How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys
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0:00 - 0:16(Music)
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0:16 - 0:19"Stories from the Sea"
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0:19 - 0:24"Urchin Odyssey: Sex Among Plankton"
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0:25 - 0:28I must look rather strange to you,
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0:28 - 0:31all covered in spines,
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0:31 - 0:34without even a face.
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0:35 - 0:39But I've taken many forms during my life.
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0:39 - 0:42I started out just like you,
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0:42 - 0:45a tiny egg in a watery world.
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0:46 - 0:48My parents never knew each other.
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0:48 - 0:50One moonlit night before a storm,
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0:50 - 0:53thousands of urchins, clams and corals
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0:53 - 0:57released trillions of sperm and eggs into the open sea.
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0:57 - 1:09(Music)
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1:09 - 1:12My father's sperm somehow met my mother's egg,
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1:12 - 1:14and they fused.
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1:15 - 1:17Fertilization.
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1:18 - 1:21Instantly, I became an embryo the size of a speck of dust.
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1:21 - 1:24After a few hours of drifting,
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1:24 - 1:27I cleaved in two, then four,
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1:27 - 1:30then eight cells. Then so many I lost count.
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1:31 - 1:33In less than a day,
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1:33 - 1:36I developed a gut and a skeleton.
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1:36 - 1:39I became a rocket ship,
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1:39 - 1:41a pluteus larva.
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1:43 - 1:44I floated through the world of plankton,
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1:44 - 1:47searching for tiny algae to eat.
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1:50 - 1:51For weeks,
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1:51 - 1:53I was surrounded by all kinds of organisms,
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1:53 - 1:56larvae of all sorts.
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1:58 - 2:00Most are so different from their adult form
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2:00 - 2:03that biologists have a tough time figuring out who they are.
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2:03 - 2:11(Music)
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2:11 - 2:14Try matching these youngsters to their parents.
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2:16 - 2:18This veliger larva
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2:18 - 2:20will turn into a snail.
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2:20 - 2:23This zoea, into a crab.
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2:23 - 2:27And this planula into a cnidaria jelly.
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2:30 - 2:33Some of my young companions are easier to picture as grown-ups.
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2:35 - 2:37These baby jellies, known as ephyrae
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2:37 - 2:41already resemble their beautiful but deadly parents.
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2:43 - 2:44Here in the plankton,
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2:44 - 2:48there's more than one way to get your genes into the next generation.
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2:51 - 2:52Most medusa jellies
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2:52 - 2:55make special structures called polyps
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2:55 - 2:58that simply bud off babies with no need for sex.
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3:00 - 3:01Salps are similar.
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3:02 - 3:06When food is abundant, they just clone themselves into long chains.
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3:09 - 3:13A plankton is full of surprises when it comes to sex.
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3:15 - 3:17Meet the hermaphrodites.
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3:18 - 3:20These cone jellies and arrow worms
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3:20 - 3:23produce, store and release both sperm and eggs.
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3:24 - 3:26They can fertilize themselves
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3:26 - 3:28or another.
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3:32 - 3:34When you're floating in a vast sea,
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3:34 - 3:37with little control over who you may meet,
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3:37 - 3:39it can pay to play both sides of the field.
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3:42 - 3:44The majority of species here, however,
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3:44 - 3:48never mate, nor form any sort of lasting bonds.
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3:49 - 3:51That was my parents' strategy.
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3:53 - 3:56There were so many of us pluteus larvae,
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3:56 - 4:00I just hid in the crowd while most of my kin were devoured.
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4:03 - 4:07Not all parents leave the survival of their offspring to chance.
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4:08 - 4:10Some have far fewer young,
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4:10 - 4:12and take much better care of them,
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4:12 - 4:15brooding their precious cargo for days, even months.
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4:17 - 4:19This speedy copepod
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4:19 - 4:22totes her beautifully packaged eggs for days.
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4:23 - 4:27This phronima crustacean carries her babies on her chest,
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4:27 - 4:30then carefully places them in a gelatinous barrel.
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4:38 - 4:41But the black-eyed squid takes the prize.
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4:41 - 4:45She cradles her eggs in long arms for nine months,
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4:45 - 4:49the same time it takes to gestate a human infant.
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4:53 - 4:57Eventually all youngsters have to make it on their own in this drifting world.
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5:00 - 5:03Some will spend their whole lives in the plankton,
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5:03 - 5:07but others, like me, move on.
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5:10 - 5:13A few weeks after I was conceived,
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5:13 - 5:14I decided to settle down
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5:16 - 5:19and metamorphosed into a recognizable urchin.
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5:23 - 5:25So now you know a bit of my story.
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5:25 - 5:29I may just be a slow-moving ball of spines,
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5:29 - 5:33but don't let my calm adult exterior fool you.
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5:35 - 5:37I was a rocket ship.
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5:38 - 5:40I was a wild child.
- Title:
- How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys
- Description:
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Where do squid, jellyfish and other sea creatures begin life? The story of a sea urchin reveals a stunningly beautiful saga of fertilization, development and growth in the ocean depths.
Lesson by Tierney Thys, visualization by Christian Sardet (CNRS/Tara Oceans), Noé Sardet, and Sharif Mirshak (Plankton Chronicles Project, Parafilms).
View the full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-life-begins-in-the-deep-ocean
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 06:02
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Darren Bridenbeck (Amara Staff) edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Bedirhan Cinar edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Bedirhan Cinar approved English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Bedirhan Cinar edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Bedirhan Cinar edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys | ||
Bedirhan Cinar edited English subtitles for How Life Begins in the Deep Ocean - Tierney Thys |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 10/12/2016.