Characterized by darkness and intense pressure, the ocean's hadal zone seems uninhabitable, yet dozens of unique organisms call it home. Each species discovered there adds a crucial piece to the puzzle of how life has evolved and even thrives in one of Earth's most extreme environments.

Cross-posted from “Researchers discover new ocean predator in the Atacama Trench” by @skrlet13@feddit.cl in !chile@feddit.cl

Characterized by darkness and intense pressure, the ocean’s hadal zone seems uninhabitable, yet dozens of unique organisms call it home. Each species discovered there adds a crucial piece to the puzzle of how life has evolved and even thrives in one of Earth’s most extreme environments.

A new study published in Systematics and Biodiversity highlights one of those species—the newly named Dulcibella camanchaca. This crustacean is the first large, active predatory amphipod from these extreme depths. The species was discovered by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía (IMO) based at the Universidad de Concepción, Chile.

“Dulcibella camanchaca is a fast-swimming predator that we named after ‘darkness’ in the languages of the peoples from the Andes region to signify the deep, dark ocean from where it predates,” explained the study’s co-lead author, Dr. Johanna Weston, a hadal ecologist at WHOI.

At nearly 4 centimeters in length, this crustacean uses specialized raptorial appendages to capture and prey upon smaller amphipod species in the Atacama (Peru-Chile) Trench’s food-limited realm. The trench stretches along the eastern South Pacific Ocean, plunging to depths exceeding 8,000 meters off the coast of northern Chile, and has long fascinated scientists.

  • LvxferreEnglish
    3·
    18 hours ago

    What a primitive - it doesn’t even look like a crab! You’re late on the carcinisation game, Dulcibella camanchaca!

    we named after ‘darkness’ in the languages of the peoples from the Andes

    To be more specific, the word is from Aymara. I’m kind of surprised at the choice - typically people forget that Aymara exists in Chile, as if the only Amerindian language there was Mapuche.