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The Shrimp and the Sponge: A Deep Sea Love Story
YouTube: | https://youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc |
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View count: | 129,307 |
Likes: | 7,464 |
Comments: | 228 |
Duration: | 04:00 |
Uploaded: | 2021-02-13 |
Last sync: | 2024-12-01 20:00 |
Citation
Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate. | |
MLA Full: | "The Shrimp and the Sponge: A Deep Sea Love Story." YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 13 February 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc. |
MLA Inline: | (SciShow, 2021) |
APA Full: | SciShow. (2021, February 13). The Shrimp and the Sponge: A Deep Sea Love Story [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc |
APA Inline: | (SciShow, 2021) |
Chicago Full: |
SciShow, "The Shrimp and the Sponge: A Deep Sea Love Story.", February 13, 2021, YouTube, 04:00, https://youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc. |
This Valentine’s Day weekend, we'd like to tell you a deep-sea shrimp love story that begins with a sponge, and two shrimp — and ends in forever.
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Hosted by: Hank Green
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org
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Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Silas Emrys, Charles Copley, Jb Taishoff, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, LehelKovacs, Adam Brainard, Greg, Ash, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer
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Sources:
https://www.mlml.calstate.edu/geooce/2016/09/28/sponges-and-spicules/
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/glass-sponges.html
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/53/1/103/627237
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC373466/
https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/21924/21924.pdf
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/glass-sponge.html
https://canterburymuseums.co.uk/beaney/explore/materials-and-masters/venus-flower-basket/
Image Sources:
Some Images provided by Schmidt Ocean Institute
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1702/logs/photolog/welcome.html#cbpi=/okeanos/explorations/ex1702/dailyupdates/media/video/exploring_as/exploring.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=SciShow
SciShow is supported by Brilliant.org. Go to https://Brilliant.org/SciShow to get 20% off of an annual Premium subscription.
Hosted by: Hank Green
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Silas Emrys, Charles Copley, Jb Taishoff, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, LehelKovacs, Adam Brainard, Greg, Ash, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
https://www.mlml.calstate.edu/geooce/2016/09/28/sponges-and-spicules/
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/glass-sponges.html
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/53/1/103/627237
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC373466/
https://research.nhm.org/pdfs/21924/21924.pdf
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/glass-sponge.html
https://canterburymuseums.co.uk/beaney/explore/materials-and-masters/venus-flower-basket/
Image Sources:
Some Images provided by Schmidt Ocean Institute
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1702/logs/photolog/welcome.html#cbpi=/okeanos/explorations/ex1702/dailyupdates/media/video/exploring_as/exploring.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI6QxENCcTc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=SciShow
Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this episode of SciShow.
Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to learn how you can take your STEM skills to the next level this year! {♫Intro♫}. Finding love can be pretty tough sometimes — even for a human on the land.
But imagine if you lived in the darkest depths of the deep sea. Down there, just finding another member of your species can be next to impossible. Which is why some creatures have evolved some... interesting strategies to pin down a mate.
For instance, allow me to tell you a deep-sea shrimp love story. It begins with a sponge, and two shrimp — and it ends in forever. The deep-sea sponge in this story is called a Venus flower basket.
Like other sponges, it’s a sedentary animal that uses its external skeleton to filter food from the water around it. But this particular sponge almost seems like it’s made of lace. Except, what looks like a delicate mesh is actually spiky pieces of glass-like silica called spicules.
The sponge weaves these together to make its external skeleton. And as dainty as it looks, this structural design is actually super strong. In fact, it’s what makes it possible for these sponges to withstand the extreme water pressure deep in the ocean.
But that’s not its only role. This intricate glass skeleton also serves as a home and a breeding ground for a pair of deep-sea shrimp in the family Spongicolidae. Once two of these shrimp pair up, they find a sponge and crawl through the glass mesh.
Then, they settle in. Researchers think they likely hang out here because passing food particles stick to the spicules, so the shrimp can get a steady supply of food. It’s a pretty great deal for a shrimp.
But this symbiotic relationship works out well for the sponge, too: . The hungry shrimp keep its spicules squeaky-clean, and the sponge feeds on the shrimps’ waste. The only catch is… as the shrimp grow bigger, they can’t get out. They’re trapped behind the sponge’s mesh.
Which sounds a little tragic—but is actually a good thing for the shrimp. As they evolved over thousands of years, they lost features that would let them live independently. For example, their gills have shrunk because their sedentary lifestyle doesn’t require as much oxygen as a free-swimming one.
