Strange New Species in the Antarctic Deep Waters

This is amazing: more than a mile below the surface of the Antarctic waters, scientists have discovered a world of huge worms, giant jellyfish, and spiders as big as dinner plates!

"With us we had some of the world’s experts on Antarctic fish and they were completely, completely flabbergasted at the sight of some of the fish that came on board – they were unable to name them," said Dr Riddle after the census of the South Pole’s marine life.

"The fish had fins in various places. They had funny, dangly bits around their mouths.

"Many of them had very large eyes, although what they are going to use them for where this is no light I couldn’t tell you. But they are very strange-looking fish."

In some places, he said "every inch of the sea floor is covered in life".

Giantism, he said, was "very common in Antarctic waters", where his team had even found deep gouges in the sea floor, caused by icebergs scraping the coral" as they floated by.

"Some of the video footage we have collected is really stunning – it’s amazing to be able to navigate undersea mountains and valleys and actually see what the animals look like in their undisturbed state."

Link (with more pics) - via A Welsh View