krill

[For the right pronunciation, please click here.]

a krill

a kind of animal – ocean-living crustacean (= animals like shrimp, crab, lobster, barnacles, etc.) — with exoskeleton (tough bone-like whole body covering); no back-bone or other bones – several legs – (some for movement, some for gathering food); red, pink or transparent body; large tough black eyes; size: from 0.5 inch (1 cm) to 5.5 inches long (some can grow up to 6 inches), and weighs about 1 gram; feeds on ‘phytoplankton’ (= single-celled plants that float freely in the oceans) and ‘zooplankton’ (= tiny animals that float freely in the oceans); lives for 5-10 years; 85 species found in all the oceans of the Earth

Special Features:

Krill are the base of the food chain in the oceans; several sea animals, especially the whales and seals, feed mainly on krill.  Experts believe that without these very small animals, several huge animals, including the blue whale, cannot survive!

When all the krill get together to feed or to mate, several kilometres of the ocean surface turns red or pink.

The krill are so many in numbers that, it is estimated, the total weight of all krill is more than the total weight of all people on Earth!!