Original source : http://listsoplenty.com
Posted : January 2010
Author : Listmaster
One can’t live without the other – this is the nature of a
truly symbiotic relationship, and in the wilds of nature it is often a very
delicately balanced situation. Evolution is an amazing thing but species that
evolve together can be all the more spectacular, protecting, feeding and
cleaning one another in incredible ways. In the oceans, sharks pair with fish,
fish with shrimp and shrimp with sea cucumbers and much much more. From boxing
crabs that wield poisonous anemones as weapons to shrimp that scour the mouths
of electric eels, here are seven of the most radical symbiotic relationships
from the shallowest to the deepest waters of our world. And of course this is
only the life that we know about; it is most likely that even more bizarre
creatures exist at the depths we have not yet begun to understand. So this list
will present what we do know about symbiotic life-buddies in the oceans.
The two most obvious symbiotic relationships involve food
associations (commensalism) and associations in which both host and symbiont
benefit (mutualism). These two are very close, but in commensalism, the issue
is only food and it’s
usually only the symbiont that benefits directly.
