As you get closer to the ocean floor, it gets darker, denser, and stranger.
All light from the surface is absorbed, and only the most adapted species can overcome the lack of oxygen in the water.
One of these creatures spent its life inside a shell and was discovered as a new species.
According to a study published on April 24, members of a research team from China were searching at Haima Cold Spring, a deep-sea environment off the coast of Hainan Island at the southern tip of China, when their underwater robot picked up a sturdy shell on the ocean floor. In ZooKeys Magazine.
According to the study, the researchers identified the shelled animal as a member of the family Solemyidae, an ancient, primitive branch of bivalves that often inhabit unusual environments.
This includes cold seeps, which are cold springs on the ocean floor where methane and hydrogen sulfide seep from the Earth’s crust into the ocean, creating chemically rich water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The study said deep-sea robots retrieved the shells from a depth of 4,500 feet to the surface for further examination.
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Researchers say bivalve shells are just over 4 inches long, rectangular and strong. The dimensions are also the same on both sides of the case.
Research shows that the shells are riddled with radiating ridges that have strong, flat tops that are closer together near the smaller end of the shell than on the wider side.
According to the study, bivalve feet, which are fleshy parts of the body’s interior that protrude from the shell to help the creature move, are large and have oval-shaped soles.
Research shows that what makes this bivalve unique from other Solemyidae species is the shape of its shell.
The new species, named Acharax haimaensis after the cold spring where the species was found, has an almost rectangular shell compared to other known species, which have shells that are concave at both ends.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, bivalves, like fish, breathe through gills on their bodies, but they are also filter feeders, using their gills to filter food from the water.
NOAA says these creatures are also home builders, secreting calcium carbonate from their guts to create shells that can grow with the animals inside.
The researchers said that so far, the new species has only been found in the Seahorse Cold Seep on the northwest slope of the South China Sea. The South China Sea is a disputed body of water in Southeast Asia bordered by Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
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