A New Species of Deep-sea Fish Discovered in the Atacama Trench
Published:24 Oct.2022 Source:ScienceDaily
In 2018, an international team of scientists studied the Atacama Trench, an expansive trench that runs along the west coast of South America as a deep underwater valley that mirrors the Andes Mountains. Two lander systems from Newcastle University recorded three types of hadal snailfish and one of them was not like the others.
The small blue fish, seen from about 6,000 to 7,600 m deep, doesn't look like other hadal snailfish. With large eyes and striking colour, it resembles other species of snailfishes that are found living in much shallower waters. To the team's surprise, the new species appears to be a separate coloniser of the Atacama Trench. The new species belongs is a member of the genus Paraliparis. Species in this genus are particularly abundant in the Southern Ocean of the Antarctic and are rarely found deeper than 2,000 m. Significantly, this is the first time this genus has been found living in the hadal zone.
The team named the new species Paraliparis selti, meaning blue in the Kunza language of the indigenous peoples of the Atacama Desert. The description is published in the journal Marine Biodiversity.
The new species may have evolved from the cold-adapted species of the Southern Ocean. This little blue fish opens new questions about the relationship between cold temperature and high-pressure adaptation and gives a new understanding of how and when life went deep.