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Invisible Barrier in the Oceans Prevents Some Animals From Crossing

2025-08-14 Science & Technology
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Anton Petrov
Anton Petrov
1.6m subscribers

Discovering Invisible Barriers: The Ocean's Mesopelagic Boundary Hypothesis

Uncover the shocking reality that the deep ocean contains mysterious, invisible walls preventing species migration, even in seemingly continuous environments. Learn how a recent discovery involving a specific jellyfish is forcing scientists to rethink deep-sea biogeography.

Short Summary

  • Introduce the concept of faunal boundaries using the famous Wallace Line as historical context.
  • Detail the accidental discovery of a deep-ocean barrier limiting the spread of two morphs of Botrynema brucei.
  • Explore multiple hypotheses—predation, currents, and competition—that might explain this previously unknown oceanic dividing line.

Anton explores faunal boundaries, contrasting established terrestrial examples like the Wallace Line with a recent deep-sea finding concerning the distribution of two distinct morphs of the jellyfish Botrynema brucei. This new data champions the mesopelagic barrier hypothesis, highlighting how little we understand about life in the deep ocean.

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Description

Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath (Unreleased videos, extra footage, DMs, no ads) Alternatively, PayPal donations can be sent here: http://paypal.me/whatdamath Get a Wonderful Person Tee: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath More cool designs are on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QFIrFX Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a newly discovered barrier in the ocean that prevents certain jellyfish from crossing, but we're not sure why - idea known as mesopelagic barrier hypothesis Links: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063725001098?via%3Dihub https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/10index/background/biogeography/media/biogeography_lines.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrynema_brucei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line #fauna #barrier #wallace 0:00 Invisible boundaries - faunal boundaries 0:50 Wallace line and similar boundaries 2:20 What jellyfish this is all about 4:50 Potential explanations 5:50 Why this matters 8:00 Conclusions and implications Enjoy and please subscribe Bitcoin/Ethereum to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! bc1qnkl3nk0zt7w0xzrgur9pnkcduj7a3xxllcn7d4 or ETH: 0x60f088B10b03115405d313f964BeA93eF0Bd3DbF Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Special thanks also goes to all the wonderful supporters of the channel through YouTube Memberships Credit: Dhugal Lindsay Montenegro et al., Deep-Sea Res. I: Oceanogr. Res. Pap., 2025 http://listfiles/Kanguole%20CC%20BY%20SA%204.0%20https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line#/media/File:Map_of_Sunda_and_Sahul.svg Altaileopard CC BY-SA 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line#/media/File:Wallacea.png Aino Hosia/Universitetsmuseet i Bergen, Universitetet i Bergen CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrynema_brucei#/media/File:Botrynema_brucei.jpg Licenses used: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and relevant Creative Commons licenses

Top Comments (10)

@austintrees 2025-08-14

Because that's peanut butter fish's territory

387 39 replies
@xpndblhero5170 2025-08-14

Sometimes I feel like salinity it's like air quality for fish so I can imagine swimming along peacefully then not liking the taste of the water so I go another direction... 😂

194 6 replies
@jessicapinto3817 2025-08-15

Anton, you are one of the reasons why internet is a good thing

172 7 replies
@godoftwinkies574 2025-08-14

Clearly the "out of bound" limit. They will despawn if crossed.

115 3 replies
@GojiMet86 2025-08-15

Jellyfish: I ain't crossing that line Some weird, hairless monkees: I wanna go to the Moon

93 11 replies
@jayjaysaves6589 2025-08-14

Even the jellyfish know not to mess with the Old Ones

69 4 replies
@MovieKnightsClub 2025-08-14

I wanna be like Anton when I grow up

69 1 replies
@curtisdecoste9345 2025-08-15

I thought jellyfish just went wherever the current took them. The fact that they’re actually “going somewhere” is more impressive to me than anything. 😂

60 4 replies
@mattygiggity 2025-08-15

All the spawn points for the fish were set up at the start and were never patched after the continents drifted, very simple explanation.

50 1 replies
@erikmaronde2244 2025-08-15

I once swam and dived on the west coast of Korsika/Corse. There was a barrier where the cold fresh water from a mountain river met the warm salty Mediterranean. It was interesting to watch fish from both sides keeping carefully away from the border. So salinity and temperature together with streaming velocity differences may well establish relatively stable " borders". Interesting!

43 2 replies

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