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scientist have discovered a novel coinage of rosy - colored deep - ocean worm 30 sea mile ( 50 kilometers ) off the Pacific glide of Costa Rica .
The worm , namedPectinereis strickrotti , is a type of ragworm , orNereididae . It was first spot by researchers in 2009 , as they explored a methane seep found at a deepness of 3,280 foot ( 1,000 meter ) while onboard a cryptical - ocean submersible call Alvin .
An image of a living malePectinereis strickrottiworm captured by scientists. The worm’s feathery appendages can be seen in yellow.
In 2019 , the team regress to the same area and spotted six more of the critters and were able-bodied to take paradigm , videos and samples needed to formally classifyP. strickrottias a unexampled species . The squad draw their finding in a paper release March 6 in the journalPLOS One .
P. strickrottihas a segment , elongate physical structure which is around 4 inches ( 10 centimeter ) long . Like other ragworms , it looks like a cross between a centipede and an earthworm . It also lives in maritime environments , as many ragworms do , althoughP. strickrottilives in deep sea rather than shallower waters .
On each side of its body , it has a row of feather - like outgrowth calledparapodia , tipped with gill that allow it to occupy oxygen from water . The worms also have a out of sight assembling of " chela - regulate " jaws that can be stuff out when they postulate to trip up prey to eat , although scientist do n’t yet make love what their diet consists of , fit in to astatement .
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P. strickrottilooks like a serpent as it swims , making many curves and turns as it glides through the water , the scientists note . " The way of life this affair moved was so graceful , I thought it looked like a living thaumaturgy carpet,“Bruce Strickrott , the tether pilot for Alvin at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and whom the species is list after , said in thestatement .
Under the lights of the submergible Alvin , the worms also look " rosy " which is potential due to the coloration of their blood , the team tell in the statement . Unlike other ragworms , P. strickrottiare blind as they survive in total darkness at such great depths .
So far , the squad have found around 450 species at the methane seeps in Costa Rica since 2009 , 48 of which are newly - discovered species . Methane seepsare areas where bubbles of methane , a type of glasshouse gas , escape from rock candy or deposit in the seafloor . They can host a various ecosystem of animals that feed in on food make by methane - consuming bacterium .
" We ’ve spend years trying to name and discover the biodiversity of the bass ocean , " study co - authorGreg Rouse , a maritime biologist at the University of California , San Diego ’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography , tell in the statement .
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" At this point we have set up more new metal money than we have time to name and describe , " he said . " It just shows how much unexplored biodiversity is out there . We ask to keep search the deep sea and to protect it . "
The team is planning to guide back out to ocean later this year with the hope of make more deep - ocean discoveries at methane ooze off the coasts of Alaska and Chile .
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