New species of sea monster with 20 arms found lurking in the frozen seas around Antarctica
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New species of sea monster with 20 arms found lurking in the frozen seas around Antarctica
Scientists trawling aboard a research vessel off the coast of Antarctica have caught a new undersea creature – one with 20 arms and a striking body, somewhat shaped like a strawberry.
The aim of the researchers’ expeditions, conducted between 2008 and 2017, was to hunt “cryptic” marine animals: a group known as Promachocrinusor Antarctic feather stars.
Although feather stars are similar to other ocean invertebrates, such as starfish and sea cucumbers, they are distinguished both by their “large” size and by their “alien appearance” when swimming, the researchers said.
The eldritch-looking abominations can live anywhere from 20 meters to about 2,000 meters below the ocean’s surface, where they found eight unique species during their mission, including four never before named by scientists.
Scientists trawling from a research vessel off the coast of Antarctica have caught a new undersea creature — one with 20 arms they’ve dubbed the Antarctic strawberry feather star or Promachocrinus fragarius
The entire group known as Promachocrinus, or Antarctic feather stars, can live anywhere from 20 meters to about 2,500 meters below the ocean’s surface, where the researchers with Scripps found eight unique species during their mission, including four that have never been named by scientists before.
The specimens excavated during previous expeditions have long been believed, though without verification, to be an example of this species.
Hitherto only a single species had been unequivocally recognized as a constituent of this genus, referred to as Promachocrinus kerguelensis.
The scientists noted that their ability to appropriately classify numerous additional distinct members within the genus had only now become possible through an examination of both DNA and physical morphology, or shape, of these organisms.
The Antarctic strawberry feather star, the team said, can range in color from “purplish” to “dark reddish.”
The new study was published in July in the peer-reviewed journal Invertebrate Systematics.
Even though these researchers have unraveled one riddle of the sea, a plethora of undiscovered species remain in the unknown realm.
Extensive exploration will be indispensable to gaining even a basic understanding of the abundance of life in the Antarctic, they said.