國家地理雜誌精美圖片:你所不知道的水下世界

A giant green sea anemone eats a red cancer crab in a tidal pool in Washington's Clallam Bay. These carnivorous invertebrates snare their prey by firing a hooked filament into their victims, paralyzing them with a potent neurotoxin before engulfing the unlucky prey.

在華盛頓州的克拉蘭灣的一個隨潮汐漲落的水潭裏，一隻巨大的綠海葵正吞食着一隻紅巨蟹。這種無脊椎食肉動物的捕食方法是把一根鉤狀毒絲射入獵物體內，用一種極強的神經毒素麻痹獵物之後。

A group of young seahorses drifts in shallow waters off Manly, New South Wales, Australia. From Canada to Tasmania, most coastal areas with sea grass beds, mangroves, or coral reefs can lay claim to a seahorse species or two.

一羣小海馬在澳大利亞新南威爾士的曼利淺海區遊移。從加拿大一直到塔斯馬尼亞，大多有海草叢，海欖，或者珊瑚礁的近海區域都生存着一兩種海馬科動物。

A dizzying array of dots and squiggles decorates a striped boxfish (Ostracion solorensis) gliding by a coral reef near Indonesia's Tukangbesi Islands. Boxfish, also known as trunkfish or cowfish, are known for their distinctive boxy profiles and for the bonelike, six-sided plates that cover much of their bodies and protect them from predators.

一條渾身佈滿圓點和條紋，令人炫目的箱魨，正在印度尼西亞土康貝西羣島（音譯）附近海域的珊瑚叢中暢遊。箱魨，又稱硬鱗魚或角魚，爲人熟悉的除了它別具特色的方形身體外，還有它呈六邊形生長，覆蓋幾乎整個身體的魚骨，幫助它抵禦捕食者。

A cluster of tiny aquatic snails sits in a freshwater pool, called a poza, in Mexico’s Cuatro Cienegas Biosphere Reserve. This isolated region, a spring-fed wetland in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, has given rise to some of the most uniquely adapted flora and fauna on Earth.

一羣細小的水生蝸牛安躺在清澈的水池裏，這個水池名叫Poza，位於墨西哥的夸特羅·賽內加斯生物自然保護區內。這片獨立的地區，是位於奇瓦瓦沙漠中部的一片泉水灌溉的溼地，爲地球上一些獨特的植物和動物提供了合適的生存環境。

Longnose hawkfish, like this brightly patterned creature resting in a bed of soft coral off Fiji Island's Namena Island, are tropical marine fish known for their needle-like snouts and striking red-and-white scales. The fish's common name originates from its hawklike habit of perching on the high ground of reefs, where it surveys ts surroundings for predator or prey.

這是斐濟羣島的納梅納島（Namena Island）海域，一條顏色鮮豔的長鼻鷹魚正棲息在軟珊瑚羣中。長鼻鷹魚屬於熱帶海洋魚類，以其針狀的鼻子以及紅白色的鱗屑而著名。鷹魚的名字，則是因爲他們的習性有點像鷹，習慣呆在珊瑚暗礁的高處，一方面四處尋找獵物，另一方面則在防範捕獵者。