In the depths of the Mariana Trench, biologists have discovered a disgusting creature that looks like a piece of raw meat covered with tumors.
As you know, the depths of the ocean are the habitat of nightmarish creatures that look more like aliens from outer space than the inhabitants of the Earth. Colorless, translucent, flattened and bloated, phosphorescent creatures have long attracted the attention of biologists around the world. And now, at last, among all the abomination that dwells in the sea, there was a fish, which with its ugliness eclipsed everyone.
Mackenzie Gerringer / University of Washington, University of Hawaii.
The Mariana sailboat (Latin Pseudoliparis swirei) is the deepest fish known to science. It looks like a chicken fillet, affected by an extensive tumor, and lives, of course, in the Mariana Trench. For the first time, scientists discovered it at a depth of 7,986 meters below sea level back in 2014. A fresh article in the journal Zootaxa talks about how researchers studied the unusual creature.
Adam Summers / University of Washington.
“At first glance, the sailboat is completely unsuitable for life at this depth, but in fact, he and its relatives survive well in extreme conditions,” says Mackenzie Gerringer, a doctoral student at the University of Washington who participated in the 2014 expedition. Scientists are currently trying to understand how exactly this fish adapted to life in an environment under enormous pressure. They managed to see how P. swirei hunts in the wild: a school of such fish breaks up into groups and "drive" the herds of shrimp and small crustaceans, sucking them into themselves.
Adam Summers / University of Washington.
Vasily Makarov
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