the fish. Inside each scale are blood vessels and a nerve. At the edges of the mouth there are larger scales, and in the oral cavity of sharks the spines of the scales reach a significant size and no longer serve as coverings, but as teeth. Thus, shark teeth are nothing more than modified scales.

Sharks' teeth, like their scales, are staggered and sit in several rows. As one row of teeth wears out, new ones grow to replace them, located in the depths of the mouth. The shark does not chew food, but only holds, tears and tears at it, swallowing pieces as large as can pass through its wide throat.

Cartilaginous fish do not have gill covers, so on each side of the shark’s body, 5 to 7 gill slits are visible behind the head. By this external feature, sharks can be easily and accurately distinguished from other fish. The stingray's gill slits are located on its ventral side and are hidden from the observer's eye.

It should be noted that these animals, despite the aversion people feel towards them, are of great commercial importance. Their meat, skin and liver oil are used, which contains several tens of times more vitamin A than cod liver oil. Salted, smoked and specially prepared fresh meat of many species of sharks is distinguished by high taste qualities. One of these fish, whose fins are used to make soup (the pride of Chinese cuisine), was even called a soup shark.

WHALES- the largest animals on our planet.

The prehistoric ancestors of whales lived on land and walked on four legs. True, in those days they were not as large as they are now. The body structure of whales began to change about 50 million years ago - it was then that they moved to the ocean, and it was in the water that some of them became giants. This is how the largest animals on Earth appeared - blue whales. Their length can exceed 26 meters and their weight is 110 tons.

Whales move through the water using a tail equipped with two powerful blades. This is the tail fin. Unlike fish, which swim by moving their tail from side to side, cetaceans swing their tail forcefully up and down.

Whales have pectoral fins located in front on both sides of the body. Even before whales moved to the sea, they used their current pectoral fins to move on land. Now whales use them as steering and braking rudders, and sometimes to repel enemy attacks, but not for swimming.

Most whales have a fixed fin on their back that helps them maintain stability when moving through the water. Fins can be small or large, depending on the size of the whale.

The blowholes of whales are located on the top of the head; they open only for a short moment of inhalation and exhalation, when the whale floats to the surface of the water. Whale lungs have a large volume, and whales can stay under water for a long time without breathing, and even dive to a depth of more than 500 meters, and sperm whales - to a depth of more than one kilometer.

Whales look like huge fish, but they are not fish, but mammals, and their internal structure is almost the same as that of humans. And whales, like other mammals, feed their young with milk. Whales are warm-blooded animals, and they are protected from hypothermia by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat.

From the very moment it is born underwater, a whale calf is completely dependent on its mother and stays close to her all the time. It will take many months, and sometimes years, before the baby whale can take care of itself.

The first thing a newborn whale does, even though it cannot swim yet, is to float to the surface of the water and take a breath of air. The mother and sometimes other females help in this matter. After about half an hour, the cub will learn to swim on its own.

Baby whales learn by imitating adults. They tumble, dive and float to the surface with their mother. Kithi not only teach babies, but also play with them with pleasure. Female gray whales love a special game: they swim under their calves and blow air bubbles from their blowholes, thus causing the little whales to spin.

The cubs swim, almost clinging to their mother. They are carried by the waves that form around her body and underwater currents. And it’s really easy to swim if you hang on the mother’s dorsal fin.

For orientation, whales make sounds that the human ear cannot detect. The whale's brain is a real sonar that picks up sound signals reflected from various items in the water, and determines the distance to them.

Whales feed mainly on fish or small crustaceans. They swim with their mouths open, filtering water through special plates called whalebone. Whales consume up to 450 kilograms of food every day. That's why they grow so huge!

Some whales, called odontocetes, do not have baleen, but do have teeth. Toothed whales, sperm whales, feed on huge squids, in search of which they dive to great depths.

Despite their size, whales are unusually graceful. They are not only excellent swimmers, but also acrobats: they can jump, wave their butterfly-like tail over the water, and glide through the waves, sticking their heads out of the water like a periscope. Some scientists believe that the noise that whales make when they hit the water with their tails or splash into the water after a jump is a conditioned signal for their relatives. But perhaps the whales are just playing.

