GOOD LUCK
The mysterious new creature was found in open water by a group of scientists. It already has a name and images (and glows in the dark).
“The most exciting aspect of this,” said the marine scientist at the US Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) who found the species, Bruce Robison to , “is the fact that we managed to make the more complete initial description of a new species of the deep sea ever presented (anatomy, respiration, bioluminescence, reproduction, feeding, genetics, behavior).”
Bathydevius caudactylus is the first known “nudibranch” of its kind: it does not live in shallow waters, nor on the bottom of the sea, but more than 2200 meters below the surface of the Ocean Pacific, in the bathypelagic zone, in open waters, explains the , which will only be published in December this year in Science Direct.
“Most nudibranchs live at the bottom, in shallow waters, so it was very surprising to find a nudibranch so deep in the water column and far from the bottom”, says the scientist. “We knew of some species that live at the bottom of the sea, but none had been recorded in deep waters.”
They found it by chance while piloting the remotely operated investigation vehicle Tiburon at a depth of 2,614 meters. “We were enchanted by the vision”, says the researcher, who says that the team nicknamed the living being “mysterious mollusk.”
This is the most complete study of a new deep-sea species to date.
In total, the team of scientists found 157 individuals of the species during the investigation carried out between 2000 and 2021, 32 of which were studied in detail and 18 were collected for further study in the laboratory
The creature is a hermaphrodite, and has a foot similar to a sea slug, but also a large open hood, and a fringed tailwhich “look like fingers waving in the current,” describes Science Alert. Through the translucent skin of the mollusk’s body, the internal organs of the rosette could be seen. And, as the ROV approached and the creature felt threatened, it lit up with a bioluminescent glow.
But the hood is not a disguise: it is, above all, what the creature uses to hunt prey. According to the study, the nudibranch feeds essentially on crustaceans — which he swallows through the mouth located on the back of the hood. But the Bathydevius caudactylus can also eat other nudibranchs.
It was also possible to observe the reproductive strategy do Bathydevius: At a depth of 2,755 meters, two individuals had anchored themselves to the seabed to put your ruffled egg ribbons. Other individuals have been seen clinging to the seabed in a similar way.
“O Bathydevius it is radically different from all other nudibranchs because it is well adapted to living in a very different habitat; evolution overcame the challenges of survival in place where he lives and is very well adapted to be successful in that location,” Robison said. “This tells us that nudibranch evolution is much more flexible than we thought.”
