Baffling giants in the ocean depths
Scientists gather mysterious creatures from icy Antarctic waters |
— Photo: AP
FROM THE DEEP: Organisms that are stalk-like in
structure and resemble glass tulips, spotted in Antarctic waters in
January, among others.
SYDNEY: Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said
on Tuesday they had collected mysterious creatures including giant sea
spiders and huge worms in the murky depths.
Australian experts taking part in an international programme to take
a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world
collected specimens from up to 2,000 m beneath the surface, and said
many may of them have never been seen before.
Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes,
a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully
understand. “Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters,” Martin
Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the
expedition, said in a statement. “We have collected huge worms, giant
crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates.”
The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.
“Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it
is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of
these voyages,” said Graham Hosie, head of the census project.
The expedition is part of an international effort to map life forms
in the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, and to study
the impact of forces such as climate change on the undersea
environment. Three ships — Aurora Australis from Australia, France’s
L’Astrolabe and Japan’s Umitaka Maru — returned recently from two
months in the region as part of the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine
Census. The work is part of a larger project to map the biodiversity of
the world’s oceans.
French and Japanese ships sought specimens from the mid- and
upper-level environment. The Australian ship plumbed deeper waters with
remote-controlled cameras.
“In some places every inch of the sea floor is covered in life,” Mr.
Riddle said. “In other places we can see deep scars and gouges where
icebergs scour the sea floor as they pass by.”
Among the bizarre-looking creatures spotted were tunicates,
plankton-eating animals that resemble slender glass structures up to a
metre tall “standing in fields like poppies,” Mr. Riddle said.
Others were equally baffling. “They had fins in various places, they
had funny dangly bits around their mouths,” said Mr. Riddle. “They were
all bottom dwellers so they were all evolved in different ways to live
down on the sea bed in the dark. — AP
Scientist 