People have been hunting whales for a long time. Nowadays, there are very few of these sea giants left, and they are under protection.

RAYS are a superorder of elasmobranch cartilaginous fishes, which includes 5 orders and 15 families. Stingrays are characterized by pectoral fins fused to the head and a rather flat body. Stingrays mainly live in the seas. Several freshwater species are also known to science. The color of the upper part of their body depends on where exactly the stingrays live. It can be either black or very light.

Stingrays are found throughout the world, including the Arctic Ocean and the coast of Antarctica. But the easiest way to see them with your own eyes is off the coast of Australia, where stingrays love to scratch their bellies on the coral reef.

Stingrays are the closest relatives of sharks. Outwardly, of course, they are not similar, but they, like sharks, are made of cartilage, not bones. Stingrays, along with sharks, are one of the most ancient fish, and in earlier times their internal similarities were complemented by external ones. Until life begins to flatten the stingrays, excuse me. As a result, sharks are doomed to scurry around in the water, and rays are doomed to lie sluggishly on the bottom.

The lifestyle of stingrays has determined their unique respiratory system. All fish breathe through gills, but if a stingray tried to be like everyone else, it would suck silt and sand into its delicate insides. That's why stingrays breathe differently. They inhale oxygen through squirters, which are located on their back and are equipped with a valve that protects the body. If, nevertheless, some foreign particle gets into the splash pads along with the water - sand or plant remains, the stingrays release a stream of water through the spray pads and throw out the foreign object along with it.

Stingrays are unique waterfowl butterflies. This analogy can be drawn based on how stingrays move in water. They are also unique in that they do not use their tail when swimming, as other fish do. Stingrays move by moving their fins, resembling butterflies.

Stingrays come in a wide variety of sizes, from a few centimeters to seven meters. And they also differ from each other in behavior. While most of them lie at the bottom, buried in the sand, some of them love to jump above the water, shocking impressionable sailors for a long time and inspiring them to write sea legends. Particularly distinguished by this is perhaps the most famous of all stingrays, the manta ray or sea devil. When suddenly a seven-meter winged creature weighing two tons flies out of the sea abyss and a moment later disappears again into the depths, dragging a black pointed tail behind it - this spectacle is truly worthy of a detailed story.

But the sea devil is not as scary as the electric stingray. The cells of his body are capable of generating electricity up to 220 volts. And there are countless divers who have been electrocuted by an electric stingray.

However, all stingrays produce electricity, but not as strong as the electric stingray. The spiny-tailed ray prefers a different type of weapon. He kills with his tail. It plunges its sharp tail into the victim, then pulls it back - and since the tail is studded with spikes, the wound ruptures.

But they enter into battle only for the sake of self-defense. They feed on mollusks and crustaceans. For this reason, they do not even need sharp, shark-like teeth. Stingrays grind their food with spike-like protrusions or plates.

SWORDBA- the order of perciformes, the only representative of the swordfish family. Length up to 4-4.5 m, weighs up to 0.5 tons. The upper jaw is elongated into the xiphoid process. It is found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters, and is found sporadically in the Black and Azov Seas. When swimming, it can reach speeds of up to 120-130 km/h. It is an object of fishing.

Among the numerous and diverse inhabitants of the seas and oceans, swordfish is one of the most interesting predators. The swordfish received its name due to its highly elongated upper jaw, called the rostrum, which has the shape of a pointed sword and makes up up to a third of the entire length of the body. Biologists consider the rostrum to be a weapon that swordfish use to stun prey by bursting into schools of mackerel and tuna. The swordfish itself does not suffer from the blow: at the base of its sword there are peculiar fatty shock absorbers - cellular cavities filled with fat and softening the force of the blow. There are known cases when swordfish pierced through thick planks of ship plating. The reason for the attack of swordfish on ships has not yet received a precise explanation. Interpretations such as, for example, mistaking the vessel for a whale due to fast swimming, and “rabies” are purely speculative.

