Name: 8 Strange New Deep Sea Creatures
Uploaded: 2021-05-16T08:04:34.000Z
Duration: 9 min 31 s
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We're celebrating Earth's oceans this whole week, with a series of videos about

Turns out they're full of some pretty weird things, and there's a lot going on down

And the deepest oceans are among the least understood habitats on Earth, because they're

Never mind that it's dark and scary down there, the pressure's about a thousand times

the pressure at sea level, which would compress the human body into a messy pulp.

But there is life down there, and plenty of it.

We can study that life using either very long nets or remotely operated vehicles, known

as ROVs. And each year, we're discovering new, amazing species that are most at home

These are 8 of the strangest deep sea creatures we've discovered, just since 2009.

We'll start off with the ninja lanternshark, which was brought up from deep waters off

The species was officially described in 2015 by a research team led by marine biologist

Four of her cousins, aged 8 to 14, helped coin the shark's common name: ninja lanternshark.

Their skin contains bioluminescent organs called photophores, which give the shark an

eerie green glow. These might help it do things like attract mates, communicate with other

But the ninja lanternshark is very different: it has fewer photophores and it has jet-black

scales, which make it a great stealth hunter.

It may not carry throwing stars or anything, but it does have some very sharp, asymmetric

teeth, the top half are for grasping, and the bottom half are for cutting.

Even if you encountered those teeth in their native habitat, though, you probably wouldn't

need to worry too much. Ninja lanternsharks are smaller than house cats and probably eat

But not all deep-sea creatures look quite as striking as the ninja lanternshark.

Sometimes, they just look like sad, washed-out old socks…

Especially the sockworms, or Xenoturbella.

They're a group of five species, four of which were discovered in 2016 deep under the

Gulf of California, using ROVs from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

And if you're thinking that their bodies look a little simple, you're right. They've

got a mouth, but no eyes, brain, or anus!

In fact, they're so weird that scientists have struggled to fit them onto the evolutionary

Early DNA analysis suggested they could be some kind of strange mollusc that maybe lost

some of its organs … but the researchers were misled by contamination from some clam

The evidence from the new species has helped researchers figure out what's up with these

sockworms, and these days, they're thought to be some of the simplest animals with bilateral

As for those new species, the furrows in one of the new sock worms reminded researchers

of a certain pastry, so they named this species Xenoturbella churro.

I'm not sure I'd want one of these guys dipped in chocolate sauce, though!

Last year, the cold depths of the East Scotia Ridge near Antarctica revealed some of the

habits of a species of crab with some very impressive body hair.

First discovered in 2009, they're unofficially called Hoff crabs after David Hasselhoff and

his famous chest-rug, but those hairs aren't for keeping the crab warm.

Instead, they're used to grow bacteria, which the crabs harvest using their comb-like

Researchers from the UK took ROVs down to the polar depths, peering into the private

lives of these crabs by examining how they were distributed across the ocean floor.

Their lives are mainly organized around volcanic vents, which warm the surrounding water.

Males and females cluster together here, growing their bacteria, mating and presumably having

The vents can support up to 4000 crabs per square meter.

But there were also Hoff crabs living farther out from the vent, in the colder waters. These

all turned out to be mothers, brooding baby crabs under their curled-up tails.

The researchers think the vents could be spewing out chemicals that are toxic to the developing

crabs. So the new mothers relinquish the safety and warmth of the group, but for the sake

The Hoff crabs were discovered in 2009, living in vents around 2.5 kilometers below the surface.

But just a year later, researchers from Southampton in the UK found some hot smokers twice that

deep. At five kilometers down, these are the deepest known volcanic vents in the world.

And they're full of life, specifically, a new species of eyeless shrimp.

They're found in the Mid-Cayman Rise, a huge seafloor gash caused by two tectonic

Like the Hoff crabs, these shrimp take advantage of the warmth provided by these volcanic vents,

and there are huge swarms of them down there.

The vents heat water to around 400oC, the only reason it doesn't boil is because of

And just like we humans might enjoy the heat of a bonfire, but only from a safe distance,

the shrimps also want to avoid the scalding danger zone.

But they need help to avoid bumbling straight into it. Eyes as we know them aren't going

to be much help, since it's pitch black down there and the vents don't emit any

The baby shrimp are born with eyes that can sense visible light, since they live a little

But as they mature, they do away with eyes completely, and develop an infrared, heat-sensing

organ on their backs to avoid becoming another shrimp on the Barbie.

Any list of deep sea creatures wouldn't be complete without an appearance from our

favorite underwater horror, the anglerfish!

There are more than 200 known species of anglerfish, and this new one, well … it's not pretty.

The story of this snaggletoothed brute's discovery doesn't start happily.

In 2010, offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, spilling 5 million barrels-worth

of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, an ecological disaster.

Very little was known about what species lived in the area, especially deep underwater, and

this made clean-up and conservation efforts a lot harder.

Extensive surveys of life in the Gulf discovered fifty new species, including this ugly beast.

Those forehead spikes are actually teeth! Its upper jaw is highly mobile, so it can

reach all the way up there and grab anything that swims too close to its glowing lure.

Female anglerfish also use their lures to attract males, but they only want males from

So each anglerfish species has its own signature lure structure, which affects the fish's