Rare Creatures Discovered During 31-Day Voyage Off Australia
/ CBS Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A team of scientists have returned from a deep sea excursion off Australia, uncovering creatures like: the giant anemone-sucking sea spiders, flesh-eating crustaceans and zombie worms.
Called Sampling the Abyss, the 31-day voyage on the Marine National Facility research vessel Investigator brings together scientists from Museums Victoria, CSIRO and other Australian and international museums and research agencies.
The team of 58 scientists explored the mysterious life that inhabits the abyss off eastern Australia – an almost unexplored habitat 4,000 meters below the surface.
"Australia's deep-sea environment is larger in size than the mainland, and until now, almost nothing was known about life on the abyssal plain. We're really excited about the discoveries that we've made and are thrilled that we can now share them with the Australian and international public," said Dr Tim O'Hara, the voyage's Chief Scientist and Museums Victoria's Senior Curator of Marine Invertebrates.
Scientists say more than one third of the spineless critters and some of the fishes found during this voyage are completely new to science.
This mysterious little deep sea coffinfish with its bluish eyes and red feet belongs to the anglerfish group. It attracts unsuspecting prey using a fishing rod tipped with a fluffy bait on top of its head. When threatened coffinfishes often inflate themselves with water to make themselves look more menacing.
The deepest one collected in Australia.
New record for Australia, potentially a new species. Credit: Rob Zugaro
With no eyes and a Mona Lisa smile, the "faceless" fish had the crew completely baffled when it was brought up from 4km below the surface.
The team were already conjuring up possible new scientific names when John Pogonoski, of the CSIRO's Australian National Fish Collection, found it while flicking through the pages of the scientific literature aboard.
Turns out the species was first collected in the northern Coral Sea more than 140 years ago during the Voyage of HMS Challenger, the world's first round the world oceanographic expedition.
Rediscovered in Australian waters after over 140 years.
This is a nasty little bioluminescent shark with its neatly arranged serrated teeth inhabits the oceanic 'twilight zone' in depths to 1000m. It preys on big fishes, whales, dolphins and the occasional unfortunate swimmer, latching onto them before gouging out cookie-sized chunks of flesh.
First time it has been found in Australian waters.
These alien lifeforms are not actually spiders at all but one of the oldest arthropods to grace planet earth. Simplicity is their motto, being little more than a tube within a tube. Many of sea spiders have legs that glow in the dark.
Mr Blobby, the social media phenomenon that was collected in the Tasman Sea in 2003 was voted the World's Ugliest Fish in 2013.
Like his cousin, this blob fish collected from a depth of 2.5km off New South Wales, has soft watery flesh and is an ambush predator that lies very still on the bottom waiting for unsuspecting prey to pass by.
This bright red spiny crab sports an armour of spikes tailored to protect it from the dangers of the deep.
These are not actually true crabs but related more to hermit crabs, although this hermit has traded in its shell for gnarly spikes.
Crustaceans such as this amphipod are deep sea scavengers and will eat almost anything nutritious they come across, including the decaying remains of a dead whale, drifted down from the world above.
Zombie worms are commonly found in the decaying remains of whales on the ocean floor, burrowing into their bones to reach the sustenance within. With no functioning mouths, guts or anuses, they have bacteria that digest these grisly remains for them.
These sponges differ from others of their species in that they hook crustaceans and other miniture creatures in wicked, velcro like spines, while they are slowly digested by the sponge. Death by sponge, a lovely way to go.
These octopus flap their ear-like fins to fly, just like the Disney character of the same name, except this animal flaps its ears to glide gracefully through the deep dark abyss.
These belong to the same group as anemones, jelly fish, hard corals and other tentacled creatures of the sea. This is a type of coral, however, lacks the exoskeleton of its more familiar relatives.
Officials say the voyage also sought to investigate pollution found on the sea floor, and other human impacts such as microplastics in surface waters.
"We have found highly concerning levels of rubbish on the seafloor. We're 100 kilometres off Australia's coast, and have found PVC pipes, cans of paints, bottles, beer cans, woodchips, and other debris from the days when steamships plied our waters. The seafloor has 200 years of rubbish on it. Hopefully information such as this is the first step in influencing social attitudes towards rubbish disposal," said Dr Tim O'Hara.
A selection of these extraordinary marine creatures will go on display at Melbourne Museum in the coming months.