Swordfish is rightfully considered the fastest swimmer among all the inhabitants of the deep sea. She can swim at a speed of 120 km per hour. The swordfish is capable of developing such speed due to some structural features of its body. The sword greatly reduces drag when moving in dense water. In addition, the torpedo-shaped, streamlined body of an adult swordfish is devoid of scales. In swordfish and its closest relatives, gills are not only a respiratory organ, they serve as a kind of hydrojet engine. There is a continuous flow of water through the gills, the speed of which is regulated by the narrowing or widening of the gill slits. The body temperature of such fish is 12 - 15 degrees higher than the ocean temperature. This provides them with a high “starting” readiness, allowing them to unexpectedly develop amazing speed when hunting or evading enemies.

Swordfish reaches a length of 4.5 meters and weighs up to 500 kg. She lives mainly in the open ocean and approaches the shore only during the spawning season. Swordfish are solitary wanderers. Sometimes in the ocean large cluster You can see several dozen swordfish, but they do not form schools - each predator acts independently of its neighbors.

Swordfish meat is very tasty. However, consuming its liver is dangerous - it contains excess vitamin A.

OCTOPUS. They do not have a hard skeleton. Its soft body has no bones and can bend freely in different directions. The octopus was named so because eight limbs extend from its short body. They have two rows of large suction cups, which the octopus can use to hold prey or attach to rocks at the bottom.

Octopuses live near the bottom, hiding in crevices between rocks or in underwater caves. They have the ability to change color very quickly and become the same color as the ground.

The only hard part of an octopus's body is its horny beak-like jaws. Octopuses are true predators. At night they get out of their hiding places and go hunting. Octopuses can not only swim, but also “walk” along the bottom by rearranging their tentacles. The usual prey of octopuses are shrimp, lobsters, crabs and fish, which they paralyze with poison from the salivary glands. With their beak they can break even the strong shells of crabs and crayfish or shells of mollusks. Octopuses take their prey to a shelter, where they slowly eat it. Among octopuses there are very poisonous ones, the bite of which can be fatal even to humans.

Octopuses often build shelters from stones or shells, using their tentacles as hands. Octopuses guard their home and can easily find it even if they have gone far away.

Since ancient times, people have been afraid of octopuses (octopuses - as they called them), writing about them scary legends. The ancient Roman scientist Pliny the Elder talked about a giant octopus - “polypus”, which stole fishing catches. Every night the octopus climbed onto the shore and ate the fish lying in the baskets. The dogs, smelling the octopus, started barking. The fishermen who came running saw the octopus defending itself from the dogs with its huge tentacles. The fishermen had difficulty coping with the octopus. When the giant was measured, it turned out that its tentacles reached a length of 10 meters, and its weight was about 300 kilograms.

GARFISH- or “sea pike” is a fish of the garfish genus.

The turquoise-colored common garfish is one of the fish that can dance above the surface of the water. Faster and faster they move towards the light, just for fun or to “escape” from danger. This fast and graceful predator has a narrow body. Small sharp teeth on a peculiar beak allow the garfish, while swimming quickly, to grab small prey - herring, crustaceans. Garfish are found in large numbers in the Black and other seas.

In the spring, garfish begin their reproductive period: along the coast they lay round eggs, which are attached to algae and other aquatic vegetation with the help of thin sticky threads. Garfish larvae are born without a beak; it appears only in adult individuals. In winter, garfish move to the open sea.

Garfish are predominantly marine inhabitants, distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate oceans. Some of them reach a length of 1.5 m and a weight of 4 kg. This large family, numbering about 12 genera, is represented in the Black Sea by only one species - Belone belone euxini.

The Black Sea garfish, or, as it is also called, sea pike, has a typical arrow-shaped body covered with small silvery scales. The back is green. The length is usually up to 75 cm. This schooling pelagic fish has elongated jaws in the form of a sharp beak.

Lives 6-7 years, reaches sexual maturity in one year.

Once upon a time, garfish, being one of the most delicious fish of the Black Sea, was rightfully one of the top five commercial species caught off the coast of Crimea. The total annual catch of garfish reached 300-500 tons. Often large specimens were caught in the nets of Crimean fishermen - about 1 m long and weighing up to 1 kg.

