Just when we thought we had nothing left to discover, scientists on an expedition to Antarctic waters dredged up some new and bizarre creatures that surprised even them.
Researchers aboard New Zealand’s RV Tangaroa made a 50-day trek to the icy waters around Antarctica.
As part of their research mission, they were testing the health of the waters, taking samples of some of the fish populations there.
What they found showed healthy waters, for the most part, but their sampling also turned up some surprises.
The marine biologists on board, experts in their field, were thrown for a loop by some of the specimens they pulled up, finding varieties of species that they say have never been seen before.
The fish pictured above is believed to be a new species altogether.
They also pulled up a large sample of mud from the sea floor 3,500 meters (about 11,500 feet) below the surface.
Among the mud were some unusual sea cucumbers, again not what the researchers expected to see.
“It has something quite interesting at the front and I sort of liken it to a hippopotamus,” said Kareen Schnabel. “We don’t know how many are down there, we don’t know how common this is, I have never seen anything like this before.”
RELATED STORIES
Although that was just a harmless sea cucumber, that didn’t stop some folks online from having fun with it.
For many, digging up a bizarre creature from beneath Antarctica was a little too close to the plot of The Thing , and it’s hard to argue with them.
A few other horror movie plots sprang to mind as well.
The good news is that exploration is alive and well, and there’s still plenty of interesting things out there to discover.
You can check out highlights from the entire 50-day expedition below!