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Strange creatures straight out of a scientific discipline - fiction movie have been captured by scientists off the coast of Antarctica .
Pink and bulbous " sea pigs " , hand - sized sea spiders and delicate ocean butterflies are among the bizarre animals hauled up from the ocean floor by a team of Australian research worker aboard the icebreaker ship RSV Nuyina , which is on a 60 - day ocean trip across the Southern Ocean to the Denman Glacier .
Among the creatures pulled up by scientists on board the RSV Nuyina were strange orange “sea pigs” — a type of sea cucumber.
Some of the weird wildlife may even be previously undiscovered .
" [ We ’ve garner ] a really large diversity of a broad suite of marine life , and likely some new species to science,“Jan Strugnell , a prof of marine biological science at James Cook University in Queensland , Australia , toldABC News .
The RSV Nuyina was set in motion for theDenman Marine Voyageto look into the effects of warming ocean temperatures on the Denman Glacier , which is located about 3,100 miles ( 5,000 kilometres ) south of Australia and has alreadyretreated 3.1 miles(5 km ) between 1996 and 2017/2018 . It is consider thefastest - melting glacierin East Antarctica .
The sea spiders collected by the team were about the size of a human hand.
Along the way , the ship ’s investigator have beentrawling the ocean floorto contribute up a huge motley of unusual organisms from the deep .
One of the unknown creature was a sea Sus scrofa . These bizarre animate being are a type of sea cucumber and touchstone around1.5 to 6 inches(4 to 15 cm ) long . They get their name from their squishy , bloated body and stubby short legs , which make them mistily resemble pig . Sea grunter live on the ocean floor , between3,300 to 19,500 feet(1 to 6 km ) below the ocean ’s Earth’s surface , andfeed on the constituent materialthat fall from the upper ocean layers , sometimes call " nautical snow . "
The scientists also fish out sea spiders " as big as your helping hand " and ocean ace " that grow to the sizing of a dinner plate , " according to Strugnell .
Researchers say many of the specimens pulled up from the ocean floor could be new to science.
Sea spider are not true spiders , but or else belong to a separate chemical group of arthropods , more closely related to Cancer than the arachnids that last on land . They have eight long , slight legs and tiny bodies , with some specie having a leg span of up to20 inches(51 cm ) .
There areover 1,300 speciesof ocean spider , which are found on the ocean base in a blanket range of environments , including depths ofup to 13,100 feet(4 km ) . Their bodies are so small that some of their organ — include portion of the catgut and procreative system — are gorge into their legs .
The researchers on the ship were able to capture the most miniscule and thin fauna thanks to a special " slopped well , " which is a armored combat vehicle that holds seawater and is used to keep marine being alive and in good condition after they are collect from the ocean .
A sea butterfly collected by the team started spawning after it was brought on board, allowing researchers to watch the eggs develop for the first time.
One organism that they were able to study was a sea butterfly , a eccentric of ocean snail that looks like it flies through the water . The ocean butterfly stroke specimen — nicknamed " Clio " by the scientist — laid egg in one of the aquariums on the ship , reserve the researcher to study how these eggs developed for the very first time .
" The team is extremely worked up about having the little puppet and observing it and looking after it , so that it tells all the secrets that have been conceal until now,“Laura Herraiz Borreguero , an oceanographer at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) and the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership ( AAPP ) , told ABC News .
— Watch enormous deep - sea wanderer crawl around sub - Antarctic seafloor
The expedition aims to study effects of warming sea temperatures on Antarctica’s Denman Glacier.(Image credit: Commonwealth of Australia/AAD)
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— 32 rightfully bizarre deep - ocean creature
Along with collecting creatures from the deep , the researchers have also been taking sampling of seawater near the bound of the glacier to analyse temperature , salinity , oxygen and the level of metals present at different depth .
The expedition includes 60 scientists from four different research organizations in Australia.(Image credit: Commonwealth of Australia/AAD)
" For us to really understand how much heat enters the ice shelf , we need to be as confining as possible to empathize these processes and properties of the sea , " Herraiz Borreguero say .
" The system is interchange . And it is really important that we observe the change so that we keep on challenge those climate mannikin we trust on for our mitigation and adaptation strategies . "
Antarctica quiz:Test your knowledge on Earth’s frozen continent
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