SEA STARS- animals whose body shape resembles a star. They have warts or spines on the surface of their body. Five rays, called arms, usually extend from the body of a starfish.

They appeared on Earth more than 400 million years ago, but about 1,500 species of these peculiar animals still live in the seas and oceans of our planet. Some are found on sand mixed with stones and on shell rocks.

Starfish come in a variety of colors. For example, the Pacific star is dark purple. There is also a black star. It is easily distinguished by its black back. There are dark gray starfish, and on the rays on dark background There may be yellowish and whitish spots, sometimes arranged in the form of stripes.

The Japanese star lives in the waters of Japan. Its dorsal side is bright crimson, often mixed with purple shades. The tips of the needles and belly are whitish.

But the most beautiful starfish is the reticulated starfish. Her belly is orange. On the crimson back there are rows of turquoise-blue needles. They seem to form a network or bizarre bright patterns. That's why they gave these starfish the name reticulated.

Starfish are active animals. They walk along the shores of seas and oceans with the help of tiny legs. Under a microscope, several elongated “bones” can be seen on her body, working like scissors or forceps. With these tongs, the starfish cleans off various insects that bite it - after all, they so like to sit on such comfortable “hosts” as stars.

The starfish usually feeds on other animals, mainly mollusks. For example, a shell is not such a reliable protection for a mollusk. The star clasps the shell with its hands, sticks to it with its legs and, due to muscle tension, pushes the shell flaps apart and eats. But mollusks also sometimes resist and do not allow themselves to be caught. They, sensing the approach of a starfish, release the mantle between the valves and manage to “wrap” the entire shell in it: the tentacles of the starfish slide along the saucer, and they cannot grab it.

Sometimes starfish even eat sea ​​urchins, as prickly as themselves. The starfish is a real predator. Her abilities are very diverse.

Starfish are capable of absorbing objects that are sometimes several times their own size. To do this, they have a curious adaptation: they crawl onto the victim from above and turn the stomach out through the mouth, surrounding potential food on all sides as if in a kind of bag. Gastric juice is secreted into this sac, where digestion occurs. After a few hours, the star collapses its stomach and crawls away.

Most starfish play the role of seabed orderlies, eating all sorts of remains of dead animals.

Once upon a time, 50 years ago, people deliberately destroyed starfish. There were too many of them and they destroyed many sea animals. Hundreds of people went out to sea on boats and cutters and, protecting their hands with gloves, collected starfish, loaded them into baskets and took them ashore.

But the number of starfish still did not decrease. They began to destroy coral reefs, turning them into a lifeless desert. Once upon a time, the bottom of the Pacific coast was covered with magnificent gardens of coral colonies, which looked like a wonderful underwater kingdom. Nowadays desolation reigns here due to the harmful influence of starfish. Those coral reefs that still exist are sometimes hidden under huge moving clusters of starfish, after the invasion of which life leaves the reef.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that a program is needed scientific research, which would allow us to thoroughly study the peculiarities of the relationship between starfish and other inhabitants of coral reefs in order to restore balance.

SEA URCHNISHES- very prickly creatures. Their entire body is protected by long, sharp needles, attached to the body using cleverly designed hinges.

Stepping on such a hedgehog is both painful and dangerous: its needles are covered with mucus, saturated with bacteria, which cause severe suppuration. With the help of poisonous needles, sea urchins fight enemies, such as starfish. However, not all sea urchins are so dangerous and scary. Most of them are completely harmless to humans.

Some flat urchins covered with such small needles that their surface seems velvety rather than prickly.

Sea urchins are the most multi-legged animals in the world. Total number Sea urchins have huge legs. They are shaped like suction cups. With the help of its legs, the animal can not only move from place to place and crawl even along steep rocks, but also firmly attaches itself to stones and soil in places where there are a lot of waves. The hedgehog seems to stick to what it stands on so that it does not get washed away by water.

