Xiang Yang circled the iceberg and slowly dived into the deeper water.
This huge iceberg is like a flawless giant jade. It is pure white without any blemishes. It also emits a faint light in its transparency, making it look very pure and beautiful.
After a long while, Xiang Yang slowly dived to the bottom of the sea.
"Huh? Is this a murex? And it's alive?" Xiang Yang had just gone down to the bottom of the sea when he saw a very strange-looking conch.
This conch is orange in color. Under its shell, there is an inverted siphon that is more than ten centimeters long. On the siphon, there are two rows of spurs of different lengths, which look like a comb.
Xiang Yang reached out and grabbed the snail.
Although the comb-like thorns on the body of this murex can be used as a weapon to protect itself from being preyed upon by other marine creatures, they have no offensive effect at all on Xiang Yang.
Xiang Yang couldn't identify the specific species of this murex, but its shape was very beautiful, with a slightly spherical shell about half the size of a basketball.
What particularly caught Xiang Yang's attention was that the spiral shell of this murex was very bulging, with a total of twelve layers. Each layer had seven longitudinal veins and a row of long spines on it. These things, like patterns, made the murex look even more beautiful.
Xiang Yang couldn't help but think of the Venus murex.
Although the Venus Murex is not the most collectible among all murex, it is definitely the most famous of all.
The reason why Venus Murex is so famous is that Venus is a god in Greek mythology who is in charge of love, marriage, and the growth and prosperity of all animals and plants.
Legend has it that the goddess Venus lives in the ocean, rides a chariot made of shells, and has long embroidered hair. She is the embodiment of beauty and love, and everything about her, including the objects she uses, should be beautiful.
Since the Venus Murex is named after the goddess Venus, its appearance cannot be bad.
It is said that when humans first saw the Venus murex, its discoverer praised it highly.
Thinking of this, Xiang Yang remembered something very interesting.
Anyone who works in construction knows that when building a high-rise building, the first step is to lay a solid foundation, and then build up layer by layer, and finally complete the roof.
In fact, the murex is also a construction worker.
The only difference is that the construction steps of murex are completely opposite to those of humans.
When murex are very small, the mantle that protects their bodies begins to secrete a building material, calcium carbonate.
It takes about a year for the murex to complete the first step of its construction, which is to build the top floor of the building.
Then, when the flesh of the murex grows a little bigger and the top floor is no longer big enough to live in, it starts building the second floor, then the third floor, and the fourth floor, layer by layer, until the foundation is laid.
Xiang Yang wanted to see the structure inside the shell of the murex, but the murex was alive and Xiang Yang was reluctant to kill it.
It is said that the internal structure of the murex shell is very strange, a very beautiful spiral shape, and its body can fill every layer of the shell.
In other words, the shell of the murex is not natural.
Of course, Xiang Yang just couldn't bear to kill the murex, not that he couldn't kill it. Murex is not a protected animal.
Even many people working in aquaculture have to spend a large sum of money every year to hire people to kill the snails in the farms.
Don’t be fooled by the beautiful shell of the murex, which looks harmless.
In fact, murex are important natural enemies of many important economic algae and shellfish.
Qiangjian gently stroked the shell of the murex and then turned it over.
There is a radula in the mouth of this murex.
The radula of the murex has many rows of saw-like ribbons, which are arranged neatly, soft and curved, and can scrape algae and lick small shellfish.
In addition, the drilling gland on the abdomen of this murex can secrete an acidic mucus with a pH value of 4.1, which can quickly drill through the shells of other shelled marine creatures. Any round holes the size of rice grains that appear on the shells are basically the masterpieces of the murex.
Xiang Yang grabbed the murex and thought about it, then took it and continued swimming towards other directions on the seabed.
Soon, Xiang Yang saw another skeleton crab unique to Antarctica.
Xiang Yang immediately showed a look of disgust on his face.
These skeleton crabs look like skeletons and are covered with bacteria. They can survive simply by eating the bacteria on their bodies.
It has to be said that there are relatively few species of organisms in Antarctica.
Xiang Yang scanned the entire vicinity and only found three types of creatures: skeleton crabs, bone snails, and Antarctic krill.
At this time, Xiang Yang had been in the water for nearly half an hour, so he had to turn back and float quickly to the surface of the sea.
After a while, Xiang Yang returned to the deck.
Chen Qingsheng just came up from the water. He looked at the murex in Xiang Yang's hand with surprise. "Ship, you just dived to the bottom of the sea? And you caught a murex?"
Previously, when he was underwater, Chen Qingsheng also tried to dive to the bottom of the sea, but he only dived for more than 100 meters before he began to feel a tightness in his chest and discomfort all over his body. The distance to the seabed was at least several hundred meters, so Chen Qingsheng naturally chose to give up without hesitation. He didn't think that anyone could dive to this depth of water with just a diving suit.
Xiang Yang looked at the murex in his hand and said casually, "I tried my best to finally dive to the bottom of the sea, but the pressure at the bottom of the sea is too great, and I can't move freely. I happened to find this murex at my feet, so I caught it and brought it up."
Upon hearing this, Chen Qingsheng said in amazement, "Captain, you actually dived down? The water is so deep. If it were me, I would never be able to dive so deep even if I risked my life."
"Not now. Practice more. After a while, I will replace the boat with a more advanced diving suit. Then maybe I can go down."
"Let's not talk about this anymore. By the way, Captain, did you see that huge iceberg under the water just now?"
Xiang Yang nodded, "It's such a big piece, how could I not see it?"
As he spoke, Xiang Yang also sighed, "The term 'tip of the iceberg' is so apt. These huge icebergs seen on the sea may actually be less than one-tenth of the total volume of the entire iceberg."
"Yes, to be honest, when I saw the underwater part of the iceberg just now, I was also very shocked," said Chen Qingsheng.