Why do most deep sea creatures look like they’re hell-spawns?
In: Biology
Creatures look like they do up here, because they are seen by other creatures and their own species, they evolved to look nice and display their patterns and colors. Down there there is no light, they don’t need to look all fancy, because no one can see them.
I don’t think there’s a reason for it – animals evolve to thrive in their surroundings, and looking pleasing to humans is high on their list. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though – maybe we look just as creepy to them 🙂
Part of it is a lack of need for aesthetics that match our own and part of it is that we hardly see them.
They don’t have common traits we see on the surface so we see them as otherwordly, there is hardly a point in having good eyesight so their eyes look weird, food is scarce so their bodies look weird, their body doesn’t need to adapt to reflect sunlight a certain way so their skin looks weird. These are all factors that make them look different to most animals that live closer to the surface and since they are so rare for a common person to see (meaning not popular in the media) then they catch the eye quickly.
If you think of any animal you can see how weird they can be, giraffes have really long necks and are super tall, elephants have long noses and funny looking ears, whales are super big and breather through their back with some species feeding out of millions of microorganisms a day, chameleons have independent eyes and can change colors, some octopuses can basically blend perfectly with their enviroment by changing their skin, birds can detect magnetic lines to navigate the planet and the wandering albatross can fly for years without ever touching dry land.
But since these are all common and they share some traits with us due to similar living conditions (mostly how we have a need to adapt to sunlight and a way bigger food supply for all) we don’t see them as weird because they just look natural. But from an alien’s point of view the whole planet is weird.
I believe its the otherway around. Artist (and now societal) depictions of demons and scary things has been heavily influenced by creatures. Just imagine being in ancient times and seeing a dead sea creature that has washed to shore- its the stuff of nightmares.
Sidenote- depictions of hellish creatures having goat-like features may come from christian painters giving demons the characteristics of the greek god Pan.
It’s very dark down there. No one can see how ugly you are. Creatures tend not give af about makeup and sh*t.
Some of them are raging attention seekers so they use glowy lights and stuff. They’re also under tremendous pressure. Literally. Can’t look angelic when you’re under that much stress.
There is no light in the depths so the guys don’t see they are mating with ugly girls. Evolution does the rest…
Joking aside, there is no need for any creature to look pretty to us. In this particular case, nobody bothers to print or talk about mundane-looking animals. They are boring. Whatever you have seen as a person who doesn’t really have a clue about marine biology is something that passed through a very high threshold of being interesting enough for mass media. This means extremes, like monster-like ugliness.
This is called selection bias.
Looks aren’t going to be selected for when things have a hard time seeing in that level of darkness.
Alongside what /u/Arclet__ said, the other reason why they’re so hideous is because they’re literally optimized to butcher and kill each other.
In the bottom of the ocean there’s no plants, the closest herbivore analogues being scavengers. It’s literally dog-eat-dog in a hellish environment where energy and food is scarce, so these creatures evolve to 1) spend as little energy as possible by drifting for the most part in the infinite dark, 2) have a mouth as large as possible, horrific teeth that WILL sink deep into prey to prevent escape, and jaws that unhinge and swallow in split seconds. These make the difference between life and death in the abyss.
It really doesn’t help that a lot of the pictures you see are after they’ve been rapidly decompressed. If you see one at the surface, it’s organs have likely exploded and it’s features distorted.
To add to what others have said: In some cases like the [Blobfish](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-defense-of-the-blobfish-why-the-worlds-ugliest-animal-isnt-as-ugly-as-you-think-it-is-6676336/), they actually have a somewhat normal appearance in their extreme deep sea environment under 1800psi of water pressure. When they’re brought to the surface at 15psi of atmospheric pressure they turn into a gross blob. You wouldn’t look so hot exposed to the vacuum of space either, and that’s 120x less of a change in pressure than poor ol’ blobby.
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