Sea urchins live on rocks, stones, coral reefs. Some bury themselves in the ground or sand. Sometimes on the seashore, sea urchins gather in such quantities that their spines come into contact with each other. Some species occupy various recesses in the rocks, others are able to drill shelters for themselves, which serve them as protection from waves. Often, hedgehogs cover themselves with fragments of shells, pieces of algae or small stones, in order, obviously, to protect themselves from exposure to direct sunlight or to camouflage themselves from enemies. There are species that hide under stones all day and come out to feed only at night.

They eat what they can catch in the water or on land. For example, shellfish, which are crushed with powerful teeth. They hunt very interestingly. As soon as any animal touches the hedgehog, its legs immediately begin to move and try to grab the prey. As soon as one of the legs manages to catch the prey, the hedgehog squeezes it tightly and holds it until the prey dies. After this, the prey is passed from one leg to the other until it reaches the mouth. When feeding, hedgehogs hold food with their spines, push it into their mouths and bite off small pieces. With the help of sharp teeth, sea urchins can scrape algae from the surface of stones and capture other food.

But neither sharp needles nor teeth can sometimes save a hedgehog from its enemies. Such an animal as the sea otter deals with sea urchins very interestingly. She collects sea urchins in coastal waters, takes them in her front paws and swims on her back, holding the prey on her chest in front of her, then breaks the urchins' shells on rocks or other hard objects and eats the eggs. Birds hunt for sea urchins at low tide. Birds have been observed throwing collected hedgehogs from a height onto the stones, break them and peck out the soft parts.

Sea urchins are also eaten by people. Sea urchin caviar is especially prized. Hedgehogs lay eggs several times a year.

The mother hedgehog lays eggs and then carries them on her back all the time. Larvae emerge from the eggs. And among the larvae - hedgehogs. Hedgehogs grow rather slowly and reach adult size within a few years. Only then do they become independent.

SEA HORSE- a strange, charming creature. It has a head like a small horse, a flexible tail like a monkey, an exoskeleton like an insect, and an abdominal pouch like a kangaroo. These features, inherent in other animals, make the seahorse unlike most fish, and it behaves unusually. And yet this little creature- real fish. Their size is about 30 centimeters, there are Sea Horses and 2 centimeters.

The seahorse has its own special style of movement: it swims proudly, like the leader of a majestic parade. Working with barely noticeable fins at an incredible speed - up to 35 strokes per second, it glides smoothly.

Seahorses usually live in the water near the shore among algae. Spiked armor protects them from danger. A seahorse has bones both inside and outside. The internal skeleton is the same as that of all fish, and the external skeleton is made of bony plates. When a seahorse dies and decomposes, the exoskeleton retains its shape. People are so fascinated by this strange fish that they use dried seahorses For jewelry and inlays.

The seahorse's head is designed in such a way that it can only move it up and down, but cannot turn it to the sides.

If other animals were designed like this, they would have vision problems. However, the seahorse, due to its special structure, never has such problems. His eyes are not connected to each other and move independently of each other, they can move and look in different directions. Therefore, although the seahorse cannot turn its head, it can easily observe what is happening around it.

The most amazing thing about seahorses is that the babies are born to the father. On his belly, the horse daddy has a pouch in which he carries caviar. From these eggs the fry hatch. After the fry appear, the skate carries them in a bag for some time. By bending his body upward, he opens the bag, and the fry come out of it for a walk, but in case of danger they hide there again. Immediately after birth, small skates must rise to the surface of the water and take air into their swim bladders, otherwise they will die from suffocation.

Almost all fish swim using their tail, but not the seahorse. Its unusual tail, long and thin, is not topped with a fin and looks more like a hand. The seahorse tightly wraps its tail around algae or coral and can stand there, frozen, for hours. And if it happens that two seahorses lock their tails, then they have to play “tug of war.”

Weddings around seahorses are very interesting. They sing and dance. They walk hand in hand (with their tails intertwined) and gracefully spin among the algae. Seahorses cannot live alone for long. If a husband or wife dies, then after a short time the other horse dies of melancholy. That's what the legends say.

Seahorses are masters of camouflage, changing color to match their surroundings. By blending into the background, they both protect themselves from predators and camouflage themselves while hunting for food.

