Far below the ocean surface is a vast environment of cold, darkness, very scarce food, and surprisingly diverse life. Deep sea life is quite mysterious, in part because of their unusual adaptations for surviving in such tough habitats, and also because it’s very difficult to study organisms of the deep, modern or fossil. In this episode, we discuss what is known about the adaptations, evolutionary history, and diversity of life in the deep sea.

In the news: blade-tailed ankylosaurs, ostrich-like dinosaurs, shrimps in clams, and carnivorous ichthyosaurs.

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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.

Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0