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When filming Blue Planet 2, David Attenborough's famous BBC series, viewers had a unique insight into the little exploration of our oceans. Using a Triton submarine, the research team was able to dive to a depth of 1,000 meters in an area known as the "midnight zone". Here, the cameras discover the carcass of a 30-ton whale that had sunk from the surface and had become a meal for the creatures of the depths.
However, there was one visitor during the four months that they filmed, which left the team perplexed.
David Attenborough said in 2017: "There are only a few bones left.
"But even they are the food for something.
"Zombies worms – they tunnel into the bones by injecting acid and can therefore reach the minute amounts of fat that remain there.
"It may take decades, but eventually the last bone will disappear and the entire 30-tonne carcass will have been recycled.
"A whale fall is a temporary oasis in the seabed desert."
Also known as Osedax, these creatures owe their name to their ability to feast on the bones of a carcass.
Missing stomach and mouth, Osedax relies on symbiotic Bacteria species that facilitate the digestion of whale proteins and lipids and release nutrients that worms can absorb.
They have plumes of colorful feathers that act as gills and unusual structures resembling roots that absorb nutrients.
However, they are not the first remarkable discovery to emerge from the ocean and to be captured by Sir David's team.
Only 200 meters above this bizarre find, in an area known as the "Twilight Zone", a cannibal was filmed.
Sir David said: "Humboldt squids – two meters long and 50 pounds in weight.
"Like most squid, they are voracious hunters.
"They are hundreds and found a lantern bench hiding 800 meters off the coast of South America.
"Their tentacles are armed with powerful suckers with which they catch their prey."
The presenter, 92, then revealed how this huge squid would become cannibal to survive.
Sir David added, "When there are no more lantern fish left, it hurts.
"This squid caught a smaller one in its tentacles.
"To hide his capture from the rest, he releases a screen of black ink smoke.
"But then, a bigger one challenges him and steals his catch.
"The twilight zone is the favorite hunting ground for Humboldt squids, they rarely go deeper."
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