According to one study, Snailfish uses his soft skull and partially open skull to survive intense, overwhelming pressure in some of the deepest areas of the ocean.
The researchers fished several snailheads to study their adaptation to the deep sea and compared them to closely related species living in shallow waters.
Molluscs live in some of the deepest areas of the ocean, known as the hadal zone, between 6 and 11 km below the surface.
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The area is thought to be one of the most hostile areas on the planet due to high pressure, darkness, cold temperatures and scarcity of food resources.
Despite these problems, snail fish are the main predators in the Hadal area food chain and are the most common and dominant fish family in the region.
Lead researcher Wen Wang and his colleagues found that molluscs caught in the Marianas Trench had transparent skin, swollen stomachs, soft bones and incompletely closed skulls, in contrast to similar shallow sea species.
The research team discovered that osteocalcin, a gene that regulates tissue mineralization and skeletal development, is cut in hadal fly fish.
The truncated gene can contribute to the exceptionally soft skeleton of the species by preventing bone mineralization.
It is thought that the incompletely closed skull of mollusc species protects the brain by ensuring that the overwhelming pressure does not repel it.
The study also revealed multiple copies of genes that make cell membranes more fluid, which researchers say could help cells operate at extreme pressures in the deep sea, as well as the loss of several photoreceptor genes. which results in poor vision in the light of mollusc fishes.
The researchers said the many internal and external adaptations of offshore molluscan fish have helped them withstand the immense pressures and challenges of high seas life.
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They concluded that the document, published in Nature Ecology & Evolutioncould help to understand how species can adapt to extreme environments.