A team of science divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks have discovered several new animal species in the Aleutian abyss, including a basketball-size anemone that can prowl the sea floor in search of prey.
The findings, part of a two-year scientific survey of Aleutian waters, focused on areas between Attu and Amila islands. At least three creatures may be new to human eyes, including two previously unknown species of anemonies.
Most sea anemonies attach themselves to the bottom or rock wall, and live out their days opening up and snatching food almost like carnivorous flowers. Not these puppies.
These species appear able to detach themselves and drift, basically “walking” or “swimming” across the seafloor as they feed, says Stephen Jewett, a professor of marine biology with the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and the expedition’s dive leader.
Finding a brand new species of multi-celluar animal has become an extraordinary event, yet people know less about the submarine world in the basement of the world’s oceans than they do about the dark side of the moon.
“Since the underwater world of the Aleutian Islands has been studied so little, new species are being discovered, even today,” is how Jewett puts it.