SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders
| No! Not the ATTACK OF THE GIANT SEA SPIDERS! |
and huge worms
in the murky depths. Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before.
“hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway.”
Some of the animals far under the sea
"I'd like to be
Under the sea
In an octopus's garden
Witchoo!" |
grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.
"Dr. Bob, have you figured that gigantism thing yet?"
"Not yet, Dr. Albert. It's just too big for me to get a handle on. How's yer perpetual motion study coming along?"
"Oh, it's ticking along under it's own steam. Doesn't look like it's ever gonna run down." |
"Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates."
| "Has its advantages, too. A single giant lobster can feed an entire Ethiopian village for 9 months, assuming you can find enough butter." |
The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies.
"Cheeze, Doc! What the hell is that?"
"That is apparently the Elm Street rapist, Muldoon!"
"It looks like some kinda giant sea spider!"
"A horny giant sea spider!" |
"Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified
"Wholly spit! What the hell is that?"
"I dunno, but I'm outta here!" |
and it is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages," said Graham Hosie, head of the census project.
| "And what're you gonna call that big lizardy thing that belches methane and stomped Tokyo, Doctor Bob?" |
The expedition is part of an ambitious international effort to map life forms in the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, and to study the impact of forces such as climate change on the undersea environment. Three ships—Aurora Australis from Australia, France's L'Astrolabe and Japan's Umitaka Maru—returned recently from two months in the region as part of the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census. The work is part of a larger project to map the biodiversity of the world's oceans. The French and Japanese ships sought specimens from the mid- and upper-level environment, while the Australian ship plumbed deeper waters with remote-controlled cameras.
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
"In some places every inch of the sea floor is covered in life," Riddle said. "In other places we can see deep scars and gouges where icebergs scour the sea floor as they pass by." Among the bizarre-looking creatures the scientists spotted were tunicates, plankton-eating animals that resemble slender glass structures up to a yard tall "standing in fields like poppies," Riddle said. Other animals were equally baffling.
"They had fins in various places, they had funny dangly bits around their mouths," Riddle told reporters. "They were all bottom dwellers so they were all evolved in different ways to live down on the sea bed in the dark. So many of them had very large eyes—very strange looking fish." Scientists are planning a follow-up expedition in 10 to 15 years to examine the effects of climate changes on the region's environment.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." |