Researchers from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Halmos College of Natural Science and Oceanography have recently found a never before seen specie in the deep waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. NSU expert on deep sea creatures Tracey Sutton, Ph.D., and Theodore Pietsch, Ph.D., from the University of Washington, teamed up to formally describe the newly discovered deep sea fish.
"As a researcher, the one thing I know is that there's so much more we can learn about our oceans," Dr. Sutton said. "Every time we go out on a deep-sea research excursion there's a good chance we'll see something we've never seen before - the life at these depths is really amazing," she added.
This newly found fish was discovered between the 1,000 to 1,500-meter depth. It is a new species of Ceratioid anglerfish (Genus Lasiognathus Regan [Lophiiformes: Oneirodidae]).
The researchers caught three samples of the new fish with lengths lesser than four inches. They also only found females. Male anglerfishes are very hard to find because they are smaller than the females and they usually bite their way in the female's body. The male anglerfish is left to decay inside the female body and becomes an attached reproductive organ, ready to fertilize when the time is right.
Deep sea creatures like the one recently discovered live in the part of the ocean that can no longer be reached by sunlight. Creatures living in these depths often produce their own light, or what is called bioluminescence. The water pressure at this depth is over one ton (or 2,200 pounds) per square inch. The competition for food is also never ending, thus, other fishes adopted and developed unique ways of catching their prey. An example of this is the appendage at the top of the head of the anglerfish that acts as a lure for other fishes.
Discoveries such as this one only proves that there is still a lot that we don't know about places that can't be reached by sunlight.
The discovery is published by The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.
