A team from the University of Aberdeen and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research have
recently discovered an enormous species of crustacean that looks like a prawn. Crustacean is an Amphibious animal. It’s 11 inch long and being said that, it is the world’s largest Prawn (close to prawn) still now. It’s been found more than four miles under water in New Zealand.
Most of the time we find amphipods of 0.8 inch to 1.2 inch long. But, crustacean that looks like a prawn is ten times bigger in size. The crew trying to find samples of deep-sea snailfish, which we have seen them just in photographs since 1950s. That’s why, they used some submerged cameras which were able to explore up to six miles of depth. In order to grab them, these cameras were performing like a trap. But when they found something, they saw, it was not snailfish rather. They thought, it was Prawn, but later understood, it was alike prawn.
Expedition leader Alan Jamieson said, “The moment the traps came on deck, we were elated at the sight of the snailfish as we have been after these fish for years. However, seconds later I stopped and thought ‘What on earth is that?'”
The team caught 7 specimens in the trap and up to 9 were photographed gathering around the camera system. According to scientists, in the early 1980s, U.S .researchers used this word ‘supergiant’ when they found some large amphipods. This supergiant amphipod is very rare and mysterious in the world of sea. Dr Jamieson said, ‘The surprising thing is that we have already been to this deep trench twice and never come across these animals before. In fact, a few days after the discovery, we deployed all the equipment again on the same site and we didn’t photograph or capture a single supergiant. They were there for a day and gone the next.’
According to researchers, the newly found amphipods are the biggest whole specimen of all supergiant caught, and have never been seen so deep in the sea. Now, researchers are trying to match whether the new samples are the same species as those found by the U.S. scientists near Hawaii in the 1980s or not. Being hope that, there is a lot of this type of different creature.
Ashley Rowden, from the Wellington-based institute, said, ‘It just goes to show that the more you look, the more you find. Dr Rowden said, ‘For such a large and conspicuous animal to go unnoticed for so long is just testament to how little we know about life in New Zealand’s most deep and unique habitat.’ Take a look of the video below.
Source : MailOnline
[ttjad]
