recondite - sea scientists see some pretty weird things , but nothing do close to the spooky , blank - head fishrecently cart up from the abyss . Researchers say the faceless cusk - eel — a kind of bony Pisces — live so far into the black depths that luxuries like eye are extra .
The Australian research vesselInvestigatorhas been plumb the abyss for a calendar month , trump up all fashion of strange beast , many of which have never been seen before . The delegation is pull out all the plosive in its sampling , using sledge , grabbers , camera , and the largest sportfishing profit ever deployed in the deep sea .
“ Abyssal brute have been around for at least 40 million years but until recently only a handful of samples has been hoard from Australia ’s abyss , ” chief scientist Tim O’Harasaidin a blog post for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization ( CSIRO ) . It ’s “ a world of gelatin and fangs , with miniature monsters gliding up and down hold off for target . ”
The 40 - member inquiry team aboardInvestigatorhad , therefore , peer into more than their share of unearthly typeface . But a fish with no brass was novel to them .
“ Everyone was amazed , ” one scientistwroteon the Blogging the Abyss website . “ We fishos thought we ’d stumble the pot . ”
The team fly into inquiry mode , foray through old research in search of more information . Eel expert John Pogonoski of CSIRO was the first to notice the disappointing , but still fascinating trueness : Thefacelessfish is n’t new at all , but an significant part of account .
The first specimen of the faceless cusk - eel ( now identified asTyphlonus nasus ) were hauled up in 1874 by naturalist aboard theHMSChallenger , the first - ever spheric deep - ocean mission . TheChallengermission was extraordinary in its success , peculiarly pay the archaic nature of its instrument , which included miles and nautical mile of forte-piano telegram .
“ So , it ’s not a unexampled species , ” admitted the blogging scientist , “ but it ’s still an incredibly exciting discovery . It does have eyes — which are apparently visible well beneath the skin in minuscule specimen . I doubt they ’d be of much function though . ”
