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The kingdom of three new species of newly discovered fish is one of the most inhospitable homes imaginable. These three fish are all snails and were discovered about 4.6 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Researchers who discovered these three new species were able to capture a specimen and get the fish on video.
For the moment, the three new species bear place names and are the pink, blue and purple snails of Atacama. The name of Atacama comes from the Atacama pit, a long ocean bottom line of nearly 6,000 km and a depth of over 8,000 m in some areas . This trench runs along the west coast of South America.
Researchers say that fish that live at such depths are different from what you might expect from deep-sea creatures. The creatures are small, translucent and without scales. The depth to which snail fish live puts them out of reach of other fish and free from other competitors for food and predators. There is an abundance of prey at these depths for the fish to live.
The fish would have a gelatinous structure perfectly adapted to the extreme pressure at the bottom of the trench. The hardest bones in their bodies are the bones of the inner ear used for balance and their teeth. The fish must have extreme pressure and cold to live and melt quickly when they are brought to the surface.
The team managed to capture a specimen and bring it to the surface. This specimen followed a prey in one of the traps set up by the researchers. It has been carefully preserved and is being described by researchers. The ocean where the fish were found is so deep that it sometimes takes almost four hours for a trap to sink to the bottom.
SOURCE: NCL.AC.UK
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