On the bottom The bottom of the deep ocean is not an easy place to live. There is little food and it is dark and cold. Much of the seabed is covered with soft clays or mudlike oozes made of skeletons of tiny sea animals and Underwater cables were laid across the Atlantic plants. The ooze on the vast open plains of Ocean to relay telegraphic messages, c. 1870 Dried remains the abyss can reach several hundred yards of sea thick. Animals walking along the bottom have long legs to keep from stirring anemones it up. Some grow anchored to the seabed and have long stems to keep their feeding structures clear of the ooze. Food particles can be filtered out of the water, for example, by the feathery arms in sea lilies or through the many pores in sponges. Some animals, such as sea cucumbers, feed on the seabed and manage to extract enough goodness from food particles within the ooze. Food particles are the remains of dead animals (and their droppings) and plants that have sunk down from above. Occasionally, a larger carcass reaches the bottom uneaten, providing a real bonanza for the mobile bottom-dwellers that home in on it from all around. Because food is scarce and temperatures so low, most animals living in the deep ocean take a long time to grow. Glassy strands Not a true spider This sponge grows anchored to the soft seabed by Looking like land spiders, sea spiders belong to a group called ogonids. its stem of glass strands and sea anemones often Some deep-sea spiders have a leg span of 2 ft (60 cm) across, and can stride grow on their stems. When a glass-rope sponge along without stirring up clouds of particles. They can also swim, by launching dies, the cup-shaped part disappears and all that off the seabed, bringing their legs upward, then sinking down again. is left is the stem stuck in the seabed. Stem formed by long, glassy, needlelike spikes made of silica Long, skinny le
