The ocean is one of Earth’s greatest mysteries, with miles of unexplored terrain that scientists are still trying to uncover. With advancements in technology, scientists have unearthed three new species of snailfish never seen before.
Recently published in the scientific journal Ichthyology and Herpetology, researchers from the State University of New York at Geneseo, the University of Montana, and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa found them along the abyssal seafloor offshore of California. They used technology developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
Snailfish belong to the Liparidae family, and are often described for their large heads, jelly-like bodies, bumpy and loose skin, and their narrow tails. Scientist also classify the species for having a disk on their belly that they use to grip onto larger animals and hitchhike across the ocean.
They dubbed the three new species as the following: the pink, round-headed Careproctus colliculi, also tagged as the bumpy snailfish; the black, rounded-headed Careproctus yanceyi, or dark snailfish; and the long, black Paraliparis em, or sleek snailfish.
During their exploration using the research submersible Alvin, they found two of the new snailfish at a depth of 13,513 feet, almost 130 miles from the coast of California. The third was discovered while aboard the MBARI’s retired flagship research vessel at a depth of 3,268 metres. The snailfish was found swimming above the ocean seafloor 100 kilometers offshore of Central California.
One of the newly found species was a female that measured 9.2 centimeters in length. The team confirmed the three new species after using DNA sequences to compare them to other snailfish in the Liparidae family.
While there are over 400 different species of sea creature, it’s still a major discovery to have found three that have never before been documented.
“Our discovery of not one, but three, new species of snailfishes is a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about life on Earth and of the power of curiosity and exploration,” said SUNY Geneseo associate professor Mackenzie Gerringer, a specialist in deep-sea physiology and ecology, according to Oceanographic.
