New Antarctic creatures discovered

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XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Aussie scientists discover new Antarctic creatures

Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths.

Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before.

Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.

"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."

The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.

"Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages," said Graham Hosie, head of the census project.

The expedition is part of an ambitious international effort to map life forms in the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, and to study the impact of forces such as climate change on the undersea environment.

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Among the bizarre-looking creatures the scientists spotted were tunicates, plankton-eating animals that resemble slender glass structures up to a yard tall "standing in fields like poppies," Riddle said.

Other animals were equally baffling.

"They had fins in various places, they had funny dangly bits around their mouths," Riddle told reporters. "They were all bottom dwellers so they were all evolved in different ways to live down on the sea bed in the dark. So many of them had very large eyes — very strange looking fish."

Scientists are planning a follow-up expedition in 10 to 15 years to examine the effects of climate changes on the region's environment.
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Video link at New Zealand Herald

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JodyAnthony said:
i was hoping for pictures
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So was I, but none of the news stories I found had any other than that little video screencap from the New Zealand newspaper.
 
Found a pic of one of the worms they found, but hard to get a sense of scale from it (it's the thing on the left).

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Kave_Man said:
I'm sick of all these discoveries of new ocean creatures. I want some new land creatures dammit.
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True. I came in here looking for weird and wonderful land creatures.
 
Oldschoolgamer said:
:lol :lol

The sea scares me. :( Next up is the cloverfield monster and godzilla.
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This is how the world really ends - global warming melts Antarctic ice, waking up slumbering creatures that proceed to kill everything else!
 
That is one gigantic crab.

Scientists are planning a follow-up expedition in 10 to 15 years to examine the effects of climate changes on the region's environment.
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I'm sure they'll find more new species then, too. Wasn't it estimated that we know maybe 50% of the known species as of now?
 
JodyAnthony said:
i just pictured it quivering and undulating and ugh i dont know why it disgusts me as much as it does.
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well. its a huge fucking worm that lives and swims around openly in fucking water.

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fucking thing is huge, fat. and it can swim.
 
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