AN OCTOPUS with ear-like fins, a deep-sea worm that feasts on crude oil and a transparent sea cucumber (pictured). Those are just a few of the weird animals living in the deep ocean that are described in the latest deep-sea edition of the Census of Marine Life.
On 22 November, the census updated its record of animals living between the depths of 200 metres and 5000 metres, bringing the number of known marine species living in darkness to 17,650.
One of the additions is a recently discovered deep-sea octopus, which was found on an expedition to the mid-Atlantic ridge. It belongs to the cirrata suborder 鈥� also known as 鈥淒umbo鈥� 鈥� but has yet to be named. The creature flaps large ear-like fins to swim.
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The same expedition identified an arrow-shaped orange eel as part of the Neocyema genus, at a depth of almost 2500 metres. Only four of these fish have ever been caught, and never on the mid-Atlantic ridge.
Other species added to the list this year include examples of a worm that feasts on whale bones in Antarctica. Seventeen species of the worm, called Osedax, had been found already, but none so far south. Osedax harnesses symbiotic bacteria to digest the fat present in the bones.
A transparent sea cucumber of the genus Enypniastes also made it into the new census. It was seen at a depth of 2750 metres during an expedition to the Gulf of Mexico in 2007. That trip also discovered a deep-sea tube worm that dines on crude oil as it leaches from fissures in the sea floor.