Picture the Tripod Fish

Tripod designs are efficient, whether to steady a camera or maybe Martian fighting machines with heat rays and stuff. Objects built with three legs are quite sturdy and secure, very unlikely to wobble. One surprising place to find a tripod is in the deep blue sea. Well, not so much blue at such depths. The tripod fish sets itself up on the sea floor and waits for supper.

Credit: NOAA via Wikimedia Commons

They are not hunters as you may have gathered, preferring instead for zooplankton to come drifting along. If you've watched fish in an aquarium, they move up and down while staying horizontal. That is from using the swim bladder. Tripod fish have those as well, but they are only suitable for the tremendous depths and pressures where they live. They can also reproduce without a mate. There are many features built into the tripod fish that clearly highlight the Master Engineer's work, and thwart evolutionary explanations.

One of the least–well-understood ecosystems in the world is the deep-sea floor. This is understandable. The deep sea can only be reached using robotic submersibles and larger submarine vehicles. This difficulty in reaching the habitat has been a significant barrier to the study of the deep-sea fauna. However, even with these barriers, some creatures have still been studied. One such creature is the remarkably specialized tripod fish. The tripod fish is a truly unique creature that exhibits remarkable evidence of God’s hand in his creation.

Tripod fish are denizens of the deep sea, living up to 6000 meters below the surface. They have a near-worldwide distribution and are uniquely designed for their lifestyle. Instead of swimming along the bottom looking for food, this fish lets its food come to it. However, unlike frogfish or similar fish that rely on camouflage and ambush to nab their unsuspecting meal as it comes swimming by, tripod fish do not need to move to hunt.

To read the rest, set yourself up at "Tripod Fish: Denizens of the Deep Sea".






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