Australian biologists fished off the coast of the continent what was considered to be an extinct fish without eyes, whose mouth is located in the lower part of the body. The last time the unusual creature came across to researchers in the 1870s in the Coral Sea near Papua New Guinea, reports the Sun.
For the first time, the National Research and Applied Research Association in Australia has studied a sea abyss, which reaches a depth of four kilometers, in waters from northern Tasmania to central Queensland.
The purpose of the research is to search for new species. To do this, scientists submerged a net with an underwater camera, which filmed amazing aquatic inhabitants, including "faceless" fish.
The caught fish had nostrils and mouth, but no face, including no eyes. Researchers believe that they are located deep under the skin, so they are not visible.
“It looks like a fish has two backs,” expedition leader Tim O'Hara described its appearance.
thesun.co.uk
"Fish without a face" was first caught by the crew of the British sailing-steam corvette "Challenger" during the first oceanographic expedition of 1872–76. The find was made in 1873 in the Coral Sea off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Since then, scientists have not come across such creatures.
According to biologists, it is still difficult to say which species the almost unexplored inhabitant of the ocean depths belongs to.
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The expedition, which began May 15, surveys ocean waters using cameras and trawls. In addition to the amazing fish, Australian researchers discovered several other creatures previously unknown to science in the waters off the coast of northern Tasmania.
Among them are fish that can stand on the bottom on three fins, fish with light-sensitive plates, as well as various crabs and sea worms. According to O'Hara, about a third of the samples obtained are unknown to science.
In addition to deep-sea animals, members of the expedition observed a large amount of various debris at the bottom, including plastic pipes, paint cans and even the remains of coal from steamers.
“This is amazing. We are in an unknown place and we observe 200-year-old debris on the seabed,”O'Hara commented on these findings.
The Investigator's expedition should last until June 16.