Many people are under the impression that fish living on the seabed thousands of meters deep often have disproportionately large teeth and look terrible. However, according to National Geographic, what scientists have found in the deepest parts of the ocean is a translucent, scaleless small fish that is also highly adapted to the deep-sea environment that other organisms cannot survive.
The new deep-sea species discovered by the international team of researchers is known as the "Pseudoliparis swirei" (scientific name: Pseudoliparis swirei) and lives in the Mariana Trench near Guam, at a depth of about 8,000 meters.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest known trench in the world, with a maximum depth of 11,000 meters below the sea, which is equivalent to the entire Mount Everest.
Wikipedia shows that the fish typically lives 6198–8076 meters below the sea, is 29 cm long and weighs 160 g, and is considered a top predator deep in the Mariana Trench.
Scientists believe that further down the trench, there will be no fish, because about 8200 meters below the sea is the limit of the pressure that fish can withstand. Mackenzie Gerringer, an expert at the University of Washington, says life in these trenches is limited, but the Mariana lionfish can withstand the weight of the equivalent of 1,600 elephants, and they have evolved the ability to adapt to the environment.
Liparidae fish are found in different depths in all oceans of the world, including the waters off San Juan Island, where Friday's Harbor Lab is located. In deep-sea environments, lionfish congregate in flocks and feed on smaller crustaceans. They will suck their prey into their mouths before swallowing. Interestingly, the mature eggs of the Mariana lionfish are large, almost 1 cm wide, while their juveniles prefer to live less than 1,000 meters below the sea.
In terms of appearance, the Mariana lionfish is really quite soul-destroying, with no fish scales, no teeth, and unlike many deep-sea creatures that can bioluminescent. The most impressive feature is the location where it inhabits. However, researchers have discovered many of the unique physiological and anatomical characteristics of the species through CT scanning technology and other means.
A CT scan of the Mariana lionfish shows a green object of a small crustacean in the fish's stomach
The research team from Japan also captured images of the Mariana lionfish swimming at a depth of 8,134 meters, the deepest witness recorded so far.
In naming the new species, the researchers also paid tribute to pioneers in deep-sea research. The species name "swirei" of the Mariana Lionfish comes from an officer named Herbert Swire on the British naval warship HMS Challenger, who first discovered the Mariana Trench during an expedition in the late 1800s.
(Image and text from the network)