EnchantedLearning.com Biomes - Habitats

Biomes Calendar A calendar to print, color, and read.

The deepest layer of the world's oceans gets no sunlight at all. This dark ocean layer is called the midnight zone or the aphotic zone (aphotic means "no light" in Greek). The depth of this zone depends on the clarity or murkiness of the water. In clear water, the aphotic zone begins at depths of about xx feet; in murky water, it starts around xx feet. It is usually somewhere between these two extremes. On average, the depth of the ocean is about 13,000 feet (4,000 m).

Temperature is nearly freezing and decreases with depth.

Pressure is extremely high and increases with depth.

Bioluminescence (light generated by living things) is the only light seen in this zone.

trenches

The aphotic zone is divided into two parts- the bathyal zone and the abyssal zone. The bathyal zone extends from 200 meters to 2000 meters. The abyssal zone extends from 2000 meters to the bottom; the exact level of the zone depends of how murky or cloudy (turbid) the water is. Creatures in this area must be able to live in complete darkness and in close to freezing water.

In the aphotic zone, there virtually no light from the sun (1% or less of sunlight reached this zone), so photosynthesis can not take place. Consequently there are no plants or other photosynthetic organisms in this zone. The only food/energy sources in this zone is from organic matter in the water column (plants and animals floating down from higher zones).

Animals:

Examples of aphotic zone animals include algae, anemones, anglerfish, arrow worm, cookie-cutter shark, copepods, crabs and other crustaceans, ctenophores, dinoflagellates, fangtooth, lanternfish (Myctophids), mussels, nudibranchs, some squid (like the vampire squid), segmented worms, siphonophores, swallower fish, tripod fish, tubeworms, pelican eel, umbrellamouth gulper, vampire squid, and viperfish.

Midnight Ocean (Aphotic) Zone Animal Printouts:

Bivalves Bivalves are soft-bodied animals that are protected by two hard shells, hinged together. Scallops, oysters and clams are bivalves.

Bony Fish Bony Fish (Class Osteichthyes) are fish that have a skeleton made of bones.

Brittle Star A bottom-dwelling marine invertebrate with long, spiny arms.

Clam Burrowing bivalves with a soft body.

Cookiecutter Shark A small shark that takes circular bites out of its prey. Also known as the luminous or cigar shark.

Copepod Copepods are tiny crustaceans from fresh and salt water.

Crab A crab is an animal with a shell. It has eyes on stalks on its head.

Crustaceans Crustaceans are animals with a hard exoskeleton, jointed legs, and a segmented body.

Cuttlefish Cuttlefish are cephalopods with relatively short legs, a fin along the entire mantle, and an internal cuttlebone.

Echinoderms Spiny-skinned, bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates with five-fold symmetry.

Eels Information and printouts on these primitive fish that go through metamorphosis.

Fiddler Crab: Label Me! Printout Label the external anatomy of the fiddler crab. Answers

Gastropods Gastropods are a class of mollusks with a single (or absent) shell and a muscular foot.

Giant Squid Giant Squid swim deep in the oceans. They have ten arms and their eyes are the size of basketballs.

Greenland Shark A large, slow-swimming shark with glow-in-the-dark eyes.

Gulper Eel The Gulper eel is a long, bony fish with huge, weak jaws.

Hatchetfish Hatchetfish are oddly-shaped fish from South and Central America.

Hermit Crab Hermit crabs are crabs that lack a hard shell; they use a discarded shell for protection.

Hermit Crab Diagram: Label Me! Label the external anatomy of the hermit crab both in its shell and out of it. Answers

Horseshoe Crab The horseshoe crab is a hard-shelled animal that lives in warm coastal waters on the sea floor.

Jellyfish Jellyfish are animals that have stinging tentacles. Or go to an unlabeled version.

Knobbed Whelk The Knobbed Whelk is a marine invertebrate with a spiral shell.

Krill Small crustaceans that are eaten by many animals, including baleen whales.

Lanternfish Fish with light-producing organs and very large eyes.

Limpet The limpet is a marine invertebrate (a gastropod) with a flattened, cone-shaped shell.

Lobster A hard-shelled marine invertebrate with 10 jointed legs.

Luminous Shark A small shark that takes circular bites out of its prey. Also known as the cookiecutter or cigar shark.

Mollusks Mollusks are soft-bodied invertebrates. Some mollusks include the octopus, squid, clam, snail, slug, and tusk shells.

Octopus Octopuses have eight legs and live on the sea floor.

Octopus Shape Book A short book about the octopus to print, with pages on octopus anatomy, a connect-the-dot activity, a page on the most poisonous octopus, octopus facts, and octopus questions.

Oyster The oyster is a bivalve, a soft-bodied marine animal that is protected by two hard shells.

Pink Conch Also known as the queen conch, a marine invertebrate with a large, beautiful shell.

Plankton Plankton are tiny organisms that float in the seas and other bodies of water.

Pufferfish Also called blowfish and fugu, this poisonous fish can swallow water to double its size.

Purple Sea Urchin A spiny, globular animal that lives on the ocean floor off the western coast of North America.

Sand Dollar Sand Dollars are echinoderms, disk-shaped spiny-skinned sea bed animals that have 5-part radial symmetry.

Scallop Scallops are bivalves, shelled animals that live on the ocean floor.

Sea Anemone A predatory animal that looks like a flower and lives on the ocean floor.

Sea Cucumber Sea cucumbers are cylinder-shaped echinoderms.

Sea Star Sea stars, another name for starfish, are animals that live on the ocean floor.

Sea Urchin A spiny, globular animal that lives on the ocean floor.

Shrimp Shrimp are small, bottom-dwelling crustaceans with a translucent exoskeleton.

Snail A soft-bodied animal with a hard, protective shell.

Sperm Whale The Sperm whale is the largest toothed whale; it is over 50 feet long. It eats giant squid.

Sponge Information Page Read about these primitive animals.

Sponge Coloring/Information Printout A printable coloring/information page about sponges.

Sponge External Anatomy: Label Me! Printout Label the external anatomy of a sponge and the flow of water through it. Answers

Sponge Internal Anatomy: Label Me! Printout Label the cross-section of a sponge and the flow of water through it. Answers

Squid The squid is a fast-swimming invertebrate with ten arms.

Starfish Sea stars, another name for starfish, are animals that live on the ocean floor.

Whales Whales are marine mammals.

Whales: Mystery Connect-the-Dots Learn about whales while you play.

Whelk Whelks are marine invertebrates with a spiral shell.

Zooplankton Zooplankton are tiny animals that float in the seas and other bodies of water.

An Enchanted Learning Web Page Biomes - Habitats

Arctic	Desert	Chaparral or Scrub		Taiga = Coniferous Forests	Grassland		Tropical Rainforest	Pond	Ocean
Antarctic	Tundra	Cave	City	Temperate Deciduous Forest	Savanna	Prairie	Freshwater Marsh	Swamp	Intertidal Zone	Coral Reef	Sunlit (Euphotic) Zone	Twilight (Disphotic) Zone

Enchanted Learning^®
Over 35,000 Web Pages
Sample Pages for Prospective Subscribers, or click below

Click to read our Privacy Policy

E-mail