Seahorses are unusually voracious. They catch anything living that can fit into their mouth. Their mouth acts like a pipette: when the skate's cheeks swell sharply, the prey is abruptly drawn into the mouth.

Skates feed mainly on small crustaceans. Having noticed a crustacean, the seahorse looks at it for a second or two and then draws in the crustacean even at a distance of several centimeters. Young seahorses are able to feed for 10 hours a day and eat 3-4 thousand crustaceans during this time.

In nature, there are only a few natural enemies of seahorses - shrimp, crab, clown fish and tuna. In addition, they are often eaten by dolphins.

The most serious enemies of these creatures are people: seahorses are endangered.

The main reasons for the extinction of this species: water pollution, destruction of natural habitat, fishing for aquatic trade, accidental catching in nets while catching shrimp or other fish.

Since the Middle Ages, seahorses have been attributed healing properties, once they were even used in the preparation of magical potions.

More than 20 million pipits are captured and killed every year.

CRABS- pugnacious creatures.

Fights between crabs are always preceded by threatening demonstrations: they rise on outstretched legs and spread their claws. All this is necessary to appear larger: usually in fights the larger one wins. The threatening poses of one crab are most often repeated exactly by the other, so that immediately before the fight both fighters stand in front of each other for quite a long time in the same pose, assessing the size and mood of the enemy. A small crab, as a rule, retreats without a fight, but if the difference in size is small, it can win, but in this case the fight is longer and more violent. It is very important who starts the fight, because the one who starts first usually wins, even if he is smaller. Demonstration of strength in crabs is as common and important as, for example, in dogs.

Some crabs get seriously injured after a fight. Large crabs fight longer than small ones, and it does not matter whether they are fighting an enemy larger or smaller than themselves.

During a fight, crabs begin to breathe more often. The longer and more intense the fight, the faster the fighters breathe. The breathing rate increases equally in the winner and the loser, but after the fight the winner calms down much faster than the loser, who even after a day breathes more often than usual.

Often contractions follow one after another. For example, a crab has just had a fight with one opponent and immediately begins to fight with another.

Crabs do not live by fighting alone, they are also known tender feelings. Everyone knows how monkeys express friendship: they search each other, choose insects from their fur (or pretend to choose) and eat them. So, something similar is characteristic of some crabs.

Researchers have found that crabs have two types of “stranger cleaning”: long-term and short-term cleaning. A cleaner crab approaches another crab slowly, on half-bent legs, and cleans it for about a minute. The crab that is being cleaned feeds on mud all this time, and after the procedure, already clean, goes into the hole.

With short-term cleaning, everything happens a little differently. The cleaner crab, quickly rising above the surface of the bottom, approaches the object of cleaning. Cleaning lasts no more than 15 seconds. How much will you collect in these moments? The crab that is being cleaned stands calmly and motionless. This cleaning is observed mainly in the summer.

It happens that a large crab - the owner of a hole - attacks a small one that approaches its home. Then the small crab begins the lengthy procedure of cleaning the large one - it calms down and calmly goes into the hole. So this behavior is a way to calm the aggressor. Well, and, of course, cleaning brings benefits - is it bad to become clean, since you can’t reach your own back with claws?

Crabs live in colonies on muddy shores and dig deep holes. During the day, at low tide, they wander through drained areas, collect the thin top layer of silt with their claws, roll them into balls and put them in their mouths, and spend the night (and at high tide, when the water is rough and there are a lot of waves) in burrows.

The body of crabs is small. They have sharp claws. With their help, they move and collect food for themselves, and also fight. Some of them are good swimmers. They are called "swimmers". The hind legs can act as oars. Most swimming crabs are bottom-dwelling predators. Although they are able to swim, they do not do so for long.

There are such huge crabs that reach a length of 1.5 meters and weigh about eight kilograms. One adult person will not be able to lift such a crab. These crabs are called king crabs. They are less mobile than other crabs; they lie in wait for prey, hiding at the bottom among pebbles, plants, or buried in the sand.

On the underside of the head there is usually a mouth with a pharynx, in which there is a muscular tongue with teeth, similar to a grater. The animal uses its tongue to scrape off the soft surface of plants. On the sides of the head there are sensitive tentacles - sensory organs. With these tentacles, the mollusk touches objects and understands what they are. There are eyes near the tentacles.

