Mantas are so Mysterious!

Many manta questions arose once marine biologists learned that that mantas are global travelers possessing the largest brains, for their body size, of any other fish. Mantas measure up to 7 meters wide and the Mobulidae family likely appeared during the Devonian period, which lasted from about 419 to 359 million years ago. In other words, their family history dates back as far as the evolution of tree species. For these reasons, many marine biologists presume that mantas have evolved to become the world’s smartest fish. The friendly behaviors, displayed between the mantas and dolphins, only seems to offer supporting evidence for this presumption.
It’s often accepted that we didn’t previously realize how systemically important these creatures could be. Well, if that is the excuse for not studying them more before, then now seems to be the time to correct that error. I’ve found that the most productive way to studying a lifeform is to first study how it relates with its environment, or environments. In the case of mantas, there seems to be many.
The environment that this Manta was filmed in, also happens to be an understudied environment. Like the mantas, the more I learn about it the more questions I discover.

-In order to describe the aforementioned environment, I first need to introduce the 3 participating role players, existing within the environment, that create a scenario so great that mantas come from all around in order to participate. This is an event in which 3 vastly different creatures successfully function together so that they all will get their bellies filled with Lantern Fish. The firsts of these 3 are the Typical Boobie birds (Genus Sula), the second participating members are residential Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), and finally the local Spinner Dolphins (Stenellalongirostris subspecies. centroamericana).
A Lantern fish is a small bio-luminescent schooling plankton-eater and they play a variety of significant roles within mesopelagic zones. At night, these lantern fish rise from along the mile deep ridge-line of Central America’s Pacific tectonic plate. They do this in order to feed on the plankton that floats along the ocean’s surface. When the sun rises, lantern fish naturally dive back into the deep dark ocean and hide along the local cliff-like ridge-line for cover.
The unified objective of the spinner dolphins is to encircle the billions of schooling lantern fish and prevent them from returning to their daytime refuge. The spinners are also responsible for the secondary function of catching the attention of the aerial boobie birds. They do this by jumping and then creating a large noticeable splash. The aforementioned yellowfin tuna do not need to locate the dolphins because this enormous group of tuna constantly follows this mega-pod of spinner dolphins where ever it goes. Their functional role is to speed upward through the centers of the schooling lantern fish. This ultimately helps to divide the large schooling groups into smaller, thus more manageable, ones. As the schools of lantern fish become smaller, and smaller, it becomes easier for the dolphins to manageably herd them. After the dolphins successfully attract the boobies, they then react by diving downward, in spectacular rain-like fashion, into the schools of lanternfish. When the boobies do this, they usually catch a few fish for their own bellies but simultaneously this action greatly benefits the dolphins. Their benefit to the cause becomes recognizable after they penetrate the water at 65 mph. In doing this, they cause lots of the nearby lantern fish to swim out of sync from the rest within their group. While a lantern fish is swimming out of sync, it is confused. If it weren’t confused, then it would be swimming in sync. It is during these moments of confusion that the dolphins become most successful at swooping in and catching their portion of the feast.
There are a number of other bird species that frequent these daily events but only the boobies seem to provide function to the overall process.
The questions that fascinate me most focus on how the dolphins trained the tuna to fulfill their roles. It often forces me to think about prehistoric humans, and how they learned to function alongside wolves.
Like the many non-boobie bird species, many mantas attend these daily events but they seem to produce no functionality towards bettering the overall process. They just eat, play with the dolphins, and then they go on about their day.
Thanks for watching and reading!
Please like and subscribe if you're interested in the nature of reality.
Oh yeah, BTW!
You’re also welcome to utilize our website: GringoCurt.com
This is where you’ll find endless amounts of information regarding the most intensely bio-diverse place on earth.
Cheers and Safe Journeys!

Видео Mantas are so Mysterious! канала The Nature of Reality by Gringo Curt