Recently, scientists at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratory found the world’s deepest living organism.
Specifically, it is a species of snail fish called Pseudoliparis swirei – living at a depth of 8,134m under the Mariana Trench – the world’s deepest ocean trench in the Western Pacific Ocean.
According to experts, this fish has a quite beautiful appearance, with a pinkish body, no scales, and a body so transparent that its liver can be seen from the outside.
Dr. Mackenzie Gerringer of the University of Washington shared: “Because it lives at the deepest depths of the ocean, the shape of this creature is also very different from other creatures. They have no scales or large teeth. and also not bioluminescent”.
He also added that this is the deepest fish living in the ocean bottom ever discovered and is very happy that they have an official name.
Pseudoliparis swirei is very strong and must be so strong for them to live in places with such strong water pressure and “huge” depth. The pressure at this depth is so great that you can imagine 1,600 elephants standing on your thumb.
Researching further, experts discovered that Pseudoliparis swirei seems to be an endemic creature to the Mariana Trench as the number of individuals living here is quite large, and their eggs are especially large with a width of up to 1cm.
Dr. Mackenzie Gerringer also discovered hundreds of small crustaceans in the stomachs of this group of snailfish – which proves that P.swirei snailfish find a fairly abundant food source on the seabed.
It is known that during this expedition to the Mariana Trench, the research team captured a total of 37 individuals of Pseudoliparis swirei and recorded individuals swimming freely at a depth of 8,178m below the seabed.
According to scientists, it is difficult for any creature to live at a depth of more than 8,200m, although the deepest point of the Mariana Trench – the deepest point in the ocean – is up to 11,000m. However, the discovery of the fish Pseudoliparis swirei also made biologists extremely happy.
