Recently discovered deep-water fish get cotton candy names – Science & Health

Not knowing what is hiding at the bottom of the seas has the benefit of allowing wonderfully speculative horror movies. It is perhaps here that creativity ends, given the temporary names given to three previously unknown species of snailfish identified at 7,500 meters in the Pacific: pink, purple and blue.

It is true that "the pink, blue and purple Atacama snails" are named only temporarily. At some point, they will get appropriate Latin names.

Whatever they call, they have now been discovered and even filmed deep in the Atacama trench, a rift in the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

The exploration of the black depths of Atacama brought together a team of 40 scientists from 17 different countries. Among their discoveries, there are what they say are three species of unknown snail fish, the sea snails. These are not snails, they are fish.

The Atacama trench stretches for nearly 6,000 kilometers long and over 8,000 meters deep in some parts. It runs along the west coast of South America.

"Sea snails" are actually a large family of predatory fin fish. Much like the Hollywood version of former Roman soldiers, the snails have bony armor that stretches along their cheeks. Most live in shallow and temperate waters, but they live in total darkness under grinding pressure of about 750 atmospheres.

Happy to see you

Say "deep sea fish" and we think naturally of the spectacular angler fish, which has gaping jaws, terrifying teeth and a special appendage that hangs from its forehead and is designed to attract fish that may contain bio-luminescent bacteria. Hidden by most standards, they usually look like nightmares. The Anglerfish can also be scary, up to over a meter in length, but fortunately, it does not live where people can see them without help.

Not our new friends. Pink, but also purple and blue are nonsense, almost transparent. The hardest elements in their small gelatinous bodies are the teeth (we said carnivores) and the inner ear bones, says Dr. Thomas Linley of Newcastle University. Like their comrade in the dark depths, however, they have a nightmarish appearance.

"Without extreme pressure and cold to support their bodies, they are extremely fragile and melt quickly when they are brought to the surface," says Linley.

Yes, melt in your hand again looks like a horror movie.

"There are a lot of invertebrate prey there and snailheads are the main predators, they seem to be very active and look very well fed," he adds.

Well fed? "Beyond the reach of other fish, they are free of competitors and predators," says the team.

The fish were spotted and documented through baited camera systems called "landers" designed at the University of Newcastle to explore the distant oceanic depths. Landers are dropped from ships and simply fall to the bottom of the ocean (which can take hours), where they perform monitoring and sampling tasks. Once the sampling is complete, the researchers transmit an acoustic signal to a baited trap, which releases weights, and the undercarriage rises to the surface.

In addition to the snail fish, the team has also filmed surprisingly rare sequences of long-legged isopods, called Munnopsids, which are roughly the size of an adult hand. They look like spiders with tiny bodies and very very very long legs. We do not know if they melt when they are extracted from their environment.