All mollusks move very slowly.

There are mollusks whose shell consists of two halves. Scientists call them bivalves. Their body consists of a torso and legs and is covered with a mantle. At the posterior end of the body, the folds of the mantle are pressed against each other, forming two siphons: lower and upper. Through the lower siphon, water enters the mantle and washes the gills. And through the upper siphon the water is thrown out.

There are mollusks called “chitons”. Their form amazes with diversity, and their beauty with perfection. Because of such beauty, they are used to make necklaces and amulets that can decorate the human body and vases.

After the death of a mollusk, shells usually end up on the bottom surface. During wind waves or storms, they are thrown onto flat surfaces. sandy beaches and often form large clusters, turning deserted shore into a motley carpet of colors.

However, the “life” of empty shells on beaches is short-lived. Under the influence of waves, high tides, wind surges and precipitation, some of them again fall to inaccessible depths, while the other part is destroyed. However, after some time, a new storm or waves of a different direction bring new shells to the shore. You can walk along the seashore or ocean and collect shells.

A collection of shells can be useful for various crafts and decorations.

It’s a dark, cool evening, two people are leisurely strolling through an old park on the outskirts of the city. The atmosphere of love and harmony overwhelms them, when suddenly from around the corner comes the simple phrase “Hey, kid, is there a call?” After which a crowd of guys dressed in old clothes comes out to meet them. tracksuits with fancy caps on their heads. The outcome of this meeting is not difficult to predict - today the lover in love will most likely return home without his mobile phone.

Gopniks: who are they?

So, who are the gopniks? Photos of these guys can be seen on the pages of many websites, but even more often they can be seen in crime news releases. Which, of course, is not surprising.

In fact, a gopnik is a petty criminal who leads a dissolute lifestyle. Such guys rarely act alone; as a rule, they gather in small groups. You can often find them in quiet alleys and parks, as they are rarely crowded. Seeing a lone traveler on the horizon, they immediately begin to process him. To do this, they use criminal jargon, threats or brute force.

Where did the term "gopnik" come from?

There are many versions regarding the background of this concept. Which one is true is quite difficult to determine, and besides, there is a high probability that there is some truth in each of them.

So, there are three main versions of the origin of the term “Gopnik”:

1. The first one dates back to pre-revolutionary times. At that time there were so-called state charity societies (GOP). Such organizations monitored the poor, unemployed and beggars who were in the territory of their province. Everyone who came under the supervision of the charity committee was popularly called gopnik.
2. The second theory dates back to the early 80s. At that time, the global migration of people to megacities began in the USSR, since there were much more opportunities to earn money here than in the countryside. The poorest were housed in state hostels for the proletariat, so it is not surprising that such institutions often housed all sorts of extraordinary personalities. A little later, the residents of these hostels began to be called gopniks, thereby indicating their place of residence.
3. Another version is based on the thieves' concept of “gop-stop,” or theft. And that’s why the guys who earn their living only by robbery and extortion are called gopniks.

The rise of crime in the early 90s

Decay Soviet Union led to the fact that judicial system greatly weakened. took advantage of this moment and selected for yourself most authorities. Lawlessness flourished throughout the country, Gopnik realized this and began his wild hunt.

Gopniks, like predators, scoured the streets of the city in search of new victims. Sometimes it was a random passerby, sometimes the target was determined in advance. Indeed, in those days, local authorities quite often used the services of gopniks, so as not to dirty their own hands. For example, they were often used to destroy competitors' stores or to intimidate bystanders.

But as the years passed, they became stronger and stronger. Therefore, thieves in law began to conduct their affairs more thoughtfully, without raising unnecessary dust. And they clearly didn’t need the stupid internecine fight between the Gopniks. Therefore, they stopped using their services, much less covering up small pawns in the face of the law.

Modern gopniks: photos with caps are back in fashion

Now the cult of gopniks still exists, albeit not on the same scale as before. Today's petty criminals, as before, “live in packs” and also lead a predatory lifestyle. True, now they are quite easy to spot even in the most crowded crowd.

