{"id":138576,"date":"2025-09-12T12:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/138576\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T12:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:27:13","slug":"scientists-discover-cute-unknown-deep-sea-snailfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/138576\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Discover \u201cCute\u201d Unknown Deep Sea Snailfish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monterey Canyon, Pacific Ocean\u00a0\u2014(Map)<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have discovered a previously unknown kind of snailfish living over 2 miles (3.27 kilometers) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. But if you were imagining a large, scary creature \u2013 you\u2019d be wrong. One researcher described the fish as \u201cadorable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Snailfish are odd fish. They have large heads and a \u201cjelly-like\u201d body. Instead of scales, they have loose skin. Many have a special disc on their belly that lets them grab on to the sea floor, or even catch a ride on an animal like a crab. <\/p>\n

Some snailfish are found in shallow areas of the ocean, where they grab onto rocks and curl up like a snail. Others live far down in the depths of the sea. The world\u2019s deepest-living fish is actually a snailfish.<\/p>\n

\"TheSnailfish have large heads and a \u201cjelly-like\u201d body. Some snailfish are found in shallow areas of the ocean. Others live far down in the depths of the sea. Scientists discovered the bumpy snailfish (above) living over 2 miles (3.27 kilometers) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
(Source: \u00a9 2019 MBARI<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

No light from the surface reaches down to these depths, making them almost completely dark. The temperature is generally similar to the inside of a refrigerator. And the pressure is about 300 times as great as it is at the surface. Anything living at these depths needs some special tricks to be able to survive.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Gerringer teaches biology at SUNY Geneseo*, where she focuses on life in the deep sea. Dr. Gerringer says it\u2019s amazing how creatures adapt to live under such difficult conditions. <\/p>\n

Scientists also need special tricks to explore at these depths. In 2019, researchers from MBARI, led by scientist Steven Haddock, made a trip to study life deep under the sea off the coast of central California. <\/p>\n

\"TheTo explore at such great depths, the MBARI team used a special two-person submarine called Alvin. They also used an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) named \u201cDoc Ricketts\u201d (above).
(Source: Randy Prickett and Erich Rienecker, \u00a9 2018 MBARI<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

To explore at such great depths, the MBARI team used a special two-person submarine called Alvin. They also used an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) named \u201cDoc Ricketts\u201d. The ROV is named for a famous marine scientist. <\/p>\n

Because the deep ocean is so hard to reach, most of it has not been studied. But the area where the researchers were working has been studied more than most deep water sites. Even so, the scientists were surprised by what they discovered.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe cameras of the Doc Ricketts ROV caught sight of a pink snailfish with bumpy skin swimming in the dark, cold waters. The fish was about as long as a pack of playing cards. Far from being scary, the fish looked almost cute.
(Source: \u00a9 2019, MBARI<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The cameras of the Doc Ricketts ROV caught sight of a pink snailfish with bumpy skin swimming in the dark, cold waters. The fish was about as long as a pack of playing cards. Far from being scary, the fish looked almost cute. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty adorable,\u201d Dr. Gerringer told the New York Times.<\/p>\n

But deep-sea snailfish can be very difficult to identify from an image or a video. Luckily, the ROV was able to collect the fish so that the animal could be studied further. And the Alvin captured not one, but two other unusual snailfish. One was very dark \u2013 almost completely black. The second also had black coloring, but it was long and thin.<\/p>\n

\"ManyThe Alvin captured two other unusual snailfish. One was very dark \u2013 almost completely black. The second also had black coloring, but it was long and thin, similar to the fish seen above. All three of the snailfish found in the area were new to science.
(Source: \u00a9 2006, MBARI<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Dr. Gerringer led an effort to carefully study and identify the snailfish. All three turned out to be species that scientists have never seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese three snailfishes are a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about life on Earth and of the power of curiosity and exploration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

* SUNY Geneseo stands for the State University of New York at Geneseo.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This map has not been loaded because of your cookie choices<\/a>. To view the content, you can accept ‘Non-necessary’ cookies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monterey Canyon, Pacific Ocean\u00a0\u2014(Map) Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have discovered a previously unknown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-138576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}