Rare 'supergiant' crustaceans pulled from depths of sea

[smile72]

Scientists on an expedition to sample a deep-sea trench got a surprise when their traps brought back seven giant crustaceans glimpsed only a handful of times in human history.

The "supergiant" amphipods are more than 20 times larger than their typical crustacean relatives, which are generally less than a half-inch (1 centimeter) long, and thrive in lakes and oceans around the world. They are sometimes called the "insects of the sea."

"We pulled up the trap, and lying among the fish were these absolutely massive amphipods, and there was no inkling whatsoever that these things should be there," said Alan Jamieson, a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and leader of the expedition that turned up the fantastical creatures in November 2011.


The largest of the seven specimens was about 11 inches (28 cm) long.

"They actually don't feel real," Jamieson told OurAmazingPlanet. "They feel like plastic toys. They have a waxy texture to them."

The pale, leggy creatures were found 4 miles (6 kilometers) down in the Kermadec Trench, off the northeast coast of New Zealand, one of the deepest trenches on Earth.

In addition to the animals captured in the trap, a seafloor camera more than a mile (2 km) away spied at least nine supergiant amphipods. It's not clear why so many of the typically elusive creatures were in the area. A week later, when the expedition returned to the same spot, there was no sign of the supergiant amphipods, which was "very, very strange," Jamieson said.

It appears the Aberdeen expedition has retrieved the largest complete specimen ever collected. (In 1983, an albatross regurgitated a supergiant amphipod, that, not surprisingly, was in poor shape. Researchers estimated at the time that, when alive, the creature would have been 13 inches [34 cm] long.)

Supergiant amphipods (Alicella gigantea) were first discovered in 1899, when a trawling expedition turned up two specimens from the Atlantic Ocean. The species wasn't seen again for nearly 100 years. In the 1970s, scientists photographed the oversized creatures in the northern Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles north of Hawaii.


Then in the 1980s, scientists managed to bring back a few specimens of the giant crustaceans from the same area.

"Nobody has ever really mentioned them since," Jamieson said. "They're one of these strange deep-sea anomalies."

Although the amphipod find was exciting, the expedition's true quarry was a deep-sea snailfish that has only been sampled once before, in 1952.

"Nobody has ever caught one since," Jamieson said. Yet in among the weird amphipods? Seven snailfish.

"To do what we wanted to do we really just needed one fish, so to get seven fish was amazing — and to get seven supergiants is incredible," Jamieson said.

"It was a pretty good day, let's put it that way," he added.

The scientists are mounting a return sampling expedition to the same swath of deep sea off the coast of New Zealand in a week.

Source:MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn...11#.Ty3-pMVPufs

It's so cute♥ I love it!♥

 

[Icealote]

I wonder what it would taste like...battered? Hmm...

 

[sputnix]

that would make a damn good dinner

 

[Zetta_x]

That's it... there is a nuclear plant near New Zealand

 

[Gahars]

We're going to have to rethink how we name our "Jumbo" shrimp.

 

[jimmyemunoz]

Living in New Orleans I eat shrimp quite a bit, but this "giant crustacean" looks different to me than a standard shrimp, especially in the head region. It's head looks less defined and incredibly small and the feelers, or "tentacles", look short. Cool picture though and I'm glad I saw it.

 

[Rydian]

I can't wait until aliens start abducting people, get a fat one, and freak out like this too.

 

[smile72]

Why does everyone want to eat it????? It should be a pet, not food!!!! Or free to live in the ocean.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

Why does everyone want to eat it????? It should be a pet, not food!!!! Or free to live in the ocean.

Fish are food, not friends.

I'd certainly want some sushi made from colossal shrimp.

 

[smile72]

They're friends. Sushi is disgusting. Fish are cute (some of them).

 

[Gahars]

Why does everyone want to eat it????? It should be a pet, not food!!!! Or free to live in the ocean.

Shrimp tastes good. A shrimp I can describe using the word ginormous without a hint of irony will, hopefully, also taste really good and there will be much, much more of it for everyone. We (or everyone who eats shrimp) all win.

Unless you're just joking, of course.

 

[smile72]

Gahars that's evil.

 

[Zerosuit connor]

Bleh, Crabs are for eating.

 

[smile72]

No they're not! Crabs are adorable.

 

[Zerosuit connor]

Yep Sure, with their creepy scaly bodies and giant claws.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Crustaceans disgust me. They are the bottomfeeders of the sea and eat anything they find. I wouldn't even want to imagine putting something like that in my mouth.

 

[smile72]

So cute!!!!!!

 

[Gahars]

Gahars that's evil.

Fishing is evil?

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

@[member='smile72']
you're seriously derailing this topic with your opinion.

Let's get back to discussion of the delicious discovery, posthaste.

 

[smile72]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's evil!! Evil! Evil! Evil! It's not a discovery of food Vulpes.