The modern Russian gopnik is a “clean boy” who lives “by the rules.” But these concepts are very different from those to which we are accustomed normal people. Gopnik is often devoid of even basic compassion, since he believes that there is nothing unnatural in his actions. In his mind, everything is quite simple: survival of the fittest.

Another problem is that the image of a gopnik is idealized. Thanks to TV series, for example, the same "Brigade", the criminal life began to attract many guys. Especially if their life was far from perfect.

The laws by which Gopniks live

Even if Gopnik is the scum of society, even in his world there are certain laws. First of all, he obeys Zonov’s orders, and Gopnik has no right to violate them. Otherwise, he may lose authority in the eyes of his comrades.

That is why gopniks first of all try to intimidate their victim morally. To do this, they use conversational tricks. "Who are you?" or “Why are you walking here?” Such questions are a kind of greeting, and if a person answers incorrectly, then the gopnik begins an active verbal assault. Everything goes according to a long-established pattern, thanks to which the victim turns into a sucker. But “by concept”, it’s not a sin to ask a sucker.

Who becomes a gopnik?

Often, a similar lifestyle is led by those who were born in Deprived of parental warmth and affection, they early years watched others enjoy life. This has hardened their hearts and minds, moreover, they passionately want to get everything that they were deprived of, no matter how.

Alcohol also plays an important role. Gopniks drink beer, sometimes even vodka, from an early age, because getting alcohol is now easier than ever. What to expect from a person who starts drinking at the age of 10-12?

The final factor is bad company. After all, if you live with wolves for a long time, then you begin to howl like a wolf.

The Gopnik subculture is notable for the fact that it appeared in the USSR, although, in fact, Gopniks- This is a layer of working youth from low-income families, and similar layers can be found in literally any country at one time or another. For example, British punks of the 1930s (not to be confused with the punk subculture of the 1960s-1970s), about which you can read more in the article on punks. However, domestic gopniks are a truly unique phenomenon.

There are several versions of the origin of the word “Gopnik”. According to the first of them, the term appeared on turn of the 19th century- XX centuries, and the situation was like this: in St. Petersburg a State Charity Society was established, where street children who were involved in theft and hooliganism were placed. Perhaps the word “gopnik” began to be used in relation to these same street children. Another option: in the building of this State Society after the revolution of 1917, the Civil Hostel of the Proletariat was organized, which was used for the same purposes as the previous society. In both cases, the word “Gopnik” came from the abbreviation of these institutions. Another version says that the word “Gopnik” comes from thieves’ slang. According to this version, gopniks were thieves who were engaged in gop-stopping (following the example of other criminal “specializations”: a pickpocket - a “tweezer”, a murderer - a “mokrushnik”, etc.). Some argue that “Gopnik” comes from the abbreviation “citizen of dangerous behavior.” However, in all these cases, a gopnik is any antisocial type with thieves' habits. The Gop subculture became especially acute in the 1970s and 1980s. Gopniks declared themselves in numerous fights with the then Soviet informals - punks and metalheads. Since then, the word “gopnik” has firmly entered our vocabulary.

Among the musical preferences of Gopniks are criminal chanson, rap and low-grade pop music. Gopniks cannot imagine their collective walks without listening to their favorite music. Soviet gopniks listened to music on battery-powered cassette recorders. Gopnik, who carried a “mafon” with him, was held in special esteem among the “Kents”. Nowadays, gopniks listen to music from mobile phones. The current gopniks are passionate fans creativity of such groups as “Factor-2”, “Gaza Strip”, “Butyrka”, “Leningrad”, “Casta”, “Malchishnik” and performers Noggano, rapper Syava, etc.
So all the signs are there separate subculture Gopnikov - their own ideological principles, musical tastes, your own style of clothing, as well as an incomparable style of behavior. Low level moral and aesthetic development, the low spiritual level of Gopniks determines appropriate behavior. Young people who want to live “by the rules” put on a “clean” tracksuit and go drink beer with the “lads”. And the saddest thing is that the number of such people is not decreasing at all.