They look like ghosts and roam the depths of the sea. It is not the plot of a horror film but the new discovery that comes from the University of Newcastle. Three new species of fish have been discovered in the Pacific at a depth of 7.500 meters
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
They look like ghosts and roam the depths of the sea. It is not the plot of a horror film but the new discovery that comes from the University of Newcastle. Three new species of fish have been discovered in the Pacific at a depth of 7.500 meters.
Exploration into one of the deepest places on earth made it possible to film what are believed to be three new species of snail fish. Elusive and practically unknown creatures.
By involving a team of 40 scientists from 17 different countries, including Dr. Alan Jamieson and Dr. Thomas Linley of the University of Newcastle, UK, the Atacama Trench expedition off the coast of Chile and Peru has unearthed a wealth of information about life in one of the deepest places in the world.
The new snail fish
Temporarily dubbed "pink, blue and purple Atacama sea fish," the animals shown in the film feed and interact in their secret world, 7.500 meters below the surface.
Fish are part of the liparid family and do not conform to the stereotypical image of what a creature living in deep water should look like. Instead of giant teeth and a menacing air, the fish that roam the deepest parts of the ocean are small, translucent, scaleless, and very adept at living where few other organisms would.
“There is something about snail fish that allows it to adapt to living deep. It is free from competitors and predators. As the footage clearly shows, there are a lot of invertebrate prey down there and snailfish is the main predator, it appears to be quite active and very well fed. Its gelatinous structure reveals that the fish has adapted perfectly to living in conditions of extreme pressure and in fact the hardest structures in the body are the bones of the inner ear that give balance, and then the teeth. Without the extreme pressure and cold to sustain the body, being extremely fragile it would disintegrate quickly if brought to the surface, ”said Dr. Thomas Linley.
Presented as part of the Challenger Conference 2018 underway at Newcastle University, the fish have been spotted in the Hadal area, one of the last great frontiers of marine science and the deepest places on Earth, in the Atacama Trench. The latter is nearly 6000 km long and over 8000 m deep and is located along the west coast of South America.
Using two landers capable of reaching up to 11.000 meters, equipped with HD cameras, Newcastle scientists observed the animals closely. The result? More than 100 hours of video and 11.468 photographs taken on the seabed.
Crustaceans
In addition to fish, the scientists also filmed some extraordinary long-legged isopods about the size of a hand. These crustaceans have small bodies and swim backwards before reaching the sea floor, where they then move like spiders.
Hitherto unknown but truly fascinating creatures.
READ also:
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Francesca Mancuso
