Newly discovered ruby sea dragon seen alive in wild for 1st time An interesting video showing the common and leafy seadragons, also.
Beautiful and strange! And so red while living at a depth where color is irrelevant. Of course, the orange roughy fish is also bright red at three times the depth of this ruby sea dragon.
Many fish and other animals living at intermediate depths in the sea are colored red, presumably because red light does not penetrate as far as other colors. Blue light penetrates to those depths, but red light does not; so red fish will appear black. That is probably why the ruby sea dragon does not have the leafy appendages of the related species; it does not need them for camouflage. In even deeper waters no light penetrates, and there is no advantage to being red.
