Scary Looking Fish: New Deep-Sea Anglerfish Discovered In Gulf Of Mexico [Photo]
A scary looking fish was discovered in the northern Gulf of Mexico. According to CNN, researchers found three new species of fish at a depth of 3,280 to 4,921 feet. One species, in particular, is quite creepy looking — and is downright ugly, but cool nonetheless. The species has never been seen or documented prior to this discovery.
All three species were found in the bathyal zone, which is completely pitch black. The only light seen in this area comes from other fish that glow in the dark. And, as you can probably imagine, it’s desolate.
A new scary-looking fish species has been discovered! And it lives in the “midnight zone”: http://t.co/LuQsc2EGwa pic.twitter.com/LrP4qQvikJ
— CNN (@CNN) August 6, 2015
“The latest discovery looks like a hunchbacked, rotting old shoe with spikes, a scraggly mustache and a big mouth with bad teeth. And it has a long, angular fishing pole-looking thing growing out of its head,” reports CNN.
The scary looking fish has been identified as a ceratioid anglerfish. According to the Canada Journal, this discovery has highlighted the fact that there are so many unknown creatures living in the world’s oceans.
“As a researcher, the one thing I know is that there’s so much more we can learn about our oceans. 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,” said Tracey Sutton, Ph.D.
The deeper researchers go, the stranger these creatures seem to be, which actually makes total sense. These species are living in depths where there is no plant life and very few sources of food. CNN reports that most of these species feed on “marine snow,” which is the term used to describe waste that sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
The scary looking fish is certainly not the first strange, ugly species found in recent months. Back in December, the Inquisitr reported that researchers found a ghostly snailfish 26,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. The creature was dubbed “The World’s Deepest Fish” and was found in the Japan Trench in the Pacific Ocean.
“This really deep fish did not look like anything we had seen before, nor does it look like anything we know of. It is unbelievably fragile, with large wing-like fins and a head resembling a cartoon dog,” said Dr. Alan Jamieson from Aberdeen University at the time of the discovery.
[Photo by VladUK via Wikimedia Commons]
