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Deep Sea Life

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Stunning Siphonophore. Strange New Fish Found Deep off New Zealand. Bigfin squid. Physical specimens[edit] The first record of this family comes from a specimen (Magnapinna talismani) caught off the Azores in 1907.[1] However, due to the damaged nature of the find, very little information could be discerned and it was classified as a mastigoteuthid, first as Chiroteuthopsis talismani[1] and later as Mastigoteuthis talismani.

Bigfin squid

In 1956, a similar squid (Magnapinna sp. C) was caught in the South Atlantic, but little was thought of it at the time. The specimen was illustrated in Alister Hardy's The Open Sea (1956), where it was identified as Octopodoteuthopsis.[2] During the 1980s, two more mature specimens were found in the Atlantic (Magnapinna sp. A single specimen of a fifth species, Magnapinna sp. Sightings[edit] The first visual record of the long-arm squid dates back to September 1988. WikiMiniAtlas 10°42.91′N 40°53.43′W / 10.71517°N 40.89050°W / 10.71517; -40.89050 (Bigfin squid (first sighting 1988)), at a depth of 4,735 metres (15,535 ft).

Feeding behavior[edit] 10-Year Sea Census. Photograph courtesy A. Fifis, IFREMER Its fuzzy, winter-white coat might look at home in the Himalaya, but the yeti crab was discovered skittering around hydrothermal vents about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) under the South Pacific off Easter Island (map) in March 2005. The 6-inch (15-centimeter), blind crustacean—officially Kiwa hirsuta— is among the more than 6,000 new species discovered during the Census of Marine Life , a ten-year effort to document all sea life that concluded Monday. (See "Six-hundred-year-Old Worms Among Surprises of Ten-year Sea Survey. " ) The project's 500-plus expeditions have also amassed a visual legacy as unique as the organisms uncovered—from which National Geographic News has selected these images as the 13 best of the census. ( Read more about the yeti crab. ) Fish With Transparent Head Filmed.

Oar Fish. The anglerfish: The original approach to deep-sea fishing. Colossal squid. The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, from Greek mesos (middle), onyx (claw, nail), and teuthis (squid)), sometimes called the Antarctic or giant cranch squid, is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass & length.

Colossal squid

It is the only known member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis. It is known from only a few specimens, and current estimates put its maximum size at 12–14 m (39–46 ft) long,[1] based on analysis of smaller and immature specimens, making it the largest known invertebrate. Morphology[edit] The squid exhibits abyssal gigantism. The beak of M. hamiltoni is the largest known of any squid, exceeding that of Architeuthis (giant squid) in size and in robustness. Distribution[edit] The squid's known range extends thousands of kilometres northward from Antarctica to southern South America, southern South Africa, and the southern tip of New Zealand, making it primarily an inhabitant of the entire circumantarctic Southern Ocean.

Ecology and life history[edit] Creatures from the Mariana Trench.