Their shells have also become less spiny, since the sponge takes care of protecting them from predators. So it’s now impossible for them to live anywhere but inside a sponge… together. Eventually, the shrimp pair has babies, and these are small enough to squeeze out through the mesh and set off in search of a Venus flower basket sponge to call their own.
Then, finally, the original pair will die, which will open that sponge up for new tenants to settle in and continue their symbiosis. As for how the shrimp find their homes? Well, scientists think the sponges’ spicules actually transmit light from nearby bioluminescent creatures, so as young shrimp couples look for a new home, they’re attracted to these glowing beacons in the dark.
This unlikely relationship has made it possible for these shrimp to continue to survive in the deep sea. And for some humans, it also seems to have become a symbol of committed love. In Japan, the skeletons of these sponges are sometimes presented as wedding gifts. Because there’s nothing like a deep-sea glass sponge shrimp prison to say “until death do us part.” So, a big part of research that sometimes gets overlooked is programming.
It’s not necessary for all science, but knowing your way around a code or two can come in handy. And if that’s a skill you want to learn, you could try one of Brilliant’s courses. For example, they have a course called Programming with Python, which teaches you one of the most common languages with Brilliant’s trademark explanations, quizzes, and hands-on demos.
Whether you’re a scientist by trade or just think Python sounds fun, you can find it at Brilliant.org/SciShow. And if you sign up at that link, you can also get 20% off an annual Premium subscription. {♫Outro♫}.
Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to learn how you can take your STEM skills to the next level this year! {♫Intro♫}. Finding love can be pretty tough sometimes — even for a human on the land.
But imagine if you lived in the darkest depths of the deep sea. Down there, just finding another member of your species can be next to impossible. Which is why some creatures have evolved some... interesting strategies to pin down a mate.
For instance, allow me to tell you a deep-sea shrimp love story. It begins with a sponge, and two shrimp — and it ends in forever. The deep-sea sponge in this story is called a Venus flower basket.
Like other sponges, it’s a sedentary animal that uses its external skeleton to filter food from the water around it. But this particular sponge almost seems like it’s made of lace. Except, what looks like a delicate mesh is actually spiky pieces of glass-like silica called spicules.
The sponge weaves these together to make its external skeleton. And as dainty as it looks, this structural design is actually super strong. In fact, it’s what makes it possible for these sponges to withstand the extreme water pressure deep in the ocean.
But that’s not its only role. This intricate glass skeleton also serves as a home and a breeding ground for a pair of deep-sea shrimp in the family Spongicolidae. Once two of these shrimp pair up, they find a sponge and crawl through the glass mesh.
Then, they settle in. Researchers think they likely hang out here because passing food particles stick to the spicules, so the shrimp can get a steady supply of food. It’s a pretty great deal for a shrimp.
But this symbiotic relationship works out well for the sponge, too: . The hungry shrimp keep its spicules squeaky-clean, and the sponge feeds on the shrimps’ waste. The only catch is… as the shrimp grow bigger, they can’t get out. They’re trapped behind the sponge’s mesh.
Which sounds a little tragic—but is actually a good thing for the shrimp. As they evolved over thousands of years, they lost features that would let them live independently. For example, their gills have shrunk because their sedentary lifestyle doesn’t require as much oxygen as a free-swimming one.
Their shells have also become less spiny, since the sponge takes care of protecting them from predators. So it’s now impossible for them to live anywhere but inside a sponge… together. Eventually, the shrimp pair has babies, and these are small enough to squeeze out through the mesh and set off in search of a Venus flower basket sponge to call their own.
Then, finally, the original pair will die, which will open that sponge up for new tenants to settle in and continue their symbiosis. As for how the shrimp find their homes? Well, scientists think the sponges’ spicules actually transmit light from nearby bioluminescent creatures, so as young shrimp couples look for a new home, they’re attracted to these glowing beacons in the dark.
This unlikely relationship has made it possible for these shrimp to continue to survive in the deep sea. And for some humans, it also seems to have become a symbol of committed love. In Japan, the skeletons of these sponges are sometimes presented as wedding gifts. Because there’s nothing like a deep-sea glass sponge shrimp prison to say “until death do us part.” So, a big part of research that sometimes gets overlooked is programming.
It’s not necessary for all science, but knowing your way around a code or two can come in handy. And if that’s a skill you want to learn, you could try one of Brilliant’s courses. For example, they have a course called Programming with Python, which teaches you one of the most common languages with Brilliant’s trademark explanations, quizzes, and hands-on demos.
Whether you’re a scientist by trade or just think Python sounds fun, you can find it at Brilliant.org/SciShow. And if you sign up at that link, you can also get 20% off an annual Premium subscription. {♫Outro♫}.