国家地理杂志精美图片: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.

在华盛顿州的克拉兰湾的一个随潮汐涨落的水潭里，一只巨大的绿海葵正吞食着一只红巨蟹。这种无脊椎食肉动物的捕食方法是把一根钩状毒丝射入猎物体内，用一种极强的神经毒素麻痹猎物之后。

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.

一群小海马在澳大利亚新南威尔士的曼利浅海区游移。从加拿大一直到塔斯马尼亚，大多有海草丛，海榄，或者珊瑚礁的近海区域都生存着一两种海马科动物。

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.

一条浑身布满圆点和条纹，令人炫目的箱鲀，正在印度尼西亚土康贝西群岛（音译）附近海域的珊瑚丛中畅游。箱鲀，又称硬鳞鱼或角鱼，为人熟悉的除了它别具特色的方形身体外，还有它呈六边形生长，覆盖几乎整个身体的鱼骨，帮助它抵御捕食者。

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.

一群细小的水生蜗牛安躺在清澈的水池里，这个水池名叫Poza，位于墨西哥的夸特罗·赛内加斯生物自然保护区内。这片独立的地区，是位于奇瓦瓦沙漠中部的一片泉水灌溉的湿地，为地球上一些独特的植物和动物提供了合适的生存环境。

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.

这是斐济群岛的纳梅纳岛（Namena Island）海域，一条颜色鲜艳的长鼻鹰鱼正栖息在软珊瑚群中。长鼻鹰鱼属于热带海洋鱼类，以其针状的鼻子以及红白色的鳞屑而著名。鹰鱼的名字，则是因为他们的习性有点像鹰，习惯呆在珊瑚暗礁的高处，一方面四处寻找猎物，另一方面则在防范捕猎者。