Giant Marine Life in Antarctica



150StarfishScientists who just returned from a survey of the Ross Sea near Antarctica have found giant versions of sea creatures, such as jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and a starfish measuring 2 feet wide! Some of the 30,000 specimens collected could be entirely new species.

A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

It’s “exciting when you come across a new species,” said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt.”

The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

Link -via Reddit

(image credit: AP/NZ IPY-CAML, John Mitchell)


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Posted on March 21, 2008 at 1:23 pm by Miss Cellania
Category: Animal, Science & Tech



5 Comments to "Giant Marine Life in Antarctica"

  • amberae
    March 21st, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    Lovecraft wasn’t that off was he?

  • Oomi
    March 21st, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    while i understand that this is a facinating discovery, couldn’t they have been satisfied with pictures? something that large probably means it’s been around for a long time. i personally think it’s a tragedy if those starfish are killed.

  • CSI
    March 21st, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    Lovecraft wasn’t that off was he?

    Those big starfish could be the devolved descendents of Old Ones. You never know…

    i personally think it’s a tragedy if those starfish are killed.

    It doesn’t say in the article if they killed those starfish. I hope not either, as it would have taken them decades to reach that size (there are also deep-dwelling fish such as Orange Roughy which live for decades but are still caught for food - a real shame).

  • emptyminded
    March 21st, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    I think the question of whether the organism could survive being removed from its habitat generally depends upon the depth at which the organism lives. Many of the organisms that die do so from the drastic drop in pressure.

    At least that sounds good, so I’m sticking with it.

  • Viola
    March 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 am

    Are they really new species… or simply organisms that were left alone long enough to get that big?

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