At the bottom of the seas there are mysterious circles: what is it?

You probably heard a couple of decades agostories of how some people discovered mysterious circles in the fields. Eyewitnesses claimed that these patterns were left by alien spaceships, but they had no evidence. The most interesting thing is that mysterious circles form even under water - in 1995, at the bottom of the waters washing the Japanese island of Oshima, scuba divers discovered the perfect circle with a diameter of about two meters. Fine and perfectly clean sand was collected in its center, and neat grooves diverged along the edges. One would think that our planet was visited by intelligent alien fish, but let's not fantasize. After the first discovery, researchers began to regularly monitor the appearance of ideal figures on the seabed. In the end, they managed to see with their own eyes what kind of creature he draws such graceful drawings in the sand. The underwater artist was a small fish.

At the bottom of the seas and oceans you can find perfect circles. Are the aliens leaving them?

The mystery of nature

As a rule, scuba divers found mysteriouscircles at a depth of 10 to 27 meters. For a long time their origin remained a big mystery, but in 2011 the secret was finally revealed. During one of the dives, researchers from the deep sea noticed how one fish literally crawls along the bottom and actively moves its fins. She spread the sand to the sides and left behind a very neat-looking groove. It became clear that she was drawing one of those same mysterious circles.

Mysterious circles are almost always the same in shape

Upon closer examination, it turned out that thisfish - a representative of the family of pufferfish. Regular readers of our site will probably remember the material about the most poisonous fish in the world, which is known as puffer fish. We also wrote that its tissues contain a poisonous substance tetrodotoxin, which paralyzes the muscles and stopsbreathing. So, the underwater artist turned out to be one of these deadly fish for humans. It is important to note that only males are engaged in painting in the sand.

See also: The most terrible fish of our planet

Fish breeding

Further observations of the fish revealedthat a circle drawn in the sand is necessary to attract females. As soon as such a circle forms at the bottom, the female swims into place and appreciates it - if she likes everything, she lays eggs in the center of the circle and swims away. Only here by what criteria the picture is evaluated, the researchers are still not clear. Perhaps the females like the perfect figure and accuracy. But it may be that they evaluate the purity of the sand.

And here is the puffer fish, you probably already know her

Be that as it may, the males fertilize the clutch andguard the nest for a whole week. After laying eggs on the shape of a circle, no one pays attention and it collapses. So all this work on drawing a circle, which takes seven to nine days for males, is necessary only for procreation.

When bloated, the puffer fish looks intimidating

This behavior of the fish is truly amazing. Although we now know who draws mysterious circles at the bottom of the seas and oceans, scientists still have some questions. For example, they are interested in exactly what advantages this form of socket provides. There is another question - how does a fish only a few centimeters long manage to create such a perfect circle, and even with neat grooves along the edges?

Scientists are probably already searching for an answer tothis question, but it takes time. Apparently, puffer fish have a very complex body structure and a huge number of processes occur inside them. One of them is probably responsible for assessing the surrounding space and building routes that allow them to draw complex patterns at the bottom.

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While there are no answers to the above questions,I recommend reading material on how the most powerful poison, tetrodotoxin, was turned into a powerful pain reliever. In the same article, I described in detail how this poison affects the human body and where dishes from this dangerous fish are considered a delicacy. Enjoy reading!