Which Animals Live on the Sea Floor?
Contrary to popular belief, most of the sea floor, known as the “open ocean”, is not really a habitat for animals, just a place they pass by on the way to somewhere else. In most of the world, the ocean floor is very deep, averaging 3,790 meters (12,430 ft) in depth. Nearly half of the world’s sea floors are over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Altogether, the deep sea floor makes up about 71% of the world’s oceans, with shallow waters, such as continental shelves, making up 29%. The animal life on the sea floor is very different depending on whether we are talking about the continental shelf or the deep ocean. On the continental shelves is where the greatest biodiversity can be found. Many plants and animals live here: kelp forests, huge amounts of algae, sharks, fish, crustaceans, brachiopods, bivalves, sponges, cnidarians (jellyfish and relatives), echinoderms (starfish, sea urchin, and relatives), cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises), and many more. Out of 38 animal phyla, all exc
