Strange sea creatures in Antarctica

Scientists studying the icy waters of Antarctica say they have discovered mysterious creatures deep beneath the ice, including giant sea spiders and enormous worms. They collected samples at depths up to 2500m below the surface of Indonesia, which is part of an international project to understand the life of Antarctic marine life.

Some species that live deep in the ocean grow in unusually large sizes, scientists call it a giant and still have not fully understood this phenomenon. Martin Riddle, a scientist at Australia's Antarctic Research Unit, commander of the expedition, said: ' Giantity is very popular in Antarctic waters . We have detected large sized worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of a disk. '

Could it be a new species?

Specimens are being sent to many universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA analysis.

Graham Hosie, the head of the project, said: 'Not all creatures we find can be identified and it is very likely that this trip will provide us with some new species.'

Seaweeds and coral algae form a habitat for many species (Photo: Dailymail)

The expedition is part of an international effort to map life in the Antarctic ocean and study the effects of phenomena such as climate change on the ocean floor. Three boats Aurora Australis of Australia, L'Astrolabe of France and Umitaka Maru of Japan have just returned from a period of two months of regional research under the statistical project of the co-operative situation of the South Sea of ​​the East Sea.

The work is part of a larger project to list the biodiversity status of the world's oceans. French and Japanese ships collect samples in medium and high environments, while Australian ships explore deeper waters thanks to remote control cameras.

'They have fins everywhere'

Riddle said: 'In some places, every small square of the bottom is covered by life. In other areas we can see deep cracks and grooves collided with icebergs on the ocean floor as they intersect. '

One of the bizarre shaped creatures scientists have noticed is the tunicates , algae-eating creatures that are structured like thin glass tubes as tall as nearly 1 meter in height that look like those poppy flower petals. '

Looking like glass hydrangea flowers, the sea berries are actually animals - the first seabed settler in Indonesia and newly harassed by bumps with ice.Scientists say the marine species eat algae and can grow up to 1m high.(Photo: Dailymail)

Other creatures are equally peculiar.

Riddle answered the reporter: 'They have fins everywhere, looking like pieces dangling in front of their mouths. They live on the ocean floor, so they evolve in different ways to adapt to the underexposed seabed environment. Many of them have very large eyes - the fish look very strange. '

Scientists are planning a next expedition within 10 or 15 years to investigate the impact of climate change on the environment of this region.